How do you manage leaving your dog(s) when you’re away from home? I’m married, have a small support network and we both work full time. I do work from home two to three days a week, which helps, but on the other days, we have to call favours in with parents to come and sit them.

We’ve looked at dog day care but they all seem to operate on quite limited hours (we’re out of the house at 7am in the mornings).

What kind of dog?

Honest question: Are you over-thinking it? Does the dog definitely need to be cared for during the day?

When the dog was younger, he was left on his own from about 7:30 – 5, three or four days a week. Walk in the morning first, had access to outside, water etc. Took a bit for him to get used to it, but once he was it was fine.

Now he’s old (like 17), he’s go a bit of doggy dementia and doesn’t cope quite so well being on his own. So, one of us goes home at lunch to walk him round the block and we have some Adaptil plugins to calm his nerves. Seems to be working fine.

Dog walkers come in and walk at lunchtime – expensive but that’s the cost of having dogs and working full time (inho!)… But i don’t think dogs need someone sitting with them all day.

Second dog so dogs aren’t alone, secure garden, dogflap, sorted.

Actually, fate has left us with a single dog at the minute, a Saluki or Saluki cross, which is 68% muscle, 2% brain and 30% bladder, so he’s very happy to be left to sleep all day and sprint for half an hour on his walks.

We have a Cockapoo, both leave the house for 9 hours a day, the dog is fine. I overthought it too before we got one. Just make sure the room the dog is going to stay in has tiles on the floor and nothing you don’t want chewed to pieces. It takes longer to house train a dog when no-one is there, but the dog will learn.

Most importantly, research the breed, get the right dog!!!!! Head over heart!!!!!

We have a dog walker for the 3 days we both work, £7.50 a day so whilst it’s an expense I’d prefer to not have its pales into insignificance next to the childcare bill 🙂

I work from home to three days a week and on the other days, my other half’s mum looks after our little boy for at house for a while or my other half pops home to let him out at lunch.

As long as he gets a half decent walk in the morning, he goes to sleep. When I work from home, he usually sits in another room anyhow.

We have a dog (Cocker/King Charles cross) that gets left (occasionally) for 7 hours and she goes batshit mental when we come back in.

But saying that, go for a shit and she goes batshit mental when you come back out of the loo.

My next door neighbour but 4 leaves her back door open all day..

My next door neighbour but 4 leaves her back door open all day.

I guess that saves you from having to smash it in.

My neighbour has a dog, she leaves it alone all day whilst at work, it barks incessantly all day…

TBH, we would like a dog, but don’t really think its fair to leave them alone in the house all day..
IMHO, YMMV

Depends massively on the breed as to how well they cope with it. When i got Ziva I would be home by 1pm and got a dog sitter to come and visit when she was very young so only about 3 hours. Circumstances changed and I had to get a full time job but she was atleast 5 by this point so already mature and shes the type of breed that stays in bed allllllllllll day. When something happens to her I wont be getting another as I wouldn’t leave a puppy or young dog home all day to be bored or destroy something. Not without serious thought into a dog walker etc. but again this would depend on the breed once it got a little older.

We have a 12 week old sprocker and are training her in to this.

Consensus seems to be, from this thread and elsewhere, that if you exercise them in the morning, and get them used to being left alone from being a puppy, they’ll cope with that in future. Doing it the other way round doesn’t work.

There will be the odd day of howling but I’ve found already, after 2 weeks that her temperament has changed such that if she’s toileted, exercised / played with and fed we can just leave her and she’s fine with that. We expect to get a dog walker in the week, however going home on the bike to walk her at lunch time is not out of the question.

I normally pop home for lunch but if I can’t then our local dog walker does a comfort visit – they pop past, let the dogs outside to pee, check they’re OK, check water bowl, spend ten minutes with them – which is only a fiver for two dogs. Means they never get left for more than four hours at a time, and we walk them as normal.

Dogs and full time employment are rarely, if ever, compatible (IMO). There are compromises but they are just that

Dogs and full time employment are rarely, if ever, compatible

Disagree here. If you can give a dog the attention they need outside of work, then working 9-5 doesn’t matter. They’ll sleep during the day.

That’s caveated that you need to spend quality time with them and not just let them in the garden for a pee.

We have two collies, and both do work. They get maybe 3 hours of walking a day in the Tweed Valley. One does 45 minutes of agility training 3-4 times a week, and at weekends they get big hill walks. We also play at home, and do training.

No anxiety issues at all.

To the OP…. Why are you having people sit with your dogs during the day? Do they suffer from separation anxiety?

Do you know how they react when you’re away for a while? If not, can you setup a web cam to see?

If they do have anxiety, it’s something you can address with a trainer or a behaviorist. Don’t do it alone, or ask for help on the internet forums – you’ll need to do it right, and consistently or else you risk making it worse.

If you’re anxious about leaving them, there’s a good chance they’ll have picked up on that and become nervous about you leaving.

Dogs are great at mirroring human behaviour. And sometimes it doesn’t mean theyre feeling that emotion for the reason you are, it’s just how they react to you feeling that way.

TL;DR: Go see a local trainer or behaviorist and get some professional help.

My dog sleep pretty much all day if we’re in and if we’re out. Individual dogs might be different but to say they aren’t compatible is utter tosh.

Do you know how they react when you’re away for a while? If not, can you setup a web cam to see?

The Secret Life of Pets

My dog suffers from separation anxiety.

He’s fine, it’s just me. I don’t like being apart from him.

🙂

The breed is a key factor. Some dogs are extremely happy to be left, live stock guard dogs for example will view looking after the house as their job. Other breeds may need more stimulus and interaction. Such as a dog walker who will run them, pay and tire them out. Then the afternoon alone will serve a purpose of rest.

Just understand when you get home tied from work they are legitimately recharged and ready to go.

Ours has got used to having someone around every day during the summer holidays. So much so, that she starts howling at 1 or 2 in the morning because she doesn’t want to be downstairs alone.

Mine comes to work every day. It’s a small company and I am poorly paid for what I provide. The trade off is Digby comes to work and gets a walk at lunchtime around the farm.

Many people leave their dog at home, think it’s fine, get a nice welcome when home. When reality is some will be sat all day whining or barking. My neighbour’s dog for example. I’m sure they think it’s fine but the instant it knows they’re gone it’s howling. Stops as soon as it hears their car pull up.

Why you bump thread you weird bot thing?

There’s no real reason not to hire a dog walker these days. I hang around a lot of dog groups on FB (‘cos I’m mostly a dog photographer) and there’s millions of them, all competing on price.

So it really doesn’t cost much, gives you peace of mind, provides a small income to a local person and most importantly, gives the dog some relief and happiness.

Old thread user-removed, bumped by a bot. (And me, sorry)

Personally I think its cruel to leave a dog alone all day. I wanted a dog since I was a young lad, but was 45 before I could have a dog and not have it left for long periods. Selfish twunts leave their dogs all day! 👿

18 month old sprocker here. She is worked hard at weekends (trainee search dog) and I think she is quite pleased to be left alone for part of the week.

Mon – Wed she will either come to work and sleep in the car with a lunchtime walk or she will go out with a dog walker (which she absolutely loves, its a great day out for her running around with her doggy mates)

Thurs / Fri she is left 9am – 1pm ish.

Always gets a walk before work and a longer walk in the evening.

Very occasionally she will be left for up to 6 hours. I set up an old phone as a webcam and she sleeps, rolls over and sleeps some more. No sign of distress whatsoever. I wouldn’t want to do it regularly but I reckon she would be fine to be left all day.

Of course every dog is different but the idea you need to sit with a dog all day seems slightly ridiculous to me.

There is a poster on here though that described using a dog walker as the same as sending your kids to boarding school!

We used to have a Boxer when she was young Mrs FD was at home quite a lot.

WHen she was older (and didn’t want to do much) she was ok left in the house and we just had a dog walker at lunch time.

We wouldn’t get another dog now as we both work full time, its irresponsible in our opinion.

I don’t think there’s a correlation between how well a dog is looked after and how long it’s left at home.
What is important is that the dog has enough bladder capacity to last the time you are away or somewhere it can pee as that must be awful to not want to mess your bed but to be unable to hold it in.

Otherwise, a well balanced dog will just sleep.

Two other things related to this which can save making a rod for your own back.
1. Be consistently inconsistent with meal times and walks. A dog conditioned to a religious routine will get stressed when that’s broken.
2. Especially with working breeds, YOU WILL NOT TIRE YOUR DOG OUT WITH EXERCISE- you will just make it fit! Instead, spend time challenging it mentally for ten minutes twice a day along with enough exercise for it to do its business.
It makes me laugh when I hear people doing two hour walks twice a day ‘because Fido is a Springer Spaniel’ all you have done is turned Fido into a frustrated athlete!

I’m lucky I get to spend a lot of time with my dogs but we’d not hesitate to leave the whole lot at home for 6-8hrs without a second thought.

Our dog goes in the garden, has water and shelter.

Old thread user-removed, bumped by a bot. (And me, sorry)

Ah, so it is! Still, worthwile topic…

Dogs will adapt to any routine provided their needs are covered. Our 8 year old Collie does a shift round the farm in the morning (covering work, play, exercise and emptying), has his breakfast and settles down to sleep until after 17:00. He goes out for a spin in the evening and cwtches until bedtime, and he’s as contented a dog as you could wish for.

Two dogs, outdoor run with kennels. Part of their breakfast fed in toys / chews.

Took a while to get the routine when they were young (first dog as a lone dog didn’t settle at all – but as a pair it works well). Minimum of 2 hours walks when left alone all day, into the hills at the weekends.

About 50% of the time I travel for work, so a similar routine, but they are with me in the van (not at home in the run) with loo breaks as required.

Dogs adapt, they like routine, they like to be in familiar places.

Staffie lab cross, left for full working day… sleeps the entire time.

Webcam’d it a bunch of times to make sure.

Gets walked plenty and has company the rest of the time.

Some issues with separation anxiety but (a) that applied to 10 minutes or 10 hours equally and was more to do with him being an untrained rescue and (b) he’s long since past that and well used to the routine.

YMMV.

I do find it odd that people are justifying it as ok to suit their lives.

Dogs are pack animals, and like to be in groups.

Putting a human in solitary confinement doesn’t usually get much support either.

I do find it odd that people are justifying it as ok to suit their lives.

Dogs are pack animals, and like to be in groups.

Putting a human in solitary confinement doesn’t usually get much support either.

There’s a fine line though – some people talk as though you should never leave a dog alone at all. Not sure how they live like that – you can’t exactly take your dog to Sainsbury’s.

Equally, leaving them for all day with no company isn’t that fair.

Ours seems pretty happy going for a few hours on his todd and is a lazy sod. When I work from home and the back door is open he rarely ventures out into the garden.

Dogs are pack animals, and like to be in groups.

Not really true and they will happily sleep 20 hours a day tbh