Ask A Dog Trainer: What does a healthy schedule for my dog consist of?

Q: What does a healthy schedule for my dog consist of?

A: In my experience, a healthy schedule for your dog consists of daily exercise, discipline and affection in that order. Dogs need both physical and mental exercise, so when you start the day off, maybe you should go for a long walk to physically exhaust your dog and give them something to do, and then have them earn their breakfast by either preforming obedience commands that they already know or learning new tricks.

After your dog has had ample exercise in the morning, and has earned their breakfast, you can then give them more physical affection or play with them or do other things that they receive as affection, but food in and of itself is affection for dogs.

I recommend that you help your dog learn how to calm themselves down voluntarily, and so this would be the ideal time to either have them lay down near you or put them in the crate and let them take a nap. Depending on your dogs' age and energy level, they may nap for a good portion of the day at this point, or they may recover within the hour and be let out of the crate or you may play with them after that.

Dogs need at least one hour per day of challenging exercise in order to be healthy. Ideally, the discipline that your dog receives will be both on the walk in having to adhere to the rules that you set on the walk, and throughout the day in having to adhere to the rules that you set in your household.

Most dogs need more than just the morning walk, though. And walking your dog twice a day is a great habit to get into. You'll be able to tell once your dog has had a sufficient amount of exercise when they voluntarily chill themselves out at your side or in their crate.