Getting a dog when you work?!

[Green13]

Sounds like a ridiculous question but it is genuine! What do you do with your puppy when you go to work? I work every morning. Home by 1. I would like to get a family dog but I'm concerned about the puppy stage in particular and leaving it on its own? I'm sure there are plenty of dog owners that can advise? Thank you x

don't get a puppy.
Loads of nice dogs (some young) in rescues looking for homes.

For example, we just fostered a dog that came into a rescue. Rehomed due to personal circumstances of the owner.

He was lovely. Beautiful, gentle, laid back character, affectionate and lovely with kids. Easy to walk and generally ticked every box for nice family dog. He was a breed not a mix, and he was rehomed within 2 weeks, to a lovely couple who adored him on sight.

As he wasn't a puppy he would have been fine being left for about 4 hours each day.

We just have a dog walker

Good luck with finding a rescue that will rehome if you work, have children, live near a main road, have cats, have dogs, have rabbits ...

If you are only away in the mornings, it should not be too difficult. With training, you will be alright. I am assuming you work 8-1? Thats only 5 hours and most dogs/puppies can manage on their own.

.

Whilst you could easily manage having an adult dog just working mornings it would be much more difficult with a puppy. It takes time to get them used to being on their own and then gradually increasing how long they can be left. There's also toilet training to consider, early on they need to be taken out very frequently (every 20-30 minutes or so) when they're awake. If there's nobody there to do that then they'll get into the habit of going inside which mean getting them reliably house trained will take longer.

It's worth having a read through of the puppy-related links on the Doghouse sticky thread. It'll give you an idea of how much work puppies are. The puppy survival threads (current one here) are also worth having a look at.

Would you consider an adult rescue dog? That might be a better option if you're unable to take some time off worth to get a puppy settled and into a routine. Many smaller, independent rescues are entirely foster based so they have a much better idea of how their dogs behave in (often family) homes than those who have their dogs in kennels. Smaller rescues also tend to be a bit more flexible with their rehoming criteria than larger ones as well.

I work full time but I alternate office with home. When I got a puppy I made sure I was at home full time for the first month to settle him in and get a good start on the toilet training. After that time when I was in the office he went to doggy day care.

Ophelia, not all rescues do, but the rescue I foster for will rehome to people in all kinds of situations - working, with other animals, with children of all ages, living near main roads, living in flats (in a recent case in a narrowboat), and so on. It just depends on the dog and the people in question. But the more restrictions in your search, the fewer dogs there are - and we always have to be over cautious as getting returned to rescue is a really bad thing for a dog

OP, all morning is a long time in the puppy stage where they need a lot of input. But there are lots of 6-9 month old puppies in rescue who could cope with that, and obviously lots of adults too.

Whilst I think an adult dog can be left up to 5 hours a day (personally we only leave ours 4 hrs max), I don't think a puppy can be left. By puppy I mean up to about 2 years old but ours was notoriously difficult to house train (breed are known for it). We did Doggy day care from the get go with ours. She's never really been left for long periods and our day care is home from home and look after her at weekends, holidays etc. When we first got her we coincided it with my husband taking 3mths off work so she was 5mths old when she started at day care.

We rehomed two sighthounds to a house with cats from two separate rescues so it is possible - don't be put off! We weren't fussy on breed/age/sex just looking for a dog that would fit in with our lives and the rest of the four legged crew. We both worked full time but DH nights and me days so they were never left alone for more than a few hours. 9 years on everybody still gets on great and now we have a 2yo DS they all love.

First dog slotted in like she'd been there from day 1, fully house trained, fairly obedient & very cuddly. 2nd dog had been removed from a family because of physical violence and had crippling anxiety. He was harder work but absolutely worth it. I couldn't see past a rescue dog now.

Okay lots to consider. Thanks for your experiences and advice x

We got a puppy this summer, my boyfriend and I both work full time. We can do a couple of working from home days each and on the other days the puppy goes to daycare (he prefers these days...!). Initially we took 3 weeks off with him to settle him in. He's 5 months old now and has a lovely life - it can be done as long as you've prepared for the expense of daycare!

A puppy shouldn't be left for anything like as long as 5 hours. I will only leave my 5 year old dog for 4 hours max.

A puppy needs to be toilet trained which means frequent visits to the garden. A puppy should have about 5 meals a day and that wouldn't be possible if left for that length of time.

Also there is a good chance a puppy will be bored left all that time and will bark and/or cry a lot and also, quite possibly, be destructive.

We have one day of the week when our puppy is on his own from 9am until 3pm. We have a puppy/ dog sitting lady who comes in and feeds him, lets him out, plays with him for half an hour etc. It's not ideal but I am reducing my weekday working to 2 days soon so he won't be left on his own for long at all. My teenage son is home the other 2 day that I work. I agree with others about the toilet training. We have very few accidents now but he does use the puppy pad which I put near the back door when we are not there.