The Dogs will train until Saturday after having time off following the weekend's eight-point loss to West Coast at Etihad Stadium.
This week has presented head of physical conditioning Bill Davoren with an interesting challenge, with the AFL players facing a weekend off and those involved in the VFL side looking ahead to Saturday's Foxtel Cup clash with Claremont at Patersons Stadium.
"The first thing you've got to do is juggle the two groups," Davoren told westernbulldogs.com.au this week.
"They're heading off to Perth on Friday so they've had three days off and started again on Wednesday.
"They've had a relatively light preparation heading into the Claremont game and the view to that was looking long-term because they look pretty established for a top four finish [in the VFL].
"The AFL group returns today after a four-day break and they'll have a fairly solid three days, which will be a balance between football and conditioning.
"We felt we certainly wanted to get back in the groove in a couple of days, then have the weekend and then build for next week."
Some Bulldogs took the opportunity to get out of Melbourne in search of warmer weather, others remained at home, and some - including Barry Hall - came into the club and completed work in the weights room.
Davoren admitted while the Dogs' second bye - which followed on from their first back in round four - was a good chance for the players to relax after a tough few weeks, the time span between their two breaks had been a challenge to manage.
"When we looked at the draw, the first bye was probably a fraction too early and we would have liked it somewhere around round seven or eight," he said.
"This one was deemed to be ideal when you looked at September so the circumstances around it probably were a little bit different from what the original long-term plan would have been.
"When I first looked at it, I thought the second one wasn't in a bad position given September but now it's been timely; it's a good time for it to come into play, maybe a couple of weeks earlier would have been nice but it's not that way."
With only a slim chance of making finals after three consecutive losses, Davoren said the current training objective was different to this time last year and more geared to making sure everyone was ready from week to week.
"It's a balance between getting them mentally ready for the last couple of games and giving them that break away, but at the same time putting a little bit of work in," he said.
"I think if you were one of the clubs that was guaranteed September or you were one of the top four clubs, you could probably load up a bit more with the view to being right for finals.
"At the moment, we're just trying to maintain what we've got, which gives us an opportunity to play good footy, and making sure we're fresh enough for each week."
Davoren said the new substitute rule and some developing trends in the way the game was played had contributed to the increased level of fatigue he had witnessed among his players this year.
He said the Dogs would analyse how the players had adapted to the inflated game time at the end of the season, and use their findings in preparation for next season.
He also said he expected less players to play every game across an entire season as a result of the increased tiredness.
"There will certainly be things we'll have to reflect on," he said.
"I know [Collingwood sports science director] David Buttifant said recently there would be more rotations amongst players throughout the course of the season, and more resting players … I tend to agree with him.
"I think you'll find that the days of players playing 22 games won't happen. It will be 16 to 18 games that might become the norm because of the demands of the game.
"We've looked at trends during the year and we'll summarise that at the end of the year and look the implications of that going forward for preparation."
