Would anyone be kind enough to describe a typical day for your DDog?

[ThisIsNotAIBUPeople]

We are one step closer to adopting a dog. As first time dog owners we are pretty clueless about a dog's typical daily routine, other than it includes walks, food and sleep! We have only ever had cats and they sort themselves out really! Thanks in advance.

3yr old Rescue lurcher here -

Wee down the road at 6 30am (won't wee in our garden). Food at 7. First quick poo walk at 7.45am (he refuses to poo all in one go so needs at least 4 poo walks as well as normal walks).second poo walk at 9am. Sleeps all day. Needs to wee every 3 hours or he'll pee everywhere in the house/crate. 3rd poo walk at 2pm. Sometimes will still crap in the house/crate before I get back from the school run at 3.30, so needs to be taken out immediately after getting back from school for 4th poo walk. If he's crapped in the crate, needs hosing down etc - takes about 45 mins to get house, dog cleaned up. 5th poo walk at night before bed about 9.30pm.

I am hoping this will be OK to just let the dog out in the garden for a first thing bit of exercise?

I hoped the same. Turns out dog refuses to crap everything out in one go and needed multiple walks down the road in the morning just to try and get it out. I had to leave three young children in the house on their own just to try and get the dog to poo. It was a nightmare.

We never walk first thing in the morning, we just let pup out for a wee.
Because our day to day routine can change quite a lot I didn't want walking to be at a prescribed time each day. Pup doesn't anticipate a walk until he sees the lead and walking boots go on.

I am hoping this will be OK to just let the dog out in the garden for a first thing bit of exercise
My dog gets a bit of exercise in the morning in the garden to make sure he poos etc before I need to leave him for a couple of hours. I do have to go out there with him to get him to chase a few balls.

I’ll give the normal version, then the last weeks version 😊
Recline on the bed when me and dh get up, she sneaks up there during the night like a ninja, I don’t notice it, I just wake up and she’s right beside me breathing in my face.
Make the dc’s breakfast and she’ll cone downstairs for a sniff to see if it takes her fancy. Put her food in her bowl, sometimes she eats it, other times leaves it. Let out in the garden to do cat patrol, never is any but she needs to make sure.
Out for a walk.
We leave for work and she heads back to my dc’s bed this time as that’s got the view out the front of the house.
My friend takes her out with her dogs at lunchtime.
I’m back mid afternoon so another cat patrol and she goes back to sleep.
Around 6 we go for a long walk, back for food that she’ll look at in disgust and sit looking sorry for herself whilst we all eat.
About 8 the fox’s start coming out the woods near us as my neighbour feeds them. She smells them so much barking and running round the house in indignation. About 9 she’ll realise there’s no other food option and gobble up the earlier rejected food.
10 out for a pee and off to her bed on our bedroom floor before she waits for the perfect sneaking up to our bed moment.
This week...
Awful stomach bug so she woke me crying,
Took her to the back garden where she wandered around trying to do the toilet.
Every 20 minutes she wanted out, she started looking at the front door so I ended up walking round the local park in my jammies at 3am hoping she would start to feel better. Very upsetting and tiring night.
Had to go to work so came home prepared with rubber gloves and cleaning products but thankfully no diarrhoea.
That night again just got to sleep and she started crying, spent the night sitting on the back doorstep feeling awful for her as she went round and round the garden.
I must have dozed off on the sofa when she woke me again to be let out. Went into the kitchen in the dark, thought why are my feet wet, turned the light on and I was standing in a huge pool of diarrhoea that was seeping up my pyjama trouser legs.
The night continued like that.
Took the day off work and she slept all day, no diarrhoea.
That evening exhausted went to bed only to have the same with her crying and needing out.
Went to work the next day, came home at lunchtime to take her to the vet, to find diarrhoea on every step going upstairs, all round the landing and a huge pile in the middle of my sons bed.
Thankfully she’s much better now after the vet visit.
Just wanted to give you the nice versions and the occasional not so nice version of having a dog!

My dog almost 10 can hold her first wee and poo until she goes out for her first walk. We were advised to giver meals at the same time every day and this does regularise her habits. Very occasionally she will poo in the garden if we are late going out. She like to poo in the park at particular places and waits till we get to the favourite spot.

Really helpful thank you

Mines 2 and a half.
We get out of bed around 7. Wee/poo in garden. Breakfast for both of us. Walk during the morning, then rest of day to mooch in garden as and when (assuming weather is good enough to have the doors open) and sleep in various favourite places.. Ball game at several points during the day, especially around 5pm for some reason (up and down the garden for ages!). Plays with toys early evening. Goes to sleep about 9pm.
Loves routine, and gets very put out if we change things.

Get up at 6:30am, feed dog, he usually potters around for a bit but I give him a short walk as he refuses to toilet in our garden. DH works from home so he usually sleeps in his bed by his desk until lunchtime where DH takes him for a 20 min walk before giving him lunch (he has gastric issues and needs three feeds a day). Sleeps with DH in his office until I get home at 4pm, I give him another 20 min walk. I usually give him lots of enrichment toys to play with in the evening before he gets fed at 7pm, chills with us after dinner and we give him a short walk to go to toilet before bed.

At the weekends he will sleep in until we get up and we usually go for walks and head to dog friendly pubs or cafes with him. Last weekend we went to the beach and the weekend before that we went to a local fete with him.

I have a 2 year old lab who've we've had from 9 weeks.
Puppy days we took all our annual leave for the year between us and stayed at home with her for the first 12 weeks.
I only work part time and on the days I work a dog walker comes in and takes her out for two hours. Once she gets back she only has 2 hours max before I'm home and she just sleeps until I'm back as she's tired from her walk.
Nowadays we take her out for a good hour (usually more) in the morning, we go to the beach and she swims, chases sticks etc. Then she likes a good sniff around the rock pools while I have a coffee.
She'll then have a good sleep, once she's awake again the kids often play in the garden with her or do a few games of hide and seek with her toys (she loves it).
We do 15 minutes training with her everyday and then walk her again in the afternoon.
Weekends we are usually out for most of the day and she comes with us (family walks, beach trips etc).
She takes herself up to bed (basket in our room) around 8 every night and stays there until morning aside from a quick wee outside before we go to bed.

We always take on older dogs, from 5 yrs.
Last evening wees are about 8/9 PM, sleep through until 6am. Morning garden wee poo sniff about. Breakfast. Asleep then until morning hr long walk. Lunch about noon. Afternoon hour long walk. Dinner about 5/6pm. Cuddles, grooming, sleeping until bed time. Ours sleep in our bedroom. Occasionally over its sick so I'm glad to be on hand to help them get outside.

Ps how you break up their daily food allowance depends on their age and your lifestyle.

So two walks a day for an older dog sounds about right? One morning and one afternoon, maybe short walk or run around garden before bed? This is so helpful thank you.

I am up at 6am in the week and maybe 7am at weekends

Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Pee. Bark. Poo. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Bark. Pee. Sleep. Stare out window and bark at cats. Sleep. Sleep. Eat. Walk/pee/poo x a billion. Sleeeeeeep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleeeeeeeeppppppp.
Mine are older and spend ALOT of time asleep. They'd like more walks, but we don't have enough time in th day, and eldest ddog is arthritic and as much as he loves charging round the field, is then in pain for days, so we have to limit it. They go out every evening for an hour, and do love their walk. Once youngest DD is in school I've promised ddogs we will go for longer more leisurely strolls in the woods like we used to!

We have a two year old large Lab cross. Weekdays are like this: He usually sleeps on one of the sofas and trots through to our room about 7.30am to see if we're awake yet. He has breakfast at 8 and then one of us takes him out about half eight for 45 mins to an hour. When he gets back from his walk he loves playing with his rope toy with us for a bit.

I work from home and DH is not working at the moment so we are with him most days (he's rarely left alone for more than 4 hours). He naps for a bit and then comes to look for some affection/cuddles. If DH is not home then DDog will sleep on the floor of my office to keep me company. He usually spends some time bombing round the garden barking at cats who climb on the wall (although he's not much of a barker). We try and make sure we spend some time playing with him at lunchtime and give him regular cuddles. We have a big garden and lots of dog toys so he plays with them and loves stretching out in the sun when he can.

Dinner at 6pm and then another walk for around an hour. Playing again when we get back.

He usually then crashes out for most of the evening - usually next to us on sofa or on our feet. We make him go outside for a last wee about 11 and then he goes to sleep on our bedroom floor before trotting through to the sofa when he's ready.

At the weekends he gets longer walks or usually comes out with us for the day or a doggie play date.

13 year old medium sized mutt. DH is at home all day and if he goes out, e.g. the supermarket, the dog mostly wants to go along for the ride, even if he doesn't get to leave the car.

7am - has a biscuit while we have a cup of tea. Sometimes goes out to the garden for a wee. Mostly goes back to sleep on our bed.

8.15am - wanders into kitchen looking for scraps

8.30am - 30 minute walk

9am - breakfast

9.01am - 1.00pm - sleep

1.00pm - wanders into kitchen looking for scraps

1.05pm - potters in the garden

1.15pm - sleeps

3pm (winter) or 5pm (summer) - 30-60 minute walk

5.30pm - waits by front gate for me to come home from work

5.30pm -7.00pm - follows me about and hoovers up dropped food from dinner prep

7.00pm - dinner

7.01pm - mad half hour of slipper wars

7.31pm - sleep until morning

No need to walk a dog first thing in the morning so long as it happens at some point.

It just a habit we got used to as it allowed everyone else to get up in peace when he was young and pesky!

After a while I grew into a walk straight away because it meant that, no matter what else happened that day, the dog had been for one good walk.

missbattenburg thank you, I won't have time on the two days I work to do a walk first thing anyway, so would be using a dog walker to do one long walk on those days.

The thing you have to consider when adopting a dog is they dont always fit into your way of doing things. Our Ddog will not wee or poo in our garden at all, so letting him outside in a morning just wouldnt work he has to go on a walk otherwise he wouldnt have been to the toilet since the evening before.

I have an 11yo JRT, a 2.5yo GSD and a 1yo GriffonxHusky.

Typically I wake up at 7am to let them out, feed them and take them for a 20 min walk (off lead), before I wake up the DCs and get them ready for school.

After the school run I take the dogs for a proper walk.

DCs come back from school and usually play in the garden with the dogs running around.

Then final walk around 7:30 for the dogs, then DCs go to bed and dogs get let out one more time before I go to sleep.

The 11yo sometimes chooses not to come on walks and he's currently on crate rest after cruciate ligament injury so I try to take him for tiny walks every 2-3 hours and sit next to him on the sofa (he cannot be left unsupervised as he musn't jump or run).

@dudsville, breaking up the food allowance depends on the dog. Some won’t come back to you if they are not hungry, so the timing of the walk often dictates when the dog is fed. Enticing the dog with a treat helps recall.

Because our dog has stomach issues she does not get massive variety. She has a small amount of Breakfast, about 5% of her allowance and then has healthy treats on the morning walk. lunch time is about 30% of her daily allowance. Then she has the rest of her allowance at 6, about an hour after her long afternoon walk.

When I first had her, I found it really frustrating to try and work out how much she needed. I actually overfed her and did not realise that this was causing the very wet poos. The way I learned to get the quantity correct was by seeing her firmly formed poos. I also weigh her about every six weeks and she maintains her ideal weight.

In the beginning we had an extraordinary amount of conversations regarding dog poo. How many, what size, consistency etc. Just another of the ‘joys’ of dog ownership. Correction the dog owning us.😀

My dogs gone, but I want to talk about him, so I’ll tell you what his routine was.

6am, wake owners by staring at them from a distance of about one inch. If that doesn’t work, lick their faces.
6.10, garden for a wee. Chase the birds, inspect the perimeter for evidence of cats.
6.30, walk and meet all the other local dogs.
7.30, go to sleep
10.00, dog walker arrives, go for walk with her other charges
12.00 sleep
13.15 go in garden and repeat bird chasing/cat inspection routine
14.00, sleep
15.30 go for walk with local dogs
17.00 eat
17.01 sleep
18.00 deposit dirty smelly ball or rope on owners lap to play, repeat all evening alternating owners.
22.00 garden for bat and cat patrol.
22.30 sleep.

I will make sure I ask all these questions about toileting and walks/feeding when I speak to the rescue. Hoping to get a dog in foster care so they would presumably be able to describe the dog's routine.

I think it depends very much on the breed. I have a pug x and he basically sleeps for most of the day:

7.45 - glares at me from his bed if I dare to wake him up on my way out.
1.10 - I come home from work for lunch - he is mildly pleased to see me, goes in the garden for a wee/poo & has a bit to eat.
4.20 - I finish work - bit happier to see me, we go for a walk, then he has some tea & snoozes/snuggles with me for the rest of the evening.
8.30 - he takes himself to bed.