To think it's not cruel to keep dogs in one day a week?

[moneypie]

I have two small breed dogs. They are taken out walks 6 days a week, sometimes twice, they have a garden to run around in and I stuff there kongs, give puzzles etc and they play with each other and the cats. I am with them basically constantly unless I have to go to shop and then my daughter is with them. I take them out in the car all the time, incorporate them into any activity I can.

However, a Sunday I like to relax, I mainly stay in the house and potter about. So they don't usually get taken any walks on a Sunday. Just some kongs and playing. They sleep most of the day on Sundays to be honest.

My brother is now claiming this is cruel, dogs need walked every day and they are sleeping due to boredom. If I had a big dog I might agree however these are tiny tiny dogs. And sometimes when we are out on walks they will start leading me back to the house so it's not as if they're desperate to walk.

I'm now feeling worried and like a bad dog owner after this conversation with my brother though. AIBU?

This we haven’t walked our huge hot dogs really at all. They like playing with the sprinkler at about 8 pm and that about it it’s too hot

Behaviourist hat on..

Dogs need to be mentally and physically exercised to meet their mental and physical needs.

How you achieve that depends on you, the facilities you have, and your dog.

For some dogs those needs are met by two hour romps around the countryside every day, no matter what the weather, shifting to 5am or past midnight in the heatwaves..

For some dogs it may mean pottering around the garden, doing some puzzle toys, eating scattered food they have had to sniff out or licking a kong or a lickimat...

And for some dogs its somewhere in between.

My dogs have been positioned by the fans all day and only woke us up to tell us it was too hot in the bedroom and could we stick the fans on downstairs please, they moved down here and went straight back to sleep. THere is zero chance they are going for a walk today. They will get some fun stuff this evening, probably a 'yard party' (all the food and puzzle toys set out around the yard and we sit in the middle filling stuff back up as necessary, plus ice cubes and the splashy tray of water (recycled from the fishtank).

For some dogs, missing a walk is stressful, for others being taken for a walk and exposed to all the things they're scared of or stressed out by is far far worse.

Do whats right for your dogs, not for some twit who thinks he knows best.

We now have a small dog and a decent sized garden that she has access to 24/7 through the cat flap.
If you try to take her for a walk when she doesn't want to go she will sit down and refuse to move.
On a some days she will walk for a couple of hours with dh, on others she choose not to go.

Today she has a new squeaky toy that she has been playing with for hours sometimes fetch with us, other times throwing it in the air and catching it like a cat.

Her body language is alert and positive, her tail has wagged constantly. She won't want a walk later.

If you try to take her for a walk when she doesn't want to go she will sit down and refuse to move.
On a some days she will walk for a couple of hours with dh, on others she choose not to go.

I have one of those too @L1ttledrummergirl, sometimes he just absolutely refuses to walk and I’m not going to force him (also a small breed dog). There are plenty of ways to entertain and exercise a dog indoors or in a garden in place of a daily walk.

And the brother saying the dogs are sleeping ‘out of boredom’ made me laugh. That’s not what boredom looks like in dogs. A sleeping dog is a happy contented dog. A bored dog causes mischief and destruction. I know mine is bored when he starts pulling up the rug or chewing the curtains!