Thinking of getting a puppy

[Falconhoof1]

I have never had a dog, my DH had grown up with them. We are in the initial stage of getting a puppy (ie decided to get one but not yet looked for one). My kids are 13 and 9 and have wanted one for ages. My (many) concerns include house training. I am off work for the school holidays so this seems an ideal time to get a puppy as I can focus on training for 5 full weeks. But at the end of 5 weeks we are going away for 5 days on a pre arranged holiday. What can we do with the puppy then? From what I've read it will not be fully house trained in that time. Will kennels take it? I can't imagine my DH family wanting to mind an un- trained puppy but we haven't yet asked (plus they work). Also I will be working after the holidays too but will only be out of the house for 6 hours. Is it ok to leave a puppy alone for that long? As you can tell I'm totally clueless and DH just says "it'll be fine!"

You can't toilet train a puppy in five weeks. It took me ten months to fully train my puppy.

Six hours a day is too long to leave a puppy. It won't "be fine" and you will never get it house trained.

I'm sorry op, but it doesn't sound like you're in a position to get a puppy.

Thanks for your reply. I did wonder about such things so I think we might need a rethink. How do people who work manage to own dogs?

Well Eric was house trained within a fortnight so it is possible but you aren't in a position to get a puppy. What you are suggesting is leaving a 14 week old puppy for six hours a day. No dog should be left for more than four hours a day anyway but at fourteen weeks a puppy needs constant supervision to keep itself safe and to ensure that house training is a success. At fourteen weeks Eric was ok to be left for about 40 minutes which covered the school run and nipping in for a paper. You need to reconsider your plans,maybe look for an adult dog and doggy day care.

Many thanks for your reply. We will discuss all this before going any further. I really do want to do this right.

I'm assuming most people who work f/t send their dogs to day care or get dog walkers in to take dog out.

I do know some people who leave their dogs alone all day while they work, but that it very cruel imo.

As to training a puppy and being out of the house five plus hours a day... just not possible from my experience of raising my puppy.

You might possibly be OK with an older dog? A retired greyhound or such? They sleep all day anyway Puppies are hard, hard work though and your DH doesn't really sound that on board/clued up if his attitude is it will be fine.

Would you consider an older dog?

This sounds like a tall order for a puppy.

At about 3 months old (when you go on holiday) the dog will have just been vaccinated and able to hold its bladder for no longer than about a hour. It will not be toilet trained and, most likely, not yet trained to 'ask' to go out for a pee.

If you put it in kennels you are essentially isolating it outside, alone in a strange environment. It will undo any toilet training you have achieved so far because he will have to pee in the kennel. It is also likely to cause some social issues, imo. Things linked to the increased stress and anxiety of being left alone.

The other option is to find someone who home boards dogs so keeps them in their house. It is unlikely anyone will accept a puppy who is not toilet trained because of the chances of accidents in their house plus the intensive time required to constantly supervise them.

Following that you need to go back to work. 6 hours is too long to leave a young dog and you should expect this to trigger real anxiety at being left alone - howling, crying, peeing, pooping, chewing. This may or may not be undone as the dog grows up - i.e. it can cause the dog to hate being left alone for the rest of his life.

6 hours is also too long for him to not to toilet and so, again, the dog will have no choice but to 'go' in the house - making it very difficult for him to understand he should, ideally, be toileting outdoors.

In short, this does not sound ideal at all. For you or the dog.

An older dog who is used to being left would be a better fit but you should still cost in having someone come in to see/walk the dog to break that six hours up a bit - that'll cost about £10-15 each day. That £ can add up so this may be an issue.

He really doesn't seem clued up! I would consider an older dog. We'll discuss all our options but this has been a great help. Thank you all.

Just to say my puppy is 8 months old and still has accidents in the house. I'm home with her every day and we're still working on it (usually she goes inside when it's raining outside). At the moment she's also very destructive when left for anything longer than about 20 minutes, which again we're working on but it's taking time and needs someone to be here a lot for her. Maybe consider an older dog which has come from a working family?

We are in a similar position and we made it work by getting our puppy at the beginning of the summer holidays and having no family holiday. We then had about 8 weeks at home with pup and employed a pet sitter for when we all had to go back to work. I too work six hours a day but the pet sitter covers us for most of that so he doesn’t have much home alone time. There is no way we could have left him at sixteen weeks for at that age even though he was fully toilet trained. Is there any way you could cancel your holiday? I think it’s a bit soon to be leaving puppy. So In all, our pup is a very expensive luxury that we thought long and hard about which is what has made it work for us.

Thanks so much for your reply.
No can't cancel as it's a family celebration and all paid for. I'd rather wait until next summer than cancel. My DH is also sayng the dog can be crated for 6 hours. That sounds cruel to me but as I said, I'm clueless!

I think you’re right - wait until next summer and you can plan for not having a holiday. We honestly didn’t mind as we were so excited about our new arrival but bear in mind that you will be stuck indoors for a lot of the time. Pup can’t go anywhere until all jabs have kicked in and then can only walk short distances. It’s a huge learning experience! I also agree that six hours on a crate is too long. Sounds like you’ve thought this out better than DH 😉

So your husbands plan is to crate puppy for 6/7 hours during the day and presumably crate overnight for at least 8 hours so that’s 14/24 hours in a cage . Perhaps you could lock him in a cage for 14 hours a day for a few days and see if he likes it . This is one of the reasons I am anti cage because it enables people like your husband to buy pups and leave them for long hours with little or no mess or inconvenience to them , loads of people do it and it’s simply cruel .

You probably can’t house train a puppy in 5 weeks and then putting it in kennels when it is just getting to know you could cause serious problems
And no, you can’t shut a dog in a crate for 6 hours. We leave our dog for 4 hours max and then not in a crate.
Your DH has no idea and you shouldn’t get a puppy with your current set up

Most kennels around here have a minimum age of 6 months.

How do people who work manage to own dogs? I paid for daycare and was very fortunate to find someone to take mine when he was about 3.5 months old who continued to train him (toilet and general training).

Thank you all for your helpful advice. I'm going to suggest waiting until next year and/or getting an older dog as a puppy seems like too big a job for us at present. 🐕

If you do decide on a puppy rather than an older dog, you should be looking at breeders now for next year.

Anyone you could get a puppy from for this summer wouldn’t have been a great breeder, puppy farmers are the most likely to have puppies available last minute like that, good breeders have waiting lists from planning their litter, well before the mating actually happens.

An older rescue dog with a walker could work, but not crating for 6 hours and definitely not for a puppy!!!

Your life style is incompatible with having a puppy as pp have said and no it won't be 'fine'.

If you decide to get an older dog, you need to be aware that no dog should be left alone for longer than 4 to 5 hours and certainly not on a regular basis. Also a lot of adult dogs suffer from separation anxiety, so you could find yourself with a very troubled dog.

Rescue dogs often come from difficult or abusive backgrounds, you can't take one into your home and then leave it alone for six hours each day, so you would have factor in the cost of doggie day care each day, or some sort of dog walker a couple of times a day.

And don't listen to people who say an older dog will sleep all day. Maybe it will, but that's because it's got nothing else to do, not because it's happy to sleep it's life away. Dog's need company and regular exercise, even older ones.

Yes, you can shut a dog in a house or crate for hours on end and as long as you feed and water it it'll survive but it'll be depressed and desperately unhappy, just like you would if you lived like that.

You can’t leave a puppy alone for that long, or even a new adult dog but once the dog is old enough and settled, you may be able to. Some dogs have separation anxiety, some are fine being left alone.
It’s just about finding what works and getting them settled into a routine.
Otherwise nobody that works full time would be able to have a dog.