Do Dogs Need Routine? Yes and No!

Do Dogs Need Routine? Yes and No!

A lot of people tend to get into a fixed routine with their dogs with a morning walk happening every day at the same time around the same block, followed by an evening walk to the local dog park. And even though dogs are creatures of habit and love routine, this is not always the best thing for them. Let me tell you why!

As a professional dog trainer of 12 years, I have met a lot of clients who take their dogs to the same places and do the same walk every single day. One of my clients for example took their dog to the local dog park to play with other dogs three times a day – and then had to book private training for severe over-arousal issues. And this is the problem with anticipation! When dogs learn to anticipate certain things to happen at certain times, they start to either demand them or get over-aroused by them. This is when you no longer get to sleep in on weekends because your dog is demanding the usual 6am morning walk or when they lose all leash manners because they simply can not hold their excitement knowing where they are going. This can also cause more severe over-arousal, obsession and aggression issues if the daily activities include high arousal activities such as free play with other dogs, excessive fetching and uncontrolled herding (this is when a dog focuses on controlling movement, it is not dog play!) that can be addressed to anything that moves.

The other problem with this is the lack of stimulation.

When you repeat the same thing over and over, your brain starts to get desensitised to certain parts of it and the triggers around you. Behaviours can become hugely automated when the same behaviour is repeated on a daily basis. This means that walks that could provide great calm mental stimulation in a form of sniffing fail to provide it when done only in the same environment. And to make matters worse, if this is done with a young puppy it could even cause lack of socialisation, causing fear in new environments. And when we think about dog play, excessive free play doesn’t mean your dog’s social manners will continue to improve, the opposite can happen due to over-excitement, over-arousal and desensitisation to social cues. This is when a dog keeps pushing for play when another dog is not interested.

So yes, dogs do need a routine of walks and mental stimulation daily but it should be unpredictable.

Go on different walks, do different activities and mix it up! Surprise your dog with a training session on a leash walk or with a hide and seek game at the park. This will improve your dog’s responsivness and engagement with you, because they can no longer guess what happens!

If you wish to learn more about dogs and how to train them, join one of our obedience classes, book private training or come to our Kingsford puppy school (or one of the many others)!

Book here!