walk then feed or feed then walk

hi Buddy is coming up to 14 weeks and will soon be allowed out hooray !
He will be walked in the morning and lunchtime and then again late afternoon /evening - I have had a greyhound before so I am fully aware of Bloat and its causes but greyhounds are very calm dogs and mine used to eat and we would wait a while and then plod along at a slow pace for 20 mins and come home and he would sleep all day until we told him to either eat or go for a walk - somehow I am not so sure Buddy will take this option as he does everything at 100 miles an hour !

I get up at five and leave for work at 7.45 so when and what sort of timing do you think best for feeding him - I know his walks will be a little shorter to start with but eventually would like to walk him for a good hour - if I walked and then fed him - he would be left for four hours after - would he need to toilet again ? I just cant get my head around the timings .. lunch I will only walk him and give him a biscuit to settle him so not a problem and the afternoon I can apply the same rule as the morning only not so strict as hubby will be home mid afternoon so no time constraints unlike the morning when I have to leave at a set time..

advice please ?

Sounds ok to me Smudge chances are he will sleep till you get home at lunch. Think you have to wait half an hour after feeding to walk so feeding after walk would suit you best. , good luck with your new furbaby

Personally I leave an hour and half after feeding before exercise, although a calm walk would be OK after a shorter time.

Regarding going to the toilet, it will vary hugely depending on the dog, the type of food, exercise, etc. It's a matter of observation and fine-tuning, I think. Bo's food takes between 18 and 26 hours from bowl to pavement (the story of how I know this probably isn't one you want to hear). For some reason he goes twice in the morning, at 8am and 10am, then normally once in the evening at 11pm. This isn't something anybody could reasonably predict so as I say, just take notice of feeding times and crapping times and adjust accordingly.

We walk and then feed! I like to think the walk tires him out and then he gets a nice tummy full of food to settle him into a good nap between me going to work and the OH getting up!

As he gets older, his bladder control will get much better and it will also take a while for his food to digest so he should be fine for the 4 hours.

Hmmm ok if breakfast is a light meal then you could give that as soon as you get up which would give time for it to settle before a walk. I always leave it at least an hour after eating before walks but if time is tight then as long as it isn't stick chasing walk then all should be fine.

As far as toilet goes, a pattern will emerge which to some degree you can control as Buddy gets older but might be trial and error before your times are right.

I walk then feed as i leave for work, in the arvo its walk then dinner then he sleeps

If you don't have to give him any medication with food first thing, then definitely walk first, feed after.

speaking of timed poos, did anyone else notice their dogs taking a while to adjust to the clocks going forwards?

Goblin wrote:
speaking of timed poos, did anyone else notice their dogs taking a while to adjust to the clocks going forwards?

This deserves its own entire thread

As it goes, my Flo didn't really notice the change so just went when we were on our normal routine.

Thanks for all the advice I think I will start off with walk then feed and see how we go - to start with the walks will be shorter so time should not be an issue if he needs to go again he can go in the garden before I leave for work and hopefully by the time I can walk him for longer he will have better bowel and bladder control ..
he tends to get hiccups when he eats so do not want to take the chance on walking him on a full stomach just in case

out of curiosity do people feed with raised bowls or on the floor - my greyhound had raised but Buddy has floor level- should I raise it ?

Goblin wrote:If you don't have to give him any medication with food first thing, then definitely walk first, feed after.

speaking of timed poos, did anyone else notice their dogs taking a while to adjust to the clocks going forwards?

We walk then fed.

Wait when did the clocks change?

It varies for us. On the work days, 3 days per week, it's feed first followed by a 30 min lead walk and this is when she goes.
Pete

We typically feed before a walk and wait an hour. This discourages Suki from eating things off the ground

smudge95 wrote:
out of curiosity do people feed with raised bowls or on the floor - my greyhound had raised but Buddy has floor level- should I raise it ?

We have Flo's on the floor as there isn't a need to raise it.

KMack02 wrote:

Wait when did the clocks change?

We feed off the floor too. I've heard that it's better to feed bigger dogs from a stand but don't think I know of anyone who does