How to remember to walk your dog

Why walks get missed

You are in good company. In the PDSA's 2025 survey of UK dog owners, 75% said they walk their dog once a day or more, which leaves a quarter who do not. When researchers at the University of Liverpool interviewed dog owners, lack of time was the reason they heard most.

Time is rarely the whole story, though. A walk that depends on you remembering, feeling like it and finding a gap will lose to a busy day. A walk that has its own slot does not need any of those.

1. Hang the walk on something you already do

Psychologists describe habits as actions triggered automatically by a cue. The cue can be a time of day or, better, something that already happens every day. Writers on habits call this habit stacking. After a habit you already have, you do the new one.

• After I make my morning coffee, I walk the dog while it cools.
• After I drop the kids at school, I walk the dog before I go home.
• When I shut the laptop at the end of the day, I pick up the lead.

The advice from habit researchers is to be consistent and choose a time and place you meet every day of the week. An existing routine is the steadiest hook there is.

2. Make the decision once

Deciding each morning whether and when to walk is tiring, and tired people skip things. Decide the plan once, in the form of "when this happens, I will do that". Then the only thing left to do on the day is follow it.

3. Start smaller than you think

The same research found that simpler actions become habits more quickly. If an hour feels like a lot, commit to ten minutes around the block. PetMD suggests aiming for a 10 to 15 minute walk on days when you are short of time. You will often go further once you are out of the door, and on the days you do not, you have still kept the habit alive.

4. Put the cue where you will trip over it

• Keep the lead, bags and your shoes together by the door.
• Set a daily reminder on your phone for the time you chose.
• Lay out your walking clothes the night before a morning walk.

None of this is clever. It simply removes the small bits of friction that give you a reason to put it off.

5. Let your dog remind you

Dogs are very good at routines. Walk at the same time for a couple of weeks and your dog will be waiting by the door when the time comes. The Liverpool researchers called this co-discipline. The dog expects the walk, and the owner finds it hard to say no. It is the one reminder you cannot swipe away.

6. Share the job

In a household, a walk that is everybody's job easily becomes nobody's. Agree who does which walk, and make it easy to see whether today's has happened. That saves the dog from missing out and from the opposite problem, which is two people each doing a long walk without knowing.

This is what the family sharing in Zoomies is for. Everyone logs to the same dog, so nobody has to ask who walked the dog today.

7. Have a plan for bad days

Rain, heat and late meetings will happen, so decide in advance what the fallback is. A short toilet walk plus a game indoors is a fair swap. The PDSA suggests puzzle toys and indoor games when the weather rules out a proper walk. It also notes that play does not replace a good walk, so treat it as cover for the odd day.

If the bad days are most days, a dog walker or a neighbour for a couple of walks a week is worth considering.

How long until it sticks?

Longer than the three weeks people often quote. In the best known study of habit formation, a new daily habit took an average of 66 days to become automatic, and the researchers who wrote it up for doctors call the 21 day figure a myth. Their advice is to expect about ten weeks. A 2024 review of 20 studies found a similar middle figure, with a very wide spread from person to person.

The most useful finding is this one. Missing the occasional day did not seriously get in the way of forming the habit. So if you miss a walk, you have not broken anything. Do tomorrow's.

Morning or evening?

Whichever you will keep to. Mornings have fewer surprises, so a morning walk is harder to lose to a long day. Evenings are easier for people who are slow to get going. In hot weather the choice is made for you, because early and late are the only cool hours. Many dogs do best with a walk at each end of the day.

For how long each walk should be, see how often should you walk your dog. If remembering is not the problem and motivation is, read how to stay accountable for walking your dog.