I know I am asking a lot of questions but I think it is better to ask then to not and so far all of you have been extremely helpful so far and it is very much appreciated!

I want to get my gorgeous little girl Tundra of on a great start.

Being a Military man I train my troops with lots of structure when they sleep, when they eat when they learn etc and it works out fairly well but when it comes to Tundra I am unsure of the perfect schedule for her. IE how much sleep and when, how much play and when, how much training and when.

I know it might be a pipe dream but I would like her schedule to run like clockwork and who better to ask than all of you helpful people.

My wife and I are with her for all but three hours between noon and 3 PM so we have a lot of time with her.

Any suggestions on sleep and play times and walks etc? I want her on a good regiment just unsure about how exactly that regiment should be structured.

Let me start off by saying thank you for your service to our country. Former Sergeant of Marines here, '87-'93, Semper Fi!

As to a schedule, I wake my 2 dogs up at 0630 to let them out to use the bathroom and they eat after me at 0900. I usually try to do some outside time with them in the late morning, ball throwing for the Schnauzer and watching Zhukov chase him around. I am just starting to be able to take them for walks at the same time, so it is usually in the afternoon for about 30-45 minutes (as Zhukov gets older, the walk times increase). In the evening they eat at about 1900 (after I eat) and we do a little wrestling on the floor while the wife watches TV. Zhukov is in the crate by 2100-2200 depending on the night.

As far as training, I do it throughout the day. I find that afternoon times Zhukov has a longer attention span, but not too late in the day. So I will do a little in the morning, more in the afternoon, and a little in the evening. Evening time is trick time with some treats, like "Paw" and "Bang, you're dead".

I don't know about your Husky, but Zhukov is very, oh I don't know, independent? Hardheaded? Stubborn? Willful? Sometimes I give a command, like "sit", and he will look at me like all of a sudden I started speaking Greek. Other times, it is like I am just talking to someone else. So, scheduling training times was out of the question with him.

Hope this helps.

Puppy timetable
-(food) 1/2 cup 3 times a day
7:00-15 am breakfast
8-9 am first walk
9:00-15 kennel training
11:30-45 am lunch
Structured play time 1:30-2:30
(Tug of war, ball, and 15 mins of basic commands)
4:30-50 pm dinner
6-7pm second walk
9-10 pm play time (tug of war, ball)
10:30 pm bed time.

This was the schedule I used for Cora from when she was 8 weeks to about 4 months old and then I got more chill. Hope this helps a little and obviously potty breaks every couple of hours until you pup has a stronger bladder!

Awesome this was exactly what I was hoping for! And would like to structure in down time as well where she gets the rest she needs.

Mountain man and Mark thank you for your service............now on to your question....I think pups can be adaptable to a certain degree. Like getting up at 6 am and going to bed at 10 pm. With Miya she was in puppy boot camp from 3 months until almost a year old, she was a horrible pup. My 2 cents, structured hard surface walks should be limited to 5 minutes per month old, so at 3 months 15 minutes. With Miya we did property boundary walks every hour, sometimes the walk was for fun and her getting used to the leash, other walks was strictly property boundary and staying on the path with some walking commands, and other walks were a training session, as in walk a bit then a command like leave it, sit, stay, etc. If it was bad outside then we played games that incorporated training. At the time I worked nights and husband days, and his shift with Miya was all play based. If I didn't give her specific structure she would have ate my new house that was being built, she was that bad. With the property boundary training, I started off with a small area and as she grew made it larger, we have about a full acre. Using her mind with training and doing the training in conjunction with exercise, has made for a solid adult husky. She will not leave our property (although she is never alone), but even chasing neighbors cats she will stop at our property boundaries. So setting up a schedule is a good thing, they do much better with consistency, they do not do well normally with a lot of change.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Mountain man and Mark thank you for your service............now on to your question....I think pups can be adaptable to a certain degree. Like getting up at 6 am and going to bed at 10 pm. With Miya she was in puppy boot camp from 3 months until almost a year old, she was a horrible pup. My 2 cents, structured hard surface walks should be limited to 5 minutes per month old, so at 3 months 15 minutes. With Miya we did property boundary walks every hour, sometimes the walk was for fun and her getting used to the leash, other walks was strictly property boundary and staying on the path with some walking commands, and other walks were a training session, as in walk a bit then a command like leave it, sit, stay, etc. If it was bad outside then we played games that incorporated training. At the time I worked nights and husband days, and his shift with Miya was all play based. If I didn't give her specific structure she would have ate my new house that was being built, she was that bad. With the property boundary training, I started off with a small area and as she grew made it larger, we have about a full acre. Using her mind with training and doing the training in conjunction with exercise, has made for a solid adult husky. She will not leave our property (although she is never alone), but even chasing neighbors cats she will stop at our property boundaries. So setting up a schedule is a good thing, they do much better with consistency, they do not do well normally with a lot of change.

yeah at 9 weeks she is very hyper and we are having problems with extremely rough and energetic play biting. Slowly working on it.

I’m on the total opposite end of the spectrum. I fly by the seat of my pants and do things when they feel right. I wake up sometime before 7 AM, but I usually doze in bed as long as I can. When I’m lucky, I don’t get up until 9:30, but usually, my Siberian gets me out of bed between 7:30 and 8:00 for any reason ranging from wanting to play to wanting to go outside. Usually, he wants to eat.

I read somewhere you don’t want to put a dog on a strict feeding time because it’ll turn them into a dog that “watches the clock.” They know when it’s meal time and they want to be fed “NOW!” I guess it can cause severe anxiety on days when they aren’t able to be fed at that time for whatever reason. My mother-in-law shared a story with me about her own dog that was always fed at 6 PM. He knew when the time came for his meal… until daylight savings time ended. He’d sit by the cupboard door at 5 PM, expecting food, and my mother-in-law would say to him, “Not yet. You have another hour.” Personally, I would’ve just adjusted his feeding time one hour depending on what time of year it was to ensure he got fed at the same time and wouldn’t be thrown for a loop when it suddenly changed. Dogs don’t understand clocks, but they do understand the positioning of the sun.

So hearing about the strict feeding schedule making a dog like that, it suits me perfectly because I’m not a person that follows a schedule. My dad was Navy for 20 years and my husband was Army for 8 years, and they could never get me up and going on time for anything. I was always early or late (usually late). With that in mind, I feed my dogs anywhere from 7 AM until 9:30, and then again between 4:30 PM and 6 PM. They never really know when they’re going to get fed four days out of the week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they know they’re fed when I got home from work shortly before 6 PM, so once they’ve greeted me and I’ve let them outside, they’ll immediately go over to the food container because they know it’s chow time. That was something else I read, but this time, I don’t follow it. “They” said never to feed your dog immediately upon coming home in the evening because it’ll cause a dog to get separation anxiety. I guess my dogs didn’t get that memo because they don’t have separation anxiety.

So I guess my lax way of doing things is, in itself, a kind of schedule.

Although I must say, with it being a Siberian, they might not thrive on a schedule as much as another breed, such as a Boxer, would. Siberians are a lot like me where they pretty much just do things when they feel like it. But your mileage may vary. Each dog is an individual and I’m sure there are Siberians out there that love having a schedule and knowing when to expect things.

Mountain Man and Mark, from one soldier to another:

ExSSG Al Jones, USA

Flip sides to this topic:
You are going to see so many changes over the next few months that trying to set a schedule that you and she can adhere to over the long run is going to be almost impossible.

Huskies and most other dogs do best when they're on a schedule.  

If you acknowledge that you're going to have to adapt as she grows then you're on the right track.