Should I do something about this?!

[Panicmode1]

Every day (during the week) there is a builder working on a house near me and he has his very large black lab confined in the back of his car. I walk past at least twice, usually three times a day walking my own dog, or taking my children to and from school and his dog is always in the back of the car. Obviously I'm not there all day so don't know whether he is walking the dog at all, and sometimes there is a food/water bowl on the floor by the door of the house, but I can't help feeling that this isn't a very happy situation for the dog. I was about to phone the RSPCA to ask whether they are happy about it, but I know that there are far worse things happening to animals out there so I'm not sure if I'm wasting their time....WWYD?

The RSPCA wouldn't do anything about it. From what you say the dog isn't distressed and owner might be regularly checking.

Fair enough. I just thought it didn't seem much fun for the dog but I'm a novice dog owner so not really sure what's acceptable. I wouldn't want to do that to my dog - but then she'd chew her way out probably!

My laid back lab would be quite happy in this situation if he knew I was nearby, as long as it was cool enough. He loves being in the car, he''d have lots of naps and watch people walking past.

This exact thing happened to me last year. I live on a new build estate. I saw the same guy pull up every morning and leave the dog. I did get worried when it was warmer, but he walked it at lunchtimes. The dog was never distressed. I made up my mind that actually there could be a million reasons why this was the 'best' option for the dog. It stopped in the summer though.

I think that if he's still doing this when the weather is hotter (which is very likely - it's a huge project) I will be concerned if the dog is still in the car all day, but will cross that bridge if and when we get there!

DH occasionally does this with our pup. She has a long walk in the morning, eats & sleeps. He then fetches her at lunch & takes her to the site he's working on. She sits in his van watching the world go by & getting fussed by all the other workers, she loves it much more than being at home alone.

We live in a town, so the dog is in a parked car on the side of a road, sitting in the boot, and I've not seen anyone interact with it at all in the two weeks since this has been happening - and I do pass several times a day.

However, it seems that I am judging the situation by the standards of my dog, who would not tolerate this at all and would be bored rigid, so I haven't done anything about it, and won't unless and until the weather gets hotter!

For all you know, the dog might suffer from separation anxiety and may well be much happier left to sleep / mooch in the van when it knows its owner is nearby.
My DF used to have dogs and took very good care of them, but ended up giving away one who clearly needed to be with someone all day as it was clearly unhappy.