do you have to have a routine with a dog?

[2T2T]

I am probably going to be adopting a rescue dog in hte next few months and am starting to get stressed about daily life with a mutt! It won't always be possible to walk the dog at the same time each day. e.g. we are not up and out at the same time on weekdays as the weekend. School holidays are obviously different than school days etc. Wil this matter? Wht about sleeping? Do you have to constantly interact wtih them if they are awake? If they fall asleep early evening will they still sleep all night? I know all this sounds pretty stupid but I need to know! Many thanks

We have a routine. But the times are not neccessarily the same. On days I don't work they get their morning walk at 9am, followed by breakfast. Followed by an hours kip and then 15 mins training each.

One of them will accompany me on the school run.

On days I am not working the evening I do recall training with the Devil Dog after school. Or I let the hounds have a run in the field behind the park.

On days I am not working the evening they get their evening walk at about 9pm. On days I am working we do no recall training and they get their second walk after the school run.

Over the holidays when I am working, they get just one walk. Usually with a good run/recall training.

Supper is always at 10pm.

10-15 mins in the morning just enough for toilet and a stretch of the legs -daily

weekdays 1/2 hour walk

weekends 2 x30 mins walk

dinner anytime I remember have time during the day

phew! That sounds manageable! I was beginning to think that I had to establish some sort of routine like a new baby's . Thanks

I've been utterly determined from the start NOT to have a 6am alarm dog (imagine my horror when I read the rescue pamphlet and they described how they got them up at 5am)!

Basically depending on if/when I'm working (my hours are incredibly variable - I do half-days/full-days if I have to/in and out tutoring during evenings and weekends). Weekends we tend to get up, let them out for a pee and then we all depart back to bed for a lie in (OK so being honest - I kick hubby out of bed to do all of the above) with us piled under a mountain of canine and feline - and me mysteriously having no bed, with one titchy small three legged cat having ALLLLLL the bed.

Always do a couple of walks a day (much to Madam Greyhound's dismay as she's bodily extracted from her bed) - but the timings of them vary massively - they get pushed very early if I need to be out on a morning, very early if it's school holidays and the idiot owner crowd are likely to be out (Trevor the Terrier menace I'm thinking of YOU) or it's looking like a hot hot hot day (both my dogs are black so suffer dreadfully in the heat - the collie cross has tonnes of fur so melts and the greyhound has the usual shit hound body temperature system so melts and I'm not exactly wired for summer sleekness myself either), or later if I get sidetracked into doing something or just feel like popping and picking up lunch on the way back. Evening walk (apart from one night a week when I'm out tutoring) is done by both me and hubby whenever he gets home from work so that varies a lot anyway.

Feeding depends on when walk time is - if it's a very early walk I'll breakfast 'em afterwards, if I'm going out nearer lunchtime I'll breakfast them first - evening walk is usually food after (to the extent that one goes and checks his food bowl when we come in and looks most indignant if the dog food fairy hasn't visited).

We have got into something of a routine for weekdays, but I don't think it's essential. The dog will get to know the routine if you have one though, and will probably start pestering for walk/dinner/whatever if it doesn't happen at the expected time!

Don't constantly interact during the day, though I do try to make time to do little bits of training with him when I'm at home, or play with him, cuddles, brushing etc. But he's happy enough to chill out or play with destroy his toys on his own, or have a snooze as well. Likes to be near me if I'm at home, but doesn't have to be interacting all the time.

Mine sleeps a fair amount and we don't really have problems with him waking up early. Usually he wakes up when I get up, I let him out for a wee and give him his breakfast, then about an hour later one of us takes him for a walk. Don't think he sleeps solidly all night as we often find he's moved around during the night, but it's not a problem, he doesn't wake up and bark or anything (unless he needs to go out!).

I purposely don't have a routine for the dogs. We can go out for a walk in the mornings, and sometimes its in the afternoons. I didn't want a dog who would stare me down if he hadn't had his walk by 10 am!!

Obviously, they get fed at the same time each day. Sometimes I come down and let them out at 7 am, but during the school holidays it has been later. It was 8.30 today and the pup hadn't whined to be let out

Yes if you have routine you do run the risk of having several leads dumped on your lap if your dare to have a cup of coffee before the morning walk

weekdays we have to wake her up for a walk, normally about 7 am, weekends we still have to wake her up for a walk, anytime for 9.30 onwards, has been known to be after 10.30 if all the kids are out:)

She can walk/sleep/eat anytime she wants to really:)

This sounds great. Thanks for all your input.

My golden retriever is taken out at 7.30 on the days I work (3/7) and at 9 on the other days. She is incredibly relaxed and as long as she has lots of walk time - at least 2 hours every day - the actual schedule doesn't seem to matter. We do have a little garden though so if she needs to go out to pee, the option is always there!!

We usually do 2 big off lead walks and one small one per day