Does anyone have a dog as a single parent?

[cadburyegg]

I've wanted a dog for years (probably golden retriever), but have started to research it more seriously over the holiday.

Financially I am in a good position. I have two dc who will be shortly turning 9 and 6. I work 3 days a week at home and 2 in the office. Obviously I will take time off when dog first comes home. I think when the dog is old enough to be left for a couple of hours I could juggle my 2 office days with my mum helping (she has already offered)/a dog walker/doggy day care. My 3 wfh days should be fine as I can walk/train/play with dog on / after the school runs and in my lunch break.

What concerns me is the weekends and school holidays. My kids don't do a huge amount of activities and the things we do at the weekends are pretty dog friendly. But I am concerned about the bad weather and dragging my kids out for walks. We have a decent garden backing onto a field but I still would have to take the kids with me obvs. Am I mad to consider this? How do other people juggle this? I really want to make it work, but don't want to make the wrong decision.

I'm a single parent to 3 kids under 10. We've got a 1yr old labrador. I work from home most days but on my office days we've got a dog walker who takes him out for 3hrs.

On rainy days he either has a shorter walk with the kids/ I walk him a long walk during my lunch break or he just doesn't have a walk that day.

He's happy, healthy and doing amazing. They fit in to most schedules tbf and ours doesn't mind being in his crate when we go out/ left for a few hours.

I wish we'd done it sooner although the puppy stage 3-6monthish was tougher.

Yes. My current dog is 7, my previous dog lived to 15. I’ve been a single parent since that dog was 7 years old.

Your set up sounds perfect for a dog tbh. Agree the puppy stage is hard, harder than you think it will be, but it’s worth it.

Me! And I have a golden retriever.
I waited til my kids were 10+. So I didn't have to drag them out every single walk and they could be left in the house by themselves. Also they walked to school themselves so I didn't have a time pressured walk in the morning.
I don't think I could have done it with them any younger, I found the puppy stage utterly relentless and hard but I now have the best dog ever - a wonderful addition to our small family.