Can I ask what your dog does all day?

[gymmummy64]

Apart from going on walks that is. My new rescue dog is big-ish (tall lab sort of size) and I'm giving him around 2 hours of walking a day, but there are a lot of other hours! Other than feeding him, providing toys, talking to him as I potter around the house/work from home, taking quick cuddle breaks, putting him in the car to pick up kids, chilling on the sofa with him in the evening etc. is there anything else I should be doing? We'll play when we're out, but I've not got very far with doggy games in the house.

I think part of me is still remembering the guilt of the (human) toddler years when the days could feel oh-so long and I was convinced everyone else was doing wall to wall crafting/baking/intellectually stimulating activities with their 2 year olds all day every day.

So is it ok if my dog just lies on the floor with his eyes sort of shut, sighs a lot and looks bored? Or should I be providing him more stimulation? He's not doing anything stir-crazy, just dramatic sighing and hurrumphing when he realises I'm only going to the bathroom/kitchen/bedroom and not for a walk. Then it's back to the resigned and noisy slump on the floor - it's making me feel very inadequate

NotMostDogs do sleeping, playing together exciting games like 'lets fight over the plastic milk carton', racing around the garden, running to the door everytime I look like I might go out and farting. When I go out without them they play a great game called 'what's in the kitchen that we can reach'.

I have decided to skype them from the bedroom so they think I'm out and I will be able to see which one does the kitchen stealing and then shout at the them. I'm hoping they'll think that I'm all seeing and stop it.

My dog whinges. A lot.

When I'm trying to work she whines at me with a very sad face indeed. It drives me mental.

I really recommend clicker training. It really works their brain and exhausts them. A 15 minute session floors my girl. It's great fun too. Dogs get so much from it, as soon as I pick up the clicker my dog goes crazy.

Our 3 eat, sleep, run run run, play, eat, run again, cosy up with us, run, eat, help themselves at any opportunity, growl a bit if things aren't exactly right, flop around, run, do as they're told a bit, run....

Follows stray bits of sunlight round the garden / house mostly, and then steals socks or picks up a toy when she wants to play but given the choice would probably go for a 12-hour walk each day!

today's schedule so far:
6.45am get up, wag whole body at everyone, escape upstairs, jump all over the bed (not allowed), stroll out for a pee, bother cat, try to steal cat's breakfast, have own breakfast, try to steal DSs' breakfasts, successfully steal DS2's packed lunch, sweep kitchen counters with nose, chew zip off my boot (tbf he started on that project yesterday), dig up corner of carpet and chew underlay, go for a muddy wet walk in the woods, chew the kitchen chair legs, ignore all the expensive toys he's been bought, climb on my knee for a cuddle (he weighs around 28kg at the moment), dig up the water feature to reach the stone right at the bottom, do a quick sweep of kitchen counters to make sure he hasn't missed any crumbs, go back to sleep. That was by 10.30.
He is only 6 months though.

Floraldog has just discovered how to open and close doors so for the past two days he has spent ages going in and out of various rooms opening and closing the doors for no apparent reason- strange boy! He also spends about an hour a day trying to liberate the rabbit ( cage is dog proof) , plays in his sand pit , goes for at least 3 walks , a car drive and sunbathing in the conservatory.

wow what brilliant descriptions of dog days! I think we've missed out dreaming though...

As far as I can see Gymdog's time is largely spent as follows:

• walking and eating (top two activities)
• trying to persuade people to engage in more walking and more eating
• charging around the house (walking substitute)
• shredding toys (eating substitute)
• sleeping so as to enable dreaming of walking and eating

Gymmummy he's a beast of a dog. Big black german shepherd x (with either a rottie or doberman, vet couldn't decide) but terrified of everything. Men especially, wind and anyone in a high vis jacket.

Oh forgot to say that if he feels ignored he goes to find a toy, lays on his back in the most inconvenient place and juggles it on his front paws. Show off.

Rocket dog likes to sleep in places where he shouldn't. (currently in my clean laundry pile). He also likes to lay under my chair and make stinky farts for my benefit. If he wants to play, he will pointedly drop balls under my feet until I fall over. Apart from that, his main hobby is trying to eat his own butt.

My deranged dear dog spends a large part of his day sitting by the full-height window at the front of the house, keeping an eye out for threats to his territory. These threats include:

1. Cats
2. Cats
3. Cats (I am not joking when I tell you that we can tell which cat is walking past based on the kind of barking)
4. Bicycles
5. Birds
6. People walking past
7. Other dogs
8. The postman
9. The number 32 bus (he has no problem with the number 71, it's just the number 32 that bothers him)

10. The window cleaner

Another large portion of the day includes avoiding scary articles in the house and garden, including mirrors, the breakfast bar stools, balloons left over from parties, nerf guns, the glass hearth.

When he's not freaking out or being walked, he spends the day snoozing (by the front window, keeping an ear out for any of the above)

We have just moved, we live in Australia and 9mth old lab spends all day staring at the Koala that lives in our tree, chasing skinks and trying to work out how to petrify the 10 yr old maltese cross next door!!
She generally sleeps a lot and has a couple of walks.

Barks at beetles, caterpillers, sticks etc, and follows me around trying to get in my clothes with me.

She's a Jack Russel.

Wakes up
Leans against first person to get downstairs so we can't get past her until stroking duties are fulfilled
Stares at us with puppy eyes while we're eating breakfast, with a few head butts to make sure we haven't forgotten she is there
Gets walked by DH
Has breakfast
Sleeps while we're out
Leans against us in turn when we get in
Goes for another walk in which she chases her ball madly til she gets bored of carrying it, which I only realise too late an we have to retrace our steps to search for it
Lies on the rug and headbutts me whenever I stop stroking her
Eats dinner
Stares at us while we're eating dinner
Plays find the ball with me (she's very a bit stupid so this can last a good while)
Finds the ball and won't give it back, preferring to roll it repeatedly down the beanbag and then chase it across the floor
Sleeps
Moves from lounge to kitchen when we go to bed
Sleeps

this is a great thread! 13 week old rescue pup follows me everywhere. He barks/ cries if i go u/s to tidy, make beds etc. It's something I wish he didn't do tbh as I feel like i need to rush! I ignore it but it is difficult. Will he get used to it? I do feel like I should be engaging with him like a child but he seems quite happy just to be near me! I shake the odd toy at him and am going to start a bit of training now dcs are back at school. Any tips?

I favour benign neglect with my mutt. Given half a chance, he'd have me at his beck and call 24/7. So I give him attention when it suits me (walks, games, training etc) and ignore him the rest of the time. He will still attempt some random act of terrorism from time to time, but he generally realises that when the laptop is out, I'm busy mumsnetting.

Five month old jrt cross chews blanket edges, table legs, hoovers crumbs, bites older dog, barks randomly if we are not giving her 100./. Attention and does monster farts.
Six year old mad rescue sleeps/patrols by the window watching for the large male cat across the road that he hates so much, does monster farts and sleeps. Oh and spends a lot of time trying to get out of puppies way....
What a life!

He sleeps. All day, and all night. Occasional he'll deign to move from his basket and go up the garden. He'll go for a walk but doesn't demand one. He also tries to lick DD all over, gives me subtle hints by hunting down the dustpan and brush and bringing it to me. And a lot of time is spent collecting his, mostly stolen, stuffed toys and arranging them around and in his bed. Also attacking his chews and making sure that the fish don't even think about getting out of their tank.

pongwiffy - do you have a greyhound type by any chance [ grin ]

Mine mostly get in the way. One likes to supervise, one cannot bear me to be out of his sight.

If i go out I leave the tv on for them. They occasionally gawp out the windows but there's not much doing really, although Zac did terrify the Postie a while back....in the summer, he was on the sofa, looking out of the open window, we are relatively high to the front path, and she was walking along minding her own business and he let out a single enormous WOOOOOF! ...poor woman leapt out of her skin because she so was not expecting it. And she has met both dogs and given them biscuits. I swear he laid down and giggled to himself after he had done it.

High points of their days are when the children come home or one of the cats appears so they can sniff them up and down!

wtf sadly not, I have a sorry excuse for a basset hound! Although in his defence he will walk for however long we want to go for, and will go off charging through the woods. Just so chilled out he's horizontal, most of the time!

She sleeps, a lot. She will get up if we go into the kitchen. She goes in the garden, sometimes my neighbour calls her through and she will go and sit in their house or hang out in his workshop with him. She goes for a long walk. She looks at you longingly because surely it must be dinnertime now?? She's a Beagle and I LOVE her

Our greyhound (4yrs old) stays on his folded-over-3-times-kingsize-duvet on our bedroom floor while we get up and get ready for school.
When he knows we're all dressed, he gets up, stretches & yawns and then lies down again if we're not as ready as he thought.
When he eventually gets up, he has to stretch and yawn lots again before going out for his morning walkies and toilet.
He gets back, has breakfast and a drink, then goes back to bed.
The only time he might get up again during the day is if the doorbell rings.
This prompts him to thunder down the stairs like his life depends on it to see who it is.

If I don't get there at the same time he whines to tell me there's someone there.
You can't always coax him to play with his squeeky rubber duck, but if you can then he goes nuts and races up and down the stairs, leaps on and off our bed, up and down the stairs again, round and round in circles, then has to race into the garden for a wee .

After that, he's had enough and goes back to sleep.
He can be naughty and he will rip up as much cardboard as he can find, pull stuff out of the bin or recycling bag and if I go out he will hide one of my slippers so I can't find it when I get home, and when I do it's soggy. Just one of them, mind. Normally the right one for some reason.
He sits on the chair in the window when we're out and rubs his nose all over the window which drives DH mad.

All my neighbours know I'm out cos he's got his face pressed up against the window the whole time. He goes mad when you come in as he hates us going out.
He won't play or chew etc if we go out.

Just sits at the window looking mournful at anyone going past.
When DD is going to bed, he lies on her floor listening to bedtime stories then he hops on my bed while I'm downstairs tidying etc.
That's where he stays until he has to be woken up for his night-time walkies, then goes to bed when we do.
He has got to be the laziest greyhound ever. I know that's saying something, but really he must be.
He must only be awake for about 3 hours a day max.
I don't think I could have a different breeed now though...

Eats all my stuff