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?

I don't even like dogs but still think this is really cruel. A puppy is a child that needs stimulation and socialisation, not to be left alone for hours every day, whether in a crate or not.
If you're working full time, a rescue adult cat would have been a much better pet for you.

I work in an office and we can bring dogs in. Not all the time (or we wouldn’t do any work) but they have a very flexible policy of working from anywhere in the office and bring in your dog if you need to

@Medievalist bore off.*

Nice op. Why am I not surprised.

literally everybody has dogs, that work, they have dog walkers

This doesn't even make any sense 🤷‍♀️

I’m so fed up of seeing this type of thread. When will people realise what getting a puppy really means? 🙁

OP I suggest for the first 4 hours dropping the pup off at a doggy day car rather than a walkers puppies should not be walked for long periods of time and it goes off their age and size. 5mins extra per month of life 2-3 x per day For the first year. I personally do not like crates. They are cages. Of course the dog would prefer free reign regardless of what we try to tell ourselves. If the puppy is content, has been played with enough with enough interaction they will not reck your kitchen. It is a long time to spend alone in a crate. For one of the 4 hours the puppy is left you need to spend money on it not being alone. It simply is too much. It is cruel for a young dog. A older rescue who just needs sanctuary might have been a better option for you OP. With this set up the dog will most likely have behaviour problems.

@Padiana HOW can’t you like dogs! I find this so so unnerving (no offence)

I'm not a crate fan admittedly, it's a cage however well designed, but 4 hours is that max you should be leaving a pup, is there someone who can watch him for half a day? We free fed our dog, just ensure you know how much max in 24 hours.

Ps longer term it is a bit breed specific, some are far better at being left than others, mine is fine but others get separation anxiety

I booked THREE WEEKS off work. I am well aware of a puppies needs. Ours sleeps so much at the moment that I thought a dog walker (won't be being walked for that long as he's too young but an hour company) once a day before me coming home for an hour would be enough. Appreciate that twice a day is better, hence my thread.

“Appreciate that twice a day is better”

Well better is a bit strong tbh...

4 hours is the longest recommended time for leaving a dog, that’s 4 hours total not stretches and adult dog, not puppy...

You’re still at 6 hours.

Better and tbh probably cheaper would be someone taking him for the full tile you’re at work.

Your pup won't be sleeping like this for much longer and they will need to be stimulated and have company to be happy. You need to sort out something more suited to your pup's needs.

Why on earth do you want a puppy OP? What kind of life can you offer him? An hours playtime in the day and a bit of a fuss in the evening? Unspeakably cruel.

Utterly thoughtless and uncaring, you might think you know about dogs, but your idea of what is acceptable and what isn’t makes your claim a load of bollox! Far too young to be left for any length of time, a puppy that young needs taking out to the toilet at least hourly as well. Rethink the whole thing!

Christ on a bike. Since when is owning a dog a part-time activity?!

Well you booking 3 weeks off work then leaving him most of the time for the rest of his life clearly makes it okay 🙄

He's only going to sleep less and less and would have been sleeping a lot because you've been there to entertain and provide mental stimulation all day. Please look into doggy daycare as it would be great socialisation for him too, better than a dog walker.

A puppy thread with no pics ?

Three weeks. Jeez

Fucking disgrace

I would be less concerned about the crate (at least for the first few weeks) and more about socialisation and separation anxiety. Let's hope it's not a howler....

Just a thought but our neighbours have an outside (large kennel) with an enormous (30+ feet) run attached to it that has toys, some small trees, and other interesting "obstacle course" type things in it. Seems to work really well. And as daft as this will probably sound... two puppies might at least be company for each other but only if the circumstances are better. I'm not suggesting doubling the current less-than-idea plan.

Why are you having a dog at all, OP, when you clearly know absolutely nothing about what's involved, and intend to spend as little time as possible with him? How are you going to socialise him and train him and house-train him? Why are you only engaging with the small handful of PP who aren't telling you that your plan is cruel and selfish? (Other than so very charmingly telling Medievalist to "bore off")

Dogs are a full-time job. If you already have a full-time job, you can't care for a dog properly. If you insist on having one all the same because it's all about you, you have to make sure someone else is available to look after your dog properly (even if you have to pay them). It's laughable that you are congratulating yourself for having three whole weeks off to deal with him.

Presumably in a year's time, you'll be back on MN saying how heartbroken you are that you're having to re-home him (because you will claim that your neglected dog as being difficult and uncontrollable, rather than looking to your own role in this). Dogs don't just train and socialise themselves, and if you can't do it, you shouldn't be having one.

Dogs are harder work than children, because they never stop being needy. I have had several (SAHM, with time to look after them properly), and I'm not having another one for this reason. Now my DC are older, I want to be able to go out for more than a couple of hours at a time!

It isn't about what a dog can do for you, but what you can do for a dog.

Is this a full time job?! What sort of breeder let you have one of their puppies? How does the dog get to socialise and learn anything other than to be on its own all day? What a cruel, heartless and totally selfish thing to do.

Just to check, you know your puppy shouldn’t do long walks at such a young age? Therefore you should more be paying the dog walker to puppy sit, play, socialise with and maybe train the puppy, twice a day, than to walk it (it’ll just need very short walk)? I assume each visit would be one hour, for it to be of any benefit to the puppy. So 7.45amyou leave, 10-11am dog walker visit? 12.30-1.15 you come home for lunch, 2-3pm second dog walker visit. I think something like that would be ok.. just about. As long as you do pay two full hour sessions with dog walker. Honestly, the puppycare of a reputable Doggy daycare would probably not be much more expensive and would mean puppy being socialised with people and dogs all day. Really worth considering. Also could you or your partner work from home a day a week?

obviously the dogs are older so have reign of the downstairs, like our dog will eventually.

You're going to have fun when your puppy is going through adolescence...

This is still far, far too much for a puppy. Pay for daycare so your puppy gets some proper interaction during the day. Dogs and puppies sleep when they're bored, not just because they're tired, so don't think that they're absolutely fine just because they're snoozing when you see them on a camera.

FWIW I have a one year old high energy breed and my partner and I work full time. We took three weeks off work at the beginning, and now I walk him at half 6 for an hour, he goes to a nearby family member's during the day, and then he gets walked again when I'm home. If we didn't have family support we'd be paying for daycare. It's doable to have a young dog and work full time but you should have made proper plans long before your puppy came home.

What would you have done if your puppy hated its crate?

We've had our 15 week old puppy with us for 3 weeks now and here's a few facts for you OP.

They can be created for up to 1 hour for every month of their age. At 13 weeks that's 3 hours to you.

They can be crated but it's not ideal. We agonised for years wanting a dog. It's only now that our teenage daughter is studying part time, I'm working from home 2 days a week and we have an amazing daycare lady that we've gone for it.

Our arrangements are as follows. On office days I leave the house at 7, so I'm up at 5:45 to take the puppy to the garden, play with him, give him his breakfast and pop him in his crate.

Our daycare arrives at 9 (I feel bad leaving him alone for even that long). She collects him, then takes him to her house until 3:30 when my husband collects him on his way home from work.

That's 3 days a week he goes to daycare and I would never have considered taking on a dog without that option.

I think anything other than putting a puppy with full time daycare is cruel and selfish. I know plenty of people with older dogs who have dog walkers but that's dogs of 2 years +

You need to find more suitable arrangements for your dog, urgently

And just so you know our puppy is fed at 6:30, 12 and 5.

About 1-2 hours after feeding he will need to go to the toilet so locking him away for 4 hours is cruel. Their little stomachs aren't designed to hold it for that long. That's why all guides say "up to x hours" but you're asking a dog to hold his bowel unnaturally every damn day.