What is your typical daily routine?

[Theoldwoman]

It's been 20+ years since I owned a dog, but recently adopted a rescue pup (8 months old).

How does your day typically run? I know their will be a mixed lot of replies here depending on if you work outside the home or stay at home (to work or otherwise) but I thought it would be interesting to see how other dog owners run their doggie days.

I don't have a routine

Every day is different because I don't want my dog to expect certain things at certain times.

You're never going to be able to stick to a routine 100% for a whole variety of reasons and IMO it's important for dogs to be able to cope with changes.

He gets a walk most days but that could be anytime between 6am and mid-afternoon (we don't do evening walks). Some days we skip walks entirely.

I ensure he gets plenty of sleep and he gets a chew everyday too but again the timing varies every day as I don't want him expecting something, not being able to have it and getting stressed or antsy.

For a puppy I would say as long as they're getting the right amount of exercise, plenty of rest (more than you think they need), mental stimulation and something to lick or chew on, you're fine

7month ddog here. Our routine is mostly like this -
First thing - 40min sniffy walk (we are really focusing on loose lead walking)
Breakfast 10/11 (ddog does not like eating first thing no matter what we’ve tried and gets chicken when doing loose lead training anyway!)
Then throughout the day I do maybe two 5min training sessions.

5ish another sniffy walk sometimes or a longer training session incorporating stay and focus work.

Dinner about 6/7

Every few days we book a safe enclosed space so she can have a blast off lead. We don’t have appropriate places close by to let off lead and her recall isn’t 100% so it’s on lead walks for us mostly

We also have group training once a week.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts makes a good point.
Our routine is flexible and although I say a walk first thing sometimes that ends up be it lunchtime depending on plans.

I agree with @fairylightsandwaxmelts , the only routine for our dog is breakfast at around 9am and dinner is around 5 pm . I don’t want him expecting a walk at x time because some days that is not going to happen .

My dogs dont have a routine for the reasons stated above.

They are also working dogs so no day is the same.

Generally they always get 90 minutes off lead walk a day. Food is worked for through training or games but generally morning and evening but may change if more training is taking place

Loads of time to chill mapped into the day

7.45 into utility room - both dogs out for morning wee.
Pup has breakfast, old boy doesn't.

8.30 - walkies on school run & good walk afterwards.

9.15 - lunch. Chill. Snooze. Go in garden. We work from home.

12 noon ish. Pup lunch. Toilet time.

Mid afternoon - play with chew toys. Chill.

Late afternoon, another walk.

Evening - both dogs dinner.

Out to kids clubs, pup gets short walk & cuddles. We watch telly & they snooze.

No two days the same here. I tend to take him out for early morning exercise which may be 45 min ball play in the park or longer walk 1 or 2 hours. He’s fed most of his breakfast prior to this with the rest left over for training. Another walk later in the day at some point depending on how much he’s already had. The only thing I do the same everyday is give him a dentastick last thing in the evening, after he’s had his final roam around the garden. Then he knows it’s time for bed.

My pup is almost 10 months old. The current routine is something like this:

Between 7:00 and 7:30 we all get up, pup goes outside for a wee. Breakfast. Then he chills out for a few hours, usually naps some more. I take him for a walk on lead at about 10:00 (40 minutes or so). Then more chilling out at home, playing with toys, bits of training here and there. In the afternoon DH usually takes him to the park for off lead running about. At 7:00 he has dinner and a frozen Kong, then the evening is quiet time. DH takes him for a short stroll (10-15 minutes) at about 11:00 p.m.

Our work schedules mean that one or both of us is usually at home. Three days a week the pup is left at home on his own for about 90 minutes. For the past couple of months he has also gone to day care once a week (though not every week, it’s probably turned out to be 3 times a month).

To add a different pov my dog DOES have a normal routine. I actually prefer it that way, because I love that he knows what to do/expect at any point in the day. Plus, I'm a routine kinda person. Or, I should say, he has a skeleton of key activites that tend to happen about the same time each day - even if othet things around them change.

The first thing we always do is walk. This is the same regardless of day and where we are. I really like an early morning walk and I like knowing that whatever the rest of the day might be, he and I have had some fresh air already.

If it's a weekday where I am at home, the day maps out

• walk
• breakfast
• up to the office
• he potters while I work
• lunchtime break, we walk again
• afternoon, he snoozes while I work
• end work about 5pm and he gets fed
• an hour or so gardening while he 'helps'
• sit down for some telly
• go to bed, almost always at the same time because that's when I'm tired!

If it's a weekend, there may be more variety depnding on what I am doing, but it almost always involves a walk first thing and another around mid-day or early afternoon. Occasionally the 2nd walk is subsituted (in my mind!) for something else. e.g. if we visit family that day then that activity can often replace the second walk - because it might involve a barbecue in their garden (for e.g.). Or if we have something stressy to do, like a vet visit, then that might be instead of the 2nd walk.

He almost always gets fed about the same times every day. I know people avoid that because they don't want to be hassled when it is approaching time but, I just don't feed after a hassle. If he hassles, I just wait until he gives up, then feed - and as he aged he just gave up hassling me . If he was the kind of dog to hassle me, I might make a different decision about feeding the same time every day.

Life gets in the way and things come along to change the routine, such as when I had covid and there was no walking for a day or when I have to travel for work and so he may stay with family or may stay at home with company but the pattern of the day is likely to be very different. He handles that just fine, so I know my ability to have core routine that gets disupted every now and again is obviously at the grace of him being the kind of dog who can handle last minute changes.

As with so many things - much depends on the kind of life you want and the specific dog you've got

bloody hell that was more text than I thought when I was typing it...

We have no fixed routine with the exception of tea time and evening walk.

Breakfast could be any time from 6-8am depending on shifts.

Always has a long walk but could be morning or afternoon. Goes to daycare when I'm on shift.

Tea time is almost always 5-5.30 depending when we get in.

Always gets a walk around the block around 6.30pm

Bed anything from 9.30-10

We’re pretty lucky as our dog is really chilled even though he’s only 18 months. He sleeps in our room, gets up when we do if he can be bothered and has a wee in the garden.
Normally walks to school with me and kids and has a little off lead run for a poo on the way back.
I tend to give him breakfast after that but he will usually graze on it throughout the day.
Then he has a longer walk at some point in the day either from dog Walker if we’re at work or me on my days off.
In between times he sleeps.
I give him another scoop of food around our dinner time.
Has a play or groom or a road walk in the evening and loads of cuddles.
Wee before bed.
He’s the best!

2 adult labs here. Despite my best efforts we have a weekday routine, but other than meal times, and toilet breaks, they are chilled enough to allow flexibility.
So
Breakfast 6-30
Short walk around 7-30-8.00
I work, they nap
Sometime between 9.30 & 10 we go out for a long walk
Home sometime between 11 & 11.30
Chew
They chill while I work, lunch etc
Late afternoon - 4ish we go out for another walk - 45 mins to an hour
Mad half hour in the garden, wrestling, chasing etc.
They have dinner
Then they chill while we eat, then join us on the sofas until bedtime.
I am home much of the day so they get out to the garden as and when they want, or before I go out.

We do have a routine but I don’t have a garden so life is a bit more complicated.

6.30 go for a walk then breakfast
8.45 quick walk round the block before I start work
12 walk and lunch
3pm round the block again
6pm walk and dinner
10pm round the block and bedtime

He’s an old boy now so we go out a bit more frequently just in case! While I’m working he generally snoozes or looks for mischief, depending on what sort of mood he’s in. He does like to join teams calls and be made a virtual fuss over by my colleagues.

I have a routine for feeding my two, 6.15 and 5.45, so what comes out the other end is predictable! Walks happen at roughly the same times each day but both dogs are flexible.

Our routine is flexible and depends on what's going on.

For example today we were up early 6.45 ish, ddog had an early short walk and then came back and had breakfast. He was left on his own for a bit while I went out to work, home by lunchtime and then he pottered about until I finished work and dd was home from school. He had a nice long evening walk and his dinner, he's snoozing again now.

Tomorrow I have the day off so he will get a long morning walk, I need to pop to town so he'll be left for a couple of hours. He'll get another evening walk.

He always gets two walks a day but timings and where we go vary.

7am short walk on lead, trying to train him not to pull.
7.30 breakfast
11 or 12 long walk, over the downs, off lead
He snoozes, chews, plays
6pm longer walk on lead to go and meet husband
7pm Dinner
9pm short walk or let out for a wee
Bed time whenever we go up.
He rounds us up for bedtime and won't settle until both of us are in bed.

At the weekend he's often out with us all day
Twice a week he goes out on a 'pack walk' with a dog walker on the two days I work. If I'm running errands and I know he can come with me he does.

No routine at all.
He has breakfast when we get up. Can be anything from 5am to 7.30am depending what time the toddler gets up.
We go about our daily business (work, kids activities etc). He does what he fancies.
Dinner at whatever time we have dinner… depends on what activities the children are doing. Anything from 5pm- 7pm.
He was a walk at whatever time one of us has time to walk him. Could be first thing, between meetings, lunchtime, evening…

I baby sat for a dog once who had a fixed routine and it was a bloody nightmare, so like others I consciously keep it flexible.
I try to keep feeds 12 hours apart- so 8am and 8pm and I always walk before feeds-so the can settle for a decent period of time after food.

Our routine depends on whether I’m WFH, he’s coming to work with me, I’m only out for a half day and he stays at home or if it’s the weekend. Breakfast is the second he wakes up. On a good day that’s 7am but for the past week it’s been 5:30 🙈. Then he goes out for a wee and watches TV (he loves Sky Nature, Animal Planet and Dogs Behaving Very Badly!). He has 2-3 walks a day totalling 1 1/2-2 hours, usually one with his girlfriend from next door. If DS is at school then we must walk to meet him from his bus at 4pm and he starts mithering me from half 3 🙈. Dinner is as soon as we get home from that and “second dinner” is a bit of the meat and veg that we’re having for tea. He puts himself to bed about 9pm. The rest of the time is napping, chewing or playing with his toys. It’s a bloody dog’s life!!

no routine here either - breakfast when I get up - so can be 6am - 7.30am. Rest for an hour after feeding (back to bed with a cuppa for me!) then a walk that can be 40mins - 1.5hrs depending on weather and how energetic old dog is feeling. There are two forks in the path on the walk where we can either turn to home or carry on - the old dog sometimes decides that it's home time if the weather is too hot (or wet!). plenty of sleeping / playing in the garden for the rest of the day before feeding between 3;30 - 6pm depending on whether I'm in or out.

They pretty much sleep all evening, apart from forays into the garden to chase ghosts before bed. One of them can sleep for England and sometimes takes himself off to my bedroom and puts himself to bed.

They do sometimes perk up if Dogs Behaving Badly is on the tele 🤣

My Shitzu is twelve.I get up at 5.30 and lift the wife to the station.I go back to bed,Beans snoozes and doesn't move from the bed.At eight I get ready for work .When I'm about to go down he jumps off the bed if he feels like it or i'll carefully pick him up whilst he growls at me and we/i run down the stairs and out to the garden in case he can't hold it in before we get through the conservatory.He has his breakfast and sleeps in his bed downstairs or on the sofa arm looking out of the window waiting for postie and delivery men. I go to work and my teenage son at 11.00 walks him round the block,lets him out during the day.Back at 4.00 he has his tea and sleeps again then son walks him on the dot at 8.00.Some evenings we go on a scenic walk for an hour then he runs upstairs. He then wimpers at my long hours,knackered wife to lift him onto the bed but if she doesn't react quickly enough growls and barks at my wife to lift him onto the bed.
If we're lucky he'll stay there,but he jumps down again if we're not, like if sons come in, or go downstairs,door bell rings, because he is king of his castle and he likes to follow adults around just to check what we are doing.So I do alot of running back upstairs when I hear barking because wife is too tired to get him back on the bed.Weekends same routine except no work and long walks.
Next week puppy arrives,I think the routine will change