If you do go ahead, definitely think about getting two dogs so they have each other for company

Yep.  3 days a week ours are left alone from around 8 – 12 and the 1 -5 as I go home for lunch on those 3 days.  Started with one dog and he was fine for the first year (it was all he knew) but you could just tell he was looking less happy when getting home for lunch so we got another dog (his 1 year younger sister) and they are both very happy with being on their own.

The problem is, all dogs are different and you may get one that is not happy on their own so what do you do then?

I have this with family at moment – they are busy family of 5, both parents out house 7am-6pm most days, one set of grandparents look after kids at their house 2 days a week, other grandparents at kids house 3 morning a week plus after school club.

Currently they are getting a dog (apparently it is a done deal and the kids have been told), but they are trying to farm out dog to grandparents, neighbours, anyone who is passing. The mother and kids are all on record saying they won’t pick up sh*t. They live in an immaculate house, like out of an Instagram lifestyle post. They don’t do physical activity really (certainly not the walking types) and currently all five squeeze in 3-series or c-class as bigger estates/people carriers are not cool looking enough….

I have said my piece about them not really being a dog friendly or dog committed household…

Owner hasn’t heard anything and is just greeted by an excitable dog.

If you’re greeted by an excitable dog, that’s a sign that it’s wound up. i.e.not happy. A ‘happy’ dog will be pleased to see you (tail wagging), but not excitable (jumping/barking/spinning round).

Another thing to remember is things may change as the dog ages. Ours was happy on his own from 8-4 with a walk in the morning and evening; he had the radio on, a choice of comfy beds and a dog flap out to the large-ish garden. However, as he got older and his hearing and sight started to deteriorate (hearing totally went, sight went a bit), his anxiety levels started to rise so he’d get more wound up when on his own (we were tipped off by a neighbour about whining in the garden) so we had to re-jig things so one of us came home at lunch to give him a walk.

That again was fine for over a year, but by that stage he was very old, and had dementia, so his anxiety levels were pretty sky-high, so we started using Adaptil plug-ins. They, again, worked well for about a year, but his dementia got progressively worse so we did some googling and found hemp oil. He got this in the morning before we left and at lunchtime, and, again, it helped for about six months.

By this stage though he was ancient (17), and basically knackered, so we took the decision to put him to sleep. That was two weeks ago, RIP Nelson :’-(

@IHN – Sorry to hear that, though as you say ancient at 17. Dementia though! How does that get diagnosed in a dog and what are the symptoms?

They live in an immaculate house, like out of an Instagram lifestyle post.

Family of 5 and immaculate house does not compute… family of 5 plus dog will not be immaculate house. No reason it won’t be clean and tidy but the extra hours looking after dog will mean something will give…

A ‘happy’ dog will be pleased to see you (tail wagging), but not excitable (jumping/barking/spinning round).

Dog 2 with the best will in the world is mentally deficient . She gets chased by leaves and barks at the floor and at any opportunity will spin round. Before, during and after playing, before eating, meeting anyone (not fussy at all) even if she has been with someone all day. Mind you her legs keep moving even when she is asleep.

@IHN – Sorry to hear that, though as you say ancient at 17. Dementia though! How does that get diagnosed in a dog and what are the symptoms?

Thanks chap. It’s similar to humans really; increased anxiety brought on by anything out of the normal, clingyness, staring into space/zoning out (he’d stand at the edge of the room with his head drooped and just stare at the skirting board for minutes on end), reduction in cognitive function (you’d open a door for him and he’d try to get out the ‘hinge’ side, rather than the open side), bumping into things, not recognising people he knew, that kind of thing.

I have two dogs(Chinese crested) only committed as between me/wife/one daughter at home the dogs generally have company most of the time. Only ever left couple of hours tops. Walked 3-4 times daily and routine is important.

Walking my boys in morning hearing various dogs barking/howling in houses breaks my heart  🙁

We have a dog and she gets left 8.30 – 3.30 three times a week. I work from home one day, my wife works part time so is home one day then we are usually around and about all weekend. We feel it works. I don’t think I would be comfortable with leaving her alone much more though (although as others have said, she would be fine as she does just sleep when we aren’t around and she gets the full run of the utility room and kitchen/diner).

Dogs need things, food, water, exercise, trips out round their regular (and irregular) walks, a happy pack to be part of, a safe and comfy place to sleep.

You don’t necessarily have to be there all hours of the day for those things to be true. They will get used to any reasonable routine. Routine works really well for dogs, IME.

FWIW:

Our pair, during the day, will sleep all day. Regardless, if we’re in, or out (yes, we’ve filmed them).

But, we also walk them hell or high water every day, give them lots of attention and the odd game, etc – they’re not missing out on any of their needs.

What mrmonkfinger says, but with the caveat that having a pair makes it easier, as they’re never on their own. Next time round, we may well get a pair.

We have a 16 month old Sprocker and since she’s been with us her routine has basically been 30 minute walk in the woods first thing, then a wee walk just before I leave at 815. Dog walker picks her up at lunch time for an hour off lead with other dogs (out in total for about 2 hours due to pick up / drop offs with other dogs. We get home about 6 and she goes out for another 30 minute walk.  We have a large garden that is useful but would be no substitute for the lunch time walk. She has the dining kitchen to herself during the day where her bed overlooks the garden / patio, along with a bowl of water and a box of toys – the Antler is indispensible, its her favourite chew thing.

She comes running with us and weekends she does pretty much whatever we’re doing, if not we can leave her at home alone for up to 5 hours.

If we didn’t have a porch or utility room we’d struggle in the winter though, its handy having somewhere you can clean a wet, dirty dog before letting her in to the house.

Another vote for dog walker – ours absolutely loves her walker. We still use her even if we are home, cause the dog loves charging about in a little pack. And it’s great when we bump into another dog and they go crazy playing with each other, then we find out they are dog walking buddies!

As Mr Monkeyfinger says.

I’m out for work 9-6, 4 days a week. Home Fri .

Somedays GF is home a bit earlier than me and Weds she works from home.

Tsuki spends most of the day asleep whether we are home or not, some times she’ll need a fair bit of convincing to actually go for a walk but needs must as she absolutely refuses to have a slash and certainly not a dump anywhere near the house! Well at least we can be confident there’s no nasty surprises in the garden.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Take her a decent walk however and she’ll walk and run all day too, I guess this is why they sleep so much, conserving their energy for “hunting” </span>

Neighbours say they wouldn’t even know we had a dog if not for seeing her, being a Shiba Inu they are known for being unusually quiet dogs though, no chance of her barking or whining .

It’s Friday my day off and here she is.

We took a rescue dog on at the beginning of summer, he’d been abandoned/stray and had been in the kennels for just over 3 months but was struggling there.

Thought to be 4 year old, Malamute/Collie cross.

He has an hour’s brisk walk in the morning and between 1 – 2 hours in the evening. I was coming home at lunch but he had clearly been asleep till the moment I came in. Web cam showed the same. Walking and running with the dog meant I knocked cycle commuting on the head as I was getting fatigued and wanted to spend the time with the dog instead.

Is okay to be left all day, just sleeps, he’s asleep beside me now legs twitching.

We have a large open plan ex-commercial building house with large workspace that he has full access to.

IMO give them love, food, comfy bed and LOTS of excercise and they are fine left alone.

Our pair, during the day, will sleep all day. Regardless, if we’re in, or out (yes, we’ve filmed them).

But, we also walk them hell or high water every day, give them lots of attention and the odd game, etc – they’re not missing out on any of their needs.

I also agree with this and reflects my experience exactly. We have a pair of middle aged Collies and have recently started leaving them two full work days a week. With a Furbo we’ve been really surprised how they just sleep. It can work. Don’t just listen to the scaremongers but do get the balance right and it’s fine.

We had our two border terriers when our children were young. So there was always someone in the house with them; someone to play with them or take them for a walk.
As they got older – and my children left home and my wife worked full time too, they were at the age where they slept about 22 hours of the day – if it was wet, cold, or if they didn`t particularly feel like going out they would just shut their eyes tighter when you tried to get them up for a little walk. I guess we were lucky with timing etc.

Our neighbours however bought a Labrador a couple years ago. They both work full time and their children are in university .. so the dog is left alone from around 8am till 5pm. The dog is either barking, or howling, throughout the day constantly. I personally think its cruel on the dog to be left alone for that length of time because as others have said, dogs are sociable animals and enjoy interaction with others.

My sister get’s a dog walker in during the day.  Neighbours over the road have their mum come and walk theirs.

Us, we have cats (ended up with 4 – no harder than 1 – 3 of them entertain themselves, a 1 year old and two kittens, but the 11 year old just sleeps and eats)

We both work full time, but condensed or flexible hours/place of work. Without fail 2x 20 min walks min for our 9 y/o springer cross at 0630 or 0830 and 1830 plus irregular extras c3-4 times a week (half hour’s run, days out with family, or up to 6 or 7 miles on the bike). That’s a lot less than a lot here, she’s fit as a fiddle, but also self regulates with food which I’ve found odd. She’s also in a busy house with lots of interaction. Left 9-5, 2 or 3 days/wk. Mental stimulation like hide and seek needs to be in the mix too. They adapt well just so long as there is routine and hierarchy. I’d say 5 days a week left for 8+ hours is a tall order. Everything I’ve read here about lazy greyhounds is true. But don’t let them near deer/rabbits and barbed wire, that was some bill from the vet for my folks… though for balance there was the time the deer chased the dog…

Our cleaner decided that our pair of intermittently destructive hairy idiots needed to listen to dog meditation music. I don’t know what sort of thing they’re into really.

https://youtu.be/h6wX99UGpkA

Main problem is it makes your Youtube feed pretty weird….

Next door neighbour comes and plays with Digby for 2 sessions during the day on 2 of the days a week I commute by bike. She also brings her girls around after school as he’s a dog-share on those days. (They would like a dog but the house is too small with 5 of them in place). Mrs Sandwich works from home at least one day a week and he comes to the office on the other days where he sleeps all day!! (Dalmatians can be a separation anxiety disaster, but so far no noise during the day reported from the neighbours).