13 week puppy & back to work!

[xxxCheshireMumxxX]

Good evening, our puppy will be 14 weeks when I return to work full time.

I work 7.45-4.15, (Monday-Thursday) 5 minutes from home so I plan to take him out in the morning & come home for my lunch & spend time with pup. He will then go back out for a walk after work.

This means he'll be alone just under 4 hours in the morning & in the afternoon, he is crated so I am presuming that this will be ok? We have started leaving him for periods of 2.5-3 hours this week under camera surveillance to see how he gets on & he is fine, chews his toys & falls asleep.

My question really is, what is your feeding schedule for age one or less dog when you work a normal working week? Should I feed him 3 times a day or 2?

Is he going to be crated for 8 hours a day?
That’s an awfully long time, especially if he’s crated all night as well
Could you not look at getting doggy day care?
Our 10 month old puppy is left twice a week for 3.5 hours. I still get a dog walker to take her out for 30 minutes half way through, and she’s not crated anymore she’s in the small utility room.

And we fed 3 times a day until 6 months old and then changed to twice daily.

I know nothing about dogs, admittedly, but you want to keep them in a crate for 8 hours in the day and 8 hours (presumably) overnight? You want to keep a dog in a crate for 16 hours a day?

This is a fucking wind up yes? You're surely not planning on keeping your dog in a crate for 8 hours during the day?! They're not toys you know that you can get out when it suits you and put away when you're busy.

You need a dog walker or to put him into doggy day care, leaving him for that long for 4 days a week is cruel.

Puppies sleep about 16 hours in a 24 hour period? A crate isn't a punishment if used correctly. He willingly goes into it & doesn't bark etc. He's been crated from day one. Ridiculous to think you can have a puppy & it not be crated, keep your couch, carpets & sanity. He won't be crated for a whole 8 hours. It will be 2 four hour periods with an hour out in between, potentially one as I think we will get a dog walker.

Extremely irrelevant how long he's in it of a night as he's asleep? He sleeps solid from 11/12ish till about 8am.

He gets lots of time outside of his crate to play in garden & sit with us in kitchen/living room. He regularly retires to his crate for 3 hours for a sleep while we're in the house, so we started testing him and going out, he to as fine.

We are thinking of getting a dog walker today to check on him around 10am, but wondered what people's feeding routines are that work an 8-4ish day?

He won't be crated for a whole 8 hours. It will be 2 four hour periods with an hour out in between.

Erm, 4 + 4 = 8 right? Plus nighttime. Say another 8. You're seriously thinking of caging a young dog for 16 hours a day?

Ah, but as long as your carpets are okay? Give me strength

how would you like to be in a cage for 16 hrs a day?

Do you honestly truly believe that an hour out a lunch is adequate for any dog let alone a puppy? Your dogs going to get depressed.. why on earth people get puppies and work full time is beyond me. Fucking selfish.

You know I knew this would be a bad thread from the title. Anyone who puts "13 week old puppy" and "back to work" followed by a jovial exclamation mark clearly hasn't got the first idea how to care for a puppy. I just despair.

That is a very long time, I have a colleague who does this with his two dogs and I always feel so sorry for them when he talks about them..dogs aren't meant to spend all that time caged.

Can you not let him have the run of one room? We have a two year old dog, he was crated at night until he was about 6 months. When we are out, never for too long as DH works from home, but when we are he has the run of one room, the same at night.

He won't be crated for a whole 8 hours. It will be 2 four hour periods with an hour out in between

Well that's ok then isn't it that 1 hour in the middle totally doesn't mean he will still be confined to a crate for 8 hours total in the daytime. It doesn't matter if he doesn't think of it as a punishment the fact is you are crating him to protect your carpets and furniture not because its best for him.

He's just a baby would you leave a baby in a cot for 8 hours with no company or attention, after all babies sleep for 14-17 hours out of each 24.

In OP’s defence, the crate isn’t a “cage” for a dog, it’s their cosy safe space/a den. But TBF, I do still think that’s an awfully long time to be leaving such a young puppy.

I wish to god crates for dogs had never been invented. They're just abused by people who have no idea how to integrate their dogs into their home and family.

Puppies sleep about 16 hours in a 24 hour period

Not all. Even so, he won't be a newborn puppy for long. What are you going to do?

A crate isn't punishment if used correctly

You're not using it correctly

Honestly, I wouldn't be able to get any work done knowing a dog of mine was stuck in a cage at home.

OP, he’s a baby. You want to let him out an hour a day? It’s just incredibly cruel. Even 2 hours is far too long at that age. You shouldn’t have a puppy and work full time, that’s all about what you want not what the dog needs.

@PuppyMonkey

Do you really think this pup will see this as his cosy home? More like a prison shutting him out from all the things he should be learning/exploring. I honestly can't believe anyone would defend OP on this. This is not good.

I’ve got a 6 month old puppy and I honestly cannot imagine having him crated for so long now, let alone at the age you are considering.

I’ve been out for 2 hours tonight and the welcome home we got tells us how much he missed us for that amount of time. He has the run of a large kitchen diner and has has 2 walks today totalling 2 hours.

You aren’t getting stick for nothing op- you need doggy day care or you will end up with a very unhappy puppy and this will show in even more damage to house and behaviour.

In OP’s defence, the crate isn’t a “cage” for a dog, it’s their cosy safe space/a den

Of course a crate is a cage. It's a small enclosed space with bars that the dog can't get out of. Even if a dog sees it as a safe space. I like my bed but wouldn't want to be forcibly confined to it for 16+ hours a day.

Give the dog back to the breeder or get a dog walker in for 2 hours a day.

Fuck
Me.

You are seriously asking this?

I used to add up the crate time our puppy had when she was a few months old. She was in it for 45 mins x twice a day for school runs, and 2 hours when I sometimes went to a toddler group (I had a month off with her before going back to work 16 hours a week)
I felt beyond awful that she was crated for 3.5 hours a day a few days a week, so I would have felt horrific crating her for 8 hours in the day and 8 hours at night.
Even a puppy pen would be better than a crate, or an area of kitchen sectioned off.

Stand down guys - if you read what I wrote properly in my post, I think you’ll find I am actually saying i think it’s too long to leave the pup in my second sentence. I’m agreeing with you lot

Since there’s been several ‘young puppy going back to work’ threads on here in the last few days you must have known what the reaction would be!
I crate trained my dogs and after a year or so they didn’t need it. But I rarely left my digs in the crates during the day for more than an a couple hours. I know people anthropomorphise and don’t get crates aren’t cages, but I do think it’s a long time day after day. Even if you had a larger room that you could leave the puppy with it’s crate door open that’s too much time alone for any dog.

. I know people anthropomorphise and don’t get crates aren’t cages,

Of course a crate is a cage!!!! It has bars and can be locked. 'Crate' is just a euphemism 🙄