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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to ask how you make sure your dog is happy if you work 9-5?

83 replies

SawnUpLooRoll · 04/11/2018 10:37

We're wondering about having a dog to join our family. However, we work 9-5 and the kids aren't old enough to come home alone straight after school.

We're not sure about having a dog if we're going to be out of the house for long stretches, but naturally some people do have dogs and have similar working patterns to us.

How do you manage, and what advice would you give? I'm also totally okay with advice like 'don't do it' if that's the main consensus, because I want to be realistic. We only want a dog if it will be content!

OP posts:
Dahlietta · 04/11/2018 12:12

My parents worked 8-6 and we were at school, I always remember how happy he was to see someone when we finally got home

To be fair, my dog spends most of the day at home with me. I pay attention to him, take him for works, but the second DH steps in the door, you'd think he was bloody Father Christmas from the dog's ecstatic reaction!
You're not wrong about leaving the poor thing all day though.

RangeRider · 04/11/2018 13:03

when we get home he does agility in the basement and/or treadmill
Why not take him for another walk? They need mental stimulation just as much as they do physical exercise. Walking outside gives them smells & things to look at & other dogs / people to greet. A treadmill is effectively sticking them on a hamster wheel.
And a dog will sleep through boredom as much as they will through tiredness.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 04/11/2018 13:14

She doesn’t particularly like being around people and prefers to be alone.

Another MN introvert, bless her Smile

Honeyroar · 04/11/2018 13:21

You sound like you'd make a great dog owner in the future OP, you think about it from the dog's point of view, not just your own.

To add to the general discussion, I'd say two dogs is a better plan for most people. That way there is always company if they get left. Obviously they still need a dog walker etc if left and obviously you would have double costs for that. My dad lives next door to us and he often hears the dogs playing when they're on their own (my labs love a game of tug of war, complete with lots of growling).

Honeyroar · 04/11/2018 13:25

Ps, another vote for The Cinnamon Trust, who are always looking for people to help walk dogs for elderly/sick people.

krustykittens · 04/11/2018 13:29

I second getting two. I work from home and the dogs have an enclosed space to play right outside my office. They wear each other out, racing up and down and playing tug of war and when they are sleepy, they are happy to come into the office and snuggle up together for a snooze. I walk them in the morning and the kids walk them when they get home from school at 4pm. Having two takes a huge amount of pressure off, I might be at home but I am still working so cannot give them my undivided attention for hours on end. There is always someone around to give them a cuddle, a walk, a bit of a fuss throughout the day, but they would be lost without each other and their games help them work off their energy. But we do have a lot of outside space.

BiteyShark · 04/11/2018 13:29

I know you have decided not to do it in your later posts but my dog goes to doggy daycare. Costs vary but around £20 ish a day where he gets lots of company and doggie friends to play with.

HollyBollyBooBoo · 04/11/2018 13:36

A mixture of dog walker and my mum either have DDog or come round and walk him. It's generally only 4 hours in between visits or someone being in the house with him.

LakieLady · 04/11/2018 14:18

My parents worked 8-6 and we were at school, I always remember how happy he was to see someone when we finally got home

Not all dogs are like that.

Sometimes, I'll pop home if I'm passing (my job involves being out and about). DDog looks like quite put out, as if I'm intruding into her "me time", and will almost grudgingly leave the sofa to come and say hello.
But then she's a terrier breed and they are notorious for being independently minded.

She loves it when the second one of us comes home and her pack is complete though, and DP says that on the rare occasions I'm late, she's a bit whingey. She still doesn't act especially pleased to see me, more a bit offish as though she's got the hump with me.

Katiecausesmischief · 04/11/2018 15:31

I have two dogs & am out three days a week. 2 days they get walked twice by the dog walk and on their third they spend the morning harassing the cleaner & then are walked in the afternoon.
They adore the dog walker (so much it is embarrassing if we meet him walking his own two dogs!) and see happy with the situation.
When I got them I was able to work shorter days and come home at lunchtime but changed jobs. They seem perfectly contend now their social life is sorted 😊

penisbeakers · 04/11/2018 15:37

Please don't get a dog.

BrokenWing · 04/11/2018 15:52

I work 7-4 and dh works 10 - 6 so ddog is home alone for 6hrs a day 4 days a week. It is not ideal.

On those 4 days he gets a good off lead 45 min walk with dh before he goes out. Then a dog walker walks him with other dogs for a minimum of an hour at around 11am, by the time pickups and drop offs are added in he is out of the house for 2 hours. dh or I both occasionally work from home so there is usually one of us at home one of the 4 days most weeks and when we are in ddog spends the whole day upstairs sleeping off his two walks.

eachtigertires · 04/11/2018 17:38

Range - because of his aggression with other dogs. I take him very early in the morning when there’s not many about but unless I were to walk him again at midnight there are too many other dogs about in the evening to take him. I used to have to and it was very very stressful for him.

Mconstanti · 09/01/2019 17:46

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MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 09/01/2019 17:55

Having two dogs isn't necessarily a solution. When I was on maternity leave with my first baby I had to listen to my next door neighbours two dogs barking for hours on end until the dog walker came to take them out for an hour at lunchtime. Then when they got back and the dog walker left they would start again and keep going until their owner got home at around 6pm. Not only was it miserable for me but I really felt for the poor dogs who were obviously so unhappy. When I raised it with our neighbour he insisted that they were fine as "they have each other for company".

Rainagain1 · 09/01/2019 17:57

There is a company called borrow my doggy. You can search locally then arrange to meet local dogs and their owners and borrow dogs!

TerriTummyTowels · 09/01/2019 18:12

Get a cat instead, they are less selfish and needy and will enjoy time apart

Idontbelieveinthemoon · 09/01/2019 18:15

We have a fabulous dog walker who comes in every day when I'm at work. I only do 3 days a week, which helps. We also have friends who live every close by who we help out with dog-sitting and vice versa. Without those factored in we wouldn't have dogs.

ShortandSweet96 · 09/01/2019 18:16

When I got my puppy k cane home from work to check on him throughout the day, gradually making it just on my lunch hour. But now works too busy to do that so we've cleared out out understairs storage so he's not shut on the crate all day, were now looking at getting a dog walker because it isn't fair to come home at 5pm, let them out and walk them for a few hours and then shut them straight back in for bedtime.

Get a dog walker if you certainly want a dog now, otherwise just wait.

MuttsNutts · 09/01/2019 18:29

@ShortandSweet96. That is a miserable existence for any dog and especially a puppy. Getting a dog was very selfish of you. How would you like to be shut in a crate or under the stairs for most of your life?

IAmAllowedAnOpinion · 09/01/2019 18:33

You are sensible to ask OP and I am glad you are taking advice on board.

We always had dogs as I grew up but my mum worked a combination of locally, part time, and from home. So even when she worked full time but locally she came home at 10am, midday and 2pm to check on them.

I have now moved out and the house feels.utterly empty without a dog. But I would never get one while I worked full time. Personally I also don't see the sense of getting a dog when you know it will.be in someone else care all day (i.e. doggy day care). It will spend more time with someone else than with you.

ShortandSweet96 · 09/01/2019 18:36

@muttsnutts. Because I was working part time, able to come in and out of work, I spoke to the person who sold me the dog about it and she said it was fine, but now I'm 4 days a week and work is busier, hence why were getting a dog walker to come during the day :) my situation changed and I couldn't help that and it wasn't expected, I do agree it's not ideal for him, but we're making arrangements.

artisanscotcheggs · 10/01/2019 02:30

Please don't get a dog.

Lovingbenidorm · 10/01/2019 02:37

A dog is not a toy.
Puppies need lots of time and training.
Crates are useful but should be used properly.
I really don’t understand why anyone would consider getting a dog when they are unable to care for it properly.
Dogs are pack animals, they need to have company.
You really cannot get a dog and leave it isolated all day.
It’s cruel

Zariiya · 10/01/2019 03:51

I have a dog walker & minder.

She comes for my dog at 10am and drops him back at 4pm. She's incredible and my dog is so happy, healthy and exercised.