Leaving dogs alone

[itstoolateforthis]

We have two dogs who we adopted over the pandemic and I'm looking for advice on how long we can leave them for at one time. I'm worried we are being a bit too cautious!

DP and I work from home (pre-pandemic) so right now other than one evening a week date night and doing the weekly food shop, the dogs are with both of us. This has escalated to all the time now that I have a broken knee and cannot get anywhere.

We are moving back to our hometown in a few months and as restrictions ease we'd like to see our friends and family more regularly. As the girls are with us during the day, is it ok to leave them home alone around three evenings a week? We are both homebodies so that would be the highest amount of evenings a week by a long shot - I think usually it would be around two. Is that fair to them, or should we re-evaluate? I'd imagine we would be gone for about 4hrs each time.

Thanks!

You need to try and get them used to being alone. They may be fine in which case you just increase the time, or they may be anxious. Even though you have two sometimes even though they have company they miss their 'humans' more and can get stressed and destructive or noisy unless you do it slowly and build up the time. Get a camera that streams to you phone and go out for a short time initially and watch what happens.

Mine is ok for a couple of hours but we had to make a few modifications to help him which we only knew about from using the camera.

I'd build it up but the evenings are a better tune to do it imo as most dogs are done for the day by that point and are sleeping. Make sure they are well exercised and build up to 4 hours seeing they've had you home such a lot lately. At least they have each other too

My rescue dog is fine for five hours alone as long as he's had a lot of exercise in the daytime. Mostly this is in the evening if we're popping out. I don't leave him in the daytime, or regularly, he goes to doggy daycare when we're at work. I remember having to build up to this - so five mins waiting outside, pop for a coffee for fifteen mins and come back, go shopping for an hour etc over a period of a few weeks. Left him with a stuffed Kong or a puzzle food game for entertainment. People said leaving music on works for a lot of dogs, but mine preferred to eat and sleep

Oh yes we'll definitely build it up so no worries there

Good to know we're not doing something completely awful by leaving them that much! They are usually asleep for the night generally by 8pm so yeah it might be completely fine really.

We can't use food as a way to calm them down as sadly they both have aggression issues around food (typical dogs rescued from abroad, on the streets as puppies, that kind of thing), so we'll have to figure out a non-food way to keep them calm whilst we're out.

As pp's have said, build up to it. Also be a little mindful around how they cope with the new house (you said you're moving back to your hometown). My DDog is fine to be left at home for the length of a meal out, but I'd always be wary of him in a new environment - whether that was finding a food source (lab!), something to chew or if it's busy, he'll bark and annoy the neighbours. So you might have to go right back to 5 minutes at a time when you move - don't create an association that the new house = we get left all the time = we hate the new house.

@NoYOUbekind Thanks, this is a very good point. I don't envision us leaving them for any amount of time for the first wee while until they're totally settled anyway We have moved with one of the dogs before but not the more anxious one so we are very mindful of that.

@itstoolateforthis diverging from your question a bit, but did you get the dogs together? I've got a street dog rescue also, and wondering if getting another would work. He loves his daycare dogs etc, but I've noticed he can get possessive and ratty if we have dogs come over into our home at times, unless they're ones he really likes. If dogs come over, I have to feed them in separate rooms, and treats have to be given very fairly and apart. Not sure if a second one is a bad idea

Just build it up slowly and be prepared to go back a step or two if needed.
I have a Romanian street dog who is left home with my other dog twice per day for 2-3 hours at a time. She can be left for longer but that's what my work schedule is. They are left with toys but not food and usually a kindle audiobook playing to provide some background noise so they don't bark at external noise.

[quote A1b2c3d4e5f6g7]@itstoolateforthis diverging from your question a bit, but did you get the dogs together? I've got a street dog rescue also, and wondering if getting another would work. He loves his daycare dogs etc, but I've noticed he can get possessive and ratty if we have dogs come over into our home at times, unless they're ones he really likes. If dogs come over, I have to feed them in separate rooms, and treats have to be given very fairly and apart. Not sure if a second one is a bad idea [/quote]
Hiya! No, we got Dog 1 in December 2020 and Dog 2 in March 2021. Dog 1 adores other dogs and was lonely at home even with us - we don't need a dogwalker but we have one anyway because she loved being with other dogs so much, hence why we decided to add to the pack.

I will say though in regards to food - due to them both being rescues we still feed them in different rooms and probably always will. The one time we have tried to feed them together, a fight broke out, and it's not worth it. It's totally manageable for us.

The only other time they get annoyed at each other is if one is being cuddled and the other isn't Ultimately it took Dog 1 some adjusting but they're best friends now.

@Dobbyafreeelf

Just build it up slowly and be prepared to go back a step or two if needed. I have a Romanian street dog who is left home with my other dog twice per day for 2-3 hours at a time. She can be left for longer but that's what my work schedule is. They are left with toys but not food and usually a kindle audiobook playing to provide some background noise so they don't bark at external noise.

Oh wow, the audiobook idea is fab! Thank you. Glad to hear it works without food in the mix!

I have a rescue. I built him up to being left by leaving him for 5 minutes, then 10 etc.

I now go into the office one day a week (may increase to 2 but never any more than that). I walk him for an hour, leave at 9.15, dog Walker takes him out half 12 - 2 then dh is back at half 4 with DS.

I was really anxious about it but downloaded dog monitor and he literally sleeps on the sofa the entire time he’s alone. I got bored of watching as the most he moves is a shuffle in position!

I’d recommend dog monitor. It’s an app so you just need two devices and set one up as a camera. It sends an alert if he barks so you don’t need to look at it or have the sound on constantly

We have 2 rescues. 4 days a week I walk them in the morning, go to work (9am - 10 minute walk), back at lunchtime (30 mins in house - if they bother getting up to go out for a pee that's a good day), back to work and finish at 5pm.

They get a doggie biscuit when I leave for work (morning and lunch) and get fed when I come home from work.

They're fine :)

They might be fine as they have each other. When I got my adult rescue they asked that he wouldn't be left for more than 4 hours, which was fine and he seemed OK with it.
I think you should build it up before you need to do it but it's certainly not too much to plan to do.

We’ve always used the 4 hour rule with ours, and they’ve always been fine.