Great response from Fannie L.!

As an additional suggestion coming primarily from a training perspective ---Regarding the food, you could also gradually reduce the midday amount while gradually increasing the other two amounts. It never hurts to check with your vet on this as well, though; many are willing to give a quick answer over the phone. My one concern, or perhaps not "concern" as "thing to watch," is that the reduction in meal frequencies could potentially slow his metabolism a bit, which could cause weight gain over time--This is something that could more easily happen in correlation to the reduced activity without the midday visit. Even a few pounds on a dog the size of a lab can make a huge difference in health. As pet parents/pet owners, it's something that we often don't notice until it's hit a somewhat significant point, since we see them all the time and those little differences are less likely noticed as they would be from an outsider who hasn't seen your dog in a few weeks or months. As Fannie mentioned, a midday visit from someone could be of great benefit to you, but there are a lot of toys and doggie "gadgets" out there nowadays that can help as well if long-term cost is an issue --or as part of a variety of activities...The puzzles in particular, are a favorite of mine.

Ultimately, unless you're home to play directly, you want to think of toys that will essentially PLAY BACK with your dog in some way. Whether they are figuring out a puzzle and getting a treat (or even using the puzzle for a meal), it's great brain stimulation which is another good part of wearing a dog out over the course of a day. I've seen all sorts of toys and devices and even things people have made on random YouTube videos that are similar to the concept of a tennis court ball shooter but with much less power and used in a safe space such as a hallway. The one I recall seeing somewhere in a video had the dog trained to place the ball in a certain spot. Once it did, the dog knew from his conditioning /practice/developed associations that the ball would then be tossed a certain direction, so he ran back down the hallway to wait for the ball, which, by the dog's placement on a certain spot, was triggered to be tossed (perhaps with a particular timed device built in. It sounds complex saying it here, but it actually may have been a rather simple design! The dog puzzles I use with my own little terrier mix (and a previous one --in our case, they were used to quell severe separation anxiety), I found a couple in the local pet supply stores but really went nuts when I gave in and searched on Amazon.

My typical recommendation is that a mix of activities is ... (more)