Interrupting routine

PoetikDragon

My dogs have a fairly regular home routine, but it seems like every month or so there is something interrupting it. A girl goes into heat, a show or public event occurs, a party is held at our house, I go on a trip for three weeks (with Gojira or to pick up Mosura from Japan), we enroll in a training class, etc. Every time there is an interruption, the tensions and excitement rises. We have to carefully manage the dogs so an incident doesn't occur. For example, since returning from Texas we have kept Gojira separate from the others and probably will until we know if she's pregnant (and if so, then we'll keep her separate because of that).

I know dogs are somewhat OCD in that they really like a routine. My question is how to handle irregularities. Should we avoid all changes to the routine as much as possible, forgoing special events and household changes that might impact the dogs, or introduce even more events so that irregularities become the norm?

StaticNfuzz

Depends on the dog and their stress level. Introduce things gradually and see.....if it is pushing the envelope too much back off and go to what works but don't force what isn't comfortable and certainly don't flood the dog(s) with too much at once.

JMHO
Snf

jellyfish

i would go with more irregularities. But then, Toki is a pretty flexible, go with the flow, kind of dog and it has worked for him, (aside from having people over at the house). I'm gonna second what static fuzz said.