To think owning a dog is not as hard work as everyone makes out?

[FidoAndHisBone]

I had a dog until I was about 25 and I found it pretty straightforward. I lived abroad and often where I lived people don't keep their dogs indoors but mine was.

I suppose the hardest part was not being able to leave him alone, I didn't ever leave him alone for more than about 3 hours but to be honest that was the only difficult part, apart from when he had to be put down, that was devastating.

I am now married with 3 DC and we are planning to get another dog but every single person I've mentioned it to (funnily enough none of them dog owners) has told me what incredibly hard work it is... I am a SAHM so will spend most of my time with him and I love long walks. Obviously I am more than happy to put the time in to train him too!

Yeah Fido if you get a labradoodle puppy I personally would ask for hip scores. There's other tests you might want to ask for but I'm no expert. A vet/breeder in the doghouse would be able to tell you.

Insurance differs- you would be covered usually if condition doesn't show itself within the first month. Get lifetime cover with good yearly payout- some policies only give money out for a year per condition. You have to read the small print. Most will say what they will cover in the event of hip problems eg medicine but no aquatherapy or vise versa. On the whole you get what you pay for and I'd recommend going for the pest policy you can afford.

Greyhounds can't keep on walking though Fartblossom. For mine the limit is ~5 miles on the flat, I think it can be built up slowly but there is a limit. Can't really do proper hill walking. Lurchers (depending on the cross) have more stamina.

if you are going to a doodle breeder aside from all the usual stuff (see pups with mum, nice home environment no other breeds/litters etc etc - google breeder phone number to check)

you want - eye certs for both parents, hip scores as bare minimum.

they should - home check you, ask questions about your situation (how much time out of house, how you plan to groom/ exercise dog etc) , be reluctant to sell....

other health testing such as VWD, Addisons, Sebaceous adenitis, see here depends on what you are getting.

actually the labradoodle trust has its own fuller page on this

I think how much hard work it is depends a lot on the dog.

My in-laws have a pekinese which is incredibly lazy and has to be literally dragged along the ground if you try taking him on a walk that's more than 10 minutes long. He's also happy to be left alone for hours on end and is very undemanding. I don't know if thats typical of the breed or not though.

My friend has a rescue dog - not sure on breed, but looks part bull terrier - and he goes nuts without 3 hours worth of walking a day. And even then, he gets very excitable. But my friends love him to bits. One of them works from home, so he doesn't have to be left alone too often.

Agree OP. My dog gives so much more than he takes. To be honest I don't remember the puppy months being all that hard either, however he does have a very quiet, gentle disposition and I think that makes all the difference.

I crate trained and took him out fifty times a day (seriously), watched him like a hawk in order to grab him and get him outside before any accidents and he was fully house trained in two weeks.

Its about your own personality too I suppose, I wouldn't call myself excessively laid back but some things that matter to others don't to me iyswim? Like I don't sleep that well anyway so getting up in the night, not a major issue, an accident on the brand new carpet it will clean up, whereas my mum recently got a dog and she is incredibly house proud uptight and so has struggled a bit with it all.

Also agree with the poster who says that leaving dogs while at work is not a massive issue. I've always had to do it and my dogs have been perfectly fine. They sleep all day.

Small dogs are much easier though.

I would never be without a dog.

We had a rescue staff/collie cross aka a dog on a string type mongrel. She had a lovely personality and was good as gold at home, only barked at post but we could stop that with a dog gate so she couldn't get too close to be bothered. However, she was a terrible walker, really scared of cars, we think it was due to having been found as a stray on the streets, and that made her hard work. We tried training, professional trainer, dog walker - made no difference, she was too mentally scarred.

Apart from that, she was only hard work because we did not really live in a house with a garden big enough for her to not ruin so the poo and wee situation was not much fun, and she put massive wear and tear on our home (carpets, skirting boards, floors generally) and also on the plumbing as we were foolish enough to use that to wash her in the bath and put her bedding in the washing machine. When we had the bathroom refitted, the plumber showed us the pipes were 2/3rds clogged up with dog hair. This, and professional dog walking while we were at work, made her expensive.

I think if you have the time and space for a dog, there is no reason it should be hard work, as the time then is more fun and the wear and tear is less of an issue.

Enjoy!

thanks for the info bats will be going through dogs trust anyway so they will know what to give us I hope. Anyway its not for a while yet as we still need a gate for the garden and we have other things to do first. Would also like DD2 (7MO) to be a bit older first.

FartBlossom-I love the idea of going into a rescue and saying "Find me a dog!" I sort of did that at the greyhound rescue but obviously isn't quite as exciting :o

I've had 2 dogs in my life.
The first I loved to bits, unconditionally - I didn't flinch at walking her, cleaning the nasty bits, she was a joy and pleasure and made lots of people very happy. She was a happy, gentle little dog with a sweet and playful nature.
My current dog, is another kettle of fish entirely. I hate walking her, she has been incredibly resistant to training, she is nervous and excitable, she smells bad and as soon as you wash her she rolls in something vile. She has brought a lot of stress into our house and if I could turn back time with the benefit of hindsight, then I'd know she was a bad fit for us and not take her. But as she is a rescue, I really don't want to put the poor thing through the stress of being rehomed again - which is where I suspect a lot of her problems arise from. We try and give her a settled comfortable home, regular walks, treats, attention, but she is really hard work and it is not that rewarding.
It's not just the dog though, I do wonder if our dog would have been better off with different owners.

I adore my dogs... my pup has given me joy, humour and 2 lost dress sizes through walking . She has also brought me 3 new fabulous friends that I get up at 6am to ensure a good natter with. Having said that, she was a rescue and not easy at first, but the work I've put in has paid off... she is an absolute joy.

My older dog has always been a joy. A bit of a puller on the lead, but otherwise the most gorgeous dog .

Yes we tailor our holidays around them, they are part of our family, but because they are well trained, we can leave them with family members if we choose to go abroad too.

Dogs need input and training, they aren't to be taken on half heartedly.

Oooh fart, we asked our rescue to 'find us a dog'... see above... I loves the bones of her .

Beamur, we had a lab cross from a rescue that obviously needed to be an 'only child'. We managed to rehome her with my friend's Mum... best move we ever made for both us and the dog. She lived out her final years in complete contentment (and now has her ashes scattered on her new Mum's grave, she was so loved).
From the moment she went I could go near my other dog without him being attacked. It was an incredibly stressful (almost 4 years!), but it worked out brilliantly in the end.

I feel quite sorry for my dog really. I think she would probably be happiest in a situation like that shockers - whilst there is nearly always someone at home, we're quite a busy household and there's a lot of movement of people coming and going and with having DSC's we're not all home all of the time and I think it stresses the dog when not all of her 'people' are around. She is visibly more relaxed when everyone is home.

Fido both lab & poodle parents had perfect hip scores but in a litter of 9 with the random possibilities of genetics I guess there will be some pups who aren't lucky enough to inherit their immediate parents bone structure! Our fit dog is extremely agile and leaps the 5 foot fence between our yard and our garden happily. Our wonky hipped dog struggles to climb on the sofa and needs to be picked up (all 5 stone of her!) to get in the car boot!