Tell me about your puppy’s routine!

[VanGoSunflowers]

I have a 9 week old lab pup. He’s bloody lovely if I do say so myself. I’ve only had him a week but I’m finding the most stressful part is my own brain 🤦‍♀️

So I spend a lot of time worrying that I am not doing the right things, or enough of the right things, or the wrong things and in order to gather my thoughts and make things a little easier for myself and bring a bit more structure to both of our days, I wanted to create a ‘routine’ for him. I may be a little ashamed to say that I asked ChatGPT but it seemed to contradict itself! How much of his awake time should be structured and occupied and how much should be just letting him be a pup and explore? How do you fit all of the things you’re supposed to be doing (socialising, training, toilet training, bonding) in to the few hours he is awake? I don’t want to over stimulate him but I don’t want to just leave him to his own devices either.

i would be so grateful for any advice or a rough hour by hour routine you have in place!

Thanks in advance!

Agree with Twiglets!

It completely depends on you and also the dog. Some dogs are slightly more robust (for lack of a better word) than others and can happily sleep alone from night one whereas others need a lot more guidance and care.

Mine have never slept alone (literally - I sleep on a mattress by the whelping pen at night and then once they all go, the one I keep comes up to my bed).

Our pups have all slept alone in the kitchen/dining area. We don't crate so they have freedom to roam two rooms from 8 weeks old. With the current girl, I slept on the living room sofa for a week or two. She was on the other side of the dog gate but knew I was close by, so she never whined.

My puppy was on her own from the first night. She had toys and blankets from the breeder. I had a dog cam set up to monitor her. She cried a couple of times and I came down and comforted her. She never cried again at night.

I’m so glad she sleeps in the kitchen as she’s a fidget monster. I’m a light sleeper and if she was in with me, I wouldn’t sleep a wink. I’m often awake at night and I check the dog cam. She’s sometimes fast asleep in her basket, sometimes she’s awake and having a scratch or a wash, sometimes she’s asleep by the back door, sometimes she’s having a wander around the kitchen.

@VanGoSunflowers My girl slept alone in the kitchen in her bed from her first night at home. She didn’t cry and seemed to get it – I’d have been able to hear her and I never did. It’s not for everyone but it worked for us and for her.

She’s two now and the only time she’s ever slept upstairs in this house (overnight) was last week when she had a poorly foot and I felt sorry for her and wanted to cuddle her all night. Now she’s very happily back in the kitchen/in the snug going between her beds and the sofa as she pleases – presumably, since I don’t have cameras. All I know is that she's always exactly where I left her when I come down in the morning.

Just to add – it's true that some dogs won't ever get being alone and some find it incredibly stressful etc, but honestly the idea that my girl might be one of those dogs never occurred to me when she was tiny. I just expected her to get on with it – with lots of love and blankets and toys obviously – and she did. I didn't have the emotional energy for her to be anything other than the best girl from the word go, and as it turns out, she is fantastic. That might be about who she is herself but I think a lot of it is about how she was brought up – to be super confident and happy, and anxiety-free.

Thanks for the range of opinions, much appreciated!
I don’t think my boy doesn’t like to be left alone, as such. For example, if I pop out of the front door to put something in the bin or whatever he doesn’t seem to care too much and is just happy to see me when I come in. I might try and start moving away soon and see how we get on. I gave up trying to get him to nap in the crate during the day - he didn’t seem ‘ready’ for it and would only sleep for an hour tops and I don’t need to tell you all that a puppy that isn’t sleeping enough isn’t a happy one! I get him to nap on the sofa now with me and he spends all evening asleep on my lap (either in the garden on the sun lounger or the sofa again)

Although it’s only two weeks in, I don’t see any signs of separation issues yet? Just feel like it’s something he will get the hang of eventually and trying to balance taking it as his pace (and also mine!)

Another random question and sort of tongue in cheek. I read that once he is jabbed (2 weeks and counting 😂) he can only walk for 5 minutes for each month he has been alive. So walks need to be limited to 15 mins, then 20 mins the following month and so on? To stop pressure on growing joints?

So my question is, does a zoomy puppy understand that they’re not supposed to zoom about for longer than 10 mins in any given day 😂😂

And also, does advice apply regardless of the breed? Like a chihuahua puppy would take many more steps in 15 minutes than my already massive lab puppy 😂

I think that 5 minute for each month rule has been debunked now. Just don’t overtire them. It’s silly to try to control them to the nth degree only for them to do crazy zoomies in the garden. Puppies have a lot of energy and they do need to be allowed to use it up or they will probably cause more problems in the house.

Thank you, I was hoping that would be the case. So be sensible, basically? Build up to longer walks, see how he gets on?

I looked in to this when I got my puppy. Advice seemed to be 5 minutes per month of walking and 5 minutes of sniffing. So we did two half hour walks in the woods every day. I walked slowly at her pace and let her stop and sniff as much as she wanted.

The difference between walks and zoomies in the garden is one is forced exercise (so to speak) and one is free will. I think the five minute rule came in to stop people doing hours of on lead pavement pounding walks, which aren't good for a puppy's joints and bones.

And all of my dogs sleep in my bedroom, so are never alone. Two in beds on the floor and one on my bed. Their choice.

@VanGoSunflowers Sounds very positive if he’s not that fussed by you leaving!

Re walking, my vet told me that the five minutes thing is about repetitive restricted movement – ie lead walking on pavements – rather than free running where they can regulate their own movement and pace. I’m sure she told me that it’s also five minutes per month at a time – not in total. So at four months it would be 20 minutes twice a day if you walk twice a day. It’s really just a guide so that you don’t rag your pup around and knacker their tiny joints.

My girl went off the lead on her first walk and obviously she was always stopping to sniff, so I was mindful of not tiring her out but equally I wasn’t super rigid about it because five minutes offlead wandering around and exploring is totally different to five minutes walking on the pavement at human pace.

I definitely built it up though – there are plenty of walks that I do now that I didn’t do until she was over a year old.

Ahh didn't see yours @SpanielsGalore! Snap, as ever.

Ahh ok so that makes a lot of sense. So he could do 2 x 15 min walks per day as soon as he is jabbed (he will be three months old by then) but don’t worry about being too religious about it. So obviously don’t go walking for an hour in one go as you head out but don’t sweat it if it’s 20 mins

With regard to the walking, there are so many variables anyway, not just size, breed or type, but coat texture and weather conditions can also come into play. Even within the same breed their exercise tolerance can vary. We had a girl who would walk all day if we were able, but current girl of same breed is much bigger and far less demanding of exercise.
We however, feel the opposite of what others are saying, I would maintain that gentle, controlled lead walking is less damaging than rushing around, leaping and jumping all over the place off lead. But perhaps that is a horses for courses thing; they're talking high energy gundogs/spaniels, whereas mine is a giant breed that needs to be more controlled and prevented from jumping around too much in the initial months.

@VanGoSunflowers Yes, exactly! Be guided by him too – if he’s flagging or being visibly naughty because he’s overtired, go home.

@CoubousAndTourmalet Sadly (or not, I don’t know?) gentle lead walking isn’t something that we have ever done, or will ever do! Not sure pupsy does anything gently while she's outside apart from pick up birds. As you say, we’re talking about such different breeds and styles. Our girls have completely opposite experiences of 'walks'.

That's the thing @brushingboots , with giant puppies everything has to be considered, it wouldn't feel safe to have her hurtling around loose trying to keep up with the terriers and gundogs. She just couldn't do it without risk of injury. In addition to that, there are few places secure enough to have LGD safely off lead anyway. Also, the current climate regarding big dogs in general, means that most people don't welcome 50kg of curious puppy wandering over to say hi even if we did decide to let her off.

Thankfully, most of our walks are on fields and footpaths, rather than urban pavements, and she's always on a 6 foot webbing, not tightly held on a choker or anything. She's just happy to be out for a mooch and a sniff and a bit of lead ragging 🙄We don't have rules about how far we go, we just do what we do, and she very often gets to choose the route. Yes, it's doubtless very different from your walks, but hopefully still a happy experience.

@CoubousAndTourmalet Oh totally! I would love to see her run (or gambol?) like pupsy but they are made for completely different worlds.

Depends on the type of walk too.
You could do 15 minutes of on lead round the block.
But like @brushingboots , our walks were off lead from the start so we did half an hour of mooching in the woods.

Our walks were a mixture of on lead and off. It used to take our pup 10 minutes just to walk to the park ( 5 minutes now he’s bigger) so I would think if I followed the “rules” too precisely he would only get 5 minutes off lead which was his favourite part. So I would allow him a bit longer to run about and meet other dogs.

Early socialisation is so important. But so is learning to walk nicely on the lead if you intend to walk a lot with them on lead when they’re older. It’s hard to get everything right! Basically just use your common sense and observe your puppy’s energy levels and little signs of fatigue.

It very much depends on the type of exercise he's doing. 4mph with no sniffing? That's probably 15 minutes twice a day. Slower, more sedate work with lots of sniffs or training (getting him used to seeing people but not being fussed, politely greeting a dog, learning to sit out in public for an extended period etc) then that could easily be 30 minutes.

But, as Coubous said - it's a bit different with larger or giant breeds. The risks to joints is greater and their growth plates don't fuse properly until their older. You also run the risk when they enter the gangly phase where they can do serious injury as they're not coordinated.

So, I would err on the side of caution. I wouldn't say stick rigidly to the 5+5 rule but I wouldn't go bonkers. I would more carefully enforce rules about his weight (labs can get very fat, again bad for joints), no jumping onto or off furniture etc.

The 5+5 rule is designed to protect dogs joints, but there are far worse things that can damage their joints...

You lot are amazing and so wise - thank you so much! Everything you have all said makes a lot of sense.

I have been walking him around the garden on a lead to try and get used to it - obviously he thinks it’s tremendous fun to chew on the lead while walking so I have been trying to correct that first, then was going to start with nice lead walking/walking to heel and obviously - recall!

Would you recommend a long training lead to begin with as well?

I never used a long training lead as I have seen too many people getting all tangled up in them. But others may say they are useful.

I found a long line useful for when she got a bit older and bolder and I was reinforcing recall – and walking in our local deer park when I was teaching her what these were and what to do around them, ie nothing – but not when she was tiny just learning it because she wanted to be near me anyway.

I am, like @Twiglets1, a huge advocate for getting them offlead as soon as you can. A lot of people get scared to let their dogs off and then it's too late and they've got a teenage dog with no recall.

The first few weeks are a baptism of fire, and a little ‘go with the flow’.

We stayed downstairs with puppy fur a couple of weeks, and did a gradual withdrawal. Ie. settled him then crept upstairs , gradually reducing the time we were downstairs. We used to wake him at 10pm to do a wee outside (and then hope he’d go through the night).

we found during the day, we had a two hour on, two hour off routine. Ie. Two hours awake, and then two hours asleep. We often put him in the crate for the sleep time (ie enforced nap) as he was (and still isn’t) a good self-settler.

My pup, almost three.