How long to leave a dog?

[Shallysally]

I’m due to return to work soon, and my DP and his (now our) dog will be at home for around 8, no longer, hours for 4 days a week.

The dog will go to doggy daycare for 2 of the days and when they have space will go for the 4.

We’ve met with a dog walker, she is well established and recommended.

Plan is that she will come in for a half hour pop in around 10.30, I leave the house at 7.45

Then she will take for a walk or sit with him/let him out/play with him and do some training if the weather is too hot. This will be around 1.30pm.

We do leave him for up to 4 hours and he is generally ok. Shows no signs of stress, has the run of downstairs except the lounge so can roam
about.

He’s a Jack Russell, just over a year old.

Does this plan seem ok please?

It seems a good plan. Only thing I’d be thinking is can you get a longer walk in to tire the dog? Ie an hour in the morning? Or walk before you go to work? I don’t know your dog but mine would do better with a longer walk. I think your plan is fine though for two days a week.

@Elizo meant to say in the post, I’ll be walking him before I go to work. It’ll only be a quick 10-15 mins though.
Bit that’s why we thought the pop in in the morning and walk in the afternoon.

Seems ok. I guess you can see how it goes? With the doggy daycare in the horizon

You might find doggy daycare will tire him out and he won't need an evening walk. Ours goes to daycare and she spends all day running around so is knackered by the time she gets home and just wants dinner then sleep!

@TeaMop that’s what I’m hoping for! When he’s been for a long walk it tires him out. He was jumping up asking to be carried the other day! Spent the evening on his bed giving me the side eye 😂

It sounds fine to me daycare or two visits , assuming that he is not locked in a cage in the periods when he’s home alone .

No, he’s not caged @Floralnomad

Sounds great then .

I would try and walk him for longer than 15 minutes in the morning, even if that means getting up earlier. I'd say he needs a good hour of exercise if you want him to be happy all morning and again all afternoon, even with a dog walker coming in twice during the day.

I'm a dog walker myself and I can 100% tell when the dogs haven't had their morning walk - it really impacts their behaviour and some will be destructive even when they wouldn't be otherwise.

I agree you should do 40m walk before you go but on that basis i'd get the dog walker to come once and take him for 1 big walk & train at 1130/12 for 60-90mins

Thanks, I’ll have a think then. Getting up earlier is no issue.
All I’m bothered about is that he will be happy and settled.

I’ll have a chat with the walker and see if she can do that.
I’d rather him have a couple of visits to break
his day up though.

Has he been to doggy day care before? ours hated it and couldn't be left there.

I would do one longer walk at lunchtime rather than the pop in and quick walk, I know all dogs are different but ours is fine with that - someone popping in but not taking him out would leave him more agitated/excited, only to be left again, not sure what that pop in achieved really.

Oh same, ours would hate doggy daycare and would probably be thrown out!

@BigDahliaFan he’s been for a couple of settling in sessions. Has a longer session on Monday so see how he gets on.

So far he has been fine, loves being with the other dogs and the attention he gets from the person who runs it!

I just think that expecting a 1yo dog to settle for a minimum of 3 hours alone with only 15 minutes of exercise is a big ask, lol.

With friends of mine whose dogs go to daycare all day, the following day, they don’t need too much exercise, not sure about a Jack Russell though. I would aim for a longer walk first thing, then you know he will be ready for a long sleep until walker comes in. I don’t know if the short visit in the morning will be any good, my dog would settle after a 30 minute play, but then wonder why walker is leaving again, so would rather have a longer lunchtime walk. Get a camera so you can see how he’s doing on the days he’s being left.

He’ll have the 30 mins pop in in the morning then an hours walk in the afternoon.

It can be adjusted if needed though.

I agree with dropping the 'pop in'. If sometimes she walks him then he'll start hoping for/expecting that every time she comes and then when she leaves without walking him he might be confused/upset. I also agree the better alternative would be for you to take him for a big walk before you go to work.

if Only all dogs had an owner who cared as much as you clearly do. Lucky Dog.

So if I take him for a longer walk in the morning, then walker comes in at say 11.30 for an hour and a half, I’ll be home by 4?

Then he’ll have his usual evening walk.

Ah thank you! I just want it to be right for him.