To think leaving a puppy for 5 hours is risking it?

[CurryBelly]

My puppy is 6 months old. I work 8:30 to 1pm mon - Thursday and for two of those days, puppy goes to daycare. Two days she’s left home alone but crated until I get home at 1:15pm.

Last week she suffered an awful accident in her crate, she rushed out too quickly and got her foot caught between two metal bars. It was horrendous and she was stuck like that for 20 minutes until I could find someone to cut the bars. Thankfully no injuries but it’s made me paranoid and I said no more crate from now on.

So over the weekend she’s had the full run of the living room, hallway and kitchen. I’ve left her for two hours max while I’ve been shopping twice and she’s been absolutely fine. No damage. She’s been left out of crate over night for weeks and has been fine also.

But I’m back at work tomorrow. I’m worrying that 5 hours will be too much and she’ll get bored and wreck the house?

No way would I rehome my dog. She’s my world. I’d rather give up work (which I will do if this situation doesn’t work out)

5 hours is too long be left , however IMO if it’s going to happen it’s way better that she’s loose than trapped in a cage , which is just cruel . Use gates to puppy proof a section of house and keep trying to get a dog walker .

OP you say that “she is your world” but you are quite happy to leave her in a crate for 5 hours ?

Ignore the people saying rehome the dog 🙄

My dog used to go to work with DH every day. He's now in a role where that's not possible (military) so she's at home on her own most days, with a dog walker every day. I WFH as much as I can, but I'm boring because I'm tied to the computer, so not really interacting with her much.

I've filled the house with interactive toys, and her breakfast is split between a rolling dispenser toy, a breakfast bowl and a ball with teeth I pop the food into.

I also fill her Kong each day and she dives for it when I leave.

I've put a camera in the living room (open plan house), and can see her from my phone, as can DH which he loves. It was about £30 in Currys - Kasa TP Link. No hub needed.

She also gets a long walk every morning before I leave - I often take a neighbours dog for company, and again in the afternoon when I get back in.

It's not ideal, but it's a temporary solution until DH is back from sea.

Just get a dog walker. 5 hours is too long. If you’d manage by quitting your job you’d managed missing out on walking expenses

I have got a puppy. No way would I leave him that long. And I can't really
Say anything nice about caging dogs at all.
To me if you get a puppy you need to accept that your gonna have to have a room your not too bothered about. I leave mine for upto two hours. Shut doors to rooms I'm fussed about him not going in. He has the run of the front room hall stairs landing and bathroom when I'm out. Whole house the rest of the time. He has caused no damage at all. I leave him lots of toys and a bone or pigs ear. Make sure he's walked first and due a sleep.

My friend is a dog walker. She says the worst thing about her job is that the go too getting a dog kit Includes a cage... it's not a crate. They are cages. She spends her days being expected to take a dog that's already spent hours in a cage walk it and then return it to the cage for a few more hours till they get home. Honestly believe her when she says every dog she knows with a cage spends a large amount of time in it. Lots live in Showhomes.

Just posting to say I agree that leaving your dog crates for that length of time is not ideal. However, I think using a crate appropriately has its place as part of a wider scenario. As I said earlier, we have a soft sided crate in our house for our old dog and she loves it. However, it is never closed and she can come and go as she pleases- it's her safe space away from the hustle and bustle of family life.

That is far too long. If you don't have the money for day care and don't have a dog walker set up or neighbour etc I think it is just cruel. Is this temporary or the puppy's life every week?

It's not 5 hours, it's 6

OP you can't leave a 6 month old puppy for that long, it's not appropriate. You need to pay for daycare or find a walker who will take a Doberman. If you can't then you should rehome, it's cruel otherwise.

Mushypeasandchipstogo
5 hours isn’t risking it , it’s just simply cruel. Why did you get a dog if it is going to be left alone for that long?

I agree and when did crates for dogs become a thing? I don't know anyone who uses one and it seems really cruel to me.

Do you have Pawshake in your area? It’s an app for matching dog walkers/sitters with dogs, and it’s much more flexible than the usual dog walkers. I use it for my puppy as I thought he was too young for a daycare place and he goes to someone’s home, but the person I use would do walks instead of sitting if I wanted.

I also would get gates - that's an awfully long time in a crate

I think if you can afford a dog walker, then ideally one coming in about 10.30 each day to take the pup for a 30 min walk would be ideal.

However, there is a lot of stupid hysteria on this thread. A dog won’t die from being left for 5 hours, we have left our dog for 6 hours plenty of times after a long walk and she is absolutely fine, just sleeps.

Crating a dog also isn’t cruel, historically dogs in the wild (and wolves still do) sleep in dens. The majority of dogs actually like a snug space to curl up in.

There’s far too much pandering in this country, I say that as a massive dog lover. Yes if you get a dog you should offer it the best life you can give it, but people are just ridiculously pedantic and Marty like about it all.

Also, instead of getting rid of the crate, teaching your dog to sit and wait when the crate door is being opened is a good way to reduce the risk of an accident. But then again, people don’t train dogs anymore either. In most households they can do what the fuck they want as heaven forbid, disciplining it is completely out of the question

Sounds like an horrific one off accident so I would return to how you were. If she's been crated overnight and ok with it then I wouldn't worry.

Is she a chewer? I had a Rottweiler pup and he chewed everything for over two years and couldn't be left in a room. My Akita chews bit damages nothing so is allowed free reign within reason.

"I agree and when did crates for dogs become a thing? I don't know anyone who uses one and it seems really cruel to me."

Crates are very popular. Used properly they provide the dog with a safe place to retreat to if they want a break from the family.

Ginger1982 is correct, used in the right way, crates can be a safe haven for dogs.
the key thing is training your pup to feel safe and secure in her crate. I don't want to upset the OP but leaving a six month older five hours isn't going to train the pup to feel safe and secure in her crate, or anywhere else.
I'd never crate trained until 11 years ago when my current labradoodle arrived aged 5 months and already crate trained. I only used it for a couple of months because I wouldn't have got a young rescue if I hadn't been a home based worker, and able to take my dog into the office most times.

I retired soon after and fostered for a specific Breed rescue. I crate trained the young dogs which worked brilliantly. I got my first pup in over 40 years and crate trained him as I was still fostering dogs and had two of my own, plus the puppy. My 17 year old rescue dog took taking himself into the crate to rest. He'd never been crate trained but sought the crate out. He became very sick and the crate was invaluable in that I could leave him crated, with the door closed, knowing he wouldn't wander out and fall over, be unable to get up. This had happened and the puppy was howling in distress at his old companion being unable to get up.(I was in the house so could quickly respond).

That puppy was six earlier this year. He developed a tumour along his spine and in 24 days went from running a 3 mile walk, swimming and having fun to refusing to move a paw. The diagnosis took 20 days and the crate came out again, in he went for the first time in over five years. No hesitation, straight in to sleep away from the other three dog beds. It was a huge relief to all of us that we could leave the three dogs together, knowing the poorly boy was safe and content.
I'd never use a crate as punishment but it has its place -not for five hours for a puppy though

TwattingDog What you do with your dog is completely different from what the OP is doing with her 6 month old puppy.

Leaving such a young dog for so long is cruel and caging it for 5 hours at a time is very cruel.

I'm not sure what 'risks' you're referring to in your title OP, but what you are risking is creating a dog with separation anxiety.

I used a crate for my dog when she was a puppy. It gave her her own space to go to if she felt the need and meant I knew she was safe from harming herself when I had to leave her.

It very soon became clear that she was not a chewer and she was safe to have the run of the house. I kept the crate, always with the door open, for a while until she gave it up herself at about 6 months.

There's nothing wrong with using a crate correctly. It isn't though, meant to serve as a prison to confine a puppy or dog for hours at a time; that's when it becomes a cage.

If you have to go for five hours tomorrow, I would try to remove anything that could be damaged from the room, and then leave her to it. My previous dog was about that age when he decided he didn't want to go in his cage any more, so I left him out. The first day, he chews a few things, but no major damage, and he didn't chew anything after that. I would chance it but knowing that you could potentially come home to chaos-

An adult dog might cope for that long. No puppy should be left for 5 hours. Crate or no.

These replies aren’t very helpful to OP. I’d say the leg incident was a one off, go back to your original system which was working well or give it a go with pup out of the crate and just see what happens. In the longer term, have a look to see if any pet sitting service does drop in visits. If you can’t get a dog walker getting someone to pop in, let pup out, play with him for a bit would break the day up. It sounds like he’s got a lovely life with you when you’re not in work.

I’m actually feeling really sad about the thought of a puppy being in a crate for five hours

That is so cruel

We've got a 13 month old puppy. She's a little darling, but the dog equivalent of a toddler with ADHD.

She was being very quiet the other evening, and I thought the chewing I could hear was on her deer antler. Turned out to be a lamp cable.... plugged into the mains and switched on. We've had to go around the house using cable guard and taping all exposed cables to walls/cabinets so she can't get at anything again.

You seriously cannot leave a 6 month old puppy wandering around a house for 5 hours..... they could literally get up to anything. It's neglectful at best.

I think leaving a dog in a crate for that long is so cruel. I'm horrified you would think of it. Even leaving him in the back garden with a kennel to go in and out of would be nicer for him

I wouldn’t leave my pretty chilled 4 year old dog for that long.
It’s far too long for a puppy, especially in a crate

Our puppy is 7 months and we've never left her for longer than an hour, and we have an adult dog for company too. Sorry I think she's too young .