Dogs & Routine Setting

Many will inform you that dogs are much happier when set to a routine such as feeding, walking, etc.

This in my opnion is wrong, and can in many instances actually create stress in our dogs. We should try not to set our dog to strict routines. The reason for this is for one thing, we ourselves cannot guarantee we can always maintain this routine.

Here is an example:

We feed our dog everyday at 6pm. We maintain this routine for weeks. One day we are unable to feed our dog at this allocated time. What happens is the dogs brain is programmed to expect a certain condition to be satisified at a certain time. Dogs have extremely good internal body clocks. At 6pm our dogs brain goes into eating mode, when this subconscious need is not satisfied we create stress. Our dog then goes to the owner (if home) demanding food, as the brain is indicating to the dog this need must be satisfied. Now we cannot explain to our dog why it is not being fed.

We then do one of two things:

1. We give in to our dogs demand, and feed him/her. What we have done is yes satisfied our dogs subconscious need, but we have also rewarded stress/anxiety and assertive behaviour.
2. Or we ignore our dog and our dog becomes stressed and/or anxious. We wait until our dog calms down, and again shows a more balanced state, and then feed.

Classical or pavlovian conditioning is the reason for our dogs responses to certain triggers. Even a routine can become a trigger for our dog to expect a certain condition to be satisfied at a certain time.

I am therefore of the opinion that we should try not to condition our dog by routine setting. It is not fair on our dog if we cannot maintain this routine ourselves.