How do you work with a puppy?

[3oldladiesstuckinalavatory]

Just that really. We have a nearly 5 month old poodle cross. She's adorable and well trained, but that's because I've been at home with her for nearly two months. I need to go back to work and can't quite figure out how to manage it.

DH works from home 2/3 days a week and my kids are secondary school aged, so could be back home to walk her at 4pm. I am happy to hire a dog walker and have contacted a couple of professionals that friends have recommended already, to get on waiting lists.

I would really welcome all tips about how best to get back to work with everyone happy and thriving. I'm job searching at the moment, so have time to think this through to do the best thing for the dog as well as for me (can't stay home much longer, being a housewife is driving me crackers!).

Is she being left at all right now?

The most I could have left my puppy at 5 months was 2 hours, by that time he would start barking, we did crate train him, starting with overnight at first, then 30 minutes daytime and gradually increased the time. I did have a camera on him, so could see how he got on. Every dog is different, some are able to be left longer, but I always made sure my puppy had a good walk/sniff/run before I left him. Check with dog walkers, how much actual walk will they actually get, some charge by the hour, but that can include time picking up and dropping off, especially if it’s group walking and some include some of that time to feed dog.

I would start leaving her on her own gradually, are you popping out during the day to get groceries etc? You could also look for a role that offers hybrid/working from home.

Thanks so much for your replies. I'm looking for whatever I can find at the moment - it's a really tough job market and I'm 54, changing direction and might just have to take whatever's offered. In a fantasy world, I could work from home on the days DH is out and we'd be completely covered, but I'm preparing for that not to happen. I'm interviewing for a job later in the week which could potentially fit and I might even be able to take the dog to work with me, when she's fully trained (not quite there yet, she's still learning to settle, ask to go out when she needs to, and she would absolutely 100% create havoc with another dog if someone else had theirs in at the same time).

To answer questions, she is crated overnight and can do up to two hours during the day for naps. I have never put her in there at any other time, so I'm a bit nervous about it. I don't leave her alone during the day, there's usually someone with her in the house but she doesn't know that since she's under a cover in her crate, which is in a quiet room off the kitchen.

She has a pen in the kitchen that we put her in when we're busy, but I don't like to leave her there becuase I'm not totally sure she's safe and her toys can roll out (it's sturdy and made just for dogs, but it has vertical bars).

No camera (I would rather not have one if it can be avoided).

This is our first dog so we're a bit clueless!

We only made it work because the in laws took her on the days we couldn't work from home. She wasn't a puppy day care kind of dog, we tried it a couple of times and she hated it. She's 5 now and will happily be left for a few hours at a time with someone taking her out or letting her out at lunchtime then a proper walk in the evening. But in practice the in laws still come and take her after we've gone for work and deliver her back about 3pm .

That sounds like the ideal solution. Unfortunately, the first thing the inlaws said, when we told them we had a puppy, was "don't expect us to look after it". 😂

Which is fair enough really.