Tell the truth.. do you leave your dog home alone?

[Be1atrix]

Just that really. As a family we're all desperate for a dog but work full time. We would pay for a dog walker to come in at lunchtime.

In The Doghouse section people who leave their dogs at home get shot down. But surely there's people who work full time who have them? How do they manage?

Doggy day care here....we both work full time and it seemed like the fairest thing to do.

That makes sense then amused. One of our neighbours keeps her dogs outside which isn't the issue, the issue is that they bark all the time. They've been told but don't give a toss. I can hear another neighbours dog barking from inside their house while I'm inside mine and we live across the street. They have a dog walker but it otherwise barks all the time. I work full time too but work at home regularly and it's just constant. If I put the TV on then it covers it up but obs don't want to do that all the time. Also every Friday evening neighbours go out and dog barks all evening.

If I go for a walk then loads of houses have dogs barking in them, not just when I'm passing, I can hear them from a bit away before I get near.

No dog here but know someone who does leave their dog. Dog is a neurotic misery to be with. No idea whether it would have been that way anyway but it can't help.

They don't have anyone coming in during the day though.

Always left ours but was never for long as we lived at home. When we moved out I changed my shifts so it was 4 hours max. Then my hours had to change again but I was given notice, we got another dog to keep her company and are lucky to have in laws who will check on them when it’s a 6 hour day so they will do 3 hours alone and then 30 mins with family, then 2.5 hours alone. This isn’t 5 days a week though only 3. As a family growing up we had dogs who were left but we had a dog flap, neighbours to pop in briefly and again with school/work hours for the family unit it was probably no longer than 6 hours. In case of family emergencies etc ours would be fine for 8 hours or so but this would only be if it was completely unavoidable.

On the other hand my dad has a dog who is left 7-4 daily but my dad walks him every morning for an hour and every evening for an hour without fail and the dog has the entire run of the house. He also knows and has done in the passed called us to collect dog if he is going to be late, accident on motorway etc. Some people don’t agree with that but his dog seems fine and is an only dog also, well socialised, friendly and happy in himself. It’s not something I’d personally do but I don’t think it does him any harm it’s just not for me and my dogs x

Yes we do. Dogwalker comes at lunchtime. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats though, so they are not alone, alone. Even when we are at home, they mostly sleep, so it's not like they require constant interaction and hours of exercise. They don't whine or bark, we have cameras to check up on them. DH was working from home when they were puppies though.

Some of those post here remind me of working mother bashing - "but why did you have children in the first place, if you don't want to spend time with them!?!?" We work normal office hours, there's still plenty of time left to spend with dogs.

There is always someone who pipes up with "I live elsewhere and everything is fine here". I live in France. All my neightbours have dogs, here is what they do with them:

• one has a large number of hunting dogs that are kept in tiny crates and howl all day. They are taken hunting 2-3 times a week in the season, the rest of the time they stay in the crates.
• Two dogs were free range, walking the (rural) streets). One got run over by a car, one by a tractor.
• Two dogs are kept in large gardens. One barks non-stop, the other has an electric shock non-barking collar.
• One is chained up all day and barks non-stop and is loose all night long.
• One of our neighbours has working dogs that herd cattle, they are with him all day on the farm.

Only one of these arrangements is fun for the dog, guess which one?

I do believe you shouldn’t have a dog if you work full time (unless you send dog to daycare every day). You don’t have the lifestyle that suits a dog.

Our lab puppy is only left for an hour or two at a time. Max 4 hours very rarely. Any longer and we pay for daycare which he loves.

All those people saying ‘oh the dog is fine being left for 8 hours a day’. How do you know?? Just because they aren’t trashing your house doesn’t mean they’re not bored.

Very rarely, never for longer than 4/5 hours and usually we lock the cat in too, as she's happier with him.

And what about very hot days? A good dog walker would say that they couldn't do walks on days over 25c.

A dog walker local to my area but not actually in my area killed dogs this summer by having them in a van in peak summer.

There's also been a Facebook thing about a dog walker who had several dogs and he told owners it had ran off and couldn't find it but apparently that had also been left in a vehicle while she went to loon for one if the other dogs she was walking who had ran off.

There's a lady I see walking nine dogs at the same time every now and then here and she seems to struggle to control them all when they're off leash.

My friend walks dogs and won't take more than two/three max at a time and in the summer it's very early am or late evening and instead of walking she spends an hour in their home playing and interacting with the dog etc.

She isn't a professional though and doesn't charge anyone and only does it for people she knows have properly trained dogs. She's refused walking for people she's friends with because their animal has poor recall or pulls a lot on the leash.

Puppies need 4 meals daily and constant company and training. Any dog is a member of your family. You wouldn’t leave a child alone all day.
If you work ft get a cat, not a dog.

I now work from home but I used to work ft away from home and leave the dogs all day. We’d take them a long walk in the morning and we had a dog walker at lunch. We also have a big garden and a dog flap. I think the key for me was to have two. Now I work from home as far as I can see they sleep all day and just potter. Pick the right dogs and it won’t be a problem.

My neighbour has two dogs - they still bark all day. One you notice more as it has a loud deep bark.

I work in dog behaviour in a veterinary setting mainly with problem dogs and I HATE dog daycare. Most of these establishments are totally unsuitable and do dogs more harm than good. They teach the fearful to be more fearful, the reactive to react more, the bossy to become more dominant, the whole thing is just crap! I’ve visited lots of them and the vast majority of the dogs look stressed or shut down, it’s not a natural environment and I would never send mine to somewhere that wasn’t a very small quiet supervised group of similar personalities.

Anyway, I do leave mine and I think it’s important for them to be able to be left. I swapped my shifts so I start at lunchtime or whatever and DH will be in 4-5 hours later. They are fine in this time, we have CCTV and they sleep almost all of the time I am gone. I also occasionally take them to work though they do find this more stressful than staying at home. The rest of the time they are with us including bedtime. I also only work part time and wouldn’t have got dogs otherwise.

I wouldn’t have a dog if I worked full time, incredibly cruel to leave such an intelligent animal for that length of time without company or stimulation. I would go as far to say people who do so are selfish and don’t have the pets best interests at heart. Almost all dogs prefer company to solitude

The doggy daycare my dog goes to has no more than 4 dogs a day. It’s run by a lovely husband and wife from their home. They do long countryside walks with the dogs then lots of playtime and cuddles back home. They post videos every day so I can see what she’s up to.

Mane lots of daycare settings are run by dog walkers in their own home.

I agree big day care establishments can be unsuitable for some dogs including my own but I choose the smaller home style ones and they are just like being in another home.

The main thing is, don't leave your dogs for three weeks with a semi naked elderly stranger armed with an anal stimulator.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3717861-nsfw-house-sitter-left-anal-dildo-behind-pun-intended

Basically if you can avoid that one, you're not doing so bad

The OP says the dog will be left 9 hours a day. We'd be out 730-430
Break that up even with an hours walk that's still a long time 5 days a week.
I said I do leave my two sometimes, even overnight rarely. We don’t have anywhere they can go. But for the first 7 years of the older dogs life I only worked one day a week. The kids went out at 8.45 and were back at 3.10pm as well.
I wouldn’t have got one knowing that we would all be out, all day, 5 days out of 7. Either get two or get a cat, I think.
I don’t treat my dogs like children but I don’t like to see a dog on its own all the time.

Two days a week our 5 year old dog is left from 8.30am-3pm but I nip back home at lunchtime to let her out for the toilet. She is very nervous would hate doggy daycare and a dog walker and for her she’s much happier at home.

When I worked in an office rather than from home our dog was left from 8.30am to 6pm each weekday but we did pay for 2 hrs daycare each day I.e. a nice long walk at lunchtime.

Now I work from home so it’s not an issue but we do still go out and leave the (now 3) dogs. At the end of the month DH and I are going to a show so they will all be left home alone from 6pm to about 11pm when we get home.

When my lab was a pup i would take him to work with me, if my daughter was at college. When he got older the longest he was left was 12 hours, but only did that twice. I work nights now so the kids look after him and then i do when i get home and they got work.

I work 3 days a week, our dog is left at home from 9am until 3pm. We have a lovely dog walker who takes her out for an hour at lunch time. If it’s too hot or pouring down he’ll play with her and let her out in the garden. My dog is the only dog he takes out.

We work and our dog is alone M-F 8-5. She's fine. She gets a walk before work, right after and again in the evening. She gets lots of attention when we are home and on weekends. We purposely got a low energy dog breed that sleeps 18+ hrs a day. She was a rescue - I guarantee her life has vastly improved in our loving home with our comfy couch bed even though we work (gasp!).

I don't know anyone in real life with a dog who doesn't work regular hours and have no idea where all the part time/work from home people on Mumsnet get their jobs. Lucky for our dog we work or we wouldn't be able to afford to care for her. Our dog is accustomed to our routine.

As I write this big pooch is snoozing next to me - poor suffering girl

No dog walker FixIt? Why not? What does your dog do when she needs the toilet?

I’m sorry but those hours/days are too long and it is unfair.

It’s incredibly cruel. There are loads of people on here saying their dog stays at home all day long and it’s fine but they’re kidding themselves.

Dogs are pack animals and spending long periods of time alone is known to cause stress.

People are telling you that their dog just sleeps all day and would sleep all day even if they were home but that’s just nonsense. Or if the dog does sleep all day even when they’re at home it suggests that they’re not interacting with and walking their dog enough.

If you work full time away from home then you should not consider getting a dog.

@FixItUpChappie An improvement compared to a situation that your dog had to be rescued from isn’t exactly hard. But I guarantee your dog would have rather been adopted by someone who didn’t leave it alone all day.

You’ve obviously convinced yourself that you’re giving your dog a great life.