How to make a dog walking schedule with your family

1. Pick the walk times

Most dogs need to go out several times a day; puppies and older dogs often more. Ask your vet what suits your dog. Then fit the times to your household's real day rather than an ideal one: before school and work, at lunchtime if someone is home, after dinner, and a short last walk before bed.

Keep the times roughly the same every day. Dogs like a routine, and so do the people who have to remember it.

2. Decide who walks when

• Fixed per time: one person always does the morning walk, another the evening walk.
• Per day: each family member has their own days.
• Rotating: swap every week, so nobody is stuck with the early walk for good.

Plan around school, work and sports, and give children walks that suit their age, for example a short familiar route or together with a parent.

3. Make it visible and check it

A schedule on the fridge says who should walk, not who did. Keep a shared record, and after a week look at whether the walks were shared as planned. Adjust the schedule rather than arguing about it. See how to split dog care fairly.

A walking schedule in LeashTracker

• The pack leader (the household's admin) sets up schedules under Settings → Schedule: a name, a time, the days, and who should be reminded.
• At that time, the people on the schedule get a reminder, unless the dog was walked in the hour before.
• The Today strip on the Log tab shows each walk time as done, coming up or missed.
• With Plus, members can have quiet hours (school, work) so reminders skip them.
• The weekly leaderboard shows whether the walks are shared the way you agreed.

Reminders are free on every plan. Get LeashTracker on Google Play, or read how reminders work.

More tips

• Who walked the dog? How families stop double and missed walks
• How to split dog care fairly in a family