Time at Home

[Mum2Girls19]

Hi all

Just wanted to ask how long is your dog left alone for??

I work part time so am at home 2 days a week, parents are here one day a week and hubby works from home one day a week.
So far during lockdown we have all been at home and I know that wont be the case when we go back to work so above is our usual schedule.
I was thinking of using a doggy day care for the day we are all out of the house and asking my eldest to pick him up after school?
Hubby has also mentioned that he might be able to do 2 days at home but not all the time.

What does everyone do and how do you work it?

[LochJessMonster]

You will get a range of answers some saying you should never leave a dog some for more than 1/2/3hours etc

Truth is, it completely depends on the individual dog. You have to build up home alone time into a routine.

How old is the dog, and how long can he be left currently?

[LochJessMonster]

If you are talking about a future dog- you can’t really leave anything under 1 year old for a significant amount of time.

From a year, dogs should be able to do 3-5hours alone.

My dog does 8hrs when I’m at work but we built that up, have a strict routine and he is very lazy and anti social.
Most people will say that’s cruel, but it works for us.

[Mum2Girls19]

Not got the dog yet till next month, he will be 9 weeks old...

Someone is mainly in the house just some days we may have to use doggy day care if we are out all day.

The most we will be gone if its all of us is over the weekend about 2 hours xx

[vanillandhoney]

At 9 weeks old you really won't be able to leave them for very long at all - mainly because of how often they need to go to the toilet

As for daycare - many won't take puppies that young as puppies require a lot more care than adult dogs, and puppies can't walk or be exercised for as long as older dogs, so you require additional staff to care for the pup.

I'm a dog-walker and I've just taken on a 14 week old puppy. So far she's very nervous of everything, can't really walk further than about 20 minutes, has escaped her harness twice (once with me, once with her owner) and would absolutely 100% not cope in a daycare environment!

I look after her twice a week but at the moment her walks are more about socialisation than anything else. She walks super slow so we basically get to the end of her road and back but she's very cute. Maybe see if you can find someone who will sit the puppy in your house for now? That's a service I offer for puppies or dogs with anxiety and it's quite popular.

I'd ask around walkers and sitters and see if anyone can help you :)

[BiteyShark]

It will depend on the dog.

We got ours used to around 3 hours on his own pre lockdown (going to need to get him used to it again when the restaurants reopen ). When I work in the office he goes to doggy daycare.

Some dogs can cope with longer, others can't and some howl and destroy things.

It sounds like you are thinking about doggy daycare so I would be getting that lined up with a view to using it and if you have a dog that is fine to leave then you can always reduce the time they go there.

Some dog daycare places have restrictions on age so factor that in as you are getting a puppy. Also dog daycare varies from small ones in someone's home to large scale noisey environments. Mine loves the former but is terrified of the latter so again some dogs don't take well to daycare which is something to consider.

[Wolfiefan]

Depends on the dog.
You can’t leave a 9 week old at all. And you can’t use daycare with such a young puppy either.
Some dogs are perfectly happy to be left for a few hours. Some can’t be left at all. I would plan how you would cope in the worst situation.
If you’re paying for a puppy at the moment then be very careful. There are very few good breeders breeding right now. Health screening is suspended and they can’t travel to find the right site. Puppy farmers are exploiting the situation hugely.

[Stackers382]

When we first got pup we had cover for him all week-so grandparents were going to sit with him while I worked. We quickly realised that he was fine to be left for an hour so from 10 weeks we left him for an hour at a time. We built that up slowly and now at 10 months he can be left for up to 4 hours. When we go back to work he’ll be left Tues, Weds and Fri 8.30-12. We’ve kept him in this routine during lockdown too.

[DangerCake]

Yep you can’t leave them when they are that young for more than a v short while. They sleep a lot but will wake up and need the loo, and you.

I worked from home for two weeks then used combination of wfh, in laws and stepson. We probably should have started to leave her on her own a little, but really only for Minutes not hours.

They can only walk for about 5 minutes per month of age. So dog walkers are out as they can’t walk with other dogs.

Puppy day care, look really carefully, they can go when little but they won’t be training them or making sure they nap.

[Hoppinggreen]

I’m self employed and took 6 months off to settle our puppy and now I work mostly from home
We don’t leave our dog any longer than 4 hours, if it’s going to be more he goes to daycare. Luckily we have one which is very flexible and doesn’t require much notice

[Girlintheframe]

Ours went to daycare from 13 weeks. They wouldn't take him until he has all this vaccinations. Prior to that someone had to be with him everyday.