Leaving puppy alone all day

[welshgal2]

My puppy is 6 months now. We got him at 8 weeks. I took the first 2 weeks we had him off work completely to help settle him in, and then returned part time either working in the morning or the afternoon for 4 hours. He was good as gold and the half a day he was left alone I would always get home to him playing with his toys or most of the time, fast asleep.

It's been a great few months with him but unfortunately couldn't afford to not return to work full time. I've been back full time for one week, to try and make the transition easier I've been going home for an hour at lunch and walking him and then popping home again at about 3pm for 15 minutes just to check up on him.

There's been a pretty obvious pattern of we leave him in the morning, he's good as gold and we return at lunch time to find him quite happy and no damage. However when I've been popping home mid-afternoon (where possible) or getting home from work at 5 we've been getting home to a complete mess. I'm talking wallpaper ripped off the wall, furniture chewed, ripped up toys. He's obviously reaching his threshold for being alone and getting bored and destructive.

DH and I didn't get a dog for a long time as we felt too guilty about our hours, so once we'd saved enough for me to take a few months part time we went for it figuring there's never a perfect time. We both have 2 days off a week, only 1 of those is normally the same day so puppy does get 3 days a week where he's not left alone, and if i go home for lunch he gets an hour and a walk, if DH goes home he'll get about half an hour and a run around the garden but not a walk. We leave the house about 9 and return around 5. Does anyone have any advice of how we can work around this? I don't want our pup to suffer but we need to work, we live rurally so hiring a dog walker isn't an option unfortunately.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

It's not about working full time. People get hung up on this and quite frankly I have seen posts where someone is at home all the time but have shut their dog/puppy away from them just as much because of 'other reasons'.

It's simply about leaving a puppy or dog alone for 'too long'. The length of time that is too long varies so you can't judge that one dog will tolerate hours alone just because they know others that will and equally no one on here knows that other people's dogs are distressed or sad just because they are alone for some time.

I know mine has a limit of around 3-4 hours in the day but only around 1 hour in the evening. Even now he is older he doesn't tolerate much more so whether I worked or was at home I would have to find someone else to look after him beyond those times.

I have been watching this thread intently since it started. I have an 8 month old puppy. He’s great he has been fantastic on his own since the beginning. We did it slowly of course. I work full time too however mostly at home. There are days where this isn’t possible but generally DH is home when I am not. He’s, generally, never intentionally left for more than 3 hours at at time one day we were at an activity with DS and he was left for 5 hours due to terrible traffic we all panicked he was fine but I wouldn’t want this to be the norm. One day since getting him we have had to both work on that occasion DH left at 9.30 the dog walker picked him up at 12 noon and then he was home at 2pm then DH was back by 3.30. I may at some point have to leave him for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon, but it would never be my intention to do so and we will do all we can to make sure this doesn’t happen. As bitey said all dogs are different ours can be left for a long time so long as he gets lots of
Excercise we just try not to. Good luck op and sorry for al of the haters I am sure you will work something out.

Posters who say dogs are happy being left all day on their own how can you possibly know? Just because they are not destructive does not mean they are happy.

Sleeping all day is not normal for.most dogs. They do it because they are bored because there is nothing else for them to do.

On the rare occasions my dogs are left they sleep. I can see them on my dog cam. When I am home with them, which is just about every day, they play with each other and with me, go in and out of the garden, rn around etc. They do sleep but not much - they have all night to do that.

Try spending 8 hours every day shut in 1 room, no tv, no internet, no books, no one to talk to and see how you like it. It would be awful

This is easy, build a kennel and run in the garden, or contract someone in to take him for a walk.

Honestly this is too long for a pup to be at home alone, they get bored so easily. My partner WFH Wednesday-Friday, so on Monday- Tuesday she gets dropped off at doggy daycare.

Could you take her to a daycare, or arrange for a dog walker? Just to break the day up a bit more than you are already. When they are alone maybe get a kong to stuff with their food? I freeze mine and it keeps her occupied for a while.

@welshgal2 it sounds as if your dog is OK during the morning because this is how long he's used to bring left but he's struggling with the extra time in the afternoon. It may also be down to his particular age as my experience with our puppy was that he was fine being left when we initially went back to work when he was 14 weeks (between 3 and 5 hours alone depending on shifts) but when he was about 6/7 months he started being destructive. What we found helped him was getting a thunder coat, when we put this on him he would just go into his cage (unlocked) and sleep. We used this for around 6 months.

I don't think the popping back for 15 mins is really helpful, my dog would find this really disruptive, he'd get all excited seeing us back but then there wouldn't be time for the games/ walks he was hoping for.

Hopefully you will find someone able to spend some extra time with him through the various Facebook groups suggested, but have you also tried the old-fashioned way of putting an advert in a shop window? (Although not sure how this would work re references) Or asking in local pet shops, vets, dog training ?

Also looking at your other thread regarding kennels I would say that not all kennels are the same, and maybe give it a try. I never wanted my dog to go to kennels but having not had any luck with finding a home boarder for our holiday we looked into kennels and found a small, family run kennels. The people are really lovely and at times they will take one of the dogs into the house with them if they need a bit of extra attention.

Good luck.

Op sorry you’re getting such a hard time, everyone I know with a dog works to some degree. There’s a few options, a dog walker doing a group walk (see if your dog can be first pick up last drop off) apuppy visit mid morning and mid afternoon. Dog day care. Any friends or family who can pop in? Try a walk in the morning before you go to work too. Have you tried boredom toys/kongs? Can you or DH wfh at all? Hope you manage to get it sorted.

A very happy update.. via Tailster we have found a lovely woman who will do doggy daycare in the same town as I work for an amazing price. It's in her home, with other small breeds, one hour walk a day and lots of cuddles and play for the other hours he's there. So happy I could actually cry. We met her this morning for coffee and to go through all the details and she was so lovely and so good with him.

That was exactly the place I was going to recommend
Our dog walker is through Tailster and she is amazing

@TantrumsAndBalloons I had scoured the Internet, every local Facebook page, asked in every local vets and pet shop I had all but given up and then she replied to tailster ad I put out weeks ago. Absolute miracle and couldn't have a more perfect set up. Very happy 

So pleased you got sorted Welsh, sounds like an ideal set up for him!

Well done. Credit to you for keeping a very cool head though the process.

So pleased to read your update. One very happy puppy and one very happy owner. Great news.

You obviously care for your dog very much