Dog owners: what hours do you work?

[coursesforhorses]

Would love a dog. DH and I are both out the house 6.30am-7pm (I work 8-5.30 with a long commute, 1.5 hours each way) so no way it's practical.

I've looked at dog day care but they only seem to open between 7.30am - 6pm so wouldn't work for us. I'd never leave a dog home alone all day.

So I guess we'll have to wait until the future, if we reduce our hours at work. But realistically there are few local jobs so I can see us always having to commute into London.

Yet so many people around us seem to have dogs, I just don't understand how they do it?'

If you have a dog, what hours do you work?

[BiteyShark]

Some dog day care places do pick up and drop off from people's houses. Would that be something you could consider. Trust me after a full day in day care running around with other dogs they would sleep until you got home.

Saying that you would only really see the dog on holidays and weekends with those hours so not sure how great that would be for either you or the dog.

[OnlyEatsToast]

I work from home

[Costacoffeeplease]

I work from home

[Asmoto]

I work full-time, husband part-time - our hours only overlap once a week, for 3.5 hours. As a general rule, we don't leave the dog on his own for more than four hours, though he's been OK on the odd occasion we've had to leave him longer. He does have cats for company while we're out!

[KinkyAfro]

We're out of the house from 7-7 but my mum has the dog

[tabulahrasa]

I work evenings and a Saturday morning out of the house and DP is out till dinner time, so in theory the dog has an hour or so alone after I leave before DP gets back, but... DS is at uni and usually home before I leave and DD is often in before I leave as well.

[MidLifeCrisis2017]

When I worked full time I was out for 9 hours but had an excellent dog walker who picked her up before her other dogs and dropped her off last, meaning she had 3 hours company in the middle of the day.

[SkeletonSkins]

I would 8-4/5, OH works 12-8, I come home at 1 for lunch to see the dogs.

[niceupthedance]

We work full time but have an au pair. Ddog goes to day care 3x per week.

[VivienneWestwoodsKnickers]

DP takes dog to work 3 days a week (Royal Navy). My mate is out of work at the moment, so spends 2 days taking our mutt out with hers for very very long walks on beaches etc. She comes home exhausted (dog, but also my mate)!

I can work from home occasionally for doggy emergencies, like her two bouts of giardia.

She's never alone more than 4 hours (like if we go to the pub for a night out).

[yecartmannew]

There are 3 days a week where we are both at work 8.45 till 5.15. We have a dog walker on one of those.
The other 2 days they are fine
That is worse case scenario tho as I sometimes take the dogs to work with me and we have 3 grown up kids who often work different hours so in reality they are most often only left for a few hours

[Catdogcat]

I work mostly from home with some meetings and dog goes to daycare on those days.

DH works away on a 3 on 3 off rotation so there's generally someone here with dog or he's at daycare.

[littlehayleyc]

Hubby works full time. I work 25hrs a week, usually 6 hrs shifts, and live about 10 mins from work. I do most of the dog walking, and depending on my shift times I have a dog walker to come in when I'm at work. Even working part time, and having a dog walker there are times when my husband is working away that the dog doesn't get as many walks as I'd like. With the school run and after school clubs etc its hard sometimes to fit eveything in.

[AlmostNQT]

Try Borrow my Dog or Cinammon Trust!

There are elderly and poorly people who have gorgeous dogs who need to be walked or played with or have a day out!

[PossumInAPearTree]

I work 8-4 three days a week. I have a dog walker.

[ImSexyAndIKnowIt]

The longest I'm out is 5 hours twice a week, I'm up with them at 6am for a walk and then give them Frozen Kongs when I leave the house to keep them busy for a little while.
They aren't puppies anymore though so can cope with being left, I'd never leave a puppy that long. I think mine just lay on the sofa while I'm out even though they know they shouldn't and would never dream of doing it when I'm home! But it's the lesser of two evils as when I used to shut the front room door they would look for stuff to rip up.

[CMOTDibbler]

I WFH FT. If I'm not here, DH WFH (to be here for ds to come home to after school as well)

[allfurcoatnoknickers]

9 - 5, so out of the house 8:30 - 5:45 ish most days. DH works from home at least one a week and we have a dogwalker. If we'll ever both be working late, we use a doggy daycare.

[Hoppinggreen]

Husband out of the house 6-5
I work mostly from home with occasional meetings - in which case we use doggy daycare. However, we have a DS to be collected from school at 3.30 so one of us is always around from then on

[NicoleC1990]

My husband and I both work full time, I'm out 7.30-5.30 and my husband leaves the house at 9.30 and is usually home at 6. We have a dogsitter who comes to our house and looks after them from 10.30am - 4pm. We pay £28 for two dogs which I don't think is too bad, and that's 3 days a week. We also have a dog walker who takes them from 12-2pm on a Monday and then on a Friday my mum comes over to watch them.

So it can work if you're prepared to put the effort in, dogs definitely need company but they don't need it ALL day long.

[Sodomeyes]

I work from home a lot but when I'm in work, our doggy day care picks up and drops off.

They usually pick up about 8am and drop her back about 5:30pm. I normally get back from work about 6:30pm so she's only alone for an hour and she's so knackered from daycare that she just sleeps anyway.

Sometimes they catch us in before we go out or when we've just got back but otherwise, they just leave the dog in the dining room where we ask them to and text to confirm she's in there.

If you're getting a dog, please rescue. Don't buy a puppy, it feeds the demand for puppies, which feeds the puppy farm business.

[mustiwearabra]

I now work from home but previously, when I left at 8am, getting back at 5.30pm, he would go on a long walk with a dog walker from around 11am-2pm (it was the equivalent of 2 walks so this was obviously reflected in price) and then visited by another walker who is just down the road from us at roughly 4pm to go out for a wander. This woman would stay for half an hour (though I'd often get texts asking could she stay longer for free for cuddles!). Total daily cost = £40. Completely worth it though because the dog is shattered when you get home and when the weather is hot, the dog walkers can also monitor water, air con and/or fans on timers, cooling mats etc.

[RebelandaStunner]

I work 2-4 hours a day, part of that from home. DC are around quite a bit and DH is sometimes home before me. Our dogs are probably home alone, but with each other, for 2 hours a day maximum and not every day. They go for two walks a day, later walk is at least 1 hour.

[applesareredandgreen]

I work PT and DH works shifts so 3 days each week Ddog is left 3 - 5 hours then for a couple of hours on my non working days as I have other commitments. We walk him in the morning before leaving him. On return in the afternoon and again in the evening. I always leave him a kong, an antler and another varying treat dispensing toy but mostly he goes into his cage and sleeps.