Work 3 days a week - puppy?

[EarlessToothlessVagabond]

Is it do-able. If I worked 3 days a week - very local 10 mins commute and could nip home at lunch time. Dd 13 home by 3.10pm each day. Could this work with an initial period of time off work for settling in etc?

There will be lots of people along to tell you that you should only keep a dog if you're going to be home every minute of every day.

It is doable I think but you would need to go home at lunch- how long is your lunch? Puppies can take ages to go to the toilet because they are too busy sniffing/exploring.

Also, having a puppy is HARD work, so make sure you're prepared!

Maybe a dog that's a little older?

Older dog yes, puppy no.

It's not kind and can lead to all sorts of issues.

Older dog yes.
Not a puppy.

We paid a lovely dog walker to come in to see our puppy when I was working 2 days per week. £6 per half hour. She came twice a day for about 6 weeks until pup was able to go out. We then gave him a walk before work, a dog walker's walk in the middle of the day, then got home for 4.30pm. It was fine, he was with one of us all day, on the other days of the week.

I work in the office around 3 days a week with the other days at home. I got a puppy at 8 weeks old and stayed at home to settle him in for the first month. At first I was going to just have someone pop in twice a day when back at work but it soon became apparent that it was still too long on his own for my dog so he went to day care.

This had the advantage that toilet training and other training continued when at day care as it can take weeks/months and every accident in the house is a missed opportunity to help with the toilet training.

Disadvantage is day care is expensive but I think it is worth every penny especially as they are tired so aren't as demanding when you get home from a full day at work.

Unless you have an extremely laid back puppy who doesn't mind being left hours OR you don't care about them peeing and pooing in the house I do think you might struggle until they are older with you just popping in at lunch time.

Puppies are massive arseholes. They chew, they pee, they run away, they keep you up at night, they shred the bottoms of your trousers, they need constant entertainment Get an older dog

Who wants the puppy you or 13 year old dd?

My dh is always going on about a puppy im a sahm and i still say no because i know i like to go out during the day imo its unfair. Imagine needing a wee at 9.30 in the morning but not being able to go until lunch time.

Get a pen, crate, and invest in day care when the puppy is young - It's definitely possible but make sure the puppy won't be left alone for longer than 5-10 mins at first and build it up.

Hmm I suppose you're all confirming what I suspect. Thanks. We all want a dog but adults responsible of course.

You'll all hate me but I'm dubious about an older rescue dog. We have 2 cats, heard horror stories etc....

Puppies are hard work. Really hard work.
My two foster puppies are 8 weeks old and going to their forever homes at the beginning of next week. I get up twice in the night to let them out to toilet. We get up, feed them, send them out to toilet, play, clean up accidents, feed them, tell them at frequent intervals to not chew the door/skirting board/shred the puppy pads, do training. Then they sleep for a bit and it all starts again as they are on 4 feeds a day until 10 weeks. And mine can't go out yet, so no actual walks!

I can leave them for 2 hours max (timing it for their big nap), and anymore than that could well lead to poonami

And I agree with others about how hard work they are. I wanted the puppy and researched lots beforehand but it was extremely hard in the early months trying to juggle home, work and the puppy. Even now it seems like all my spare time is spent caring, training or generally looking after the dog and he is almost 15 months old now.

Whilst I wouldn't swop him for anything in the world I am not sure I would have done this had I known how hard it was going to be. Whilst some people have easy puppies you have no idea whether yours is going to be easy or hard work until they arrive. Have a look back on the puppy survival threads on here to see all the different issues people have encountered with their puppies.

What time do you go out in the morning? I also do 3 day week but my DH does shifts so one week he would be alone from when I went out at 9.00 until DH came back at 2.00 and alternate week between DH going out at 12 and DS returning from school at 3.30.

We got our pup at beginning of school summer holidays so were at home with him for the first 2 weeks all the time then spent the next few weeks building him up to leaving him for the times mentioned above.

We left him in the kitchen where he has a cage (door open) and with plenty of toys although he normally just sleeps.

Now I will say that although he seemed fine with this to start with, he did go through a period when he was around 6-7 months where he was quite destructive and ripped all the wallpaper off the wall then dug into the plaster. We were deliberating between a walker/day care or a pen, but having read about Thundercoats on here, we got him one of those and after that he was fine again.

He's a bit older now and settled.

Definitely durable with lots of support from family, friends or dog walkers...
But you have to be realistic about reaching little milestones like house tea which will take longer. And of course there is the chewing!