To shut my dog in the garden for the day?

He'll be fine, look after yourself and best of luck with your appointment

I don’t think it’s cruel in principle- plenty of dogs in rural areas like where I live are left outdoors all day with a dog shelter and food and water and just kept in the house overnight (or sometimes in big heated kennels). But most are in pairs or groups - dogs being pack animals shouldn’t really be left alone too often/long imo.

Plus those dogs are used to it - presumably it has either been the case since they were pups or their owners have gradually increased the time they were left alone till they were used to it as adults (from a few hours, to half the day, and then so on).

My concern is that if your dog isn’t used to being left alone in the garden for a significant amount of time then doing a full day suddenly may mean he will get himself wound up and distressed. Or even possibly try to escape? Some can be like Houdini when desperate/bored, even if you think the garden seems secure. You don’t want to be dealing with a distressed dog or even worse a missing dog when you’ve just got back from hospital - but I guess it sounds like you don’t have a choice in this situation 🤷‍♀️ Hope everything goes well for both your biopsy and for doggo.

Sounds ok outside of heatwave temperatures. He has water, food, shelter and space to run around. I'd be worried if it was a very hot day though. Have you looked at Borrow my Doggy or can you ask around vets for availability to do his booster so he can go to the kennel.

I would do everything I could to avoid it. If the dog sitter is expensive then I would just go with it. It’s not worth the risk imo.

Risk of theft, risk of harm coming to the dog in some way (heat, choking, harming himself of of boredom or upset), risk of the dog becoming distressed. The list goes on tbh. I'd actually be more comfortable leaving my dog in the house than out in a garden all day, especially if that's what they're used to and where they sleep.

OP was let down by her scheduled dog sitter. I have a dog and I would do this in these circumstances - it's an emergency not a long term care plan.

Why is it totally unacceptable?

Is the dog an Airedale? You could ask in the Scottish page for your dog breed if anyone is willing to help out for the day, I’ve seen posts before of others who have helped out

I think this is fine - you wouldn't be posting here if you weren't concerned for his welfare/thought it was fine to do this regularly - it's one day, he'll cope. Get him something to chew/play with maybe that's new and interesting. Best of luck with your appointment.

Sounds fine to me but you seem nervous about it.Have you tried reaching out to your community , maybe offer a small payment for 2 pop ins and short walks that day, a local teen looking for pocket money before and after school. Facebook might be a good place to ask on local pages.

This is totally unacceptable and no way would I consider it. I'm guessing the people saying 'it's a dog!' don't actually have a dog.

You can't put him in kennels due to your own mistakes, so time to stump up and pay the dog sitter. I hope you already have him booked in for his jags too.

Could he stay at your brother's with him popping home at lunch? DH is a nurse and can manage this for our dog as we live near the hospital.

Ah ok phew! Apologies for all my frantic posts about the heat then!

I hope your biopsy goes well.

I think it’s fine OP. He’s a dog!

Where in the country are you?

If you're in the NE, I have young adult daughters who might help. They cannot stay overnight as we're going away on Friday, but they will almost definitely pop in for an hour or so midday. They've been around terriers all their lives.

It'll be absolutely fine then wont it.

Whilst I'd say mine wouldn't care, and he wouldn't, there's no way I'd do this. But if you must stick a tracker on him just in case and in a rural area not an airtag.

Also, only you know your dog. If you think he will be fine, and not get upset and go crazy then go for it. As you say, the weather will be fine and he has plenty of water and shady patches.

If he is a dog that barks a lot ….no

My friend went out one day and had forgotten to lock the back door..dog went out door shut behind him. Only when she looked at Facebook and a local person complaining about a dog barking in her area….she assumed it wasn’t her dog until she got home !

It doesn't need to "adapt" to it. It just needs to manage it one time...

Pay for the vax and book at the kennels.

Is he likely to get anxious? Have you tried leaving him outside for a few hours and see how he does? Leave him while you go out shopping or something? If not, and you haven't got time to test this, it would be the expensive dogsitter for me. I would be more worried about the dog's anxiety levels as it sounds as though they will be perfectly physically safe. This is the kind of thing that anxious dogs won't recover from.