Toilet, food, walk...?

[j77adl]

Hello there,

As of Sunday our wee pup Murphy will be allowed to go out for walks...yey!!!!!!!!    However, I'm wondering what sort of routine I now need to set up which incorporates toilet training / eating / walks.  For example, Murphy likes his breakfast around 6am so we usually let him out for a wee in the garden first, feed him then let him back out into the garden for another wee.  Now that he'll soon be able to go out for walks am I supposed to walk him before and after breakfast?  He's currently on 3 meals a day so a walk before and after would mean we're out for walkies 6 time in one day.  Given that he's coming up for 12 weeks old and he's only meant to get 5 mins of exercise for every month old that he is, something's not adding up 

What's your daily routine??

Thanks xxx

[airyfairy76]

Still awaiting puppy collection day, so can't speak from experience, but would assume ethat most people would do garden, brekkie, walk (and the same for evening meal)?  Surely you don't plan on taking him for a walk every time he needs a wee?  You'll be permanently outside!

 

[LinziS]

Plan his walks for when it suits you. We always let ours into the garden first thing in the morning then give breakfast and maybe back out into garden afterwards with a walk about an hour later. We still put them into the garden at least every hour when they were small and only had a couple short walks a day within the time limits.
You do not have to walk them every meal time...the garden will do nicely.

[HoneyG]

And a note for the 'five minute rule', this is for the length of walk at a time - not total for the day.

When honey was younger, we used to go out 2 - 3 times per day for the (5mins * months old) rule.

i.e. when she was 4 months, we took her out for 20 minutes 3 times per day.

As for timings of walks - it was when they fit in, as opposed to directly correlating to food/wee times.  We just let her out for a wee when she asked.

Hope that helps

[j77adl]

This is very helpful, thank you all 

[PopPops]

My work varies day to day so have tried quite hard not to establish a routine per say with Pops, I don't want her to get in the habit of expecting set things to happen at set times as she'll then find it tricky on days when they don't! If I'm not working in the morning, we go out mid morning and go somewhere more exciting and stay out for longer as it isn't pavement walking. If I am working, she gets a shorter walk locally first thing and then will have a couple more short walks somewhere else during the day.

What I really found when she was tiny was that I was so excited about getting to go for walks with her that I didn't realise how much I was tiring her out, and she got very hyper and bitey and over stimulated. I hadn't counted in how tiring socialisation trips and car rides and so on were, and training and play at home, and she was quite happy with one walk a day. The other thing that I thought was so sweet when she was little and hadn't expected was that I thought she'd enjoy going to different and exciting places, and she much preferred just going the same way every day and getting to know our local walk well. It was rather like a small child liking to hear the same story over and over and over again. It's only really in the last few weeks she's started to get excited when we go somewhere new.

[Joules]

I would be very wary about walking straight after food    Too much exercise on a full stomach can cause bloat or a twisted gut which can be serious  

http://positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7276

Ideally, you should leave about an hour after food before the dog starts running around.  Would also leave a gap between walk and feed so wait a while after the walk before feeding too