leaving puppy, is this an ok length of time?

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

Peppa is 11wks, she has been with us for 2 weeks. She now stays in her crate without whining/trying to dig her way out, and I put her in there with the door closed whenever she is eating (partly so she eats without getting distracted and partly to keep the kids away from her!)
Friday and today I have left her while I did the school run, 10-15 minutes Friday morning, and then today, 10-15 minutes morning and afternoon. I left the telly on both times (near her crate) and both times when I came back she was lying on her bed in her crate chewing one of her toys.
is this OK? should I gradually build up how long I leave her for from here?

I think leaving her for 10-15 minutes initially is absolutely ideal tbh. Then once you/she are ocnident with that you can build it up gradually.

Sounds great to me. The only thing I did read which gave me one more thing to panic about is to avoid leaving dogs crated with tvs or washing machines/tumble dryers on (hmm, the latter is a bit more impractical), as they're relatively common causes of house fires.

Hence the dog is the only person in our house who listens to Radio 5!

I leave my puppy for 2 hours max at the moment- 11 weeks old. I will build up to longer when she is an adult, but she will be able to have the other dog for company.

when our german shepard was young he was left with MIL all day while we were at work and would do 2/3 hour stints alone while she was out shopping. however, when he was one he stopped going and he was left (and still is) for 9/10 hours a day when we are at work. he has the radio on all day while we're out and is completely fine. (although we do get the odd reprot of howlign from the neighbours althoguh we think thats got more to do with songs he dislikes on the radio!!)

9/10 hours!!!!!! thats horrible. how do you know he is ok with that. bored and lonely more like

I don't understand why people have dogs if they can't be around at all during the day. You should at least get somebody to walk them at lunchtime or something. Totally unethical, in my view, to leave a dog regularly for that long.

10-15 minutes is obviously absolutely fine.

OP - our puppy has been with us for nearly 2 weeks now and we have left her for up to 2 hours on her own in the last couple of days a) because we have needed to do stuff and b) because both my husband and I are around all of the time at home and we didn't want her to get too used to being with us and getting anxious the time we did need to go out. In the case of a) one of us could have gone to the shops or done our daughters party or gone to the pub! But we decided because of b) to both go! We have built it up over the two weeks and never more than 20 mins at first, then an hour and now two hours and puppy is always happy to go in crate and is allways asleep when we come home.

We also put her in her crate sometimes for a rest like now for instance I needed to do dinner, homework, showers and kids to bed so she went in her crate, well actually she was in her crate sleeping anyway but I just shut the door. We sometimes put her in the crate whilst we are just living so that she knows that not everytime she goes in crate is because we are leaving her. I work from home but am on a lot of conference calls somedays and I needed to know that if I am doing a presentation or needing quiet time I could pop her in crate in another room and not be puppy monitoring whilst husband is doing the school run or out shopping.

She loves her crate - its a real haven for her and everyone in the house knows that crate time is the dogs time everyone is to ignore her and give her space to chill.

Hi.
Reading with interest in case we get a dog.
If we do, it will be a small breed (small flat).
So when you guys all go out, are you leaving the dog in the crate with the door shut?

our dog (18mths old) has the run of the kitchen/diner whilst we are out and only gets shut in her crate at bed time - we only did this because she got to 6mths and was still messing at night. we decided to shut her in at night and she's been clean ever since.
When she's left during the day she has a (vast!) selection of toys including a treat toy called a Kong Wobbler which she loves (even when empty).
She's been left for 3-4 hours from about 14 weeks and one of the 'grandparents' pops in to see her and walk her.
I think she mainly sleeps when we're out though cos she gets absolutely shattered when we're home all day and she doesn't get her naps in!

SilveryMoon - yes crate door is shut when you go out. If door was open dog would have the run of the house and create merry hell!

There are hundreds of threads on here about crate training, please make yourself understand the theory behind it and the "rules" before getting a puppy also read Ian Dunbar's crate training methods.

I don't think we will get a puppy, I was just interested in how people use crates.
If we did decide to get another pet (we already have a cat) I will obviously research it all first.

I have 3 dogs and I sometimes leave them 4 hours during the day, but only after they have had a long walk in the morning. They have the run of a large room with dog beds and water bowl and they all kip together quite happily. Have never left them 9-10 hours though apart from at night time.