MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
As people have pointed out the breed is important if having a dog that is being left alone for any time. I have 2 chihuahua's and they pretty much sleep whenever they are not eating bar a mad couple of hours around 18:00. They literally sleep from 20:00 to 07:00, have some food at 07:00 and back to sleep until lunchtime.
They are also not overly bothered about walking when it is 0 degrees or soaking wet outside so only want a short walk. The whole experience is not that different to the 4 cats we own although the dogs at least pretend to give a shit about you!
Thanks all, some really useful comments in there.
Unfortunately working from home will probably never be an option for either of us - the wife works in a hospital, hands on with patients every day and work might not agree to me moving their 9 tonne CNC mill into my workshop, as much as I'd love to.
I probably wrote the original post in a bit of a rush and missed one or two details.
I was sceptical of the idea of getting a dog of any kind, even less so of a collie. And 2, well, that idea came from the wife's experience when she was younger. They had 2 whippets, from same litter. I wasn't around but apparently this worked o.k.
My only experience of dogs is as a kid growing up on a farm. Mum and dad never had dogs, but granddad had a collie (old, a bit fat and lazy is all I remember) and another one, not sure what it was but it was a bit more energetic. Both of them just hung out in the garden at my grandparents place on the other side of the field and were never any bother, they didn't get taken for walks that I can remember but always seemed happy enough and would run up to greet me and have a bit of fuss then lie back down again.
I guess they were probably quite old by this point - I think they'd both passed by the time I was 13/14 years old and I'm 41 now so don't remember all that well.
Either way, I guess this is partly why I wondered if the space and freedom to run around whenever they fancied was what made the difference. The 2 grandad had and others that I saw on other farms I'd visited with dad seemed to get on fine even though I don't think they were working, or even trained to. Granddad's certainly weren't working - the sheep only ever got rounded up by quad bike. I suppose all of this got me thinking it might be possible, even though I strongly suspected it wasn't deemed the right thing to do.
I wonder if some of it is down to what the dog is accustomed to. If say, it spent it's first 5 years in a house with no garden, adults that rarely left it's side and was taken for 3x 1hr walks every day then it would obviously be unthinkable to start leaving it on it's own for 8 hours during the day.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
Either way, consider the unanimous verdict understood. I expect our cat will be happier with that decision as well.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
If I'd kept you locked you in a room every day since you were born you'd probably find it more 'manageable' than if I stated doing it later in your life. Probably not something you'd want me to be doing either way though.
I have 2 chihuahua’s
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
But would that same dog find being left on its own for 8 hours much more manageable if it was all it had ever known?
If I’d kept you locked you in a room every day since you were born you’d probably find it more ‘manageable’ than if I stated doing it later in your life. Probably not something you’d want me to be doing either way though.
It's not really what I'm asking - when I said 'left on its own for 8 hours' I didn't mean 'locked in a room' I meant the scenario I was asking about in the original post - I.E shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
Harsh but fair!
OK, but this conversation is about dog ownership.
🙂
shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
We've had 4 {proper} working cockers in the 19 years we've been at this house.
Although they're outside a lot in anything better than reasonable weather, I can count on one hand the number of times they've been out in the 6 acres on their own.... They just sit on the drive waiting.
Don't forget that they are pack animals and you are the head of that pack.... If you leave them alone they will stress regardless of the surroundings.
Having space is not an excuse to leave dogs alone all day.
I work from home and my wife works part time, so ours are rarely left for long.
It’s not really what I’m asking – when I said ‘left on its own for 8 hours’ I didn’t mean ‘locked in a room’ I meant the scenario I was asking about in the original post – I.E shelter available, and a large area to run around, this could include some woodland too, in our case.
You can substitute anything you want for "locked in a room", in fact my first draft was "punched in the face every day". My point was if you are doing something horrific to some one/thing, then doing it from an early age versus an older age doesn't really make it right on any level.
OT but I wonder what proportion of owners actually exercise their dogs enough? Or even at all, through a wet winter?
Bert’s mileage goes up in winter months - he’s a double coated Karelian Bear Dog so summer walks are shorter with more swimming whereas winter walks are longer as the worse and colder the weather the happier he is!
How much work is he? The karelia look amazing.
work might not agree to me moving their 9 tonne CNC mill into my workshop
Cant hurt to ask 🙃
My dog is a lab/collie cross (I think, she's a rescue and never DNAed her). She's out in the park at least once a day for maybe 90mins, chasing balls, chewing sticks, swimming, generally goofing around. Goes out for maybe 30mins early evening round the streets, getting the skinny on who's been out and about on her turf. Then 10mins last thing to do what needs to be done. Occasional trip to the river with the bike too, though I've maybe retired her from longer rides a bit too early.
Regardless she's out three, sometimes four times a day. Sometimes the walks in the really shite weather are the best!
As said above dogs are pack animals and need the companionship and leadership of their humans. Collies even more so. Sounds like the OP has reached the right conclusion. There is of course the dogwalker/daycare option but that's a compromise, not applicable to puppies and expensive!
Really interesting thread. We have become dog owners in lockdown, with my work now being home based for the foreseeable then probs a day or 2 away every week, Wife works part time, teenage boys, so once some normality returns there is unlikely to be no one in more than a few hours a couple of times a week.
We have had our cockapoo pup since he was 8 weeks old, he’s now 14 weeks. Bloody hell he’s hard work ! definitely more so than the boys were !
He can now hang onto his bladder from 1130 till 0530 so sleep is returning for me. He’s very content and well settled. He sleeps probs 18-20 hrs but never when I’m in important Teams calls....
Outside walks are twice a day and 15 mins a time; he has a slightly lame hind leg and spent a day in ‘hospital’ last week getting a load of X-rays and assessment incase he had hip dysplasia, but thankfully clear, so it’s rest for now.
Superb fun and he’s a real part of the family now. Thanks goodness for vet insurance.... Oh, and he’s famous too 😁
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Go Nuts OP, You can always dump em' on a local charity along with everyone else in six months or so...
How much work is he? The karelia look amazing.
He’s good in the house but they are intelligent dogs so his walks are full of direction commands verbal and hand signals to ‘work him’. We do a lot of deer tracking as his breeding kicks in and he goes into ‘hunting mode’.
He also likes a good mountain walk!
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Called it.
Read the responses - is looking for an excuse to make it OK.
No. Giving them the run of two acres whilst you're both out for 9 hours a day doesn't make it OK. You're *still leaving the dogs alone*.
Forgot to say - MrsRNP works part time and takes him to work (local museum in a large public park) which he loves as he has the run of the place and pre Covid had volunteers to coo over him. Then I come home and its big walk time!
I reckon all the dogs owned by people in this thread suffer from massive separation anxiety because they've never been left alone for more than a few hours. Tbh this is probably the biggest issue with lockdown pups rather than anything else as they've allways had someone around
@iainc nice to see a picture of Olly. Glad you’re enjoying having him. First year or so is the hardest, but they do settle down. Saying that, mine has given me the run around a couple of times this week, with 4am trips to the garden.
^^ thank you ! Yes, we are blessed to have him, lovely wee guy. Glad to hear it gets easier too 😁
iainc, glad to hear Ollie is ok and free from hip dysplasia but seeing as it's a heredity condition it does go to show how important it is to buy from a breeder who health tests the parents.
Vet insurance and surgery are all well and good but best to avoid these problems in the first place.
With the massive increase in dog theft i wouldn't be leaving a dog outside for any length of time.
Even with MrsBeanZ WFH we've stopped leaving the dog flap open.
Found it...This is the thread I meant to post this on!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55719338
"When your 'pandemic puppy' doesn't work out"
I mean: ""He wasn't trained at all," Jessica says, adding that he didn't even know basic commands. "He was potty trained at least but he didn't know 'sit', 'stay', 'come', or anything." "
Like er, wow.
^^^ to be fair, they did rescue the dog rather than buy a "new" one, and they asked whether it was trained & and were told that it was "well-trained"... it's not like they got a new puppy and expected it to work properly out of the box!!
^^To be fair, it's a tiny example of the kind of idiots that are out there.
Expecting a rescue to be perfect from the off and then chopping it in a month later. The puppy would barely know the new area in that time and all of it's walks would have been on lead to learn the geography.
Idiots