Dog walker vs. Doggy daycare

[DontTouchTheMoustache]

I have spent a year off work on maternity leave and with my 2 year old lab/springer cross but I now need to get a job sorted (was made redundant during mat leave) it's going to break my heart to leave DS and the dog and I'm worried about the dog being on his own. I will be working full time and probably too far to pop back at lunch so I was going to get a dog walker (I've found one that will do 5 days for £40 with an hours walk per day). But I still feel guilty about leaving him for so long on his own, so I'm considering doggy day care. The cheapest I can find would be about £60 per week but he would have company all day. But that's about £86 extra a month and with childcare costs it's already making it hardly worth going back to work financially. I'm not sure what to do. Is day care worth it or do you think just a dog walker would be sufficient? Really torn.

How long have you left DDog alone so far? I think the answer to this would sway me on which one to choose.

I have a puppy so he goes to daycare for most of the day when I am at work but I am hoping to move to just a dog walker when he is older as he can then have longer runs to tire him out but haven't made my mind up totally on that as I know he is bored after about 3 hours as I have spied on him which makes me think one walk in the middle of the day might not be enough.

Why not mix it? Say, daycare twice a week, which will tire your dog out massively (my dog has an activity tracker on his collar and he tends to do at least twice as much there as he does with me even though I walk him for a couple of hrs a day). My dog went yesterday and he's still tired today.
Then you could have the dog walker on the other 3 days.
Also, do you have anyone who could pop in to see him during the day, just to give him a bit of company?

I thought about mixing but the dog walker price is supposed to be £10 per day but if you do Monday to Friday you get Friday free so it's only £40 I'd you pay for a full week otherwise i lose the discount so would be full £10 per day and then wouldn't be much price difference anyway.
Before I had DS I worked closer to home so I'd go home at lunch time to see him and I did that for about 4 months so he has been left alone before.

I would say a dog walker would be better as he's getting exercise and stimulation/socialising then too.

I would ring a few walkers, see if you meet a few with the dog, choose a couple you'd be happy to leave the dog (and house key) with and say you've been given this quote and would they be able to beat it.

£60 for 5 lots of daycare is very reasonable - where I am it is £15 a day - I would go for day care as they get company and he will also get at least one walk, maybe 2. My dogs loved daycare and it was good for them to socialise and it was important to me that they not be left alone too long, I wouldn't go out to do a full day at work with just a dog walker halfway through the day, especially as you dog is used to you being at home for a year.

The doggy day care we use is £14 a day and that includes a decent walk. Would they consider half a day and drop him back home at lunch? That would help bring the cost down.

I would be interested to know price of half day - for me it was £12 so worked out much better value for all day but obviously OP's provider may be cheaper

I hadn't thought about asking for half a day of day care! Really good suggestion thank you, I will ask around. I think I'm swinging more towards day care at least for a year or so while he is still young and energetic

I think it depends on your dog. If he's very sociable and likes to play then I'd lean towards day care as it'll give him a good chance to mix with others. We started with day care (I do 12 hour shifts) and they did pick up and drop off and pup was knackered when she got back which was brilliant for us as we didn't have to worry about finding somewhere that was open the hours we needed. If doing 9-5 type hours I'd see if day care can do half days (I know mine do). Luckily my sil does grooming and dog sitting so she goes there now and they're ok with me dropping her off at 6am. They have 4 dogs of their own and pup (now 10 months) loves going to play for the day. I didn't like the idea of a dog walker purely because of her age and knowing she'd be at home alone the vast majority of the day, especially if my shifts over run as the often do!

Yes he is a very sociable dog and loves mixing with others so I think day care might be the only fair option for him. Thank you all for advice I will certainly ask about half days as that would probably be a happy medium for us (he is quite lazy in the mornings anyway so afternoon day care would probably be fine for.him)

Could you look into a dog friendly nanny? Childcare & dogcare in one.

iam Yes I have been looking into it and sadly it would just be too expensive which is a shame