In a morning, what is the best way to deal with a dog. For example:

1) Should I wake up, take the dog out to the toilet, bring him back for food, take him out for a long walk then go to work. Or

2) Wake up, take the dog out to the toilet, take him on a long walk, bring him back for food then go to work.

Any advice would be appreciated.

mu pup is 6 months and i wake up let him straight out to garden,come back in feed him then walk. Make sure does his business then off to work, otherwise if you feed him last he will need to empty so make sure you leave him when he has had a good empty:hihi:

In a morning, what is the best way to deal with a dog. For example:

1) Should I wake up, take the dog out to the toilet, bring him back for food, take him out for a long walk then go to work. Or

2) Wake up, take the dog out to the toilet, take him on a long walk, bring him back for food then go to work.

Any advice would be appreciated.
My bold, I would do it this way around, but you need to be aware that you should not exercise your dog straight away after feeding, you should wait at least half an hour.

likewise you should not feed your dog straight after exercise particularly if they have been running they need at least a good 1/2hr to settle back down and relax.

Our routine is option 2. This is because dalmatians, along with other breeds are susceptible to gastric tortion and the risk can be reduced by giving them 30 - 45 minutes 'down time' before any other exercise.

The other reason being Takara was a very skinny pup and I couldn't get weight on her. I was advised to feed her after exercise so she wasn't burning energy off as soon as she'd taken it in.

We do alternate though as well, if I'm up late and we're going out much later than usual I'll feed them first - or feed them half before and half after - because otherwise they're likely to be so hungry on their walk that they scavenge more than usual!

The benefit of alternating the routine is that your dog can then cope with a routine change should it need to occur for any reason.

Option 2 for the Dobermutt too - broad chested breeds are susceptible to bloat /torsion so should not be fed and exercised at same time and the logical and most time efficient thing to do in a morning is to walk her first, come home and get ready for work, THEN feed her a good 50 minutes to an hour after she has been exercised, (half of her daily entitlement, she gets the rest at tea time) as we leave the house, so she is focussed on her food and will go straight to bed when she's finished. Tired, contented and fed dogs are far less likely to cause mayhem whilst you're out. If we fed her first and had to wait an hour to walk her, we'd need even more time to get ready for work after then and she's already up at 5:30am as it is.

So Lotti / Katkin, what would you recommend for a Labrador?? I'm now thinking walk first then food before I leave.

we work differently here, my hubby gets up at 530am lets the dogs toilet in the garden and then feeds, they go out on garden again after brekkie then when i get up between 730 and 8am i have my brekkie then take them out so theyve had a good 2-3 hours after food to rest, they get some treats for recall whilst out. if i had less time, id walk them first then get ready and then feed giving them at least an hour break after exercise before food. I have hounds so they too are susceptable to bloat. anna.x.

So Lotti / Katkin, what would you recommend for a Labrador?? I'm now thinking walk first then food before I leave.

Labs are also broad chested and tend to like their food, so I imagine you have to watch the feeding regime too.

We work full time, so walk first then food works for Ailsa and for us (correction, it tends to be the other half these days- he is willing to wake up at 5:30am whereas I have problems sleeping and tend to be just going BACK to bed at that time). It's much more relaxed and gives the walker more time to come round to the idea of going to work. If we fed Ailsa then had to wait up to an hour for her food to settle then took her out, then jumped in the shower, got ready and left the house, it would take forever plus Ailsa would probably me more lively - at least our way, all she wants to do after the food is sleep - except if we are on holiday and out and about - she never seems to tire if she's at the seaside!

anybody who suggests to Brude that we have a morning walk is met with a scowl!

the routine is out for a wee, snort breakfast down, dive out for a poo, bound into cage for a mornings snoozing - but he's a weekend dog - we take him out for hours on end of a weekend and he likes to spend the weekdays recovering :D

anybody who suggests to Brude that we have a morning walk is met with a scowl!

the routine is out for a wee, snort breakfast down, dive out for a poo, bound into cage for a mornings snoozing - but he's a weekend dog - we take him out for hours on end of a weekend and he likes to spend the weekdays recovering :D

Ours are just the same :hihi: we have 11am walks, 2pm and then 6-7pm-ish walks, no way would they walk as soon as they woke up, i have enough trouble getting the pup to walk as it is, she has a thing for being dragged and then sits to be picked up :loopy:

I think it all depends on work routine and what works for you and your breed of dog. At the moment I am off work so toilet Josh in garden first thing, feed and walk about 11 am, but when I am in work routine its all a bit different. What works for us is wee in garden first (a must) then breakfast while I feed cats and get a cuppa for me, then walk before I shower for work. He normally flops down on his bed then and is quite happy to chill until father in law comes about 11 am. Theres normally about half an hour between feed time and walk time.
Return from work, runs - get mobbed, change coat take Josh for walk. He then eats about 5.30 -6 after we have had our evening meal.

HonestJoe,
Labs are also predisposed to tortion so I personally would choose to walk, then feed. However they're also greedy little sods so you may want to cut their morning meal in half like I sometimes do with my dallies (if we're out later than usual) and feed half before and half after. This way, their tummies aren't full when exercising but they're not too hungry and are slightly less likely to scavenge and steal!

Edit: Take a look at the moulded bowls as well, they have little lumps in the bottom which stops the dog eating the food too fast (which can also contribute towards gastric tortion), I currently feed from raised feeders as I was told it helped prevent tortion and bloat but recently read something to suggest otherwise so I'm going to do a bit of reading on the subject!

anybody who suggests to Brude that we have a morning walk is met with a scowl!

the routine is out for a wee, snort breakfast down, dive out for a poo, bound into cage for a mornings snoozing - but he's a weekend dog - we take him out for hours on end of a weekend and he likes to spend the weekdays recovering :D

We also don't do early morning or well morning walks. Before we got Tilly Albert had to be moved out of his bed to go for a wee before lunch time :hihi:. She however gets up much earlier and his royal hairyness has had to get used to a earlier breakfast and being woken by the 14yr old dancing queen :hihi: who won't let anyone or anything sleep if she is awake :love:

I will never feed directly before or after exercise though.

We walk in the afternoons/evenings and like strix make use of the weekends and taken them off for adventures. They don't always get walked every day (well Tilly doesn't but as i said she is 14 and i am trying to preserve her and she puts everything into her walks and i don't want her to over do it) but when they do it is a poper walk.

It depends on your routine i.e. what fits in with your lifestyle and the dog you have. I assume it is a younger dog so it will need a morning walk being that breed so i would go with up, walk you get ready and dog gets fed hopefully at least 45 mins after walk and you go to work.

have to admit if we had the luxury of not going to work we would not choose to walk early morning but we've no choice really. When we're on hols, the other half still sometimes takes her out early then we take her in the car later somewhere for the day, knowing that she wont be as mental in the motor as she would have been if she'd had no exercise. She needs her daily exercise and it would be unfair to neglect that, so whatever the weather, she goes out.

We use a raised feeder for the dobermutt too- stops her gulping her food and water and having to crane her neck at floor level.

Molly gets her first walk at about 6.45 with my BF then comes back to bed for a while (a few hours!) until I get up, then she gets breakfast sometime around 10, another short walk for a wee late morning and her main walk sometime during the afternoon. When my BF gets back in from work he often takes her out with her frisbee for half an hour or so then she gets dinner quite late at 8.30ish as we eat our tea before feeding her. Her last walk is sometime around 1am before bed.

We're very careful with the torsion and bloat thing but I'm lucky enough that she eats carefully and slowly and at best can be described as picky with her food.

Walkies at 1am , blimey :o :hihi:

That's dedication for you. Ailsa takes herself off up to bed around 10:25pm every night. So funny- you suddenly realise there's space on the sofa and say' where's the dog?' Tucked up in bed.

When we took her to the Lakes a few years back, we stayed in a 300 yr old cottage in the middle of nowhere and we took her for a late night walk before bedtime - it was pitch black, no streetlamps or other houses and the eerie sounds of owls hooting, sheep baahing and trees rustling...Our big scary guard dog refused to budge beyond the end of the cottage, even with a torch to light the way!

I let my black lab in the garden, then feed, then take children to school, then take him for a romp in the fields.