Would leaving a puppy alone for this length of time be ok?

[Duckegg271]

If we got puppy at 10 weeks, I had 5 weeks working from home and then returned to work for the following hours:

Tuesday 9-12 home for an hour at lunch then back to work 1-4

Wednesday 9-12

Friday 9-12

Would that be ok or too long left alone?

[SunnyUpNorth]

Thanks @Veterinari I had missed your second reply. I will give that second video a watch.
He doesn’t have many accidents inside but he doesn’t really indicate that he wants to go outside, I just bring him out quite often.

I’ve been trying to flit around the house more during the day. Still needs work!!

[StressyDressyHeels]

Initially it’s a little while on Tuesday but puppy will soon be a dog and it’s only day a week in the meantime. IMO it’s fine.

[Baxdream]

We have a Lhasa apso and he is/was fine being left.
Personally I think if you get a dog walker on a Tuesday, with the right breed you'll be fine!

We can leave him for 6 hours (rarely happens though as he's very cute so we have a lot of doggy day care help from family plus shifts/wfh)

[Coffeeandchocolate9]

Lots of people talking spaniels, did I miss a bit where you said tha is the breed you'd like?

They're a pretty labour-intensive breed. They're intelligent, need a lot of physical and mental stimulation and, like collies if not given enough work will go "self-employed". Spaniels also always have their own agenda! I love a Spangle, but they're not perhaps the most natural choice of breed for somebody who has to go to work even the very part time hours you have. Add in puppy and you've got all sorts of additional needs and responsibilities and the trouble is thay if you fuck up at that age you'e screwed. You also don't know the puppy's personality at all - you could do everything textbook perfect and have one that won't settle.

With that in mind have a search for breed-specific rescues in your area. Would you consider Britain's favourite dog, a labrador? Or a retired greyhound whose life goals are generally 20 minutes walk and sleep the rest of the day on a sofa! Plenty of adults of both types need fostering and rehoming.

[MouseInATelescope]

We just got a little Springer, she's 12 weeks and I'd say after daily training from 8 weeks she's 90% crate and toiler trained. Whines at the back door to go out. She'll sleep all night now downstairs, no fuss because she's had the same routine every night, 9 o clock, outside wee, chewy stick, blanket over crate, lights out, night night. In the beginning though (first 2 weeks there was a LOT of whinging and howling at night, and a LOT of accidents on the carpet. I had to get up with her twice a night, usually midnight and around 3 and let her out them first 2 weeks.

She has bonkers episodes at least 3 times a day that last a long while. We (mostly me) run around the garden with her, take her on the moors, and play tug on and off all day. I couldn't leave her for any longer than 2 hours.... I feel like she'd just get way too frustrated and upset.

Sometimes she has "time outs" in the crate for getting too wild and mouthy and she can howl and whine from being taken away from the fun, but she needs to learn how to behave - obviously at 12 weeks there's still so much training to do. I'm not at the "letting her off the lead" stage at all yet, she's on a very long lead though and still feels free on the moors.

During the day a lot of the time she needs to physically be able to see me in the same room as her to be able to settle. She will follow me to the toilet alllllllllll the time. She's very very needy. But she's adorable and she is SO funny! we never stop laughing at her

Just my experience!

[kjhkj]

The things is you just don't know what the dog will be like until you have them. DPuppy is 4 months old and I work from home. This morning he slept from 10.30 - 12.30 so wouldn't have had a clue whether I'd been around or not. But he's a super chilled puppy, plus because I work from home all the doors are open constantly so he can wander about at will.

[NemoIsLost]

We've got a 7 month old Lab, got him at 11 weeks. Me and DS (adult) had a month off toilet training and general training. DS went back to work full time, DH works full time too.
I work 3 days a week 12.30-8.30 DS gets home at 4, so Dog is alone 4 hours.
Doggie has been fine being left from day 1, he is left in the utility room with 2 beds, toys, radio on and a treat. We have a camera in the room and he just sleeps when we arnt there.
I always give him a walk before I leave, and it's only 3 days out of 7.
I'm sure different breeds cope better than others.

[converseandjeans]

I think it's unrealistic to be with a dog all day every day. Regardless of whether you were at work or not you would need to leave dog for a few hours here and there e.g. supermarket shop, hospital appt, going out for dinner, cinema trip, meeting a friend for coffee etc.... dog owners leave dogs at home for a variety of reasons & your schedule actually sounds ok. It is a set routine which they will get used to.
You have thought it through and found ways to make it work. Hope it works out.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

On a Tuesday your pup will eat your house. Not if you confine him to one room like the kitchen, where the only thing he can destroy are his toys.

I agree with the PP who says Mumsnet isn’t the place to ask about this.

[fib11235]

I would say think about the breed of dog you get as well.
We work full time but were desperate for a dog. Knew that it would need to be left so couldn’t have a puppy but went round the charities looking for an older dog (grew up with a Labrador and seem to remember they have bladders of steel).
Most charities tend to follow the Guide Dogs rule that if the dog will be left for >4 hours it’s an instant no as their retired guide dogs are used to being with humans 1:1 for their working lives so find it stressful to suddenly be left but we found a charity who were slightly more sympathetic and arranged to have a 5 yr old choc lab for 1 week on foster whilst we were on annual leave. We contacted the charity at the end of the week to ask if we could extend the foster period into a 2nd week so we could try the dog with our work routine and got a camera linked to our phones so we could monitor the dog from work and see if there were any signs of distress.
We had a dog sitter ready on standby and pre-warned the neighbour giving them our number requesting that they contacted us if he barked or caused a nuisance to them that was missed by the camera but he barked for 5 mins on the 1st 2 days (I stood in the drive and timed it) then my sister suggested trying a treat ball to distract him and from then on he’s been fine. In fact he’s a bit boring to watch on the camera as he mostly just sleeps and seems to get more irritated at weekends when we are around and he doesn’t get the same naps. We then adopted him outright and have been happy ever since (18 months), he did Snowdon with us at the weekend but it is definitely worth considering the charity foster route if unsure. The charity picks up all the food and any vet expenses whilst the dog is on foster and if it doesn’t work for you or the dog you have the safety net of knowing you can give it back.

[Elieza]

OP it’s great you are asking these questions now. Unlike my neighbour who got a pup. Love bombed it for the first few months of its life while she was recovering from a serious health issue at home, and then went back to work. No crate training, no dog walker, nothing.
Meanwhile I now have to listen to a whole day of barking. And I mean the whole day. Whenever she is out weekdays and indeed at the weekend too. So when I’m staycationing for a week in summer I have to listen to that racket. It’s bloody awful. The poor dog is upset. I’m demented.
She should never have gotten a dog. Very selfish, thoughtless woman.
Sometimes you need to think of the poor animal who will be bored and lonely all day so you can have it’s company for a couple of hours. Would WalkMyDoggie not be a good compromise?

[Veterinari]

That sounds perfect. Spaniels are tricky because they are bred to be Velcro dogs....

Just try and build the time up gradually. As you’ve already recognised you’re limited at the moment by his toilet training but if he’s fairly reliable with then, you can start to increase your toileting interval whilst you’re at home and see how he copes.


The other thing to train is ‘settle’
Scroll down this link of lovely videos to the teach your dog to settle video:
www.dogstrustdogschool.org.uk/training/i-want-to-train-my-dog/training-videos/

It’s a really useful tool for reducing over excitement, teaching impulse control and rewarding calm behaviour, all of which are useful foundations for coping with being alone

[SunnyUpNorth]

Thanks Veterinari. I am trying to be boring when I come back into the room or home from being out etc. I breeze in, ignore him a bit. He settles immediately when I come back into a room. I will make more effort to build it up in small doses.

How long does it usually take to build up to leaving them home alone for a couple of hours? He is 16 weeks now, seems fine for an hour but def gets unsettled after that. I’m sure as his ability to go longer between wees increases his time alone will be able to increase.

[Veterinari]

@SunnyUpNorth

Sit in view to reassure him but totally ignore him. No eye contact, no touching, absolutely no reinforcement at all. He will whine, jump and cry. Ignore him.

Your presence will reassure him and allow him to relax enough to explore his treat. Continue to sit there.

Gradually you can move further away, and step out of sight whilst he’s occupied but keep it very short.
When you return don’t give him lots of fuss or make your presence super-rewarding. You basically need to make yourself as boring as possible and his environment as interesting as possible

[SunnyUpNorth]

Any tips for making a puppy more settled on his own while I’m in the house?

I have a 16 week old spaniel. I have a camera and can check him when I’m out. He is fine for up to around an hour to an hour and a half on his own in his crate when I’m out, I think he gets twitchy as he needs the loo. When I’m home he goes for a wee at least every hour. I always walk him first and make sure he’s done a poo before leaving him and it’s only once a day while I nip out to get him used to it.

But when I’m at home I tend to leave him in the kitchen which has a stairgate across the door. He just stands at the gate and cries. I probably need to leave him more often and flit in and out but sometimes like putting the kids to bed, having a shower etc means leaving him for 20 minutes or so. I’ve left him with lickimats, kings, toys etc and he just ignores it all til I come back. Usually he is food obsessed!

[MattMagnolia]

Since crates appeared a few years ago people have found that caging a young dog avoids him destroying the house when he’s left alone.
So legions of lively pups are shut in crates for hours daily, bored, lonely and frustrated.
When the behaviour problems start they are rehomed.
An older dog can cope alone for 3 hours but not a puppy.

[Yeahsurewhatever]

There are different breeds more prone to seperation anxiety .so do some research on this

The hours are fine though long term. It's just your first few weeks - may make potty training difficult.

Could you have day care and walker regularly for the first few weeks until potty training is more established? It's a cost but will help in the long term
Near us they do puppy visits - so if your dog can't go to daycare yet or do big walks someone can pop in for a little fuss and potty break a few times in the day

You also need to make sure from day one you are getting puppy used to being alone.
You can't be there 24/7 then suddenly disappear for 3 hours and expect there not to be destruction.

As PP have said, can you time holidays to extend your time a bit
Eg. Summer holidays couple of weeks off, followed by 5 weeks working from home- few weeks could make a big difference.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Have you thought of timing things so that when you go back to work, it's the start of the university summer holidays, and employing a student home for the summer to puppy-sit for an hour or two of the each of the blocks of time you're out? That would let you adapt the time alone to the needs of the puppy. That way, pup would be 13 weeks when you stopped WFH, and then the student would be around (perhaps tapering off) for another 13 weeks. The puppy would then be six months old, and by then you'd know lots of local people with dogs who will be able to offer advice and recommend sitters if you still need them.

[Dollyparton3]

We've just got a puppy (5 months now) and here's what we did:

First two weeks me and my husband were with him to settle him in, we took a week off each plus it was the school holidays.

Then I work from home two days a week, he goes to daycare for the other 3 days. Sometimes he's dropped back from daycare at 3 and OH doesn't get home until 6, on those days he's so tired from daycare he happily sleeps in his crate.

A couple of times we've had to get walkers in to play with him every 3 hours (daycare was on holiday) and I had my nephew on standby to come in and play with him for a couple of hours as well.

It is doable but it takes careful planning. The brilliant thing about daycare is that the days I'm at home he has a few short walks round the block and sleeps the rest of the day to recover!

[freddofrogger]

It's fine op. MN is not a good place for advice about this. You'll just get told a dog can't get left for any reason or any length of time. I'd suggest doing research out side of mn.

[yearinyearout]

As others have said, if you go ahead it's important to build the puppy's confidence being left alone. So if you're crate training just pop it in a for short periods whilst you clean the bathroom etc, and slowly increase the time. I think it's doable if you can sort something for the long day. Even if you don't have a doggy day care centre maybe there are people who look after them at their home, we have several in my small town. Worth asking around on local Facebook pages or asking if the dog walkers know of anyone.

[Jouska]

Cool

[Duckegg271]

Jouska absolutely, I haven’t said the dog would just be walked and then left. It would become a part of the family and when I’m home from work I’d do all of the things you mentioned above.

[Jouska]

The aim though surely is to give your dog more than just exercise until they crash.

If the dog is happy to be left for three hours you have socialisation, training, getting them out and about etc after you have worked in the morning.

Dogs are not just there to be walked and then left

[Rejelio]

OP you might find that a half day at doggy daycare on a Tuesday is enough for your puppy... they tend to come home and crash out so they would probably sleep in the afternoon.
I think it sounds like you have a good plan as long as you build up to it (and end up with a sensible puppy!)