Morning routine

[Neil Todd]

Hi All,

          We usually feed Shea upon rising in the morn and then wait 2 hours before we take him for a run or walk, problem is for 2 hours he is climbing the walls and being as pesky as possible, we are considering running him shortly after waking up then feeding him an hour after getting back but the poor fella will be ravenous and probably supplementing with horse poo on the fields etc. Just wondering what others mornings are like?

[Elizabeth Ball]

The only other thing that is guaranteed to get her up is if we have toast - the beeper on the toaster is like her alarm clock and she shoots through when she hears it.

[Kristina]

That depends on a season. In winter no one (not me nor my Irish) wants to get up in the middle of the night and go out into those cold temp. (minus 7 celsius). But we have to. On the Weekends I can sleep a bit longer - 8am. 

But in the summer it's a totally different story. As soon the sun rises she would go out and play. No problem getting up at 5. It's a bigger problem sleeping until 6, 'cause she gets restless. She will be 5 in March and I am also thinking about a new puppy.

 

[Neil Todd]

Yep Shea would quite happily sleep till 10, in fact he's up there now and wont muster, breakfast time I think am sure the smell will rouse him lol

[Sheree Parrish]

Henry usually wakes me up when he is ready for his morning walk, (can be anywhere between 4 and 7.30 am), I am usually up around 6-7 so sometimes wake him up to take him out...it takes ages to peel him off the sofa when he's upside down and obviously very cosy ;-).  If it is still dark then we go for a shortish walk for about 1/2 an hour,  or a long one for about an hour if its light, then he has some breakfast when we get in, usually some boiled white fish with rice or rabbit.  If we've had the short walk then he will go out for a longer one mid-morning.  Then, anytime between noon and 1pm we will go out for about an hour and he gets another meal, the same as the breakfast one, with some complete food mixed in.  He has another long walk around 4ish, has another light meal when we return from that, the he has his last walk anytime between 9 and 10pm, he sometimes has a couple of fish4dogs snacks if he is peckish but doesn't always want something.  I had an Irish that suffered with bloat, I had always made sure I didn't exercise the dogs 2 hours either side of a meal and they ate out of raised bowls, it had no effect when he came down with it so I just suited myself and my dogs needs from then on.  Alfie recovered, btw, he had his stomach stitched and made a full recovery, unfortunately his father also succumbed to it at the same age, (4 years), but he wasn't so lucky, bless him.

[Sue and Cash]

This was a great topic Neil.  Interesting how so many setters are not morning souls and enjoying returning to bed even if their owners are up and about.  Mine is in that list.  I laugh all the time when people ask "aren't they hyper active".  Explaining to them that I need a cattle prod to get my up and moving most days.  I will say that often Cash is fed and it is an hour later that he is out for his walking/running/romping.  I can't wait 2 hours and still have daylight left to do that in the winter months.

And same as many, if mine doesn't eat before he goes out to play, he will eat others dog poop if hungry enough.  I usually have some treats in the car for the ride home to hold him off till dinner time.  Neil have you considered just bringing along a few treats to hold your dog over till you get back?

[Neil Todd]

Sue- yep we always take treats as use them to get him to recall. Deb took him out this afternoon for his run and really tired him out, so much so that he is now lying round not even interested in his dinner :)