Walker or day care?

[mynameisnotmichaelcaine]

Thinking ahead. Puppy arriving in six weeks so no real idea of personality yet, although parents are both non-reactivd, sociable dogs.

Until Autumn DH is working from home full time. In October, pup will be 8 months. DH or I will be at home 8/10 days a fortnight. There will therefore be two days per fortnight where everyone will be out 8-3:30. For those two days would we be better using day care or a walker around 11am? I assumed day care would be better but lots of friends have told me it can be quite stressful for dogs and a walk in the day might be preferable. Is it a case of waiting to see how our dog responds to other dogs and to periods of time alone?

That should say non-reactive and 8/10 working days a fortnight - we will both be home at the weekend.

Depends on your dog!
Mine loves day care but finds it’s very very tiring, so that would be quite a long day for a puppy if they’re like mine And just run around the whole time.
If they can take themselves off to sleep, then it may be ok.
Also as you say you don’t know how your dog will find it. my friends dog hates daycare

And I suppose it depends on the breed, another friends dog needs a fair bit of exercise or can be destructive. So they’d have to do a big walk before leaving at 8am to tire the dog out, but at that time of day mine would happily just sleep and wait for the Walker
So it depends if you have time for that, no walk needed if you’re dropping at day care though.

From my own experience, absolutely daycare, at least while it's a young dog. Ours is 6 months and just wouldn't cope alone for that length of time. I'd start looking at daycares now and put them in from an early age so they're used to the environment. It might be harder putting it in at 8 months when it's in/approaching adolescence. Not to mention the fact that working (even from home) with a puppy is very difficult. I could manage now, but until she was about 4 months it would genuinely have been impossible to focus. A lot of people cope with it, but a day or two a week at daycare can be good fun for the dog and a good rest for you.

Just make sure your daycare is experienced with puppies and will enforce rest and not overexercise them. Our puppy goes to daycare in someone's house, with max 5 other dogs. She's very well looked after.

It’ll depend on the dog... and the daycare, they’re not all great tbh.

I think daycare. I do think at 8 months old it's a long time to leave a dog alone even with a walk in between. They are still do young, boisterous and unpredictable at that age. My ddogbis almost 1 and calm but probably won't cope being left that long.

Good luck with the new pup.

It depends on the dog, we use doggy daycare, even though someone is always at home at the moment we are still using it once a week so our dog is used to it.

I would chose day care especially as it’ll be most of the day. I’m a dog walker and it breaks my heart when I have to drop the dogs back off to an empty home, they look so glum and some even howl as I walk away. Your puppy will still be young and have been used to constant company from a young age so day care would be great for him/her.

Definitely daycare. Seven hours is far too long to leave a puppy alone, even with a dog walker coming in to break up the day.

Please don't leave your puppy alone in the house all day long with just a walker coming in for an hour.

I am at home all the time but use a dog walker on days I'm busy in work.
The dog walker is very good, and sometimes will bring the dogs to their home for lunch before dropping then back or in Non Covid times would charge for an hour but drive to a beach/forest and be gone for 3.
My dogs usually sleep for an hour or two on return as they are knackered.
I still wouldn't like the dogs dropped back to an empty house. They do come looking for me when they wake, even if it is just to lie back down beside me and also I can only imagine the damage the unsupervised puppy could do in that time!

Thanks all. I'll be using a walker on the days only DH is home anyway, as he won't want to walk the dog on his lunch break, so she'll get used to the walker for when she's potentially old enough to be left for a bit longer.

I've messaged a couple of local day cares with good reviews, including one just down the road from my childminder.

Thanks very much all.

@mynameisnotmichaelcaine

Thanks all. I'll be using a walker on the days only DH is home anyway, as he won't want to walk the dog on his lunch break, so she'll get used to the walker for when she's potentially old enough to be left for a bit longer.

I've messaged a couple of local day cares with good reviews, including one just down the road from my childminder.

Thanks very much all.

Sounds like an excellent plan :)

I'm a dog walker and I've just started puppy visits with a 12 week old puppy - even though the owners are at home. Even though your both home at the moment, it could be worth getting a walker to do similar once or twice a week just to start building some familiarity.

Daycare as well from me.

Daycares do vary and mine only likes home daycare with a few dogs rather than the big noisy commercial building ones.

I can work knowing he is looked after and isn't sad and lonely. It's pricey but worth it. Mine has been at daycare since 14 weeks old and he is now 4 years old.

Which ever you use vet the staff of daycare and dog walkers. There are a lot of unqualified staff out there. I had my one of my dogs in daycare and upon collecting him witness the staff member dragging my dog practically on two legs by his collar. It made me investigate further. I've witness dog walkers clearly not looking after dogs. I told one off last week. The qualifications they have should be clearly advertised on their websites. The same for these fake behaviourists doing the rounds. It really pees me off as they can damage your dog. A prime example Is the Internet based qualifications they can aquire without hands on experience. Ask their qualifications and experience before you trust someone with your dog and google the qualifications is my advice.

Home daycare with someone who has experience with puppies. Even better if they have experience training and offer boarding too, as you'll have somewhere you all like and trust to leave the dog if you go away for a few days. Good daycares have long waiting lists so start talking to them now then try it out for a few weeks and see how the puppy responds at handover.