Life with the Carmichael Pack!

We have had a number of interesting calls lately and I have had this question come up a few times and thought we would share. The questions is: "what does your family life look like with all of your dogs in your home....what is your routine?" I often chuckle only because you have to truly love your dogs to have this many in your home...they are truly part of the family. So here's our routine (very flexible so this is just a normal routine that changes slightly by the time of day): 1) I get up around 6:00 am to let the dogs outside to go potty and then we play fetch and chase games for about 20-30 minutes and then inside for some floor wrestling (definitely my favorite part of the day); 2) around 6:30 am we take ALL of our dogs on a 2 mile fast paced walk...they LOVE their walks and alway excited when the leashes come out; 3) after their walk they play in the backyard for another 15-20 minutes; 4) around 7:15 am they get fed breakfast; 5) around 7:30/45 they go back outside for about 20-30 minutes to go potty and play some more, usually with the kids (we homeschool...not truant!); 6) after all the early morning activity they are down for the count until late morning and we often take them on another 2 mile walk or playtime outside; 7) for the younger dogs they get a lunch feeding, for the older dogs they usually don't and based on age and need...if the older ones are hungry they still get fed; 8) after lunch it's chill time for a little to let those with food digest a bit for about 45-60 minutes before going outside to play; 9) after playtime, they're napping again...a tired dog is a good dog! 10) we usually feed them dinner between 5-6 pm, then a little digest time, and then they love to go outside for one last playtime where the kids and us play lots of games with the dogs; 10) really by about 7 pm everything is winding down. Now this is with 7 dogs.....I think 1-2 dogs what a snap! We do not believe in kenneling our dogs as we are either in this because we love dogs (which we do) or it's just a business (with this routine....would be a short-lived experience!!). Throughout the day we just do obedience training organically as opportunities present themselves. Water is also always available except we will pull it once the dogs have wound down at night. If you ever run your dog hard at night.....they will still need water!! Future blogs over the next few days will include our routine once the puppies arrive (you thought the above looked busy! lol) and more about food.