Individual 'days' or play time when you have multiple dogs.

I have three dogs and they all want to play differently.  Twister, JRT, loves to retrieve his little tennis ball and will do so till my arm falls off.  But, if Belle is retrieving her ball, he will hold his ball and chase her and do his little JRT head shake at her.  She ignores him.  Rex doesn't care much about retrieving anything, so by trial and error discovered that he loves to jump up for the ball and catch it before it hits the ground.  So that's what we do. Each dog is getting to do what they want and getting some exercise. I'm sure it looks strange but it works for us.  Usually I play with all three for about 20 minutes and then put up two at a time and play individually and do a little obedience in between playing. The dogs that are not getting individual attention barked and whined a little at first but after a week or so they seemed to realize that they were all going to get a turn and now they just sit and wait.  Twister was the longest in getting over the fact that he wasn't involved in EVERYTHING. LOL

Just wanted to add that the play time doesn't serve as my dogs main exercise.  We walk for their main exercise.

 I take Lillie out walking every other morning and night alone. Then the other days I take Cheyanne. Sometime in the day I take them both out running with the bike. And before bed I put Cheyanne in the house and play with Lillie outside with a toy. Cheyanne likes to gaurd toys that Lillie has so that's why I put her up. Then when Lillie and I are done playing I put her to bed for the night and go play with Cheyanne.

When I go places it depends on where Im going which dog goes. Kujo goes everywhere regardless. Samantha wont have it any other way.

ETA: Both dogs do get a walk in on days they dont have the one on one walks with me. They get those together.

 I give my dogs individual time when I can. Neiko needs it most of all or he gets depressed. There's a small city park within my neighborhood that I can walk to and throw the frisbee around so that's nice. Dakota gets walks by herself just to smell the roses. She doesn't play much anymore.

Lily and Abbie are still being obedienced trained so they each get to go to their own classes. That serves as their alone time.

 I normally just have Tootsie, but when BF comes on weekends he has Dingo ( heeler x) . Play time is individual because Tootsie has this obnoxious behavior when playing fetch, all she does is bark and try to bite  Dingo, who loves fetch. Actually Tootsie does this, at least the barking, anytime Dingo moves quick.

 I do stuff with them separately.  They get alone time at our classes at the SPCA.  Woobie loves to retrieve and Indie will just tackle him and ignore the ball.  I clicker train them separately and together.  I'll take them to the dog park separately because watching and managing them both at once is impossible.  Indie's getting good at distance commands but with Woobie around, the distraction is too much for him.  And Indie doesn't have the stamina to do long brisk walks so I'll take Woobie on those and Indie on the shorter 3 milers.  Most days I walk them together but when I have the time I'll drop off Indie after 3 miles and keep Woobie for a few more.  It works out and satisfies my desire to have one-on-one time with each of them.

Jazzy, our German Shorthair cross, is a very anti-social dog: she hates other dogs except for Keisha, and that depends on her mood of the moment!  She is my 15 year old daughter's dog and she plays with her alone.  Jazzy loves to fetch and goes everywhere with my daughter 

I have the 4 Standard Poodles.  Lacie and Rex are my 'needy' dogs - they need alone time with me or they get very depressed.  So I always spend alone time with each of them, playing or just laying on my bed for belly rubs.  Keisha and Zoe are my social butterflies. They flit from person to person, they play with any dog they come into contact with, and they are fine if they don't get alone time, although I do try to always give each dog at least 5-10 minutes alone each evening.

 The poodles play wonderfully together.  If I throw a ball they all run for it.  Whoever gets it brings it back to me and then we start all over again. 

We do both.

In the mornings, we all go running.  After the first mile, we circle back by the house & drop Chyna off.  She's 10, & starting to slow down a little, so she doesn't need or want to run as much as she once did.  The rest of us usually run 3-4 more miles before we head home. 

If for some reason, I am not in the mood to run, we go to the park behind our house.  Chyna wanders around sniffing, Bevo & I work on trick training or obedience & everyone else plays ball.  Not together, mind you, but seperately.  Brinxx wants a tennis ball, Shooter chases his soccer ball, & Shcatzi will only play with a rubber squeaky ball.

I work in a pet friendly office, so unless I have meetings scheduled all day, I take a dog with me to work almost daily. 

In the evenings, our routines vary.  DH usually does something with Brinxx, & Chyna.  I usually do something with Shooter, Bevo, & Schatzi.  We hike, go to the dog park, swim, make a trip to the pet supply shop, or just go for a walk. 

On the weekends, DH takes Brinxx, Shooter, & Schatzi to herding class.  They get to spend time with him while they are there.  While they herd, Bevo, Chyna, & I go to the farmer's market.

We also do individual classes with some of the dogs.  Bevo, & Shooter both go to obedience classes.  Schatzi is doing an agility class, as is Brinxx. 

If you don't have time to one-on-one interact with each dog every single day maybe you shouldn't have that many dogs?  I NEVER play with dogs plural, it's all one-on-one. I put the other dogs in x-pens or somewhere else, and every dog gets at least ten minutes one-on-one every single day. We sometimes walk as a group, but often not. Some of the dogs go jogging but not the older ones.

My dogs have lots play time with each other (which I think is just as valuable as playing with me), but when they play with me it's one-on-one.  It's hard to play tug games with two dogs grabbing at the tug!  We have a box of toys that is always available to the dogs, and then I have toys I keep away that are only out when I am playing with them (the nicer tugs and stuffies I use for building drive and confidence - if I left them out the dogs would destroy them).  Play time is play time, not hoard and chew time!  Walks are sort of every-other.  Some days we each walk them individually, then maybe the next day we all walk together.  It depends more on the needs of the dog.  Kenya likes a very long walk even when it's warm, Coke gets tired or hot after 2 miles or so.

I have 2 dogs who play quite differently.  Young Heidi is highly active so we play fetch or chuckit all the time.  When I'm playing chuckit with Heidi, I'll throw the frisbee for Buddy.  The chuckit ball goes far enough that it gives me enough time to toss the frisbee for Buddy before she gets back.  Buddy is elderly but he certainly doesn't want to get left out.  So, his frisbee play consists of my stepping back about 10 feet and tossing it at him to catch.  He loves it!.

If I want to play fetch with Buddy (same type of Chuckit ball).  I'll play with him separately behind one of the fences.  He loves that too.

Typically, we will all walk together.  But, if one is not feeling well (or whatever)...they get walked separately.

I had noticed that because of all the time that Heidi required in separate training or just general management to keep her out of trouble...Buddy got a bit depressed (or it seemed that way to me).  So, he does get special treatment so he knows he is just as important to me as little miss trouble maker.

Interesting observation about their playing together:  Since Heidi has been spayed (end of July), Buddy is more inclined to play with Heidi when she tries to initiate.  She'll play bow, and he'll join in and off they go.  He is even starting to initiate play with her.  Quite different than before her spaying. 

Mine do enjoy playing together and they get plenty of time to do that at home in the yard and at the park, but they get individual time too. Ripley is a toy hoarder, so it's very important to me to give the other two time to play ball or frisbee without him butting in and trying to take over, and to give Ripley some toy time too. I usually just take one dog outside alone and play, but once a week-ish I take them on a one on one outing and rotate who goes, it could be anything, a trip to Petco, the park, over to my moms house, or something as quick as a ride along to pick the kids up from school or a run through the drive through at the bank. Walks I do one on one sometimes and together sometimes, and training I do individually if I'm teaching something new and together if it's a review of the basics.

All my dogs have different needs and my interaction with them depends on those needs.  I definitely don't depend on their playing "with" each other to fulfill any exercise or mental stimulation need.  I'm home all day and my life almost centers on the dogs.  Not quite, the kid's schooling is primary, but fortunately for the dogs, the kids only school half the day and they don't need my help most of the time (when I'm here on the computer in "real life" I'm sitting correcting schoolwork, planning/assigning lessons, and recording daily activities).  So the dogs do end up getting most of my time!

Border Collies can get really dangerous when playing together - and they are not really playing together, they are indulging whatever little instinct they've found other dogs can play a role in.  I've known plenty of people whose dogs got hurt really badly when their BCs rammed each other or were sliced-and-diced doing a drive-by slash with the teeth.  So I don't encourage that with the full-blooded BCs.  Ted is the only one here who likes to run around and chase, so he can play with Lynn, who isn't too interested in BC type on-the-run games.

The guard dogs don't really care about us - they just want their sheep.  I had Min in here before and after her surgery and it was fun getting to know her, but she had her mind on the sheep outside the whole time we had here inside.  They do accept petting and a little playing around mealtimes, and that's when I can check them over for bugs, wounds, and body condition.

Maggie is almost 15 and loves to go on walks with us around the farm.  The only reason I can tell she's getting up there is that she no longer needs anything more than that to be content.  She's pretty much always at my side, underfoot - she is the official food taster and pan cleaner upper. 

Ben is going on 13 years old and still likes to play frisbee, ball, and swim and go on walks.  I still use him on the sheep occasionally too, in situations where the sheep can't outrun him.  He's always been slow - the reason I don't want to put him where the sheep can get away from him is that he is losing his hearing and can't hear my direction to help him find the sheep when they give him the slip.  He is also content to supervise cooking and the homeschooling - he's the only dog allowed in the schoolroom 24/7.

Gus is Patrick's dog.  I'm in charge of feeding him and I do teach him tricks and do a bit of training with him on the sly.  Mostly Gus hangs with Patrick though and does chores when Patrick is out there. 

Zhi is a lap dog, crumb disposal unit, and her main job is to provide pain relief therapy.  She assigned herself this role - I never taught her to sit on my head when it hurts, against my knee or hip when they hurt, or drape herself on my ankle when it hurts.  I have no idea how she knows this or what she gets out of it, but believe me, I encourage it when it happens!  She's totally better than a heating pad.  If I ever get a fuel efficient dog/kid car, Zhi and I are going down to finish our training for flyball also. Zhi is like the Awesomest Dog Ever and will be coming with me to every trial where it's safe to bring her.  One of the things we do together is I'm increasing her trick repertoire.  Border Collies are way too easy to teach tricks to and when they do it they are so serious.  Zhi is A.Dor.Able.

Ted of course is going through intense herding training.  I'm also starting him on the basics of ball retrieval and frisbee.  You absolutely cannot teach two dogs to retrieve at the same time - nor can you teach one while another is trying to get the ball.  You have to teach this one-on-one with the others out of sight.  I did have two dogs trained - Ben and another dog - and after they were trained I could keep one dog in a stay while I worked the other.  This is an awesome exercise but you really have to work up to it.  Ted is also my chore dog.

Lynn is working on obedience training and retrieval training.  My son is doing the obedience training as a school project (it got put on hold over the summer, but that's okay because Lynn's brain was kind of on hold too).  I'm doing the retrieval training.  Again, this has to be done out of sight of everyone else. 

The day kind of looks like this now:

• 6:30 to 7 walk dogs
  
• 7 to 8:30 chores
• 8:30 to 9:30 people breakfast (kids have been doing school since 8 or 8:30)
• 9:30 I don't eat pancakes and stuff so I'm usually done fast and go walk dogs again
  
• 9:30 to 10:30 check over kids work, do quizzes or tests, go over "do together" topics and work (sheep sometimes need moving during this time)
  
• 10:30 to 11 break from school to feed dogs breakfast
• 11 to 12 more school but also work with Lynn and Ted, walk everyone
• 12:00 start people lunch, play with Ben
• Somewhere between noon and 1:00 people eat lunch, and sometimes I work Ted again, sometimes sheep need to be moved
• 1:00 to 2:30 - finish up school - this is the most intense one-on-one work with the kids, current events and math practice
• 2:30 to 4:00 formal dog training (PJ works with Lynn too) Another dog walk - just the youngsters usually
  
• 4:00 to 5:30 afternoon chores, more Ted training, but much lighter work time for me.  I often take the laptop outside and just sit and play.
• 5:30 to 7:00 dinner and family time.  On dog food making day, this is when I make the food (and it goes to 8:30 or 9:00).  Also a quick walk for everyone. 
  
• 7:00 to 9:00 Quick house cleaning, dessert for people and dogs, get the kids to bed, and playtime for me! 
  
• 9:00-9:15 quick walk
• 9:15 to 11:00 Patrick and me time - usually Netflix, Bible study, or just talking.  Patrick pops popcorn and we share with the dogs.
  
• 11:00ish - raw meaty bones meal, during which I play on the computer a bit more and let them finish and digest a little, and then we go for a longish walk, about 30 minutes.  Shorter walk if the weather is really ugly but most of the time we have good weather around here.  We really enjoy these late walks - this is when Patrick and I do a lot of talking and farm planning.
• 12:00 Bedtime!  Usually.  I'm a night owl, but I really do try to get to bed by midnight.

Brownie-- He is sort of wary of Cuddles at times because she is definetly dominant so he's definetly not the first to initiate play time. But when he's feeling ok and she wants to play he will usually run around with her. We don't let him do a lot though because we don't want him to aggravate his arthritis even more. He usually stays away from Possum because she has a little TOO much energy for him.

My BF usually gives him individual time like walks and snuggles on the couch.

Cuddles- She LOVES to play with other dogs!!! She sometimes doesn't understand if Brownie won't play because of his arthritis but she adores Possum's puppy energy so they have a great time together.

We do try to get her to the dog park though because she loves to run with the other dogs.

Possum- She'll play with anything that moves!! Well, we do give her LOADS of indiv. time because we're still in the process of training.