It’s Baaacckk…

This is a public service announcement announcing  the dreaded time change starts this weekend. Daylight Saving Time…otherwise known as ‘Hell’ around the Ranch is that bi-annual exercise in aggravation when you own a pet whose entire life is ruled by a routine that is not to be adjusted. How in the world do you explain a time change to a dog who is governed by the most regulated of internal clocks when it comes to the dinner hour? Don’t know about you, but my two guys are like the Rolex of the dog world and can rival any Swiss watch when it comes to dinner being served. But in the good news category, it is Friday so there’s that.

With Elsa’s anti-seizure medication needing to be administered at precise times, this complicates things even more. Ugh…why can’t they just leave well enough along? Does the switch to DST cause you or your pet to be discombobulated? 

Here’s hoping you have a good weekend, despite the time change.

Live, love, bark❣

76 thoughts on “It’s Baaacckk…

  1. The Poodle has Rolex precision too but his behavior can vary due to, I suppose, his degree of hunger. Some days he is more patient, silently staring me down, stiff as a statute expecting me to have his Einstein brilliance to read his mind. “Come on you dolt…it’s 6:30 p.m. and it’s kibble time.” Other times, when I’m totally lost in something, The Poodle is much more insistant; he’ll paw me and bark. “Excuse me! It is five minutes past my dinner time….” It’s a hoot really. It’s truly amazing how one hour can mess us up. Happy Sunday 🙂

  2. We hate the time change, it messes up our feeding time and it makes it hard for Mom to get enough sleep. Really wish they would leave the time alone.

  3. I heard it again last night…. “I hate losing the sleep, but at least we get more daylight!”

    You don’t get more daylight!

    YOU CAN NOT LITERALLY WILL THERE TO BE MORE DAYLIGHT!!!!!

    Stop this madness!!!!!!

    Get up an hour earlier and leave the rest of us be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    We could learn so much from our animal friends who live their lives around the sun, not some artificial method of keeping time like we stupid humans do….

      1. We haven’t actually had it for 100 years. It was instituted for WWI back in 1918, and then President Harding, in his one and only honorable act while in office, put the kibosh on DST against the wishes of his predecessor Wilson. I don’t think DST once again became a national law until the mid 60’s. And since then, we’ve expanded the boundaries of it from the original 5 and a half months to EIGHT months!

        1. Notwithstanding a somewhat misleading report on NPR this week (I must have been hallucinating at the mere thought of that soon to be lost hour of sleep), Wilson signed the “Calder Act” in 1918 requiring the first foray into this time manipulation madness and you are correct it was repealed a year later. The “Uniform Time Act” was enacted in 1966 with a 6 month mandate (later expanded in 1986 to 7 months and while it may be a boon for golf, sucks for the rest of us). It seems incomprehensible that the powers to be continue to think it’s a good idea…you know…members of the Flat Earth Society. With this week’s passage of the Sunshine Protection Act mandating it all year long in Florida, we once again demonstrate how this country is the world’s worst timekeeper. For the love of all that’s holy, this absurd nonsense must be eliminated. Global life is complicated enough without having to know who’s on board the stupid train and who isn’t in multiple time zones that start at different times throughout the world.

          1. Actually, we are pretty sane compared to other places in the world. While doing research on DST for a post a couple years ago (Which I’m going to repost tomorrow), I learned that some countries not only stay on DST all year round, but also switch to DOUBLE DST for summer where they’re TWO HOURS ahead of where they should be. It’s nuttiness on a global scale!

            1. Dear Lord. 😳 I guess I feel somewhat grateful. I think. Look forward to your post and take. While I would have preferred to go full on obscene with my post because DST really cheeses me off, I try to keep it semi-sanitized here (hopefully) knowing others will carry that mantle for me. Ooo…can’t wait.

  4. Mom hates the time change too, it really messes up the feeding schedule. She totally understands the dilemma of seizure meds too – we had the same problem with Angel Ciara.

    Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber

  5. This time change is easier as the dogs don’t mind getting fed a little earlier than they are used to. They don’t like the spring change and having to wait so we adjust feeding time over a few days

  6. I think I have been lucky in that Benji has never really bothered much with the changes, but then we have only really had him for one year of changes. I just like the idea that 6am will have some light in it again but it wont last for too long before winter kicks in. We don’t change until the first Sunday in April – April Fools day – how very appropriate!!

  7. We are totally in denial here…but at least it won’t get dark so darn early!
    xoxo,
    Rosy, Arty & Jakey

  8. I never thought about the medication glitches with both 2 and 4 leggeds. The time change was hard with Lexi, who also knew each of her daily routines to the minute. (Breakfast, Go to the Mailbox with treats time, go to work, leave work, bedtime treat time, etc.) I finally learned to start shifting things that could be shifted slowly. Otherwise, I just had to endure a persistent, demanding schnauzer.

  9. HuMom follows PupTime rather than DST.
    So, instead of taking my meds at 10am & 10pm I will take them at 11am & 11pm.
    All meals & snacks will also follow this rule 😉

    Have a wooftastic weekend!

    Nose nudges,
    CEO Olivia

    1. Glad you won’t be impacted. Elsa’s schedule was set from her first trip to the ER. We’ll manage and keep our paws crossed we have no breakthrough seizures during the adjustment period. Have a wonderful weekend!

  10. The time switch really is a pain with seizure meds. I find the switch to DST to be easier than fall switch to standard time. Essentially, if we give meds at the same time as before the switch to DST, it’s as if we’re giving them an hour earlier (which means that Shyla is covered). It’s the fall switch that worries us much more so we do a gradual change in med time.

    We always didn’t like the “meal schedule” that dogs develop so we purposely let their meals be at different times every day. Thanks to that trick, it’s no big deal if we are out or otherwise can’t feed their meal at a certain time.

    I have to be honest that I love the later sunsets so I enjoy this time switch (except for the one night of less sleep).

  11. Yes, we hate it around here! Probably me more than the pets though. I think they adjust more quickly than I do. My overtired self will just keep thinking about what time it really is. I have to rely on the pets to let me know when to feed them, because I just don’t know. LOL

  12. gosh, having to do timed meds is complicated. The dinner thing can be tweaked over time. I do love DST in summer, but thanks for the reminder. I am in hiding these days and might have missed the whole thing! Love to the pups and you in this desperate time of adjustment (smile)

  13. Hubby and I don’t mind the time change that much. I’m pretty much an early riser anyway. Ducky hasn’t ever seemed bothered by it, either. Poor Shadow, OTH, has a screwed-up internal clock anyway. Ever since Callie got her angel wings, poor Shadow hasn’t adjusted well to any change, except the good change in Ducky’s attitude towards her. ❤️ I’m just hoping she doesn’t take it too hard this time.

  14. Not looking forward to this either…our dogs know exactly when its breakfast, lunch and dinner and now I’m gonna have to figure out a way to break the bad news to them… haha

  15. Being retired I don’t much care. I’ll spring forward into another hour’s napping. Later I’ll fall back into another hour’s napping. Max shares the sentiment. We did not have DST in Hawaii and never missed it. Now that we have it – meh.

    It might be different for those who actually have do things. 🙂

  16. Thankfully, Choppy is pretty chill about things, so no issue with her. Now, me? I hate the change because our nice morning walk which is now almost light is about to go dark again. Come fall, I will be thrilled for the change.

  17. Our girls actually do pretty good going forward but not so good the other way in Fall. They too are finely engineered time keepers and restlessness begins with first light in the morning. So now first light will – at least for a few weeks – will be later and I may have a chance of sleeping until seven and rising before the girls. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile good luck synchronizing Sam and Elsa’s body clocks to DST. have a great weekend at the ranch!

    1. It the medication schedule that makes it challenging for Elsa when we have to “Spring Forward” but worse when we have to adjust back in the Fall for meds AND dinner! Happy weekend, Michael. Give those sweet girls extra ear scritches from me.

  18. Guess I’m an outlier here. I love the change. More light in the evenings in the summer which my cats love (they are in the screened porch longer). In the spring there is less of an issue because they will get fed earlier. In the fall I do adjustments for a few days before. Getting up Monday morning will be the toughest but I adjust fairly fast. Good luck to your household and I hope it’s not too bad this year.

  19. When we lived in an area with clock changes, we had a part Westie mix who got his evening treat at exactly 8. We thought it was because that’s when the Jeopardy thinking music played. No so, He knew. The clock screwed up his correct sense of time and it took a while to adjust.

    1. Last year it really messed me up. I couldn’t get into a rhythm and spent most of the summer months crabbish. 😬 Dogs totally know what time it is without some stupid artificial adjustment.

  20. Ugh! It really sucks when you have a schedule for things like this, absolutely. I wonder . . WHY do we still do this?

    Mr Speaker, my cat, usually has his first meal of the day at five am. So . . this is gonna suck until we get situated on the new time, lol

      1. They are the smart ones when compared to most members of the human race. If they know something is amiss, we should really be paying attention to THAT.

  21. You don’t even need clocks when you have dogs! 🙂 My boys wake me up at exactly 8 a.m. every day. In the spring, DST means maybe I get a little more sleep. In the fall, they want early breakfast and dinner.

  22. Ugggg! I agree! Our guys are very exact and very vocal about time to get up, time to eat, and bedtime. It takes about 10 days to transition them, and I’m hearing about it from them the whole time!

  23. Lowers head… Mother Nature is so not nice with the weather and now Father Time is taking an hour of my sleep this weekend. Snorts and grumbles. I gotta get some extra sleep now I guess. XOXO – Bacon

  24. guess what? I’m glad for the “hell”… and my greatest hope is to stay in my bed till 8 am from now on… but I’m sure the church bells will ruin this wish with ringing at 7 am like always…uuuuh

  25. I have never understood what the benefits are, but I like the quote below (origin uncertain):
    “Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.” (Anon)
    or
    “Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.” (Native Indian)

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