Typical Day
I've been thinking about posting a typical day in the life of my dogs, and now feel pressured since 2 of my blog friends have done it recently. My schedule varies a lot, but this is a typical Monday:
5:15am: cat starts making noises, waking me up. I try it ignore it but am unsuccessful. I remain in bed anyway.
5:34am: alarm goes off and the dogs shoot out of bed (both in their open kennels at this time) to be let outside.
5:36am: Dogs are fed. It's too early for me to think so I don't have they do much for their breakfast. Some days I have them do a few tricks, but mostly I dish it up and then make them do a sit stay while I get my breakfast (oatmeal or cold cereal) ready.
5:58am: dogs loaded into the car and we set off to work (doggy daycare!)
6:15am: arrive at work. the dogs lounge around by themselves while I take care of letting out and feeding the boarding dogs.
7am: the playroom is open and my dogs excitedly race around the floor chasing each other while daycare dogs slowly trickle in.
7:15am: Lance is tuckered out. He curls up in a corner and tries to tune out the noise :) Vito looks to see if anyone of his girlfriends are here yet to play with. Otherwise he sighs and curls up too.
7:30-11:30am: Vito plays on and off with his girls, occassionally barking at Lance and nipping at his butt to try to get Lance to play for a couple minutes. Lance obliges and then curls back up, not really sleeping but resting.
12:10pm: Back at home, Vito races into the bedroom where he hops up on our bed and curls up. Lance remains in the living room to pass out somewhere on the floor near where I sit.
3:30pm: The dogs usually wake up. Most days I am already back at work around 1:30, but some days I am home at this time. If I'm home, I usually do some agility contact training with Lance and Vito. But today I'm at work!
4:30pm-6pm: Vito is dropped back off at the daycare where I'm working again and chills out. He usually doesn't play too much this 2nd shift of daycare. Lance is usually left at home alone during this time, but I don't want to leave Vito alone this long on a regular basis yet. Basically I still only leave him alone for max of 2hrs and he does ok with that now, but I'm still scared to push it!
Some evenings Vito and Lance take a trip down to grandma's if I have to go to Hearing and Service Dogs of MN after work. Then they are fed there and don't come back till late. Lance loves the big backyard the grandparent's have and just wants to be outside all day. Vito loves that he has free access to tennis balls and tries to smooch in a whole bunch of playing time. Both Lance and Vito tolerate the cranky, old border collie mix and the excitable, pestering Ridgeback.
6:30pm: Back at home, the dogs are fed! Most days I try to spend 10 minutes with each dog and try to work on some obedience or tricks. But even on days where I'm lazy, the dogs still have to do more then just stay to get their supper.
7pm-10:30pm: Quiet time. Vito curls up on the couch with us and sleeps a lot. On days he didn't go to daycare the 2nd time, he is much more antsy and is constantly asking us to play tug. If we ignore him though, Vito sighs and goes back to trying to squish himself between us on the couch. He usually pretends to ask to be let up by sadly resting his chin on the couch. If we ignore that, he then places his front feet on the couch and stares at us from a closer angle.
Kitty gets pretty active with them though.
10:45pm: Dogs are let out and we all go to bed! Vito starts out on the bed with us and them goes to his kennel in the middle of the night. Lance refuses to sleep with us and goes straight to his kennel :P
And that's basically it! Usually if I"m not working again in the evening it's because one or both of the dogs have classes. Both go to obedience class once a week and agility class once a week (different classes). As you can see the dogs sleep a lot! But I can very easily tell the days when Vito hasn't gone to daycare at all as he is just nuts those days! Daycare is so nice, I don't know what I do without it there to tire out my babies :)
You go to daycare every day? Lucky dogs!
Slobbers,
Mango
That sounds great! I wish I could sleep as much as my dogs lol. I wish I worked at a daycare, that would be so cool. When I worked at the vet I wasn't very comfortable taking them because I was afraid they would catch something and they'd have to be in a kennel all day. They'd rather be at home. Thanks for sharing. Fun read.
My God, if I had to wake up as early as you every day, I'd just die!! :-) And if Honey had to have as much activity as Lance & Vito, she would probably drop dead too - ha! ha! Her main activity is sleeping - about 18hrs a day - am not joking - we counted.
You're very lucky to have the daycare to occupy the dogs, especially with a high-drive, hyper dog like Vito! :-)
Thanks for sharing! :-)
Hsin-Yi