A Typical Day in Our House

A lot of people ask me what we do with all the dogs during the day, if they are crazy and play alot, how much I have to clean, where the dogs sleep, etc. So, over several posts I'll answer all these questions and any more questions, I'll be happy to answer!

I'm going to start off describing a typical weekday in our house (the weekends are always changing!). Here it goes...I wake up in the morning and as soon as my alarm goes off, all the dogs start moving around and getting excited to start the day. They make lots of noises when it's time to wake up, like really loud yawns, drawn out sighs and sometimes it even sounds like they are saying "HI!". I let them outside and they use the bathroom and usually hop back in bed with Chris, except for Gabe who always lays on the bathmat when I'm taking a shower and then he moves into the living room and watches tv. After getting ready for work, I say bye to Chris and all the dogs and leave for the day.

Chris is one of those lucky people who get to work from home, so he gets to hangout with the dogs all day. Usually they just lounge around and play with each other and if it's a nice day they will hang outside for a couple hours.

After work, I head home and every time I get out of the car, I hear them at the door waiting for me. When I walk in I get bombarded with hugs and kisses. Gabe usually howls at me and it sounds like he's saying "ERIN!". All the dogs are usually really excited when I come home and they do the same whenever Chris comes home from being gone. Usually they get so excited that they start jumping on each other and hopping around like it's the best day of their lives. This goes on for about 5 minutes and then they are back to laying around and chewing on their bones.

Feeding time is usually between 5:30 and 6:30 in the evening, sometimes it's earlier or later depending on if Chris and I have plans for the night. Every dog has their specific spot where they eat and they all know where to go. Chris feeds the 4 smaller dogs and I feed the big dogs. When I feed them I like to sing a song that I made up called "Who's Hungry?" (If you know me well, you know that I make up a lot of songs and they usually all sound the same). Anyways, when I sing this song, no matter what the dogs are doing, they know it's time to eat and they go to the laundry room door which is where we keep their food. Then they all wait there until we fill their food bowls and then they go over to their designated spots and eat! Gabe is especially vocal around dinner time, but only when I'm feeding them. He barks at me and howls, like he's trying to tell me to hurry up. The dogs usually finish eating within about 10 minutes but Socks and Simba always take their time eating. Sometimes the other dogs will try to sneak some bites if their bowls aren't being guarded.

A couple hours after the dogs eat, I take Gabe and Chase for a walk. Usually, around that time they start whining at me and standing by the front door because they know it's getting close to walking time. Chris and I take the other dogs in shifts...because it can be tricky walking 6 dogs at one time.

As it gets later in the night and closer to bedtime, the dogs will start moving into the bedroom in hopes that they will be able to score a spot on the bed for the night. We usually kick all the dogs off the bed when we get in but usually we have a few that will sneak up throughout the night. We leave our bedroom door open so the dogs can sleep where ever they want but most of them stay in our room (or hop in our bed) and Gabe usually sleeps under our dining room table. Then we say goodnight and do it all again the next day!

A lot of people say they can't imagine what they would do with 7 dogs, but we have gotten into a pretty good routine and it's very manageable for us. It took some time and of course some trial and error, but we pretty much have it down to a science now.

So that is a typical day in our house...it's not as crazy as many people think it might be!