Does Your Dog Need a Routine?
Hello, and welcome.
Establishing a routine has been documented to provide us humans with many benefits. These benefits may include: better rest; improved eating; reduced stress; and an effective use of time, developing good habits allowing us to live each day to the fullest.
But what about routines for our dogs? Do they provide our canine companions with the same added benefits as those documented for us?
Formulating a routine that works for your dog can offer them a sense of security. We know that when a dog feels relaxed and secure they are able to enjoy all elements of their life in a calmer manner. If your dog doesn’t feel secure - or spends a lot of time following you around trying to work out what your next move is - then they will be spending important energy stressing about that, rather than remaining relaxed.
However, if you have a structured routine for your dog then big life changes can cause a lot of uncertainty for all involved. If you know that your daily life is going to be affected in a big way - perhaps by the arrival of a new baby, a change in working hours, one carer needing to go into hospital for a prolonged stay, or even a new home - the best thing you can do is to allow your dog the time to learn certain predictable cues but to keep routines slightly fluid. By keeping some key cornerstones of our dog’s days - or just remaining predictable - we can help our dogs cope.
Overall, if we can be consistent enough to build trust with our dogs, yet flexible that they can cope on days when things might not go to plan, then you will most likely have a dog that feels relaxed on a daily basis.
As always, our dogs are individuals. Some dogs will be able to cope with a more flexible routine and still sleep comfortably, eat reliably, and generally feel relaxed. Whereas some dogs strive on knowing what the next event of the day is - and so this is where our small predictable cues can give them comfort.
Until next time, enjoy these summer days with your dogs.
Caroline