How much attention does your dog get

[Arrggghhhhhh]

Interested in hearing from single dog parents how much time and attention your dog gets every day.
Their age and their breed
What activities other than dog walking you do.
If you feel your dog gets enough, what you do to make sure they aren’t bored , do they go to doggy day care etc.
TIA

Mine died a few years ago but we found if we gave him a small five minute wee walk about 6am, an hours walk at 10.30 and another hours walk at 5pm and a small wee walk at 10pm he pretty much just sat around happy as Larry, we also fed him little and often to break the boredom and I believe it’s better for their system to over load on food. He would have a game of rope pull when my husband got home from work everyday too!

Small/medium mongrel from a rescue.

Walk for an hour after breakfast, slow and sniffy. Have a garden with lots of chasing pigeons and squirrels, play session mid morning and mid afternoon of about 5-10 minutes with a soft toy that she can then chew and disembowel.

Sometimes I replace a meal with her dry dog food soaked and mashed with a sachet of wet food, stuffed into a Kong and frozen

Also scatter feed, aka throw the dry dog food onto the floor (outside if warm, inside if cold). The wider the scatter the better

Four Goldies (12, 10, 5, 2). They get three walks a day - 60 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch and usually another 60 minutes in the evening. Grandma Goldie doesn't come on the lunch walk as she tends to sleep a lot these days.

I do 3 x 10 minute sessions each day with them as a group on training. I also do training on walks (recall, emergency stops etc). Unfettered access to the garden all day and in all weater and in the evenings the kids and I play with them. Other than that, they sleep.

Very often people underestimate the value and important of good, and frequent, training. Mine often conk out for 3-4 hours after their morning training session and walk.

Thank you, that’s about the same same as I do and can manage, very helpful

10-month-old hooligan Cockerdor from working lines, idiotic choice for a first time single dog owner.

He has my full attention from 6:30am till 9am - I get up, we play, or I hold a vile chew while he watches seagulls out the window, then I get dressed while he tries to eat my socks, he gets an hour's walk and we come back for breakfast. I then attempt to work (often one-handed while holding vile chew) while he watches seagulls again, but if he gets bored I have to break off to play for ten minutes. In theory he naps from about 10:30am till noon, when we have lunch, and recently I've been taking us out for a half hour walk then too. He naps again for an hour or so in the early afternoon, and we go to the dog park at about 3pm for an hour. He generally sleeps from 4:30pm to about 6pm when we have dinner and I take him out for a final poo. Our garden is gravel and he doesn't enjoy it much, but all of our walks are sniffy and he usually gets to dig too; and to run around off lead for a little while in the morning and afternoon.

Intervals throughout the day for play, training (mostly on walks but some indoors) and for him to writhe around on his back demanding belly rubs. Also enrichment - sometimes part of his lunch will be in a cardboard box full of scrunched up paper, or I'll get him to sniff out treatos, or his wet food will be on a lickimat.

He also goes to daycare twice a week, occasionally three times, and I have a sitter for an hour on another day so I can go to the gym.

It's not an efficient and productive way to work, but it is just enough to keep me in a job and not to feel overwhelmingly guilty that he's not getting enough of me when he's so young.

I have a wildly attention seeking 3yo gsd x dalmatian. Needs a lot. It really depends on your dog. You need to compare like with like

@Bupster i feel everything you wrote 🤣 teetering on the balance between dog mum guilt and being fired

I have a parsons Jack Russel and he’s basically a toddler. He gets in the bed in the morning for a cuddle. Sits on my lap in the morning while I work or on a cushion. 1 to 2 hour walk, then naps in crate for a couple of hours. Plays with himself in the garden with a bone or ball and then follows me around. Sits on my lap in the evening.

18 month very sassy Italian Greyhound. Smallish breed.

I won’t lie, it’s constant attention! She lives under my top but they are known as ‘Velcro dogs’. I work from home so we play and sing on and off. She is a regular teams meeting attendee.

One walk a day. 30 mins-1hr it varies on what we do. We live in the countryside so we have a lot of choice. I quite often rent the secure dog field down the road and meet up with friends there. It’s £6 an hr and has lots of agility stuff and room to run off leash. She always has food down. She isn’t greedy she will only eat when hungry and what she wants. She’s slender. She has greyhound in her so she does like a doze. I tend to go the local pet shop we have once a week and buy the horrid smelling things like ears and bones and hooves (the smellier the more she loves it) and give her one every other day or so. If I’m feeling nice I throw a full toilet roll in the garden and she loves unravelling that about and through the house like a loon.

She visits her doxie friend every evening for an hr or two unless we have guests over. I watch my brothers dog whilst he works so this keeps her entertained.

She swims at a local dog pool. I started this because I wanted to give her more experiences!

We are in the Italian Greyhound Club and meet regularly.

I tried doggy day care. She’s with me all the time so I thought it might give her a break from my face! Hahaha but she didn’t care for it much so we binned it off.

I am hoping to start ring craft classes in the summer which should be quite stimulating. She was bred for show and began training before I adopted her. She was rehomed as she developed small and therefore, would never win best in show at crufts. I was told I could show her but she wouldn’t place top 3. I have never shown a dog and didn’t have any interest but I think it will be fun for us both if we keep it fun. I hope the classes will be a good social event for us both!

i might invest in a walker. It’s not that she needs it but an extra walk wouldn’t go a miss and it’s nice for her to be social, chat with some other dogs. Maybe go for that?

I always try to have done or given her something that day to dream about. That’s the way I look at it.

She eats, will ask for a wee and takes herself to bed about 10! Such a madam.

I’m sorry that was so long! Honestly, I just love her so so much I get carried away talking about her.

14 month old cocker spaniel, pedigree show according to her paperwork but definitely has a lot of working cocker in her. 8am into the garden to toilet, breakfast. Snoozes while I have breakfast. Short walk around the block. Watches me do whatever I'm doing in house garden or studio. Plays with her 7yr old brother if he's up for it. Everyone has lunch. Long afternoon walk woods or beach, off lead, training, general spaniel mad running, sometimes walk ends in a cafe. Home. Sleep. Teatime. Plays with me, or her brother, or a Kong. Toilet breaks in garden. Sleeps all night in huge bed she shares with her brother. Repeat with variations.

Four y/o working cocker here. Two hour walk at 6.30am. 1 1/2 hr walk at lunch time each day. And usually a tea time stroll around the block.

She has a snooze from around 9am to 10.30 am. She usually has quite lazy mornings other than her walks. On an afternoon after lunchtime walk and then food she has ‘brushy time’ where she has a sit on the settee and gets groomed for half an hour. After tea time and a stroll around the block she gets her toys out usually and we have a play with those, or she has ball time for an hour in back garden if it’s a nice light evening, or sometimes I’ll play hide and seek with her (her face game). We mix it up so it’s different every day and she likes going out to a cafe too.

I have 2 frenchies and am married but my hubby works away a lot and I do all the care most days

Wake up at 5 and out for a week
Walk at 530 am

Back in the create for 615 or on the sofa if I wfh and literally sleep until 2-3 pm

Usually hubby or kids let them out and feed them if I work any time from 2-330 and they are in the garden playing for an hour or in the house with kids

Put away until 930 pm where they get an hour if we are training but all this changes if I wfh as they are with me all day- but spend it asleep tbh

Honestly it completely depends on your dog- I find if I'm home they sleep near me and will play together more than with me- we have a large garden so they love to explore.

They are tactile but actually put themselves in their create for sleeping if the house is busy.
They are a lazy breed who sleep a lot

A working line Labrador here (10
months old - that 'lovely' age) 🤣
6-8am - up out for toilet half her breakfast is thrown out into the garden and she has to sniff to find it, (she loves this game) and the other half lovingly prepared awaiting her return to smear the back door with mud. A short play then calm time in crate while I get ready.
9.30/10am - out for morning walk. Any time from 1-2hrs which is usually semi rural galloping round a field and training with me.
Home, showered outside, (we get muddy nearly every day at the moment)
Handful of kibble and a carrot in
crate 12-3pm
3/5pm tea and afternoon walk. Varies hugely but usually some structured walking on lead, more training. Today we did heeling off lead. She did well. Left ball at home as she's too over stimulated with it on some walks. Was a total fruit loop this morning.
Trying to teach her to retrieve and 'drop' into my hands now.
5-6.30 my full attention, tugging, 'find it' games and indoor play, few training reminders. 6.30pm - into puppy pen which permanently up in lounge. Ask her to settle and she generally does. 3/4 night a week she gets a frozen treat that I've made from the freezer.
No bother all evening. Likes a bit of doggy YouTube.
7.30pm out of pen and we practice her 'sit' and 'wait' with a hand signal until she is allowed to get up on the sofa. Once up, I ask her to lie down, she does this with so much enthusiasm she almost goes down in a 'bounce' then I say 'cuddle', and then she rolls over with her legs in the air, and falls asleep.
Such a joy, such hard work. Such fun 🤩
Nutshell; I have around 3 hours a day to myself without being stared at or interrupted

Our dog thinks the world revolves around her and literally swipes your phone away if you're not paying her attention so a lot

She gets a lot of fuss, an hour walk a day, and play time

She does like some alone time and takes herself to her crate if she wants a snooze

Not long lost my lab, but in his prime he would get a walk and training session at 6am, then breakfast, then I’d drive him to DM’s and he would sleep. Lunchtime a short 30 min walk (dog walker) kong and playing with toys, following nan around, bit of training, snooze in front of the fire in winter.
After work an off lead session with his friends /an hour walk and he would be chilled but awake, in the mix!
He had access to the garden, when and if he wanted and full run of the house. Had his own bedroom at one point! We had to stop that as he would go missing for hours, sunbathing in the window. It was like having a hairy, hungry teenager.
On weekends/summer evenings trips to the beach, pub lunch, long country walks etc. In winter tried to stick to the beach or doggy adventure park if the weather was horrendous - he loved it there.
I had DD when he was 5 and age 7 he then tore his cruciate, so a much quieter lifestyle, shorter beach /country walks. Covid hit, so we were working from home. He had plenty of company, could go outside, he had an orthopaedic bed on the balcony and we look over across woodland so plenty of squirrels/ the odd fox/cat to watch. He could come and go as he pleased, I used to fill empty egg boxes with treats for him to destroy. Toys at Christmas and in his very last weeks lots of steak and strawberries.

I have a 3yo high energy mix breed (who was rehomed several times for being 'too much'.
We'll do a 60-90 minute walk every day usually late morning somewhere he can be off lead zipping about, we do an agility class once a week and a pet training class once a week (will do slightly shorter walks on those days) and then will usually do a short session in the evening of tricks or scentwork or just have a play.
This routine suits him well he's a happy fulfilled dog and if we have the odd day where we have to do less or it varies he's absolutely fine - when I first took him on that length of walk would have been overstimulating and he couldn't be off lead so we did a lot more short walks and short training sessions spread throughout the day and he initially would only settle in a crate whereas he's happy just chilling out on the sofa in the evenings and early mornings now

I should have said I'm a single dog mum but am fortunate to have always either worked from home or in jobs he could come with me

I have 3 dogs.
Usually get a long walk in the morning then a little game of finding treats/ breakfast. Then its off to work for me around 7am!
DH usually pops in around 10ish to let them out and is home 2ish to let them out again.

I'm home around 4.30 so it's another long walk with plenty of training/ play. 2-3x week we go agility training. Competitions on weekends.

They sit with us in the evening, but we don't really play games ect in the house except for the little session in the morning. Home is calm & quiet, my dogs are a lively bunch and would happily pester me for play or play fight all day if allowed.

We have a seven year old beagle.

He struggles with separation anxiety so is pretty much never left alone. He either comes to work with me or DH, or goes to my FIL for the day where he gets spoiled absolutely rotten 🙄

He gets an hour walk in the morning and we scatter feed most of his meals to give him some added mental enrichment - just indoors in winter and in the garden in summer. He has a chew most days as we find it really helps to settle him and relax him.

He doesn't need tons of exercise despite what you read about beagles being high energy, but he thrives on company and wouldn't cope in a home where he had to be left for long periods or where he wasn't allowed on furniture etc. for cuddles.

Place marking to come back to when my 12 week old Furry ASBO is a bit older (and finally vaccinated) to look at all your routines. Jeez I miss routine, life is just chaos these days!

Also enjoy reading about all your days ... they sound lovely

y whippet recently passed. Everyone said hello to him in the morning - he slept all day, under a desk if someone was working but maybe a sofa or his bed or the grass outside. He didn’t like being left so he came out with us to restaurants and pubs - always on holiday with him too - he had a walk of maybe an hour a day whenever we had an empty slot. He’d occasionally want to play ball or ask for a cuddle on the sofa or a treat - he was very self contained. Except when we were on a work Teams call - then he needed attention - little bugger!😔

We have a lab usually one of us is a home so he's not left for long periods. Typical day is-

630 am walk
730am breakfast
12pm walk
3pm ball throw in garden
6pm game of tug war

Will sometimes give him Kongs/puzzles /chews to entertain him