Toy breed dog that can be left (With a dog walker visit)

[Catsarelovely]

I'm very keen to get a toy poodle but there would be no one at home (apart from our cat who rarely leaves the house) on three days a week for no longer than 6.5 hours. I would book in a dog walker for those days but am concerned that even that could result in too long a time alone.

If anyone does have any experience of a toy breed that would be ok with this set up I'd really appreciate it.

Sorry to be blunt, but it is selfish to get a dog if you are going to leave it home for that amount of time. I doubt a rescue centre would even allow you to adopt a dog from them.

Really? That seems a little extreme but if that's the case then it wouldn't be right for us to get a dog I guess. That must be very limiting for rescue centres though.

Most rescues won't let you adopt if you plan on leaving the dog for more than four hours a day, which matches the advice from the RSPCA and other animal charities.

The issue is that while there are dogs out there who are fine on their own, you won't know whether yours is until they arrive and settle in. So you really need to have a plan for someone to care for the dog full-time just in case.

And if you want a toy breed, then I'd say that's even more essential as they've basically been bred to want to be around people 24-7.

If this helps work out timescales, I got a twelve week old puppy from a rescue, albeit a larger breed. I was off work for around three months, then he had family around for another couple of months. By then I’d built it up so he was happy to be left 3-4 hours at a time and have a dog walker. He is crate trained, so was either crated or in a play pen set up. I do feel very lucky though that he hasn’t had any issues with separation anxiety. We’re still building up to him being loose downstairs for more than an hour or two alone.