How long at home with a new dog?

[Houndofthebaskethills]

just wondering how long you need to stay at home with a puppy or rescue before being able to leave it at all?

when people say they don’t leave the dog for a few weeks I’m assuming they still pop to the shops or do the school run?

I only work out of the house 10 hours a week ( would get dog Walker) but couldn’t reasonably take more than 2 weeks off initially.

practically I’m just trying to get my head around the settling in period. My normal life would be school runs, popping to the shops and two 5 hour days at work. I’d be around much of the rest of the time but even this seems unmanageable with a new dog?

We got our Lab at 8 weeks old and, almost from day one, left him at home for short periods of time. He was crated to ensure he didn't get into any trouble. People forget that most pups sleep for big chunks of the day.

If you insist on keeping pup with you all day long, that's a sure fire way to get a dog with separation anxiety.

If the longest you'll be out the house is 5 hours, you don't need a dog walker, just someone to let pup out in the garden for a 10 minute run about and a wee.

Lots of great advice here...
www.wylanbriar.com/behavioural-information/my-dogpuppy-trashes-stuff/

We got our puppy during the school summer holidays - I think we had someone at home with him for the first two weeks - but then we spent the next few weeks practicing leaving him alone for when we went back to school / work . I think I managed to change my working hours slightly to ensure they were opposite to DH's shifts so he wasn't left for longer than 3 hours to start with .

PP have mentioned sleeping - initially he slept downstairs in the kitchen so he would have been alone at night but I think that later we changed that so he slept upstairs with DS.

As others have said though it obviously does depend on the dog.

Some of these replies are bonkers.

your dog will be fine whilst you pop to the shops and on the school run, you don’t need 2 weeks with him if these are your only activities. Go to work, pup will sleep and have someone come in for 30 minutes to play and let him out, put him back in the crate for the other 2 hours or so.

I’ve got 4. None have separation anxiety because I’ve had them and continued to live my life. If your dog is walked and adequately stimulated they absolutely can be left for 5 hours. We crate train initially but usually it is gone by 1 year of age.

Leave crate open, once dog is used to it begin to close it. Start small, build up. By around 9 months I start leaving it open at night, by 12 months of behaviour is good leave it open 24-7. Crate train for their own safety until you know if they are chewers, I’ve heard too many horror stories of dogs choking on something they’re chewing when owners leave them despite how many people say ‘I’ve never crate trained and mine has never chewed’

We got our pup 5 weeks ago, he sleeps all night in the crate with no accidents and has done for the last 2 weeks. I leave him for short periods, built up gradually, and last week went out for 2.5 hours during his nap time - he was oblivious and slept the whole time. I don’t fuss when I come home/into the space but keep it calm. We are a busy household so he’s used to lots of noise. I’ve kept him in the kitchen/living area of the house and no way is he allowed in lounge or upstairs! I highly recommend crate training, keeps them safe and also is their space they can retreat to when tired. Our boy is a working cocker so high energy and very good driven, our breeder said start as you mean to go on and I’ve stuck to that so far.

We have 2 days where we are out of the house for 8 hours, so far we have taken days off so he’s not been left alone but next week he will be with our dog walker who will take him out solo for 2 walks. From around 16/17 weeks he’ll be out with the other dogs.

It's not bonkers! You clearly have never had to deal with the fallout of a dog with true separation anxiety.
If left alone mine would either destroy the place or herself. She would be terrified and it would cause huge trauma to her. You may have had four dogs but that doesn't mean you have any true knowledge of dogs!

OP - in answer to your question, how longs a piece of string. I wouldn't be leaving a dog for 5 hours two weeks after they arrive. With my rescues we do one week completely at home, no walks just decompressing and getting to know one another. After a week or so we start going out but I wouldn't leave them unattended at any point. After that we build it up slowly. Out for half an hour and gradually build it up. One of mine I can't leave at all without another dog. She will tolerate being home without me but she won't sleep, she will be on the alert the whole time. She is exhausted when I come back from fretting.
Each dog is different. You need to go at their pace. Could you take two weeks off and then do a further two weeks of half days?

@moonypadfootprongs
You're talking about rescue dogs which I assume were older when you got them. OP is talking about a puppy. If she starts out with a sensible routine, there's no reason to think her puppy would be distressed or anxious. It'll just be the norm.

Perhaps reread the OP! She said puppy or rescue dog. But the same would apply to a puppy as a rescue dog! You can't just leave a 12 week old puppy for five hours!

If the longest you'll be out the house is 5 hours, you don't need a dog walker, just someone to let pup out in the garden for a 10 minute run about and a wee.

Do not follow this terrible advice. Ffs.

That poster is talking absolute rubbish.

So says someone who's never had a dog with separation anxiety 🤦‍♀️

You can do everything right, build up slowly and "follow the book" and still have a dog (or puppy) who is so anxious when you leave that they try and hurt themselves.

I hate it when people come on these threads and say "well I've always had dogs and never had an issue just leaving them!" - well, count yourselves lucky because it's clearly not that easy, or nobody would have anxious dogs 🙄

Would your work be open to changing to 5x 2 hour days for a short time?
Then gradually reduce days/expand time?

This has got to be sarcastic???

Honestly, people are just ridiculous! It's a puppy. It will need letting out for a wee every hour or 2 at first. But in my opinion it is not cruel to leave the puppy alone for a couple of hours. Put the radio on so it's not in silence and make sure theirs some engaging toys around. Unless you're going to quit your job for a dog then it's going to have to get used to being alone. Linder to get it used to that from the beginning than get it in a routine of being with people constantly and then taking that away. How do people think their dogs cope for 10 hours overnight?!

How do people think their dogs cope for 10 hours overnight?!

Unless your dogs sleep in a separate building, they're not alone overnight.

Sleeping downstairs while you know your family is safe upstairs in bed (and you can alert them or go to them if needed) is very different from being completely on your own.

Also, you presumably go ten hours overnight without needing a pee, but during the day that would be different?! Same for a dog.

Very envious of all these people that apparently get 10 hours sleep, but no, so doubt mine would be happy left that long, she'd definitely need a wee. She's left about 7 hours downstairs at night, but not when she was tiny, there was a middle of the night loo break certainly.

The RSPCA (and every other animal welfare organisation) recommend adult dogs are left alone for no longer than 4 hours a day.

The same RSPCA that people will criticise for having low welfare standards and not doing enough to make sure dogs aren’t neglected, but, will then say it’s fine to leave a dog all day to go to work 😐

When we got our rescue we stayed home for the whole weekend then we built up alone time an hour each time until I could leave him for 5 hours. He is a sleepy breed so I guess this was a lot easier than some.

Being in a different room of the house is very different from not being in the house at all. My dog would happily be in a different room to me but she knows when I'm there and not there. She knows if she's distressed I will come to her. She knows she can get to me if she needs me.
She also knows perfectly well when I'm not there and she's not able to be with me. That causes her distress if I am not there. She will tolerate it if my other dog is present but not completely alone. I allow the dogs upstairs at night but they are free to go downstairs also. She often sleeps downstairs on the cold kitchen floor as she get hot.

We had a puppy that came to us at 8 weeks. First two weeks I took off. Puppy came on school run with me.

We built up time to being left alone. Crate trained from day one which helped. Other than the first two weeks (where we left downstairs), puppy has been used to sleeping downstairs in the kitchen with us upstairs. Enforced naps (as puppies sleep a lot) also helped and I'd move to another room or upstairs to work. Idea is that she got used to not being in the same room as me 24/7.

Gradually built up the time left alone. Usually leave the radio on and left in the crate with a Kong and made sure she had exercise (mental or physical) so she was ready for a nap. It didn't happen overnight though. We got a camera which we could speak through and I do remember a few instances where she got upset when the school run took longer than usually because of traffic so I'd speak to her.to reassure her. It was definitely a case of building up the time left.

From about 6 months old, she was fine to be left for 2-2.5hrs. On one unexpected occasion, three hours. Usually sleeps the entire time as we can see on the camera. In our case, we did build up to it though and positive crate training was essential for us in helping with this.

I also make sure my dog is used to hanging out on her own downstairs whilst I work or do housework upstairs. She's not allowed upsides as it's the cat's domain. So it's part of her normal routine that sometimes I disappear upstairs to do stuff or sometimes I'm out doing stuff.

I think if she had another dog for company or was older (ours is still only 10 months) and could be reliably left uncrated, she'd be fine. So far, there's been no need to leave her longer alone.

Can't comment on rescue dogs but I suppose it depends on breed and their history. I have one friend who adopted a lab X rescue (former street dog) and it prefers to stay at home so she's never had issues leaving it from quite early on. Another lady I know adopted a rescue puppy (from kennels) and it has terrible separation anxiety. Almost a year later, it still can't be left alone without distress - not even for half an hour so she nip to the shops - though she's tried all the usual training methods.

I left puppy for the morning school run from the beginning, and would quickly pop to the shops on my way back from that. I took puppy with me on the afternoon run and carried her.
You would need someone to pop in while you’re working, to clean up any mess, let it out in the garden, and be company for a while.

We picked up our puppy on the Sunday and left him for 4 hours the next morning. We were 25 and inexperienced, but everything worked out fine.
With our second dog we collected her on the Saturday and left her for 4 hours on the Monday. Again, everything worked out fine. She's napping next to me now (now aged 7).
I think dog ownership has become quite polarised in recent years. On the one hand you have appallingly incompetent and feckless owners who do a crap job and then give their dog up for adoption. On the other you have the perfectionist over thinkers who act like they're performance parenting a child at Eton!
Something in the middle should do the job.

With my puppy I left him for short periods of time in his crate from 8 weeks old. I built up from half an hour to an hour then a couple of hours.

He's 3yo now and can be left 5-6 hours with no issues, never had separation anxiety. He just takes himself off to one of the bedrooms to sleep! He is a fairly quiet, chilled out dog though.

These threads really frustrate me as you get owners coming on (with good intentions) saying "you just need to do x", or "I always did y and it was fine" or "you see owners doing Z and it's no wonder their dog is anxious".

Dogs can't read the books. You can do everything correctly and still end up with a dog that has separation anxiety. You can make hundreds of mistakes and end up with a dog who doesn't care about being left. It's as much about personality and luck as it is about training in many cases.

It's also worth remembering that some owners are anxious and worried because^^ their dog is already suffering from separation anxiety and they can't even pop to the shops without their dog screaming or vomiting or hurting itself in fear. I've known dogs to rip their claws out trying to escape rooms, whereas others are fine alone for 10+ hours (not that they're left that long, of course).

Like a PP accurately said, the answer is "How long is a piece of string". It depends on so many different factors so it's important to have a back up in place (like daycare or a walker) before bringing your dog home, just in case you have a dog that can't be left.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best, basically