Will a New Dog Adjust to My Schedule?

Hi Cesar,

I don't have a dog yet, but I plan to adopt one from my local shelter. It will be my first dog. I am a teacher so I have many non-work days such as eight to ten weeks of summer vacation, two weeks of Christmas break, one week of Easter break, and several holidays throughout the school year. Needless to say, during those non-work weeks, I will have more time to spend with my dog (i.e. more walks, longer walks, etc.) than when I am working.

My question is, should I stay consistent with the same routine as when I am working even though it is summer time? Would the dog be able to adapt to the different routines between my work and non-work schedules?

Thanks for your help,

Jerome

Dear Jerome,

Congratulations on your decision to adopt a dog, and I am very proud of you for thinking ahead and preparing yourself for the important responsibility of being a dog owner. In answer to your question, the beauty of dogs is the incredible way they adapt themselves to any kind of environmental scenario or schedule, but if you are going to invest more time in your dog during vacation (meaning, for instance, the dog is going to walk for an hour and a half in the morning instead of thirty minutes), make sure that you start weaning the dog to that new routine at least two weeks before you go back to work.

You don’t want your dog to have a drastic lifestyle change, so think of it as getting in shape. Just as it takes weeks or it takes days for you to get in shape, it will be the same process for your dog in getting used to any new schedule or activity.

Stay calm and assertive,

Cesar Millan

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Sat, 05/29/2010 - 4:21am — info@theloft.ie

my puppy

hi cesar i now have my new puppy 2weeks... id like to ask you how many times a day should i feed her she is a tea cup yorkishire terrier

any advice you could give me would be great

i love your show

warm regards

rochelle

Sun, 01/10/2010 - 2:52pm — scout01

Training question

Hello Cesar

I have had several types of dogs; Fox Terror, German shepard, Lab and Chow mix, Poodle and Weiner dog mix. Now I am training a female puppy that is Rott, German sheperd, Pit Bull and Lab mix. She is a wonderful pup and is wanting to learn as much as possible, which is great!

All the other dogs I had were male and by neighbors and friends commented on how well my dogs were trained. I was never taught how to train I used "Common Scense" I trained the dogs like the Alpha male would in a pack. My wife thinks I am crazy, but the out come was positve and achieved.

What I taught my other dogs is as follows:

Fox Terror(Tiny): Basic routines(sit, lay down, stay, sit up, shake, roll over, fetch, hid and seek, 100s of words.

Poodle and weiner mix(Doodles) Basics, hide and seek, few words, some hand signs.

German Sheperd(Scout) Basics, Tons of hand signs, search, guard property and Tons of words.

Lab and Chow(CoCo) Basics, some hand signs and good amount of words.

Pitt Bull, German sheperd, Rott and lab mix(Kali) So far some basics and some words. I plan on training her with the skill that scout had.

Now for the question: Should I train her the same way as the male dogs or is there a different way for females? Also how long should the training be per session?

Thank You
Michael Karpenko