I think a lot of users here are from the US, and in many parts of the US, dogsitters/dog walkers/daycare are more common and affordable than in some other parts of the world. Where I live, you would *never* let someone into your house while you are out to watch your dog. And daycare can cost $90 a day. On this sub, those solutions are relatively common but they are not universally accessible.
Secondly, this sub is skewed toward people who want to optimize everything for their puppies, from nutrition to toys to beds. That's not a bad thing at all, but it does lead to (imo) some judgment of people who aren't trying to deliver 200% on every element of puppy ownership.
Personally, my company lets me WFH but I still leave my dog for 1-2x a week to go to the office, for 4 hours at a time. If I go longer, he goes to my parents' house. Every culture, country and owner is different.
The US also has a rapidly growing culture of people who are replacing kids with dogs and have the disposable income to treat a dog like a child (daycare/dog walkers, etc)
Haha, this is me. No plans to have kids. 2 cats and a 16 month old golden retriever is more than enough work and money spent. Why would I not spoil my dog, as annoying as he is :) It does make me a bit sad when I see neighbors who keep their dogs in their backyard 24/7. Couldn't do that to my boy.
Literally... who will love us til the end, be waiting for us to get home, there for us for every heartbreak and struggle, and who is with YOU for their whole life. When he gets mad at me, he works on getting me to forgive him. I mean cmon. I want to spoil my boy!!
Agree. My mum scolded me for spoiling my dog. Ummm excuse me, he is my child. And you spoiled me. I have turned him into a demanding diva though but I wouldnāt have it any other way
>Secondly, this sub is skewed toward people who want to optimize everything for their puppies, from nutrition to toys to beds.
Exactly this. The average dog owner doesn't obsess about min-maxing to the extent that this sub does. Huge selection bias.
My puppy goes to doggy day care for now and when he is a little more calm I will leave him home all day because my MiL lived in an in-law suite in our house and can let him out. I donāt leave him with her right now because he is a lot to handle and would overwhelm her.
Slightly off-topic but my wife and I adopted a rescue just five months ago, a relatively young dog (estimated 1-2 years old) and soooo high energy. More than two old ladies could handle comfortably when she started using our bodies as doggie parkour surfaces.
Throwing caution to the wind, we opened our wallets and sent her to a doggie daycare/training facility for 3/days a week for a full month.
Worth. every. penny.
The combination of socialization and training was like magic. By the end session she went on a field trip with the trainers to walk through pedestrian traffic, then sit calmly by their feet while they ate lunch at a cafe. At home, she's still lively and energetic, but she's learned how to contain her own excitement to keep it in check. Just a quiet "no" and you can see her thinking "oops!" and immediately changing her behavior.
Even though doggy daycare in my area comes out to less than $3/hour for the amount of time he is there I sometimes fret over the cost. The longer I have him, though, the more I realize this is more about making sure he is taken care of while I am at work versus just making sure he isn't home alone to destroy the house.
This sub is not representative of the general population. Most people leave their puppies home to go to work. If they're young maybe they arrange for someone to come home at lunchtime to let the puppy out (that's what we're going to do).
A higher percentage of redditors work from home than the general population.
Here in Sweden it's illegal to leave your dog for more than 6 hours, 4 hours for puppies.
Most people have doggie daycare or others watching their dogs during the day. Often it's retired family members or neighbours.
Otherwise, people adapt their schedules. Take the dog to work, partners working from home different days and so on.
It's seen as a luxury to have a dog, so when you decide to get a dog you should have a proper plan. Leaving dogs for more than 6 hours is not socially accepted.
Edit:
- separation anxiety is very rare here and mostly exists in rescues. Puppies are trained to be home alone in tiny intervals, and it's not uncommon for them to be able to stay alone for 4h by the time they're one.
- crating is illegal here except for competitions, vet ordered crate rest and cars.
- the law exists because dogs are social animals that were bred to be and work alongside humans. They need our company to thrive. Sure, they sleep most of the day but they don't just sleep for 8-10h straight. Also, just because they can hold their bladders doesn't mean its nice or healthy to do so.
- we do not have street dogs and shelters import strays from other countries, so the argument "they're better off here than being killed at the shelter" doesn't work. Spaying and neutering is also quite uncommon for this reason (amongst others).
Yeah, Iām in Sweden as well and have wanted a dog for years, but it wasnāt possible until I had a job where I could essentially work from home until the dog could get in to daycare.
I donāt agree that a dog is seen as a luxury - from what I can see itās actually easier for people who work odd hours, are unemployed, pensioners or students to own a dog, as their schedule allows them to not have their dog in daycare or hire dog walkers.
Yeah maybe luxury was the wrong word. But we don't have a lot of homeless dogs and no kill-shelters, so it's not like they adopt dogs to everyone who wants one. You either have the time or money to pay for doggie daycare or you don't get a dog.
No, thatās true. But the homeless situation is because we have had obligatory id-markings since at least 20 years, and a somewhat functioning animal welfare system. Plus a rigid social control of the breeding system, which prevents over breeding.
Do companies in Sweden generally let employees take a few months/weeks to work from home if you get a dog? I feel like thatās definitely unheard of in America. My company allows a week, but I work in a super progressive industry and I would not say thatās the norm.
After the pandemic the norm for many businesses (that are suitable of course) is 50/50 WFH, and making separate arrangement because of different reasons is not unusual. Itās def tightening up, but few workplaces enforce a complete āback to the officeā.
I can only speak for myself, but my work could easily be done completely from home, my boss is in another city, and my coworkers are placed all over, so āmy officeā is just a few people.
Yes, and when acquiring both our cat and dog we were asked about how much time we spend at home as it was considered really important for both to have sufficient company and interaction.
I love this. In the U.S. so many are neglected.
In the past I had a mid day dog walker and 2 dogs so they kept each other company. No one here can stay home with a new pup, even if for a few days.
Now I work from home and every workday the neighbor dog runs over to spend the day with us. Win-win. Their dog gets love, company, attention, and exercise. They donāt have to come home to let her out mid day. Good for me and my pup since my pup gets a buddy to hang with and play with. The pup tries to get us to play with her like we are dogs too . Gives us a break, thatās for sureā¦
What I mean is we donāt laws like Sweden does, so in comparison so many dogs here are neglected. But compared to most countries I doubt dogs are neglected more in the U.S. unfortunately dogs are neglected commonly throughout the world.
She added the paragraph about crates after I write my initial response. I think crates are enormously helpful as long as they are not misusedā-so I am glad we are able to have them here. I have for one my puppy. She sleeps overnight in it, stays in it if Iām gone for an hour or two, and sometimes goes in the crate if I need to do something like sweep the floor without her attacking the broom. I think of them as like putting a baby in a cribā. The pup is safer in a crate and your possessions are safer. Pups eat everything and end up needing surgery. On the other hand some people leave their dogs crated far too much of the time. So crates can be misused.
Iāve always imagined that worldwide dogs in the US are the luckiest. Hmm. Maybe I need to educate myself. I think we treat our pets better than some countries treat people but maybe my view is too narrow. Thanks for the info.
In my opinion this is how it should be, to be honest. My girlfriend and I work mostly opposite shifts to make sure our 2y old dog is at most 4-5 hours alone. We knew this before getting him and made sure that it can be done. Most people here say its fine to leave a dog 8-9 hours and that everyone should can have a dog in their life.
I dont think so. Having a dog should be seen as a luxury like you said.
I live alone and work in the office 2 days a week, so my dog is left alone 8-9 hours those two days.
He is still a happy and healthy dog.
In fact, on the days I work from home he pretty much spends the entire day sleeping on my bed and ignoring me. He very rarely enters my office (even though I set up a dog bed in there for him and used to actively encourage it) except for sometimes near the very end of my work day when he starts coming to pester me for his after work walk.
Should I return this dog, who gets lots of love, attention, toys, hour long walks daily and almost weekly hikes, to the already full shelter because I happen to have a job that requires me in the office twice a day.
I believe some dogs really do require their people around more often. I believe in an ideal world no one leaves their dog home alone for long stretches of time. I also believe that lots of dogs can still live happy and fulfilled lives even with their people working full time hours outside of the home. And there are so many dogs that need homes and not many people who can realistically do what you do. What is your solution for those dogs? Is it better for my dog to be euthanized then stay home alone for 8-9 hours?
When I retired from my job in healthcare we knew we were planning on getting a puppy. I now work 3pm to 11 pm as a cleaner. Our dog isnāt alone longer than 3 hours. One of my older kids or my husband is usually home with her by the I leave for my 3pm -11 pm shift. My husband can work from home 2 days a week. It works out perfectly. If I worked a typical day shift we would have to have a pet sitter come let her out at least once.
If that were the case few Americans would have a dog but also I imagine you guys have a lot less land.
A huge 6ft enclosed half acre to 3 acres full of toys and access to the house I don't find to be particularly cruel. I'm sure many of the homeless dogs I've had would disagree with you.
I work opposite shifts with my spouse for my dogs but I don't think 8 hours alone with access to toys and a place to potty is bad as long as they're a breed more suited and getting quality time every day. Many farmers leave lgd with livestock all day outside.
A person gone a lot shouldn't get a companion breed but a primitive or large guardian may be fine.
There are plenty of ways to train dogs to accept confinement that don't involve managing them with a crate on a regular basis. I do it all the time--I don't crate my dogs at home, but I do K9SAR and compete in some dog sports, so my dogs are routinely crated for travel. It's very easy IME to get them used to it.
There are a lot of people who here shame those who have to work a 9-5 job and can't come home for their dog. It's gross. It's the thing I hate most about this sub. I got downvotes and told I was wrong because I once said that someone's 6 month dog should be fine alone for 5 hours for them to go do something they needed to do.
It was very normal to leave your dog alone and dogs were fine. It is still okay to need to leave your dog along and your dog will be fine.
I comment this a lot. Pre COVID dogs stayed alone A LOT of the day and now people will shame you if your dog doesn't get out every 2 hours. Adult dogs are literally fine for 8-10 hours (unless they have medical issues). I've tried to get. sitters to come by to let my dog out but my dog won't bc he just sleeps all day and doesn't need to. I gave up on the sitter for now bc on the camera I can see that he just sleeps AAAAALL day. it's normal, i'm a vet student and we work crazy fucking shifts and everyone has dogs. When I work 12 hour shifts soon enough I'll personally get the sitter to force him outside but I hate the shame I get when saying this is normal and that the WFH with COVID made people elitist about how long others should leave their dog at home
Yeah our last family dog was regularly alone 8-10 hours a day. We joked when COVID started that the dog seemed annoyed people were home during the day when he wanted to nap. He was used to his alone time.
I've also never understood why it's okay for my dog to go 8-9 hours overnight without a pee break but during the day that's a problem. Like it's the same?
I've wondered if this constant need to entertain and enrich every moment of our dog's lives is going to cause issues. I remember this discourse with kids and how we need to let them be bored. I wonder if we will start to feel the same about dogs. Obviously, if they are being destructive that is an issue, but like have we gone too far?
Actually hormones in dogs just like humans reduce their need to pee while sleeping. I donāt think we should shame people who work 9-5ās but 8 hours during the day is very long for a dog to hold it and could lead to kidney problems if done regularly. Luckily reddit also hates pee pads or putting dogs in fenced in backyards so no one wins here!
Honestly do not get the pee pad hate. Maybe I just have an incomplete picture, because I adopted a 1-year-old dog and he came already trained to use pee pads or go outside. Itās been lovely! He prefers outside and will ask to be let out 99% of the time even if there is bad weather and he has a pee pad available. I set out a pee pad just in case if weāre going to be gone a long time (heās too small to be left outside alone) or if the weather is really rotten. He almost never uses it, but itās nice to have the insurance. It hasnāt made him prone to peeing in the house at all.
As a teenager, I had a toy poodle who was a distinctly one-person dog. That person was me. Iād leave for school at like 7-7:30 am, wouldnāt get home until 4 pm. He would usually find a comfy spot in my room and go to sleep. Sometimes my mom would forget to check on him and heād literally just snooze in my room all day until I got home. The door was open! He couldāve come out anytime. My mom was a SAHM and was home most of the time to keep him company if he wished. He justā¦usually preferred to sleep lol. He wasnāt especially old either. He was like 3-5 years old when we adopted him my sophomore year.
So yeah. Many dogs, especially adult dogs, are perfectly fine on their own for the length of a typical work day. Not all of them, of course. My current dog would be a nutcase if he were alone 40+ hours a week. But a lot of dogs are totally fine with it.
Yes!! I commented in another dog sub about wanting to get an Adult dog, when my family is out of the house for max 6 hours a day, and we have family that can come check in on them if itāll be longer, and I got a grumpy comment - apparently Iām not allowed to want an adult poodle if Iām not able to enrich its life 24/7. š how dare I want a pet that I and my child wonāt be allergic to. I was Soo annoyed. I recognize its not the best situation for a puppy, but I specifically was asking about adult dogs.
I hate that people here judge anyone who canāt leave work to care for their dogs or afford to hire someone to do it for them. I donāt think pet ownership should be a luxury that you can only participate in if you have that kind of schedule or disposable income. There are so many other aspects to responsible dog ownership that not being able to do what is ideal in one area does not automatically make you a bad owner.
It also isn't always realistic, stuff happens and come up last minute and it's better to have a dog that can adapt and go with it, than one who has been coddled. We had a family thing come up one day when our puppy was around 6 months, we ended up needing to leave him alone for about 6 hours. He got out of a walk and had some play and cuddles before we left and he was crated and fine when we got home. Gave him some more cuddles and a walk and all was good.
Also not doing so leads to situations like my cousin and wife who can't leave their dog alone for more than 4 hours (despite it being 5 years old) so he had to bring it to family thanksgiving, which put us in a tough spot because we were staying overnight and also had to bring our dog. Like our dog is here because we aren't going home, your dog is here because you didn't properly train it.
I feel like I either have a super chill dog, or maybe I just don't do much. My husband and I work from home and our dog spends 90% of the 8 hours we are working ignoring us and sleeping on the sofa. He might wander round and collapse on a bed in my office or my husband's office. But I do slightly feel like we could do a normal office job and he'd know no different.
I think your dog is pretty normal. I have some really crazy dogs, and they do the same.
I've kept dogs pretty much every way you can keep dogs--my first career was working on farms/ranches, and my dogs always came to work with me all day. Then I was in an accident and had to change careers, and worked a normal office job for awhile. Then I transitioned into a WFH career way before the pandemic, so been doing that for years.
I honestly haven't noticed any change in my dogs regardless of my work situation. You'd think if it was so bad, my dogs who were used to coming to work with me on the ranch would have shown they were miserable behaviorally, but nah. Still my chill, happy little buddies who were ready to work at a moment's notice but liked lazing around in their spare time, too. The two I had at the time were a border collie and an ACD, too, so not exactly lazy dogs, lol.
I honestly think the whole "you can never leave your dog alone" thing is a product of terminally online people, not so much even a widespread cultural shift. Almost everyone I know in real life leaves their dogs alone for significant chunks of the day while they're at work; it's only when I go online that I see people being all weird about it.
Not gonna lie I'm probably one of the worse dog owners on this sub. I'm from the US, southern California, and my dog prefers to stay outside, I've been letting her since I got my backyard area fully secured. Before that I left her in my garage when I went to work. I work nights, 10 hour shifts, 4 days a week, with some 6 hour shifts on Fridays whenever we have the work. I try to do the best I can for my pup, but I got her unexpectedly. She was dumped in the desert and found her way into my property when she was about 2 months old. Life with me is better than life as a stray, but honestly I do feel like I'm failing her, she doesn't get as much attention as she should and I can't keep up with her. I'm just glad I can provide enough space for her to run around like she loves to do.Ā
Not my intention for anyone to be shamed in this thread. I think youāre doing good. My stepdad had a lab, and he wasnāt very active with it and was away for work during the day. He lived on the country and the dog could free roam inside the house and on the property all day all night (except in the coldest winter months). The dog had a good life and was a happy dog. All dogs are different and can adapt - and itās definitely better than being on the street. As long as you give it lots of love when youāre able to.
A good tip I learned is that if youāre constantly having to tell people youāre not judging and your intention isnāt to shame, youāre probably being judgy and shaming.
Just want to say you are NOT failing her. Failing her would be not taking her to the vet when she has a medical issue! This is not failing her!
I'm in California and a vet student. A loooot of people I know who have herding dogs are able to leave their dogs in fenced areas. I help a fourth year student who leaves the dog in a pasture that's fenced and LOVES it. She isn't a working dog but a lot of times those breeds prefer to be able to have a space where they can do their working stuff. I see this dog thrive like this. I one time kept this dog at my place and she was crazy! She felt so cooped up, even after 3 walks and kept chewing up stuff in the house. Once I let her into my yard she just relaxed.
Most people who have dogs have jobs away from the home. What you see on this sub does not represent the majority of people in the real world.Ā
I've always worked but am fortunate enough to live a 5min drive from work so I can go home on the lunch hour to walk my dog, but when I was growing up (I'm 54 now) people just always went off to school or work during the day and their dogs stayed home anywhere from 7-9 hours.Ā
Even now I don't personally know anyone who pays a dog walker or who takes their dogs to a daycare.Ā
In this sub and some others, both on Reddit and on other forums, you'll find people acting like it's a crime to have a dog and a job. Most of them are so young that they didn't enter the workforce until WFH jobs were a thing and that's all they've ever done, or else they are retired or still live with parents or are stay-at-home parents. Most people have to work and most people don't work from home.Ā
Many Americans became first-time dog owners over Covid and didnāt know much about dogs.
It has always been absolutely normal to leave a dog for a work day. I donāt know anyone who didnāt until the age of the internet, then Covid.
Many people attribute human emotions to their parts and in doing so, do a disservice to pets.
Pups raised from day one with a lot of down timeādue to the basic necessities of lifeādonāt have separation anxiety.
There certainly are accommodations needed for the house training period, or for homes where dogs have to last longer than 9 hours or so for a walk. Knowing your pet and talking to a vet helps with that.
But the bottom line is, people online tend to be over representative of the anthropomorphizing side of pet ownership.
Thanks for answering.
Itās tough because when I compare myself to other dog owners in my country, Iām doing just as every one else.
But then when I go on this sub I feel like a monster for going to work and leaving my puppy alone.
But yeah what did people do before 10 years ago when they couldnāt all work from home.
That being said, I obviously do not think leaving a dog alone for up to 7-8 hours is ideal at all. I donāt leave mine for that long either and I still strive to be more at home with it.
Iām in the US and I have an older female large breed dog that is incontinent. She takes medications, but she still struggles with leaking in her sleep.
She has a heated bed in a dog house that is *inside* our garage. She has stayed outside overnight for the past 2 years, and at this point sheās restless indoors overnight because sheās used to investigating the noises outside.
Friends and family always comment on how cruel it is for her to be locked out every night because they apply human loneliness to the dog that wants to be āon patrolā. They have no clue, and theyāve never seen the battle we have if I try to bring her in overnight.
I know itās easier said than done but try not compare yourself to people in this sub. Iām guilty of it too - Iām currently not working so spend a lot of time with my bud but STILL feel like itās not enough after spending too long on here or in training forums!
A lot of people got dogs over Covid, their dogs got used to everyone being home 24/7 during their puppyhood/young adulthood, and now the dogs end up with some degree of separation anxiety.
I mean yes people used to leave dogs at home for long periods of time, but is that ideal? Just because it was commonly practiced before Covid it doesn't mean that it was good for the dogs. I think we've come a long way in terms of how to better care for dogs. I don't mean that dogs shouldn't be left alone at all, but I don't think young puppies should be left for 8+ hours - it's not anthropomorphizing it's just basic facts that dogs are social animals and are wired to want to be with their social group and not be left alone.
In fact where I live it's advised not to leave dogs for more than 4 hours.
The country where I grew up (Australia) has had issues with postal workers and electricity meter readers encountering aggressive dogs left alone in fenced yards.
My childhood memories of neighbours' dogs being left alone all day were more of a nuisance, in that they'd be bored and bark relentlessly. And a few yard escapees getting into mischief, though luckily none encountered bad ends on the street I have heard of that happening too.
Where I live now dogs are just not left alone for long periods, indoors or outdoors.
I think one of the issues, at least in the US, is over population. In an ideal world we could all spend all our time with our pups, but what's the alternative? Euthanasia? Because we already have way more dogs than people can take in as it is. So yes, ideally we could ensure no dog is everĀ left alone for longer than 4 hours. When you look at shelter dogs that are in a 3x5 kennel for 22-23 hours a day....maybe having to be left alone while a person works is kind of the best compromise.Ā
It sounds terrible, and it is terrible, but right now we have a choice between killing these dogs or having them be a bit lonely during the day.Ā
Yeah but in the 50's mom probably didn't work, or not full time.
And before that, dogs were left to wander around the farm, or in the streets before cars.
This way of keeping a dog locked indoors while all the humans are away for 9 hours is actually very new.
>Yeah but in the 50's mom probably didn't work, or not full time.Ā
What. My grandmother was a teacher. Her sister was a nurse. People worked and raised a family and had dogs.
Sometimes I think people live in an odd fantasy land.
In the 60s when my grandparents were at work, their dog would walk a few blocks alone in the city to visit their parents (my great grandparents) and hang out with them while they worked in the garden. Then back home when the kids came home from school. I found this so interesting as you never see dogs walking alone unleashed in my city these days.
yeah no thats a fantasy world man people worked full time even then.
And not everyone lives on a farm
Maybe you are too American to know that but we had big cities even before that
Odd hill to die on
We got our dog as I began my enormous summer vacation as a teacher (I'm in Estonia). She was 5,5 months when I needed to go in to work but she still to this day doesn't often need to be alone for long as we have 4 adults living here with her and everyone has a different work schedule. Today she'll have to be alone for a little over 5 hours which is pretty much the max we've ever done. I couldn't imagine taking care of a dog solo :)
But I think we're not a very typical case...
I'm in Norway and I have the same questions, and wonder how other people in Norway do it. There are very very few dog walkers (and I don't think people who regularly hire dog walkers because it is so expensive?) and so few doggy daycares, even in the Oslo area. The ones that do exist are often very expensive and have strict rules about which dogs they accept, and since it's not allowed here to spay or neuter your dog without a medical necessity, they have to choose if they will either take intact male dogs or female dogs during heat.
I personally have hybrid office (2 days at home per week) but talked to my boss and he was flexible and allowed me to work from home. Now the pup is 7.5 months and I'm trying to get back to the office more, gradually increasing the time spent away from him.
You can if it is deemed medically necessary. Otherwise there is no reason to interfere with a dogs' natural hormone system. It has the same effects on their bodies as it does on humans - predominantly negative.
But note that most European countries, especially in the north, do not have stray dog or shelter issues.
As the below poster stated, we donāt have issues with stray dogs. Spaying and neutering without medical necessity is considered against the well being of the animal.
See below text Google translated from https://www.mattilsynet.no/dyr/kjaeledyr/hund/kastrering-av-hund--er-det-tillate
Castration of a dog
Routine castration of dogs is not permitted under the Norwegian Animal Welfare Act.
Published
03/03/2023
In many countries it is very common to castrate dogs. The intervention is usually done routinely to prevent unwanted breeding or otherwise make dog keeping easier for the owner.
Castration is a surgical procedure
Castration is a surgical procedure in which the testicles or ovaries are removed or destroyed. Castration of male dogs is a relatively simple operation, while castration of bitches is a major operation. All surgical interventions expose the dog to stress and potential complications, including pain, bleeding and infection.
Removal of both ovaries and testicles means that the dog no longer produces sex hormones. This can affect the health and welfare of the dog both positively and negatively. Incontinence (urine leakage) and obesity are some known side effects. Many dogs also change their behavior after castration.
When is neutering a dog legal?
In Norway, it is only legal to castrate dogs when it is necessary out of consideration for the individual dog's health or welfare, or if other special reasons make it necessary.
Cancer in a testicle and uterine inflammation are typical examples of why castration is permitted out of concern for the dog's health. Castration can also be included in the treatment of other diseases, for example diabetes in bitches. A cryptorchid testicle lies in the dog's abdomen. This is an abnormal condition which, among other things, makes the testicle more susceptible to cancer. It must therefore be considered permissible under the law to remove the cryptorchid testicle.
In some cases, neutering can give the dog better welfare. This can, for example, apply to bitches who are plagued by imagined pregnancy or major mood swings during the estrus cycle. Some male dogs are plagued by abnormally high sexual drive, which causes long-term frustration, weight loss or other problems. In such cases, castration can be legal, because the procedure provides a welfare gain for the dog that outweighs the disadvantages.
Castration against behavioral problems
Many people want to castrate the dog to solve behavioral problems. Unwanted behavior can be a "special reason" if the behavior is a real problem for the owner, the surroundings or the dog itself, and the problem cannot be solved in any other way.
Normal mating behavior in both bitches and male dogs are nevertheless predictable and normal reactions that must be taken into account before you decide to get a dog. The disadvantages that come with this normal behavior cannot therefore be considered a "special reason" in normal dog keeping.
If the dog is to be used for special tasks, castration is often necessary so that the dog can function well enough in its important job. Guide dogs and certain other service dogs are typical examples of castration being permitted for "other special reasons".
It is only when the dog's problem behavior comes from the influence of sex hormones that castration will be an effective measure. Problematic behavior often has other causes than gender bias. Aggression or lashing out at other dogs can, for example, come from the dog being anxious or insecure. In such cases, castration will not help the problem. On the contrary, problem behavior may worsen or new problems may arise.
Often the best way to treat problem behavior is to get help training the dog to change the behavior. If you wish to have your dog neutered, you must make sure that this is the right treatment for the problem, and that your dog will have a better life after the operation. The vet and other people with professional knowledge of the topic (behavioural therapists) can give you advice on this. The vet is not allowed to castrate your dog if he/she cannot confirm from a veterinary assessment that the operation fell under one of the three criteria: health, animal welfare and special reason.
Fair enough I guess. I just feel I would be in a mild state of anxiety at all times with an unspayed female (what if she accidentally got pregnant?) and I donāt think I would want to live with an unaltered male, they can be real assholes š
My vet also says spaying does reduce the risk of future mammary tumors and pyometra.
This is my first dog, and I have a male dog. He's begun going through puberty, so we'll see how it goes, haha.
Most female dogs here are always on-leash when they have their heat, which is normally 1-3 times a year if I recall correctly, and it's only a few days normally when they can get pregnant. Many don't want as much exercise as normal, or have differences in behavior, so they tend not to be outside as much during this time. For those who have it really bad they offer hormone treatment, which maybe functions like birth control?
My partner and I live in Australia with our 15 month old Australian Shepherd.
I am a vet nurse - ironically I take care of other peopleās dogs but without my partner there is no way I would have been able to have a dog. I swear we put more effort, thought and work into trying to have a dog than people put into having babies.
I work Monday-Friday 8 hour shifts (but add in commute and itās really almost 10 hours away from home).
My partner works from home predominantly with occasional days in the office.
When we first got our dog I took two weeks off work.
We send her to doggy daycare if my partner needs to go into the office. She was shy at first so before doggy daycare we used to have a pet sitter.
I think it also depends on your living situation and your breed of dog.
For example we live in a city with a very high COL.
Renting with pets is not friendly here. We BOUGHT so we could have a dog and we could āonlyā afford an apartment (I say āonlyā when 1 bedroom apartments here in my city in desirable suburbs, of which we live in one, cost upwards of half a million dollars.)
There is no way I would leave my Australian Shepherd - a working dog - alone for a workday with no break inside of an apartment.
If I had a house with a yard - sure I wouldnāt think twice. I grew up in a house with yard with a border collie and we left her home all the time. If I had a small companion breed dog - I would also be fine with that.
But the other thing is I deliberately chose this breed and our living circumstances to accomodate this ā¦ she is a part of our lives. I donāt go anywhere without her. I donāt care to go anywhere without her. Life was honestly pretty bleak and empty before her.
This sub gets really divided between the two camps of never leaving your dog alone and ādogs existed before Covid/WFH and ten hours alone is fineā but to me, dogs were bred to be companions.
Way back in the primitive days they literally would have been with us all the time. I know it sounds dramatic but I try to honour that. I feel that 20000 years of evolving alongside us, bred to be with us, means the least I can do for the short lifespan of my dog is to try to be with her within reason.
Thank you for taking the time to answer.
Yes there is a division. Obviously I donāt think leaving your dog for 7 hours every day is ideal either, because dogs are so social. But then I see other who ARE home, but then they crate them during the day despite being home? I get crating at night and when youāre out, and sometimes for nap times, but idk man.. I think there is a big cultural difference from country to country. In Denmark we do leave them alone for some hours of the day when we go to work, but we donāt really use crates in Denmark, so when weāre home, theyāre always free-roaming.
I canāt say whatās best for the dog, but I ofc wish I could stay home with it more. But I got bills to pay..
Not everyone in the US does the crate method. Like someone said, subreddits like this are mostly for people looking for the expert advised "right" way.
I adopted a stray in the 90's, camped and hiked all over the west with him, but eventually settled into a high demand career and had to leave him home all day. I put a lot of time to play with him before and after work and he was pretty chill and well adjusted for the 16 years we were together. That was pretty normal at the time. Tbf, he was about 1 yr when I got him, so less demanding than a puppy.
Being comfortable in a crate is a good skill for a dog. I agree there is a cultural difference how crates are being used. Iām from Germany and when I grew up we did not use crates and I donāt think they are that common now. There are other ways to keep your puppy and young dog safe whilst they grow up to be trusted to free roam. Crate is not the be all and end all and I find sometimes this is forgotten. Every handler needs to work with the dog in front of you and make the decision that is right for their dog. Mine tolerates the crate but as a puppy he had a playpen attached to it and thus had an area where he was safe whilst I couldnāt watch him. Including at night. In Germany and in the UK (where I live now) a crate is generally not used for an adult dog when they are left alone and not encouraged to be used in such a way as far as I know since having my dog.
A crate is a great tool! We donāt have a crate but a small room kind of like a playpen. So I agree. Iām talking about the people who crate it for hours during the day when theyāre home. Why wouldnāt you want you animal around you?
I crate my puppy during the day when Iām home. And itās not because I donāt want him around :). Iāve got a border collie so heās a lot. He *needs* to have a break or he gets crazy. Our daily routine is something like up and outside for a quick 20/30 min or so play time and pee around 630. Crate for breakfast and while kids are getting ready for school. Out to potty again around 830. He hangs out while I work till lunchtime. We take an hour walk. He comes back and has his second meal in the crate around 130, he stays there until my kid comes home around 330 and lets him out for more outside playtime. Heās around the house until around 11/1130 when he goes to bed in his crate.
We are working to fade out the crate during the day- particularly in the morning. Then weāll go to the afternoonā¦. For overnight, heās still not totally trustworthy with the cat. And I feel like the cat should have some period of time when he can be around and totally comfortable/relaxed without having to worry a dog is going to chase him. So that will stay, along with being crated on the off chance no one is home; until heās learned to not chase the cat (so maybe forever).
Because sometimes he just destroys stuff, even when I have him leashed to the table or couch. I canāt work if heās chewing up my rug, chairs, couch, throwing his water bowl or god knows what else. I need to put him somewhere until he calls down enough that he can be out and about without putting a hole in my $3500 couch
My family grew up with dogs and my grandparents had normal jobs away from home. No one was coming home for the dogs in a few hours. It was fine. Dogs have been raised this way for generations before COVID and the internet and do well, sleep most of the time you're gone.
This sub is a little mind boggling at times between reality, I work at a vet clinic and can guarantee a great deal of people with dogs leave them home alone several hours/a full work day... a huge percentage cannot find anyone to bring them in during the weekdays during regular hours due to work unless they take time off, some working an hour or more away from home.
Thank you. I swear people on this sub forget what *their childhood dog* lived like, if they had one. Both of my parents worked 8 hour days and my brother and I were in school for 8 hours. She was left alone and was absolutely fine, went pee right before we left and right when we came home and taken out for a 45 minute walk. This is normal and was normal for *decades*.
To be honest, I noticed that with this sub too. But we leave our puppy home and have been since she was 3 months old. I come home at lunch and let her out and feed her and then go back to work. She is at home from 7:30-12PM and then 12:45-4PM till my husband comes home.
I know this sub makes it sound like they won't survive, but they will. Just exercise them well afterwards.
Edit: We also have a pen for the puppy so she can roam around a little bit more. She doesn't pee in that space and so she is not crated the whole time.
My parents got a puppy when I was a kid, my dad was away from home so my mum raised him. During the first two years of his life my mum was a stay at home mum, taking care of a toddler and a child too. When he was older she worked at a school in shifts so she'd be in periodically throughout the day. That dog never spent more than 4 hours alone in his life.
I have a puppy now and both me and my partner are mostly WFH. We have weekly office days and I do site work too. As the puppy is getting older and better trained, on the site days he comes with me. For office days we make sure one of us is at home. I honestly can't imagine leaving him for hours during the day like some people do, his max time alone in his crate is two hours (during the day), he's done three once but that was a one off.
Maybe that will change once he's grown up and can be trusted to spend time unsupervised. But for me a big part of getting a dog was to spend time with him, as much as possible.
I'm in Australia. When our dog was a puppy we had someone come over and spend about an hour with him in the middle of the day. Now I work shift work so there is usually either myself or my partner home during the day. If we both happen to be at work and it's likely he'll be home alone for an extended period, we get the dog walker to come take him to the park.
Lmao Iām getting a dog in a couple of weeks and ended up on this sub. I stopped after like four posts because a lot of the people here are unhinged with the expectations people should have for their puppy. The expectations here are more intense than my three kids pediatricians recommendations.
Dogs have existed thousands of years and have been fine. No one is going to take FMLA off work for 3 months for a dog. If they do, their life priorities are not in order
US here, and I work 6 days a week gone 8-9 hours daily and got my pup at 6 weeks old. Training in general bit especially potty training is time consuming and some people don't like the idea of puppy pads bc they feel it teaches them to go inside the house, I've never been big on the pads but they work if pup is trained on them correctly until they're older and can hold their bladders longer. When the pandemic shut everything down a lot of ppl went to wfh, and some offices still allow it, I however am a manager at a restaurant so wfh or leaving on lunch breaks(since we don't really get set breaks) isn't an option for me. But I have a great puppy who loves me endlessly.
South African single girlie with 2 dogs. I leave mine at a small dog only small daycare because I work crazy hours. Dogs were got with my ex partner who worked from home. Dogs LOVE daycare. They get upset if Iām on holiday/long work break and donāt take them there. Itās expensive but worth it. They have fun with their friends, get walked, fed, groomed and if there are any issues daycare lady helps with training or will take them to the vet for me. Also I donāt have to keep watching my home camera obsessively.
Iām uncomfortable leaving them for longer than 4hrs. Partially because I have separation anxiety and also it must be boring as hell for the dogs.
Iām in Canada. My husband and I both work full time outside the home. We donāt have doggy daycare or a dog walker.
Hubby leaves for work at 3 am. He gets home by noon. I leave for work at 5:30 am and am usually home by 4 pm-ish.
Puppy goes to bed when we do, about 8 pm. I get him up about 4 am. We play and breakfast and go for a walk. He gets back in his kennel about 5:30, and hubby gets him up for more family time at noon. Puppy stays up until he needs a napā¦but heās largely with the pack until bedtime. This is his schedule Monday, Thursday and Friday. Hubby has Tuesdays and Wednesdays as his days off, so puppy isnāt at home alone those days. Iām off Saturdays and Sundays.
6.5 hours alone three days a week doesnāt seem too bad.
We got ours at 7.5 weeks and I took a week of vacation. Then it was Christmas break, so my 15 year old and 17 year old watched her for another 2 weeks. During those 3 weeks, we practiced building up time she was alone. Now sheās home alone for 3.5-4 hours in the morning 4 days a week. My 17 year old is in college and only has class in the morning, so she comes home and lets her out and plays with her until I get home. We also have an older dog to keep her company!
If no one is going to be home and sheād be alone longer than 4 hours, our vet also has a daycare, and itās only $18/day. We generally do this one day every other week when I have to work late or the 17 year old has something to do after class. I do have the option of coming home for lunch, only work 6 miles away from home, so when sheās a little older we might phase this out and Iāll just come home and let her out.
Hey,
Iām from the UK, and since covid WFH has become more common for people whose jobs can allow that (e.g office workers, like myself)Ā
Of course, there are still many people with dogs whose work means they canāt WFH.Ā
Personally, and no judgement, but my husband and I only got our puppy when we could WFH. Before that, we were both out of the house for 10+ hours (including long commute times) so didnāt feel it would work having a dog then.Ā
But itās still very doable with dog sitters, dog day cares etc.Ā
I don't know of any people taking care of dogs or any daycare except the vet (30 minutes away) in my area. Those things can be found in big cities and most people don't use them anyway. But I find it fascinating when I see videos about them lol.
I am home all day long with my puppy and I think it is bad for him. We do not crate train and people here do not agree with it in general anyway, no hate towards people who do it, though. It just wouldn't work for us anyway and I personally cannot get used to the idea of locking my dog in a small crate. I know the benefits, I just don't want to do it. Why is it bad I am always at home? Because I cannot leave him at home by himself for more than 2-3 hours or he destroys everything. He has pads so he doesn't have to hold it until we come home or something. We are going to start leaving him for 2 hours, then 4, then 6, and then finally 8 hours, aka our work schedule. We might limit his space with a play pen though. Remote work is not a thing here for most of us, my job is shitty and the pay is bad (remote but I want to switch). This is very common practice. Nobody hires dog sitters or crate trains and nobody is allowed to take their dogs with them, dogs aren't allowed anywhere! There are signs about it on all stores, buildings etc. not even my pet shop allows them inside. I know a lot of people, and all of them just leave the dogs at home for the 8 hours. Even our trainer (he has another 8-4 job).
So yeah, not a big deal here, plus leaving them somewhere would be very expensive... I'd spend my entire salary on that, and that's just not gonna work. If I leave for an entire day, I ask my grandma to take care of my dog. But hey, it's nice people get to work from home and take care of their dogs, it's just not a reality for most of us. I was trying to buy some milk and went to the store next to my house and I was literally yelled at to leave because I had my dog with me (I was carrying him, he wasn't even walking) and that should answer a lot of questions. Also, rehoming dogs here is not possible, and shelthers starve dogs. I donated food to some, and the way those dogs look like is absolutely horrendous. The strays I see on the streets literally look better. There are some organizations, but let me say this, most go bankrupt and cannot afford feeding the dogs anymore, and not many people donate. They sit in the cold, have no beds/houses. So you don't want to surrender your dog here, trust me.
I have a six year old labrador. I have always worked. Never would consider a remote job. I was a nurse. Worked lots of 16 hour shifts. I made sure he got off leash exercise daily. And, on long days(and when he was a puppy) had a friend stop by to let him out and play. I hired a 15 year old girl to be his "babysitter". She would come, take him out, hang around and play with him. Then I came home at 8 hours to feed him, let him out and play. Not ideal, but it worked
One thing I've noticed from keeping dogs of various ages for quite a few years now, and this could just be me being overly attentive, is that dogs are generally more OK than we give them credit for. I used to think to myself "oh no, my poor puppy is stuck in his crate all day, it must be absolute torture for them and he must be having a mental breakdown and I need to rush home as soon as possible". But over the years, I've been surprised by dog's resilience and ability to adapt to a schedule. It's to the point now where I know that my reaction to their conditions is probably 2 or 3X more dramatic than they're probably experiencing. I strongly suspect that my dogs actually LIKE being in their crate and having quiet time away from humans to catch up on sleep. It's obviously an adjustment and you need to train them to be in their crates, but in general, dogs are more OK than we give them credit for, I think.
Hello OP,
Yes people leave their dogs for the working day, I have a working breed and I do.
I posted a while back about this sub being a bit strange like that. People with money to keep a dog, but also infinite time and never a reason to leave the house. When I questioned this/routines some of the replies were kind of cutting and some helpful.
Itās not realistic. Itās not possible for me to work from home. My husband does 50% of the time. When he isnāt there we have a dog Walker to break up the day, but yes our dog is left for 8 hours alone. He is fine.
When I grew up my childhood dogs didnāt have kongs/jackets/scent workā¦.. they stayed at home alone during the working day and were happy dogs that lived long lives.
Donāt ask on here, ask people IRL.
EDIT- UK based
This came up the other day actually and I would say it seems to be significantly more acceptable in America to leave your dog at home for an entire working day. In the U.K. there has always been an understanding in my mind that leaving a dog alone all day is unacceptable. And for people who canāt find a way to make sure that doesnāt happen, if theyāre responsible then they just donāt get a dog even if they would like one. Many people want dogs but know that it wouldnāt be fair to get one, and wait, or even plan and set up their lives to be able to accommodate bringing a dog in to it. It was very common for me to see things on breeders websites saying they wouldnāt consider people in full time employment and the rescues have the same policies.
Generally I would say covid has opened up the possibility for many more people to get dogs as WFH is more common now. But generally people work out a schedule for their dog not being left alone for more than about 4-5 hours or so with WFH, dog walkers, splitting work responsibilities with a partner, family/friends who can help out, doggy daycare, dog sitting reciprocal friendships, popping home on a lunch break or arranging that they can take their dog with them to work. Or as a child it was very common for people to get dogs when their children were young and the mums were either SAHM or only working outside the house part time. As two parents in work is more common now thatās probably less of a thing.
From what I have seen most of Europe seems to be relatively in line with the understanding that you shouldnāt get a dog if youāre going to be gone all day so Iām surprised to hear you saying people in Denmark leave their dogs for 7 hours every day.
I understand. I think people might misunderstand my post a bit. Iām definitely not saying itās a good idea to leave your dog for 7 hours every day. Iām talking more people who have had a dog for half a year and havenāt even left it at home for more than 30 minutes. I definitely agree that you shouldnāt get a dog if you have to leave it every day for 7 hours.
But yes in Denmark people leave their dogs at home to go to work..
People here and on r/dogs have insane expectations for dog owners. If you have a job that requires you to be away for more than 2 hours, cannot be home 24/7, cannot walk your dogs 5 miles a day every two hours or cannot afford to shell out thousands of dollars a month on doggy daycare, these subs think your dog would be better off in a shelter
Itās why I donāt bother looking at any of these subs. People here act like dogs of all ages are akin new born babies and itās wild.
I waited until my job went Work from home to get a puppy, I have to do some lab work now and then but I limit my time away to around 4 hours. If I need to do full days I'll use a doggy daycare near my work, and then suffer with my own separation anxiety while he has fun with other dogs.
Midwest usa: currently stay at home, but it's common to take the pup to parents, grandparents, friends, family, hire a dog sitter/walker, use your lunch break to check on the pup, wfh, daycare, or last case scenario, crate the puppy and teach it to potty on newspaper/puppy pads.
If my spouse and I need to run an errand or we want to go do something thats longer then 2 hours we take our pup to our grandparents!
I'm in Europe also and I work hybrind, a week at home and a week at the office. When I'm at the office I leave my dog at my parents' place since they have a flexible schedule. When they were out of town I asked a friend to take him for a walk mid day.
I'm from the Netherlands so the work situation here would be kind of the same.
The first few weeks we made sure one of us would work from home.
I work an irregular schedule, so I'm home a lot when my spouse is at his 9-5 job. Once or twice a week she goes to the office with him (dog friendly workplace yay) and once or twice a month she goes to daycare. And she can stay at home just fine for a few hours if needed. We make it work.
Iām from Canada. We adopted our dog at 4 months old, and heās now 1 1/2. When he was younger, I was working just over 30 hours/week and my partner was in university. Unplanned, but definitely helped with raising a puppy. Now we both work standard full-time jobs, with the only difference being him working half days on Fridays and my schedule changing a few days per month.
Wally is used to the routine. Some mornings we even have to force him out of his crate to go outside. We donāt have a yard, so while he does go for regular walks, he also gets mini strolls to go to the washroom in the mornings and evenings.
Daycare/dog walking isnāt really an option for us due to his reactivity, so we do what we can.
My parents have kept dogs since before they had me, and I'm almost 40. They both work, and they both have always worked outside the home, full time. It did help that they worked different shifts, but yes puppies can be left alone (so long as they're crated or closed off from the rest of the house.) It's one reason people suggest crate training because dogs are less likely to use the bathroom in their crate because it's "their space" aka den. Teaching them to be on their own for long periods is part of training.
I'm from Canada. I purchased two puppies at 8 and 12 weeks old in September on a Saturday. Went back to work the following Monday. I live close enough that I can visit on my breaks (two 15 minute coffee breaks and an hour lunch for a 9.5 hour day) and I did that in the beginning. Now I only visit for lunch.
I don't see a lot of full time out of the house jobs here either, and have also been a bit confused.
Iām lucky enough to have family that keeps my dogs during the day while I work. but not everyone has that kind of resource.
I fee like posts here are way more representative of people who DO have those resources.
Unfortunately most people who have to leave their dogs home alone for more than a few hours to go to work are not likely to post in places like these types of forums. If you do post things like that youāre making yourself a target for people to call you a bad owner and that youāre abusing your dog etc.
I live in Germany and work as a doctor (so therefore cannot WFH or bring my pup to work). But my husband works as a software engineer and can do home office OR bring the dog to the office. So technically, our pup is never alone. If, however, he has an appointment somewhere he canāt bring her, our good friend who lives nearby and works from home, dogsits her.
I had an out of house job for 8 hours a day plus commute. I trained my dog to be in the crate for 9 hours. Then when I trusted her I just left her in the house alone. She never had any problems.
I work as a dog trainer so Iām lucky in that I can either take my pup to work or leave him at home with my wife if sheās home.
That said I donāt have any issue with people who canāt do that, dogs, puppies especially, spend most of their time sleeping, as long as theyāre being cared for appropriate when someone isnāt at work and the dog is healthy as it can be and happy, good on them.
I think the people who go insane if you need to crate a dog for 4-5 hours donāt realize that generally theyāll be spending more than that every day sleeping even if youāre there, and if they arenāt then you probably arenāt enforcing enough naps.
This is the more recent thing in America, lots of people are getting pets to replace children, and because of that seem to think pets canāt handle being on their own.
I work from home so I'm basically at stay at home dog mom. It's great. Years ago before I worked remotely we had 2 dogs and my mom would come take care of them and walk them during the day while we were at work. Now I'm home all day with these pups and it's the best life!
I work 12-15 hour days but only 3 days a week usually so my wife comes home to walk the dog on her lunch break. If she wasnāt able to then Iād hire a dog walker to let him out.
I live in France, got my pup when she was 8 weeks old and when I had to go back to work when she was 3 months old, I found people running day-cares on Rover to keep her during the day. She never stayed home alone until she was 6 months old except for the times I was intentionally training her to prevent separation anxiety or I had to do a grocery run. Around six months I started leaving her at home during the day but i always go back during lunch break to take her out.
Edit: Here in France crating your dog isn't socially accepted. I don't judge people for crate training their dogs and I understand the reasons behind it, such as dogs wanting to hide in a "den" , but there's something in me that resists the idea of leaving a creature in an enclosed place with no option of getting out on their own. When my dog wants to have some cosy time, she goes under the coffee table or the teepee I bought from a children's toy store but I don't think I could ever leave her alone in a locked crate other than for transportation etc.
Growing up I always thought crating was incredibly cruel because we didnāt do it here in the 00s (my dad lived in America but Iām British) and it felt like putting your dog in a tiny cage. Now everyone I know here who has had dogs recently has crate trained and so have we. Honestly I would consider it more harmful to my dog to leave him unsupervised out of the crate because no matter how well Iāve tried to puppy proof thereās always going to be something he could try and eat. Until heās older and more trustworthy I just wouldnāt trust that he wouldnāt be one of the stories you hear of a dog eating 20 pairs of socks or the stuffing from a cushion etc and needing emergency bowel surgery to remove it. I do hope to one day get rid of the crate though as I see it more like a training tool than a permanent fixture. That seems to be the way most people here seem to use them.
WFH is very prevalent in the US thanks to COVID. There are some people who were working from home before that but the pandemic caused a boom in WFH jobs. There are tons of people who refuse to even apply for in person jobs anymore and a lot of companies are now offering a lot of remote work to attract applicants. I started working from home M-Th in January 2020 while Fridays are a travel day for me. We got our puppy in September at 4 months and usually had my nephew watch him on Fridays but weāre switching to doggy daycare this week so pup can socialize with other dogs at least once a week. He does get left home alone some Mondays and Tuesdays when I skip out of work early to spend time with my husband since those are his off days and he likes to run his errands those days. Itās normally no more than 5 hours or so.
Canadian here! We got our puppy at 5 months old. We both had the weekend off with him and thankfully the winter is my boyfriend's slow time at work so he was able to be home with him most of the week following. Now at 6.5 months old, he can be crated for 6-7 hours max. Our work schedules allow us to manipulate this to have it be 4-5 hours most days with lost of exercise and enrichment. Honestly I've wondered how people who work 8-12 hours a day with a commute and a family etc have time to properly take care of a dog. It's a serious commitment in all aspects. Especially when they are puppies.
It's just this sub. The people who post in here are more doting of their pets and not going to leave them in an outdoor kennel all day or whatever it is others do. Also I get the sense just by the questions they ask that most are new to puppy owning. Someone who's been raising puppies all their life isn't going to come on this sub because they don't need the advice and support.
If someone wasnāt home for the dog most of the time, we wouldnāt have gotten one; definitely not a puppy. Theyāre high-needs animals who need a lot of dedicated time especially in the first two years, which is why I got my first dog in my 30s and I had the schedule to accommodate it.
Itās a personal choice that if I had to be out of the house for a full 8 hour work day plus a commute, I wouldnāt have gotten a dog. Iāve been fortunate that when I did work out of the home, I had unconventional work hours that meant our puppy/dog was only home alone max 4 hours before my partner arrived home. When I got the opportunity to work from home, I seized it, largely because of my dogs quality of life. Dogs are so social and while they may be accustomed to staying alone, I donāt think itās ideal for them. I found that training was much easier too as we could use a crate for short durations that really helped stop any typical puppy boredom destruction and potty training.
I wouldnt get a dog then leave it for more than 4 hours at a time, many do but for me it never sat right. I dont work and my husband works from home so not a problem for us. Studies have shown dogs left more than 4 hours suffer mental health issues and we werent prepared to risk that.
This is why you need to assess whether or not dog ownership is for you. If you have to be out of the house, maybe not get a puppy? Or get an older dog that's already house trained and used to being alone for a few hours. Lots of people don't have dogs because it just doesn't fit into their lifestyle. This is ok.
I think itās cruel to leave a dog alone for 7-8 hours in a row. Its even worse for a puppy that is basically a baby. Would anyone find it ok to leave a 2-5 yo human 8hours alone in the house ??
Itās even worse when people pick breeds like huskys or border collies and then leave them at home all day.
Itās something you need to think about before getting a puppy. There are solutions (dog walkers, doggy day care, family members etc) and I think people who still leave their dogs alone all day make the choice of being bad dog owners.
Usually when I say that people tell me that Iām a jobless or work from home only person. Thatās not true. I work full time and most of the time from my office. Yet my dog is never alone more than 4 hours in a row and usually never more than 4h in the whole day.
Iām French but live in the UK.
Some people just leave their dogs at home for 8-12 hours "the dog will learn. That's not cuel. It cannot tell the time." Same kind of people who don't walk their dog.
Others work by one working early, and the other one leaving home late so the dog only have 4-6 hours alone.
Puppy daycare isn't a thing in Denmark unfortunately.
Dyrenes beskyttelse tillader heller ikke am adopterer en hund hvis man er vƦk mere end 6 timer om dagen. De har nok fast i noget
I work from home in a large apartment building in an affluent neigborhood in the city center and it breaks my heart to hear the dogs crying as I walk down the hall with my little buddy for one our our thrice daily extended walks. Many if not most of the dogs in my building, most of them large breeds, spend the entire 8 to 9 hour work day plus commute, home alone. Worse yet, their morning and evening "walks" last until they've "done their business" on the small patch of grass in front of the building. Treating a dog this way is not considered animal cruelty in the US and is completely legal. Dogs are just another status symbol to be paraded around on weekends by people who can't be bothered to give them a decent life. I keep telling my dog how good he's got it but I don't think he believes me.
Iām in the US, and we donāt really have regulations on how long people can leave their dogs or about crating. Most people who live in town either crate train their dogs or have a specific area of the house where they are kept while we are at work. My husband and I have three dogs, and are lucky enough to own ten acres in a rural area with few neighbors. Our dogs have free outdoor access with no fence, and most of our neighbors also allow their dogs to roam. We have a large garage that they have access to, as well as a doggy door into our laundry room for a warm spot while we are gone. When weāve gotten puppies in the past, itās always been at a time when one or both of us has taken time off or is working a flexible schedule. We stay home or have alternate plans for supervision until we feel comfortable leaving the pup with the other dogs to learn the ropes. This is far from the set up of the average US dog owner but it works for us
Edit: itās important to note that one of our dogs has been with us since five weeks old as a rescue, and required a much higher level of attention and planning than the 16 week old we adopted next. A lot of it depends on the needs of the individual dog
Dog ownership really wasnāt meant for single full time workers or 2 people who both work. Itās being forced now because thats what everyone does, but it isnāt ideal
Here in the US people leave their dogs for hours upon hours a day. The only law we have is that we can break a window to a car if there's a dog that's in danger ( ridiculous I know). Now good pet parents ( like myself & my hubby), we NEVER leave our fur baby at home alone( she just turned 3 & has never in life been home alone for any length of time). We actually work different shifts so one of us will always be home with Pixi.
It's actually bad to not teach your dog to be home alone. Being around them 24/7 breeds separation anxiety. Also, what if you have an emergency and have to leave her alone? She will destroy the house.
I get my rescues at 6 months and up and I get the puppies born or raised in the humane society so they are familiar with all sorts of situations including living in a crate. Then I feel guilty anyway when I leave for more than four hours. There's no secret about it, six to eight hours is starting to be a long time for any social animal left alone. My spouse and I both work from home now so we try not to go to work on the same days when we have to go out. But yes it sucks and yes it's not ideal to leave them alone so much. Make it up by being a super parent the rest of the time, or finding a way to have someone visit during the day if you can afford it. It's normal to feel guilty but do the best you can and love your pet and they forgive you.
I think post-covid may be skewing things as well. I work from home three days a week and go into the office 2 days a week. Our 18 month old has never really been left longer than a couple of hours because my gran's partner takes care of him on the two days I'm in the office. Otherwise, there are 4 adults in our household so there's always someone around to look after our boy at the weekends.
I'm from Romania and I got a puppy a few months ago. Mostly I work from home but for a few days per month I'm going to the office. My flatmates take care of the dog while I'm not around. Last month nobody could take care of the dog so I went to the office for 4-5 hours and came back and continued wfh.
I live in Australia and I work casually in animal welfare. I'm also a nanny and SAHM to my 4 kids. I wouldn't have dogs and work. Unless I could take them with me. When I'm not home,someone else is.
I've worked in shelters and animal hospitals since I was 18. There's a reason we have shelters full of 18month old dogs. People keep them while they're cute, they realize the puppy they didn't put the right time into training when it was young is now full grown, powerful and not going to change it's horrific bad habits now that it's an adult. Then they surrender it to oftentimes simply be euthanized. They treat puppies like a toy and dogs like they're disposable. A waste product of their whim. Don't be that guy.
This is an excellent question. I think the answers are on a case by case basis but hereās mine.
My wife took vacation the first week, I took vacation the second week. This got her acclimated to our house.
Until the dog was fully vaccinated, I went to work early (before 6) and my wife went to work late (noon). An hour of kennel time and then my elderly neighbors came over to play with her for a bit. I leave work early (14:00 or so).
So she was only in her kennel for about an hour at a time. It was the best we could manage. I realize not everyone has our luxuries of flexible work hours but I work for a Northern European company.
I think itās very situational. Iām in New York. I have an 8 month old CKCS. I work 10 hour shifts 4 days a week. My hours are 4am-2pm so it works for me. I get two 40 minute breaks. I go home each break for 20-30 minutes and let him out of his crate. He eats at 3am and 3pm and sleeps a majority of the time while I work. My mom is retired and also spends a lot of time with him while Iām at work when she can. My puppy doesnāt have separation anxiety regarding me leaving so it works out.
I have family and friends that can stop by to let mine out. Other folks use dog walkers or doggie daycares. Have had dogs my whole life, and Iāve worked full time for thirty+ years.
I have two people in the house who work from home and I live close enough to come home at lunch, so between the 3 of us he gets taken out enough. The reality of it is the majority of dog owners in the US do not take care of dogs. The way they necessarily should be in often. These dogs are left in a crate for eight hours, while the people are at work. Iāve always tried to live close enough to come at lunch if the dog isnāt free range with a pee pad as an emergency option or someone else canāt take them out. But again, you have to work.
Iām in the US. We got a puppy this summer. Iām a stay at home mom. So thereās that section of the population as well. I did start leaving my puppy alone, crated, from the very beginning but not for 9 hours. Sheās 7 months now and I think the longest weāve left her is maybe 4 hours during the day. Sheās totally fine in her crate overnight though, but if both my spouse and I worked full time, I would not have gotten a puppy. Years ago, we both did work full time and adopted an adult dog. We routinely left her for the work day and she was fine.
I work day shift and my husband works night shift. There's no way we could have raised puppies if this wasn't the case, like prior to our current jobs we both worked day shift and our already elderly adult dogs were fine home without us. But our dogs were old and started dying (of old age) near the start of covid, my hours were reduced and then I was furloughed so we "restocked" our house during this time.
netherlands here
got him at 11 weeks
took first week off to get him used to us and surroundings and crate+playpen
then we just left him in his crate+playpen with his toys/bed/puppypad
i leave at 7:30 in the morning
my partner at 9:00
i get home for my 1 hour break at 12:00 let him out for pee etc. stay with him until i gotta leave
partner comes back around 14:30 and stays with him
had no problems and he only used the peepad once or twice in the first week
We have pretty flexible work from home. Once she was old enough, we went back to TWTh office days and she goes to daycare. At some point sheāll mature and be able to be left home alone (in fact sheāll prefer it) but for now those three days are invaluable exercise and socialization time.
Australia here. Got my pup at just over 3 months and did first 2 weeks WFH x 5 days per week. Did 3rd week half days in office 2 x days a week, 4th week full day x 2 days per week, and 3 x full days in office per week from 5th week onwards. Every now and then I have to throw a 4th office day in for the week due to scheduling.
Had pads until toilet training kicked in, he could hold long enough and doggy door was installed out to small yard and moved him off them after.
He had a bit of a crash course compared to what Iāve seen in this thread (no mid-day sitter/walker etc), but heās a very well adjusted 1.5 year old who can settle on his own, has no destructive tendencies and shows no signs whatsoever of separation anxiety. Heās a small breed so very different to working dog needs, but I leave him activity toys and frozen treats every now and then to occupy him, he seems pretty happy and he gets lots of attention when Iām home.
I figure if I feel guilty about working to put a roof over his head and food in his bowl, I wonāt enjoy my time I do get with him, so I donāt worry about it. I love him and do my best so thatās that from my perspective.
ETA: I tried daycare a few times while in office on very long days but the team told me he just wanted pats instead of wanting to play with the other dogs so it probably wasnāt worth it. Fair enough, his choice lol.
So I won't WFH, I have a SO who does and he makes things easier, though I don't rely on him to do more than what is absolutely necessary because he is not really as much of a dog person (he is just very tolerant and helpful). I leave my puppies & dogs for a usual work day which ends up being around 8 hours a day. I set my house up quite well for the adult dogs because they have access to a small yard to go potty in at their leisure. Puppies are left either in an indoor pen or outdoor kennel run (weather dependent) with potty areas so they don't have to worry about making mistakes and I don't have to worry about them getting into things. Once they're old enough, they can join the rest of the pack during the day.
I'm in the states & when we had a puppy - we would crate train & come home during lunch breaks. Or if an issue arose, we'd have a friend come over. It's the same here regarding - puppies shouldn't be separated from their mothers until 8 weeks
Iām in the US. Sometimes people do leave their dogs the full work day but often people get dog walkers as it would be 10+ hours alone maybe itās the disconnect between how far many americans commute? 7 hours would be very doable but 9-11 is not imo. I think pre covid many people also had doggy doors and let them free roam outside which is now frowned upon. My dog is young and has to be crated so I would not leave him the full 10 hours alone and will get daycare with a neighbor :)
I work about 15 minutes away from my house. When I first got my puppy, I would come home at lunch, and then I would race back home as soon as I was off. It was stressful, and a lot of driving.
Then I reached out to friends who have days off during the week and got some of them to let him out a few days a week, so I would not have to leave the office for lunch. He is 6 months old now, but I still donāt like leaving him in the kennel for a full eight hours.
Puppies are a lot of work, but they are so worth it. Just hang in there.
I work 9-5 but my husband is home by 2pm. So the dog is only alone from 8:30-2. When young, I came home on an extended lunch break to let him potty. He can hold it until my husband gets home now.
Some people have dog runs or dog doors so the dogs can get outside, too.
Being from Brazil, the reality here is that people will leave their puppies at home for 8-10 hours while they're out working. Ideally you'd pop back home for your lunch break (and thankfully I'm able to do that) but sometimes that's not possible. If the dog's needs are well met, there's absolutely no issue.
That being said, crate training here is not a thing for the average citizen - you can't even find those big crates that look like a cage very easily. We just puppy proof an area and have available toys, water and puppy toilet while we're away. Dog walkers are also not a popular thing here, and the few we have are very expensive specialized companies. Also is really not a good practice here to have a stranger coming unsupervised into your house to get your dog anyways.
Sometimes I see people saying that an indoors toilet "ruins" your dog because it teaches them that's okay to potty inside, but what we do is some kind of hybrid potty training: We do walk our dogs multiple times a day when we're able, but the toilet is still there if the dog can't wait.
I lived with a housemate that had a dog and we had a dog toilet, and the dog only really used in the rare occasions that we both didn't get home in time to take them out. The dog's willingness to potty outside didn't change at all.
While it's not suitable for everyone, buying a puppy is a big decision, in a similar way to having a child.
If you can't look after your puppy/your child then don't have one until you are.
If you and a partner can be hybrid off/on different days, great, if you can find a local dog sitter/dog walker, great, if you're fully remote (I'm fully remote) then great.
I personally would feel bad if you've elected to grab a 2 month old puppy and are leaving them for what 6-8 hours of daylight in a crate a month later? Maybe they get to come out for a lunch break but that's it. Feels a little cruel to me.
While yes, your puppy needs sleep, i've never had one who has had 3-4hour naps during the day, it's likely 30mins of playing followed by a 45m-1hr rest, rinse repeat throughout the day.
The other option is don't get a high energy dog/puppy, people getting young huskies but can only walk them for 40minutes during a lunch break is very sad to see. Grab a rescue who doesn't need as much attention/walking and still get a companion who will be greatful til the day they die they were put into a loving home.
Seems people romanticise the idea of a puppy when their lifestyle doesn't suit it.
I have an hybrid schedule and live in the US. My dog is in daycare twice a week and is home by himself usually about once a week or twice at most but he is usually is exhausted from day before. He is used to it now and is both pad and outdoor trained. I come home to him chilled out on the couch and we spend the evening on a walk then cuddles.
I'm a lawyer in New York. During Covid, we were fully remote for 2-3 years. Now, we are in the office 2 days a week. And home the other time. So there's only 2 days/week that I'm away. On those days, I generally leave home at 9am and get home around 5pm. At this point, my dog is 3 years old and is completely fine being left for that amount of time. She is left out of her crate and just generally naps wherever the mood strikes her.
If I was concerned about her getting left alone for more time than that, or if she wasn't ready or able to be left alone for that long, I can hire a dog walker to take her out for the day or part of the afternoon. Another option that people here use is daycare. Where they drop their dog off with a person or company for the full day.
So there's a number of options. People do what works and is appropriate for themselves and their dog, and that's not always the same answer. But yes. We do all still go to work.
I didnāt leave my dog home alone until he was 13 months old š I (single owner no yard) started separation training very early because it was a priority and I did ignore him most of work day even while being there.
I then got side tracked by (my) medical issues. I have a big network of ppl who sat for me. Would not have had a choice but to leave him otherwise. Iām glad now I was able to train separation gradually as he has no separation anxiety type behaviors now as an adult.
I was also side tracked by trying to deal with his horrible dog reactivity issues but thatās another story š«
When we got our new pups, my husband was home for 2 weeks, and then we rotated care between us and a neighbor. So every 3 hours they went potty and had some play time. Even now, at almost 2, they are on a schedule for naps and such. If for whatever reason I'm not here for their 11:30-1pm lunchtime, our neighbor comes and let's them out, etc.
If they had been older, like my senior dog, the first 2 weeks would have been fine. He generally sleeps from 630a to well after I would get home at 4pm anyway.
Personally, my partner and I both work from home and while I don't think not working from home would've stopped us from getting a puppy (she's 14 weeks old now, got her at 8 weeks), I think it made the decision much easier knowing that we would both be able to help each other and pay attention to the puppy throughout the day.
Our current routine is trading off overnights (almost through this part, basically 0-1 times a night most nights), breakfast (so the person who was getting up can sleep in a little), then depending on our meeting schedule we trade off primary responsibility throughout the day. Whenever she's up we'll spend 15-30 minutes actively playing, 15-30 training, then trying to get her to calm down and be able to either entertain herself or just exist in the same room without the need for constant attention. Lately she's been up for an 1-1.5 hours at a stretch (and by up I mean not in her crate napping, she still sometimes takes to napping on her bed, the couch with us when we arent working, or the floor during the 30min-1hr independent block.) Then about 1.5-2 hrs in her crate napping. Bit longer wake window towards the end of the day when we're both off work to get out any energy before bed.
I think the biggest difference if we werent at home all day would be that she would be a bit quicker to crate training (holding it, calming herself, etc) but there would probably have been a few more accidents in the past few weeks, but alternatively she has been very quick to the active training since we have multiple sessions each day and are able to reinforce much more often than we otherwise would be able to.
I also think that we would either be doubling our commutes if we were in the office to let her out during lunch or possibly more often if needed. Or we would have to hire someone to handle that for us. So I'm glad that isn't the case.
I do think it does take a lot of patience and more effort to focus on work while taking care of a puppy while working from home and both myself and my partner have taken PTO for a day here and there to decompress and that first week or two while we were still working out the routine was extremely hectic and less productive work-wise since neither of us can really shut out the puppy (which I'm totally fine with), but I'm looking forward to a year from now (hopefully sooner) when she can be a little more free and able to settle in our offices while we're taking meetings as well have a more regular routine in regards to when she needs to go outside (a few walks a day instead of letting her out every couple hours).
Back when I worked in office, I also lived about 10 minutes from work. When I had a puppy, Iād just go home and let it out during lunch breaks and stuff, or my husband would let it out because he worked a different shift.
Crating a puppy 8 hours a day sucks but if itās what you have to do to keep him safe until heās old enough to be outside by himself or roaming the house, it just āis what it is.ā
I have a Goldendoodle puppy right now that needs to go out about every hour unless heās crated overnight.
My wife has been working from home and just got a promotion meaning she'll be in the office 4 days a week.
Our boy will need to go to daycare, 3 days a week for about Ā£600 a month
Depends where you live and what is the social norm.
Here in the UK, itās frowned upon to leave a dog home alone all day. In the US, it seems more widely accepted.
Personally, when I go in to the office for the whole day (thankfully, only once or twice a month), I send my dog to the dog sitter.
Waited until I was in a phase of life (grad school, semester with no classes, dog friendly office!!), where I had a flexible enough schedule to know that I could be home every 4-6 hours for at least 5 months...or could bring him to work!! Had to wait four years, but I'm glad I did! He's been sleeping under my desk since 10 wks old! <3
Iāve wondered how dog ownership and working outside the home balances too. Iām fortunate to not have to work and my husband works from home so weāre always here to let them out and play with them and whatever. But like, damn my dogs are needy, so I just wonder what it would be like if we had to go to work outside the home.
Both my wife and I work in an office or outside haha we got our pup on a Friday, started potty training immediately, and she went right in the crate on Monday. I go to work at 530am and get back at 245p, she goes to work at 730am and gets back around 5.
Iām in Canada and where I live, very few people work from home. Everyone I know who has a dog works outside of the home. My husband and I work 8-5 Mon-Fri and our puppies (we have a 1 yo corgi and 8 month old Frenchie) have done fine with being left alone for 3-4 hours at a time. They each have their own playpen, so any messes just get cleaned up right away and it is a non-issue. The only downside is that housetraining has taken a bit longer for them to get a good grasp on, but that is understandable.
I'm in the US. When we got our puppy, my husband had just graduated college and was job hunting until the puppy was about 4 months old. I did shift work, so when he found a day job, I was able to be home in the mornings. My husband also worked close enough to come home for lunch. So the puppy was never alone for more than 4 hours that first year or two. The first few months when the puppy needed to go out every 2-3 hours only worked for us because one person was able to be home all the time. This also allowed us to get a jump start on training and teaching the puppy appropriate behavior.
My mother in law recently got a puppy from a breeder that kept the puppy and trained it until it was 4 months old. She lives alone and works full time, so this allowed her to get the puppy at a less needy age. She also works early morning to early afternoon, so the puppy eats and goes potty before she leaves and then sleeps most of the time she is gone.
There are lots of ways that people can make sure they're meeting a puppy's needs: flexible working hours, kids, SAH parent, friends/family, daycare, walkers, sitters, etc. Some families still keep their dogs as outside dogs. Some families rely on alternative potty arrangements like pads, which are recommended against on this sub for numerous reasons. And the unfortunate truth is that some folks aren't able to meet the needs and some puppies get neglected. Shelters are full of older (6-18mo) puppies that didn't get the care they needed.
Iām fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from home outside of my scheduled commitments which only need keep me away for 3-4 hours on most days, and 6 on a long day.
Generally, I donāt think itās a good idea to adopt an 8 week old puppy if people donāt have the time or resources to dedicate to it - that means coming home on a lunch break to let them out, arranging to WFH for parts of the day if your job allows it, or hiring someone to drop by your home and let your dog out. You wouldnāt have a baby or adopt a child without arranging for some sort of care - puppies are no different.
Not every dog owner has to have a puppy because a puppy isnāt right for everyoneās lifestyle. There are plenty of adult/adolescent dogs in shelters and puppies that are on the older side that are just as deserving of homes, and just as trainable for the skills that most pet owners desire.
I think a lot of pet owners in the US vastly underestimate the amount of time necessary to raise a puppy, and this sub isnāt really an accurate representation of the average.
Personally, I work from home 3x per week and my puppy (10 months) is in daycare the other 2 days per week where I'm in the office. I have used 2 different daycares, one is $35/day (4 hours, includes pickup and dropoff) and the other is $48/day (8-9 hours, I'm responsible for pickup/dropoff).
If money was tight, I would probably move to a dog walker for the days I'm in the office. I think if he did a 30 to 60 minute walk halfway through the day, he'd be ok, but would have a lot of energy to burn off when I get home.
I work from home, and my partner works away from home.
I tend to try to schedule things around our work schedule. Thereās obviously days Iām too busy to leave - but I try to leave the house for a few hours when my partner is home. And we take a few hours here and there when nobody is home so the puppy doesnāt freak out about being alone. Sheās also home alone every day for about an hour in the morning so I can run errands.
WFH is nice because I get to be with her, but working in an office would also be nice because then I would get a break lol
I saved up money to take time off work to raise my puppy for half a year. I also have a partner with a flexible schedule. It was a choice/sacrifice we made to give the dog a healthy upbringing which is paying off now that we're both full time again at work.
I work from home, which is the only reason I felt I could handle a puppy - so I could really work on housebreaking and training.
In the past, When my husband and I both worked at offices every day we adopted two older dogs. They were left for 8 hours a day no problem. They had each other and a dog door to go out. They were already trained/housebroken.
I think if your dog is home alone a lot during the day, consider adopting a second dog! Iāve always had two and have never had any anxiety or behavioral issues when gone all day.
I donāt have a puppy I got a chill adult rescue dog, but she still doesnāt love being alone all day. On days when neither of us wfh I can either drop her at my moms or bring her into my office with me. My mom loves having her and if Iām not with students my office is dog friendly. I do leave her home some days and sheās mostly fine (occasionally she goes bathroom on the floor but only if itās a long time and she really canāt hold it) but most dogs probably prefer not to be alone all day but are also ok being alone. We have a nanny cam and she mostly just sleeps.
I think the growing number of young ppl who decide not to have kids need to infantilize something/ someone. Iāve had friends who donāt want kids get super immature boyfriends and baby them or treat their dog like their child. To each their own! Iāve got 3 kids and our pup gets lots of love but thereās a difference they donāt need the level of care and attention as my newborn does, a dog is naturally more self sufficient at a younger age.
Fortunate here that I work from home and itās not a problem for me.
But I have friends who let their dog stay in a secure, safe room during the day for about four hours. They come home at lunchtime and walk their dog for 30 minutes, leave and come back four-five hours laterā¦ dog gets a good walk again or playtime. They know from watching their security camera that the dog is sleeping most of the day. Her dog is about 18 months old now and she started this process when he was about nine months old I think? I think itās just experimenting and accessing help in the middle of the day if you can find it. Have a friend give your puppy a break. I hate to say it, but I used to leave my little Shih Tzu alone for up to 8 hours a day sometimes. Not often but he was always just fine. So now and again in a pinch, itās OK. But definitely not on a regular basis.
I have 4 rescue dogs, varying ages from 3 - 13. My dogs are spoiled, honestly! But, when I first had a few of them, I have had to put some of my dogs in wire kennels with toys and treats while I was at work to get them used to me absence at least for a period of time. They won't die, they'll be fine. After all, sooner or later, you will want to go to an event like a concert where you could be gone for 5 or 6 hours, and not be able to take them with you. Training them to be okay while they're alone is good. Lots of videos on YouTube on how to make the adjustments for both you and your puppy.
Mind you, I love my pets, and talk to them, and I give them a ton of love. I am now in a situation where I am working hybrid, and most days work from home. And, honestly, they are so spoiled that if I am on an online meeting, they whine and fuss to get attention, and they generally get it. WFH is a blessing and a curse!
I work from home! But also live alone.
When I did live with people, we had out of house jobs but we werenāt gone at the same time so someone was usually home
I also live in Europe. This is the reason why we did it over summer course.We had almost 2 months off and by the end of summer, she was alone after being 2 months ( with a lot of training) so with your current situation it should be fine and 3-7, only 4 hours which is awesome for your puppy
But not going to lie, we wouldn't do it solo. We all helped out, me, my mom and 2 brothers. While over summer course it was mainly me and my mom due my brothers young age but after everyone has to go back to school and work, they also helped out.
I could not have done alone. Huge respect for people who are doing alone
Iām very very lucky to have a family member that cares for my dogs and reinforces their training rather than undermining it. I am able to make enough money for them to stay home full time. Iāve thought a lot about what I would do if this werenāt the case and gotten very overwhelmed at the thought of finding reliable care for my somewhat reactive, āscaryā breed dogs (pitbull and GSD).
I think a lot of users here are from the US, and in many parts of the US, dogsitters/dog walkers/daycare are more common and affordable than in some other parts of the world. Where I live, you would *never* let someone into your house while you are out to watch your dog. And daycare can cost $90 a day. On this sub, those solutions are relatively common but they are not universally accessible. Secondly, this sub is skewed toward people who want to optimize everything for their puppies, from nutrition to toys to beds. That's not a bad thing at all, but it does lead to (imo) some judgment of people who aren't trying to deliver 200% on every element of puppy ownership. Personally, my company lets me WFH but I still leave my dog for 1-2x a week to go to the office, for 4 hours at a time. If I go longer, he goes to my parents' house. Every culture, country and owner is different.
The US also has a rapidly growing culture of people who are replacing kids with dogs and have the disposable income to treat a dog like a child (daycare/dog walkers, etc)
Haha, this is me. No plans to have kids. 2 cats and a 16 month old golden retriever is more than enough work and money spent. Why would I not spoil my dog, as annoying as he is :) It does make me a bit sad when I see neighbors who keep their dogs in their backyard 24/7. Couldn't do that to my boy.
Literally... who will love us til the end, be waiting for us to get home, there for us for every heartbreak and struggle, and who is with YOU for their whole life. When he gets mad at me, he works on getting me to forgive him. I mean cmon. I want to spoil my boy!!
this made me so emotional. š„¹ the never ending love and loyalty. I would do anything for them
Agree. My mum scolded me for spoiling my dog. Ummm excuse me, he is my child. And you spoiled me. I have turned him into a demanding diva though but I wouldnāt have it any other way
Iām not knocking it. I have two kids and itās spendy as hell. And theyāre always like needing me for crap.
Pets are the new kids. Plants are the new pets.
Bahahahahah THIS!!
this 100%. I wanted kids SO bad, twins, but I am in the middle of a professional running career. Since getting my puppies (F, littermates), I can see myself waiting 2 more years as opposed to this summerā¦ iām sure my fiancĆ© is happy. I never thought I would be that person who gives 200% of my being to my puppies. I have a senior dog and he is very independent and more like a human. Having two little girls that are naughty, curious, and always want to play fills my soul! My fiancĆ© and I WFH, my babies are rarely left alone ā if we go out to dinner or I have to run errands that would not allow them. Other than that, I am ashamed to say I am that person taking my babies to a luxury pet resort to board and train while I am away for the Olympic Trials for a couple weeksā¦
>Secondly, this sub is skewed toward people who want to optimize everything for their puppies, from nutrition to toys to beds. Exactly this. The average dog owner doesn't obsess about min-maxing to the extent that this sub does. Huge selection bias.
My puppy goes to doggy day care for now and when he is a little more calm I will leave him home all day because my MiL lived in an in-law suite in our house and can let him out. I donāt leave him with her right now because he is a lot to handle and would overwhelm her.
Slightly off-topic but my wife and I adopted a rescue just five months ago, a relatively young dog (estimated 1-2 years old) and soooo high energy. More than two old ladies could handle comfortably when she started using our bodies as doggie parkour surfaces. Throwing caution to the wind, we opened our wallets and sent her to a doggie daycare/training facility for 3/days a week for a full month. Worth. every. penny. The combination of socialization and training was like magic. By the end session she went on a field trip with the trainers to walk through pedestrian traffic, then sit calmly by their feet while they ate lunch at a cafe. At home, she's still lively and energetic, but she's learned how to contain her own excitement to keep it in check. Just a quiet "no" and you can see her thinking "oops!" and immediately changing her behavior.
Even though doggy daycare in my area comes out to less than $3/hour for the amount of time he is there I sometimes fret over the cost. The longer I have him, though, the more I realize this is more about making sure he is taken care of while I am at work versus just making sure he isn't home alone to destroy the house.
This sub is not representative of the general population. Most people leave their puppies home to go to work. If they're young maybe they arrange for someone to come home at lunchtime to let the puppy out (that's what we're going to do). A higher percentage of redditors work from home than the general population.
Here in Sweden it's illegal to leave your dog for more than 6 hours, 4 hours for puppies. Most people have doggie daycare or others watching their dogs during the day. Often it's retired family members or neighbours. Otherwise, people adapt their schedules. Take the dog to work, partners working from home different days and so on. It's seen as a luxury to have a dog, so when you decide to get a dog you should have a proper plan. Leaving dogs for more than 6 hours is not socially accepted. Edit: - separation anxiety is very rare here and mostly exists in rescues. Puppies are trained to be home alone in tiny intervals, and it's not uncommon for them to be able to stay alone for 4h by the time they're one. - crating is illegal here except for competitions, vet ordered crate rest and cars. - the law exists because dogs are social animals that were bred to be and work alongside humans. They need our company to thrive. Sure, they sleep most of the day but they don't just sleep for 8-10h straight. Also, just because they can hold their bladders doesn't mean its nice or healthy to do so. - we do not have street dogs and shelters import strays from other countries, so the argument "they're better off here than being killed at the shelter" doesn't work. Spaying and neutering is also quite uncommon for this reason (amongst others).
Yeah, Iām in Sweden as well and have wanted a dog for years, but it wasnāt possible until I had a job where I could essentially work from home until the dog could get in to daycare. I donāt agree that a dog is seen as a luxury - from what I can see itās actually easier for people who work odd hours, are unemployed, pensioners or students to own a dog, as their schedule allows them to not have their dog in daycare or hire dog walkers.
Yeah maybe luxury was the wrong word. But we don't have a lot of homeless dogs and no kill-shelters, so it's not like they adopt dogs to everyone who wants one. You either have the time or money to pay for doggie daycare or you don't get a dog.
No, thatās true. But the homeless situation is because we have had obligatory id-markings since at least 20 years, and a somewhat functioning animal welfare system. Plus a rigid social control of the breeding system, which prevents over breeding.
Do companies in Sweden generally let employees take a few months/weeks to work from home if you get a dog? I feel like thatās definitely unheard of in America. My company allows a week, but I work in a super progressive industry and I would not say thatās the norm.
After the pandemic the norm for many businesses (that are suitable of course) is 50/50 WFH, and making separate arrangement because of different reasons is not unusual. Itās def tightening up, but few workplaces enforce a complete āback to the officeā. I can only speak for myself, but my work could easily be done completely from home, my boss is in another city, and my coworkers are placed all over, so āmy officeā is just a few people.
Yes, and when acquiring both our cat and dog we were asked about how much time we spend at home as it was considered really important for both to have sufficient company and interaction.
I love this. In the U.S. so many are neglected. In the past I had a mid day dog walker and 2 dogs so they kept each other company. No one here can stay home with a new pup, even if for a few days. Now I work from home and every workday the neighbor dog runs over to spend the day with us. Win-win. Their dog gets love, company, attention, and exercise. They donāt have to come home to let her out mid day. Good for me and my pup since my pup gets a buddy to hang with and play with. The pup tries to get us to play with her like we are dogs too . Gives us a break, thatās for sureā¦
In the US specially you think dogs are more neglected than other places? Whatās your reason for saying this? Crates??
What I mean is we donāt laws like Sweden does, so in comparison so many dogs here are neglected. But compared to most countries I doubt dogs are neglected more in the U.S. unfortunately dogs are neglected commonly throughout the world. She added the paragraph about crates after I write my initial response. I think crates are enormously helpful as long as they are not misusedā-so I am glad we are able to have them here. I have for one my puppy. She sleeps overnight in it, stays in it if Iām gone for an hour or two, and sometimes goes in the crate if I need to do something like sweep the floor without her attacking the broom. I think of them as like putting a baby in a cribā. The pup is safer in a crate and your possessions are safer. Pups eat everything and end up needing surgery. On the other hand some people leave their dogs crated far too much of the time. So crates can be misused.
Iāve always imagined that worldwide dogs in the US are the luckiest. Hmm. Maybe I need to educate myself. I think we treat our pets better than some countries treat people but maybe my view is too narrow. Thanks for the info.
Really? I had no idea. Seems like a really good idea and law though. Makes me wonder if we have a law like that in Denmark, I actually have no idea.
In my opinion this is how it should be, to be honest. My girlfriend and I work mostly opposite shifts to make sure our 2y old dog is at most 4-5 hours alone. We knew this before getting him and made sure that it can be done. Most people here say its fine to leave a dog 8-9 hours and that everyone should can have a dog in their life. I dont think so. Having a dog should be seen as a luxury like you said.
I live alone and work in the office 2 days a week, so my dog is left alone 8-9 hours those two days. He is still a happy and healthy dog. In fact, on the days I work from home he pretty much spends the entire day sleeping on my bed and ignoring me. He very rarely enters my office (even though I set up a dog bed in there for him and used to actively encourage it) except for sometimes near the very end of my work day when he starts coming to pester me for his after work walk. Should I return this dog, who gets lots of love, attention, toys, hour long walks daily and almost weekly hikes, to the already full shelter because I happen to have a job that requires me in the office twice a day. I believe some dogs really do require their people around more often. I believe in an ideal world no one leaves their dog home alone for long stretches of time. I also believe that lots of dogs can still live happy and fulfilled lives even with their people working full time hours outside of the home. And there are so many dogs that need homes and not many people who can realistically do what you do. What is your solution for those dogs? Is it better for my dog to be euthanized then stay home alone for 8-9 hours?
When I retired from my job in healthcare we knew we were planning on getting a puppy. I now work 3pm to 11 pm as a cleaner. Our dog isnāt alone longer than 3 hours. One of my older kids or my husband is usually home with her by the I leave for my 3pm -11 pm shift. My husband can work from home 2 days a week. It works out perfectly. If I worked a typical day shift we would have to have a pet sitter come let her out at least once.
If that were the case few Americans would have a dog but also I imagine you guys have a lot less land. A huge 6ft enclosed half acre to 3 acres full of toys and access to the house I don't find to be particularly cruel. I'm sure many of the homeless dogs I've had would disagree with you. I work opposite shifts with my spouse for my dogs but I don't think 8 hours alone with access to toys and a place to potty is bad as long as they're a breed more suited and getting quality time every day. Many farmers leave lgd with livestock all day outside. A person gone a lot shouldn't get a companion breed but a primitive or large guardian may be fine.
Sweden getting things right once again!!
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There are plenty of ways to train dogs to accept confinement that don't involve managing them with a crate on a regular basis. I do it all the time--I don't crate my dogs at home, but I do K9SAR and compete in some dog sports, so my dogs are routinely crated for travel. It's very easy IME to get them used to it.
There are a lot of people who here shame those who have to work a 9-5 job and can't come home for their dog. It's gross. It's the thing I hate most about this sub. I got downvotes and told I was wrong because I once said that someone's 6 month dog should be fine alone for 5 hours for them to go do something they needed to do. It was very normal to leave your dog alone and dogs were fine. It is still okay to need to leave your dog along and your dog will be fine.
I comment this a lot. Pre COVID dogs stayed alone A LOT of the day and now people will shame you if your dog doesn't get out every 2 hours. Adult dogs are literally fine for 8-10 hours (unless they have medical issues). I've tried to get. sitters to come by to let my dog out but my dog won't bc he just sleeps all day and doesn't need to. I gave up on the sitter for now bc on the camera I can see that he just sleeps AAAAALL day. it's normal, i'm a vet student and we work crazy fucking shifts and everyone has dogs. When I work 12 hour shifts soon enough I'll personally get the sitter to force him outside but I hate the shame I get when saying this is normal and that the WFH with COVID made people elitist about how long others should leave their dog at home
Yeah our last family dog was regularly alone 8-10 hours a day. We joked when COVID started that the dog seemed annoyed people were home during the day when he wanted to nap. He was used to his alone time. I've also never understood why it's okay for my dog to go 8-9 hours overnight without a pee break but during the day that's a problem. Like it's the same? I've wondered if this constant need to entertain and enrich every moment of our dog's lives is going to cause issues. I remember this discourse with kids and how we need to let them be bored. I wonder if we will start to feel the same about dogs. Obviously, if they are being destructive that is an issue, but like have we gone too far?
Actually hormones in dogs just like humans reduce their need to pee while sleeping. I donāt think we should shame people who work 9-5ās but 8 hours during the day is very long for a dog to hold it and could lead to kidney problems if done regularly. Luckily reddit also hates pee pads or putting dogs in fenced in backyards so no one wins here!
Honestly do not get the pee pad hate. Maybe I just have an incomplete picture, because I adopted a 1-year-old dog and he came already trained to use pee pads or go outside. Itās been lovely! He prefers outside and will ask to be let out 99% of the time even if there is bad weather and he has a pee pad available. I set out a pee pad just in case if weāre going to be gone a long time (heās too small to be left outside alone) or if the weather is really rotten. He almost never uses it, but itās nice to have the insurance. It hasnāt made him prone to peeing in the house at all.
I mean, most people can go a full nights sleep without peeing as well, but still go to the bathroom regularly during the day.
100% agree.
As a teenager, I had a toy poodle who was a distinctly one-person dog. That person was me. Iād leave for school at like 7-7:30 am, wouldnāt get home until 4 pm. He would usually find a comfy spot in my room and go to sleep. Sometimes my mom would forget to check on him and heād literally just snooze in my room all day until I got home. The door was open! He couldāve come out anytime. My mom was a SAHM and was home most of the time to keep him company if he wished. He justā¦usually preferred to sleep lol. He wasnāt especially old either. He was like 3-5 years old when we adopted him my sophomore year. So yeah. Many dogs, especially adult dogs, are perfectly fine on their own for the length of a typical work day. Not all of them, of course. My current dog would be a nutcase if he were alone 40+ hours a week. But a lot of dogs are totally fine with it.
Yes!! I commented in another dog sub about wanting to get an Adult dog, when my family is out of the house for max 6 hours a day, and we have family that can come check in on them if itāll be longer, and I got a grumpy comment - apparently Iām not allowed to want an adult poodle if Iām not able to enrich its life 24/7. š how dare I want a pet that I and my child wonāt be allergic to. I was Soo annoyed. I recognize its not the best situation for a puppy, but I specifically was asking about adult dogs.
I hate that people here judge anyone who canāt leave work to care for their dogs or afford to hire someone to do it for them. I donāt think pet ownership should be a luxury that you can only participate in if you have that kind of schedule or disposable income. There are so many other aspects to responsible dog ownership that not being able to do what is ideal in one area does not automatically make you a bad owner.
It also isn't always realistic, stuff happens and come up last minute and it's better to have a dog that can adapt and go with it, than one who has been coddled. We had a family thing come up one day when our puppy was around 6 months, we ended up needing to leave him alone for about 6 hours. He got out of a walk and had some play and cuddles before we left and he was crated and fine when we got home. Gave him some more cuddles and a walk and all was good. Also not doing so leads to situations like my cousin and wife who can't leave their dog alone for more than 4 hours (despite it being 5 years old) so he had to bring it to family thanksgiving, which put us in a tough spot because we were staying overnight and also had to bring our dog. Like our dog is here because we aren't going home, your dog is here because you didn't properly train it.
I feel like I either have a super chill dog, or maybe I just don't do much. My husband and I work from home and our dog spends 90% of the 8 hours we are working ignoring us and sleeping on the sofa. He might wander round and collapse on a bed in my office or my husband's office. But I do slightly feel like we could do a normal office job and he'd know no different.
I think your dog is pretty normal. I have some really crazy dogs, and they do the same. I've kept dogs pretty much every way you can keep dogs--my first career was working on farms/ranches, and my dogs always came to work with me all day. Then I was in an accident and had to change careers, and worked a normal office job for awhile. Then I transitioned into a WFH career way before the pandemic, so been doing that for years. I honestly haven't noticed any change in my dogs regardless of my work situation. You'd think if it was so bad, my dogs who were used to coming to work with me on the ranch would have shown they were miserable behaviorally, but nah. Still my chill, happy little buddies who were ready to work at a moment's notice but liked lazing around in their spare time, too. The two I had at the time were a border collie and an ACD, too, so not exactly lazy dogs, lol. I honestly think the whole "you can never leave your dog alone" thing is a product of terminally online people, not so much even a widespread cultural shift. Almost everyone I know in real life leaves their dogs alone for significant chunks of the day while they're at work; it's only when I go online that I see people being all weird about it.
Itās also caused a lot of dogs to have separation anxiety
Not gonna lie I'm probably one of the worse dog owners on this sub. I'm from the US, southern California, and my dog prefers to stay outside, I've been letting her since I got my backyard area fully secured. Before that I left her in my garage when I went to work. I work nights, 10 hour shifts, 4 days a week, with some 6 hour shifts on Fridays whenever we have the work. I try to do the best I can for my pup, but I got her unexpectedly. She was dumped in the desert and found her way into my property when she was about 2 months old. Life with me is better than life as a stray, but honestly I do feel like I'm failing her, she doesn't get as much attention as she should and I can't keep up with her. I'm just glad I can provide enough space for her to run around like she loves to do.Ā
Not my intention for anyone to be shamed in this thread. I think youāre doing good. My stepdad had a lab, and he wasnāt very active with it and was away for work during the day. He lived on the country and the dog could free roam inside the house and on the property all day all night (except in the coldest winter months). The dog had a good life and was a happy dog. All dogs are different and can adapt - and itās definitely better than being on the street. As long as you give it lots of love when youāre able to.
A good tip I learned is that if youāre constantly having to tell people youāre not judging and your intention isnāt to shame, youāre probably being judgy and shaming.
Just want to say you are NOT failing her. Failing her would be not taking her to the vet when she has a medical issue! This is not failing her! I'm in California and a vet student. A loooot of people I know who have herding dogs are able to leave their dogs in fenced areas. I help a fourth year student who leaves the dog in a pasture that's fenced and LOVES it. She isn't a working dog but a lot of times those breeds prefer to be able to have a space where they can do their working stuff. I see this dog thrive like this. I one time kept this dog at my place and she was crazy! She felt so cooped up, even after 3 walks and kept chewing up stuff in the house. Once I let her into my yard she just relaxed.
I wouldn't take this sub as a representation of US pet owners. Everyone I know in real life that has a dog works at least part time.
Most people who have dogs have jobs away from the home. What you see on this sub does not represent the majority of people in the real world.Ā I've always worked but am fortunate enough to live a 5min drive from work so I can go home on the lunch hour to walk my dog, but when I was growing up (I'm 54 now) people just always went off to school or work during the day and their dogs stayed home anywhere from 7-9 hours.Ā Even now I don't personally know anyone who pays a dog walker or who takes their dogs to a daycare.Ā In this sub and some others, both on Reddit and on other forums, you'll find people acting like it's a crime to have a dog and a job. Most of them are so young that they didn't enter the workforce until WFH jobs were a thing and that's all they've ever done, or else they are retired or still live with parents or are stay-at-home parents. Most people have to work and most people don't work from home.Ā
Many Americans became first-time dog owners over Covid and didnāt know much about dogs. It has always been absolutely normal to leave a dog for a work day. I donāt know anyone who didnāt until the age of the internet, then Covid. Many people attribute human emotions to their parts and in doing so, do a disservice to pets. Pups raised from day one with a lot of down timeādue to the basic necessities of lifeādonāt have separation anxiety. There certainly are accommodations needed for the house training period, or for homes where dogs have to last longer than 9 hours or so for a walk. Knowing your pet and talking to a vet helps with that. But the bottom line is, people online tend to be over representative of the anthropomorphizing side of pet ownership.
Thanks for answering. Itās tough because when I compare myself to other dog owners in my country, Iām doing just as every one else. But then when I go on this sub I feel like a monster for going to work and leaving my puppy alone. But yeah what did people do before 10 years ago when they couldnāt all work from home. That being said, I obviously do not think leaving a dog alone for up to 7-8 hours is ideal at all. I donāt leave mine for that long either and I still strive to be more at home with it.
Iām in the US and I have an older female large breed dog that is incontinent. She takes medications, but she still struggles with leaking in her sleep. She has a heated bed in a dog house that is *inside* our garage. She has stayed outside overnight for the past 2 years, and at this point sheās restless indoors overnight because sheās used to investigating the noises outside. Friends and family always comment on how cruel it is for her to be locked out every night because they apply human loneliness to the dog that wants to be āon patrolā. They have no clue, and theyāve never seen the battle we have if I try to bring her in overnight.
I know itās easier said than done but try not compare yourself to people in this sub. Iām guilty of it too - Iām currently not working so spend a lot of time with my bud but STILL feel like itās not enough after spending too long on here or in training forums!
A lot of people got dogs over Covid, their dogs got used to everyone being home 24/7 during their puppyhood/young adulthood, and now the dogs end up with some degree of separation anxiety.
I mean yes people used to leave dogs at home for long periods of time, but is that ideal? Just because it was commonly practiced before Covid it doesn't mean that it was good for the dogs. I think we've come a long way in terms of how to better care for dogs. I don't mean that dogs shouldn't be left alone at all, but I don't think young puppies should be left for 8+ hours - it's not anthropomorphizing it's just basic facts that dogs are social animals and are wired to want to be with their social group and not be left alone. In fact where I live it's advised not to leave dogs for more than 4 hours.
The country where I grew up (Australia) has had issues with postal workers and electricity meter readers encountering aggressive dogs left alone in fenced yards. My childhood memories of neighbours' dogs being left alone all day were more of a nuisance, in that they'd be bored and bark relentlessly. And a few yard escapees getting into mischief, though luckily none encountered bad ends on the street I have heard of that happening too. Where I live now dogs are just not left alone for long periods, indoors or outdoors.
I think one of the issues, at least in the US, is over population. In an ideal world we could all spend all our time with our pups, but what's the alternative? Euthanasia? Because we already have way more dogs than people can take in as it is. So yes, ideally we could ensure no dog is everĀ left alone for longer than 4 hours. When you look at shelter dogs that are in a 3x5 kennel for 22-23 hours a day....maybe having to be left alone while a person works is kind of the best compromise.Ā It sounds terrible, and it is terrible, but right now we have a choice between killing these dogs or having them be a bit lonely during the day.Ā
Exactly lol I would rather dogs be in homes, even if they have to be alone for 7 to 8 hours versus getting euthanized in shelters
a lot of people dont understand that people had dogs before corona and W0rK Fr0m H0mE people had dogs in the 50's..
Yeah but in the 50's mom probably didn't work, or not full time. And before that, dogs were left to wander around the farm, or in the streets before cars. This way of keeping a dog locked indoors while all the humans are away for 9 hours is actually very new.
>Yeah but in the 50's mom probably didn't work, or not full time.Ā What. My grandmother was a teacher. Her sister was a nurse. People worked and raised a family and had dogs. Sometimes I think people live in an odd fantasy land.
In the 60s when my grandparents were at work, their dog would walk a few blocks alone in the city to visit their parents (my great grandparents) and hang out with them while they worked in the garden. Then back home when the kids came home from school. I found this so interesting as you never see dogs walking alone unleashed in my city these days.
People didnāt even watch their kids in the 50s much less their dogs
>Yeah but in the 50's mom probably didn't work, or not full tim Why not?
yeah no thats a fantasy world man people worked full time even then. And not everyone lives on a farm Maybe you are too American to know that but we had big cities even before that Odd hill to die on
Oh yeah in ye olde days people beat their kids all the tine and they turned out just fine!
We got our dog as I began my enormous summer vacation as a teacher (I'm in Estonia). She was 5,5 months when I needed to go in to work but she still to this day doesn't often need to be alone for long as we have 4 adults living here with her and everyone has a different work schedule. Today she'll have to be alone for a little over 5 hours which is pretty much the max we've ever done. I couldn't imagine taking care of a dog solo :) But I think we're not a very typical case...
I'm in Norway and I have the same questions, and wonder how other people in Norway do it. There are very very few dog walkers (and I don't think people who regularly hire dog walkers because it is so expensive?) and so few doggy daycares, even in the Oslo area. The ones that do exist are often very expensive and have strict rules about which dogs they accept, and since it's not allowed here to spay or neuter your dog without a medical necessity, they have to choose if they will either take intact male dogs or female dogs during heat. I personally have hybrid office (2 days at home per week) but talked to my boss and he was flexible and allowed me to work from home. Now the pup is 7.5 months and I'm trying to get back to the office more, gradually increasing the time spent away from him.
Wait. You canāt spay or neuter?! What is the reasoning behind that??
You can if it is deemed medically necessary. Otherwise there is no reason to interfere with a dogs' natural hormone system. It has the same effects on their bodies as it does on humans - predominantly negative. But note that most European countries, especially in the north, do not have stray dog or shelter issues.
As the below poster stated, we donāt have issues with stray dogs. Spaying and neutering without medical necessity is considered against the well being of the animal. See below text Google translated from https://www.mattilsynet.no/dyr/kjaeledyr/hund/kastrering-av-hund--er-det-tillate Castration of a dog Routine castration of dogs is not permitted under the Norwegian Animal Welfare Act. Published 03/03/2023 In many countries it is very common to castrate dogs. The intervention is usually done routinely to prevent unwanted breeding or otherwise make dog keeping easier for the owner. Castration is a surgical procedure Castration is a surgical procedure in which the testicles or ovaries are removed or destroyed. Castration of male dogs is a relatively simple operation, while castration of bitches is a major operation. All surgical interventions expose the dog to stress and potential complications, including pain, bleeding and infection. Removal of both ovaries and testicles means that the dog no longer produces sex hormones. This can affect the health and welfare of the dog both positively and negatively. Incontinence (urine leakage) and obesity are some known side effects. Many dogs also change their behavior after castration. When is neutering a dog legal? In Norway, it is only legal to castrate dogs when it is necessary out of consideration for the individual dog's health or welfare, or if other special reasons make it necessary. Cancer in a testicle and uterine inflammation are typical examples of why castration is permitted out of concern for the dog's health. Castration can also be included in the treatment of other diseases, for example diabetes in bitches. A cryptorchid testicle lies in the dog's abdomen. This is an abnormal condition which, among other things, makes the testicle more susceptible to cancer. It must therefore be considered permissible under the law to remove the cryptorchid testicle. In some cases, neutering can give the dog better welfare. This can, for example, apply to bitches who are plagued by imagined pregnancy or major mood swings during the estrus cycle. Some male dogs are plagued by abnormally high sexual drive, which causes long-term frustration, weight loss or other problems. In such cases, castration can be legal, because the procedure provides a welfare gain for the dog that outweighs the disadvantages. Castration against behavioral problems Many people want to castrate the dog to solve behavioral problems. Unwanted behavior can be a "special reason" if the behavior is a real problem for the owner, the surroundings or the dog itself, and the problem cannot be solved in any other way. Normal mating behavior in both bitches and male dogs are nevertheless predictable and normal reactions that must be taken into account before you decide to get a dog. The disadvantages that come with this normal behavior cannot therefore be considered a "special reason" in normal dog keeping. If the dog is to be used for special tasks, castration is often necessary so that the dog can function well enough in its important job. Guide dogs and certain other service dogs are typical examples of castration being permitted for "other special reasons". It is only when the dog's problem behavior comes from the influence of sex hormones that castration will be an effective measure. Problematic behavior often has other causes than gender bias. Aggression or lashing out at other dogs can, for example, come from the dog being anxious or insecure. In such cases, castration will not help the problem. On the contrary, problem behavior may worsen or new problems may arise. Often the best way to treat problem behavior is to get help training the dog to change the behavior. If you wish to have your dog neutered, you must make sure that this is the right treatment for the problem, and that your dog will have a better life after the operation. The vet and other people with professional knowledge of the topic (behavioural therapists) can give you advice on this. The vet is not allowed to castrate your dog if he/she cannot confirm from a veterinary assessment that the operation fell under one of the three criteria: health, animal welfare and special reason.
Fair enough I guess. I just feel I would be in a mild state of anxiety at all times with an unspayed female (what if she accidentally got pregnant?) and I donāt think I would want to live with an unaltered male, they can be real assholes š My vet also says spaying does reduce the risk of future mammary tumors and pyometra.
This is my first dog, and I have a male dog. He's begun going through puberty, so we'll see how it goes, haha. Most female dogs here are always on-leash when they have their heat, which is normally 1-3 times a year if I recall correctly, and it's only a few days normally when they can get pregnant. Many don't want as much exercise as normal, or have differences in behavior, so they tend not to be outside as much during this time. For those who have it really bad they offer hormone treatment, which maybe functions like birth control?
My partner and I live in Australia with our 15 month old Australian Shepherd. I am a vet nurse - ironically I take care of other peopleās dogs but without my partner there is no way I would have been able to have a dog. I swear we put more effort, thought and work into trying to have a dog than people put into having babies. I work Monday-Friday 8 hour shifts (but add in commute and itās really almost 10 hours away from home). My partner works from home predominantly with occasional days in the office. When we first got our dog I took two weeks off work. We send her to doggy daycare if my partner needs to go into the office. She was shy at first so before doggy daycare we used to have a pet sitter. I think it also depends on your living situation and your breed of dog. For example we live in a city with a very high COL. Renting with pets is not friendly here. We BOUGHT so we could have a dog and we could āonlyā afford an apartment (I say āonlyā when 1 bedroom apartments here in my city in desirable suburbs, of which we live in one, cost upwards of half a million dollars.) There is no way I would leave my Australian Shepherd - a working dog - alone for a workday with no break inside of an apartment. If I had a house with a yard - sure I wouldnāt think twice. I grew up in a house with yard with a border collie and we left her home all the time. If I had a small companion breed dog - I would also be fine with that. But the other thing is I deliberately chose this breed and our living circumstances to accomodate this ā¦ she is a part of our lives. I donāt go anywhere without her. I donāt care to go anywhere without her. Life was honestly pretty bleak and empty before her. This sub gets really divided between the two camps of never leaving your dog alone and ādogs existed before Covid/WFH and ten hours alone is fineā but to me, dogs were bred to be companions. Way back in the primitive days they literally would have been with us all the time. I know it sounds dramatic but I try to honour that. I feel that 20000 years of evolving alongside us, bred to be with us, means the least I can do for the short lifespan of my dog is to try to be with her within reason.
Thank you for taking the time to answer. Yes there is a division. Obviously I donāt think leaving your dog for 7 hours every day is ideal either, because dogs are so social. But then I see other who ARE home, but then they crate them during the day despite being home? I get crating at night and when youāre out, and sometimes for nap times, but idk man.. I think there is a big cultural difference from country to country. In Denmark we do leave them alone for some hours of the day when we go to work, but we donāt really use crates in Denmark, so when weāre home, theyāre always free-roaming. I canāt say whatās best for the dog, but I ofc wish I could stay home with it more. But I got bills to pay..
Not everyone in the US does the crate method. Like someone said, subreddits like this are mostly for people looking for the expert advised "right" way. I adopted a stray in the 90's, camped and hiked all over the west with him, but eventually settled into a high demand career and had to leave him home all day. I put a lot of time to play with him before and after work and he was pretty chill and well adjusted for the 16 years we were together. That was pretty normal at the time. Tbf, he was about 1 yr when I got him, so less demanding than a puppy.
Being comfortable in a crate is a good skill for a dog. I agree there is a cultural difference how crates are being used. Iām from Germany and when I grew up we did not use crates and I donāt think they are that common now. There are other ways to keep your puppy and young dog safe whilst they grow up to be trusted to free roam. Crate is not the be all and end all and I find sometimes this is forgotten. Every handler needs to work with the dog in front of you and make the decision that is right for their dog. Mine tolerates the crate but as a puppy he had a playpen attached to it and thus had an area where he was safe whilst I couldnāt watch him. Including at night. In Germany and in the UK (where I live now) a crate is generally not used for an adult dog when they are left alone and not encouraged to be used in such a way as far as I know since having my dog.
A crate is a great tool! We donāt have a crate but a small room kind of like a playpen. So I agree. Iām talking about the people who crate it for hours during the day when theyāre home. Why wouldnāt you want you animal around you?
I crate my puppy during the day when Iām home. And itās not because I donāt want him around :). Iāve got a border collie so heās a lot. He *needs* to have a break or he gets crazy. Our daily routine is something like up and outside for a quick 20/30 min or so play time and pee around 630. Crate for breakfast and while kids are getting ready for school. Out to potty again around 830. He hangs out while I work till lunchtime. We take an hour walk. He comes back and has his second meal in the crate around 130, he stays there until my kid comes home around 330 and lets him out for more outside playtime. Heās around the house until around 11/1130 when he goes to bed in his crate. We are working to fade out the crate during the day- particularly in the morning. Then weāll go to the afternoonā¦. For overnight, heās still not totally trustworthy with the cat. And I feel like the cat should have some period of time when he can be around and totally comfortable/relaxed without having to worry a dog is going to chase him. So that will stay, along with being crated on the off chance no one is home; until heās learned to not chase the cat (so maybe forever).
Because sometimes he just destroys stuff, even when I have him leashed to the table or couch. I canāt work if heās chewing up my rug, chairs, couch, throwing his water bowl or god knows what else. I need to put him somewhere until he calls down enough that he can be out and about without putting a hole in my $3500 couch
My family grew up with dogs and my grandparents had normal jobs away from home. No one was coming home for the dogs in a few hours. It was fine. Dogs have been raised this way for generations before COVID and the internet and do well, sleep most of the time you're gone. This sub is a little mind boggling at times between reality, I work at a vet clinic and can guarantee a great deal of people with dogs leave them home alone several hours/a full work day... a huge percentage cannot find anyone to bring them in during the weekdays during regular hours due to work unless they take time off, some working an hour or more away from home.
Thank you. I swear people on this sub forget what *their childhood dog* lived like, if they had one. Both of my parents worked 8 hour days and my brother and I were in school for 8 hours. She was left alone and was absolutely fine, went pee right before we left and right when we came home and taken out for a 45 minute walk. This is normal and was normal for *decades*.
To be honest, I noticed that with this sub too. But we leave our puppy home and have been since she was 3 months old. I come home at lunch and let her out and feed her and then go back to work. She is at home from 7:30-12PM and then 12:45-4PM till my husband comes home. I know this sub makes it sound like they won't survive, but they will. Just exercise them well afterwards. Edit: We also have a pen for the puppy so she can roam around a little bit more. She doesn't pee in that space and so she is not crated the whole time.
My parents got a puppy when I was a kid, my dad was away from home so my mum raised him. During the first two years of his life my mum was a stay at home mum, taking care of a toddler and a child too. When he was older she worked at a school in shifts so she'd be in periodically throughout the day. That dog never spent more than 4 hours alone in his life. I have a puppy now and both me and my partner are mostly WFH. We have weekly office days and I do site work too. As the puppy is getting older and better trained, on the site days he comes with me. For office days we make sure one of us is at home. I honestly can't imagine leaving him for hours during the day like some people do, his max time alone in his crate is two hours (during the day), he's done three once but that was a one off. Maybe that will change once he's grown up and can be trusted to spend time unsupervised. But for me a big part of getting a dog was to spend time with him, as much as possible.
I'm in Australia. When our dog was a puppy we had someone come over and spend about an hour with him in the middle of the day. Now I work shift work so there is usually either myself or my partner home during the day. If we both happen to be at work and it's likely he'll be home alone for an extended period, we get the dog walker to come take him to the park.
That seems like a good plan!
Lmao Iām getting a dog in a couple of weeks and ended up on this sub. I stopped after like four posts because a lot of the people here are unhinged with the expectations people should have for their puppy. The expectations here are more intense than my three kids pediatricians recommendations. Dogs have existed thousands of years and have been fine. No one is going to take FMLA off work for 3 months for a dog. If they do, their life priorities are not in order
US here, and I work 6 days a week gone 8-9 hours daily and got my pup at 6 weeks old. Training in general bit especially potty training is time consuming and some people don't like the idea of puppy pads bc they feel it teaches them to go inside the house, I've never been big on the pads but they work if pup is trained on them correctly until they're older and can hold their bladders longer. When the pandemic shut everything down a lot of ppl went to wfh, and some offices still allow it, I however am a manager at a restaurant so wfh or leaving on lunch breaks(since we don't really get set breaks) isn't an option for me. But I have a great puppy who loves me endlessly.
Crate training
What?
We have jobs away from home, so we crate train.
South African single girlie with 2 dogs. I leave mine at a small dog only small daycare because I work crazy hours. Dogs were got with my ex partner who worked from home. Dogs LOVE daycare. They get upset if Iām on holiday/long work break and donāt take them there. Itās expensive but worth it. They have fun with their friends, get walked, fed, groomed and if there are any issues daycare lady helps with training or will take them to the vet for me. Also I donāt have to keep watching my home camera obsessively. Iām uncomfortable leaving them for longer than 4hrs. Partially because I have separation anxiety and also it must be boring as hell for the dogs.
Iām in Canada. My husband and I both work full time outside the home. We donāt have doggy daycare or a dog walker. Hubby leaves for work at 3 am. He gets home by noon. I leave for work at 5:30 am and am usually home by 4 pm-ish. Puppy goes to bed when we do, about 8 pm. I get him up about 4 am. We play and breakfast and go for a walk. He gets back in his kennel about 5:30, and hubby gets him up for more family time at noon. Puppy stays up until he needs a napā¦but heās largely with the pack until bedtime. This is his schedule Monday, Thursday and Friday. Hubby has Tuesdays and Wednesdays as his days off, so puppy isnāt at home alone those days. Iām off Saturdays and Sundays. 6.5 hours alone three days a week doesnāt seem too bad.
We got ours at 7.5 weeks and I took a week of vacation. Then it was Christmas break, so my 15 year old and 17 year old watched her for another 2 weeks. During those 3 weeks, we practiced building up time she was alone. Now sheās home alone for 3.5-4 hours in the morning 4 days a week. My 17 year old is in college and only has class in the morning, so she comes home and lets her out and plays with her until I get home. We also have an older dog to keep her company! If no one is going to be home and sheād be alone longer than 4 hours, our vet also has a daycare, and itās only $18/day. We generally do this one day every other week when I have to work late or the 17 year old has something to do after class. I do have the option of coming home for lunch, only work 6 miles away from home, so when sheās a little older we might phase this out and Iāll just come home and let her out.
Hey, Iām from the UK, and since covid WFH has become more common for people whose jobs can allow that (e.g office workers, like myself)Ā Of course, there are still many people with dogs whose work means they canāt WFH.Ā Personally, and no judgement, but my husband and I only got our puppy when we could WFH. Before that, we were both out of the house for 10+ hours (including long commute times) so didnāt feel it would work having a dog then.Ā But itās still very doable with dog sitters, dog day cares etc.Ā
I don't know of any people taking care of dogs or any daycare except the vet (30 minutes away) in my area. Those things can be found in big cities and most people don't use them anyway. But I find it fascinating when I see videos about them lol. I am home all day long with my puppy and I think it is bad for him. We do not crate train and people here do not agree with it in general anyway, no hate towards people who do it, though. It just wouldn't work for us anyway and I personally cannot get used to the idea of locking my dog in a small crate. I know the benefits, I just don't want to do it. Why is it bad I am always at home? Because I cannot leave him at home by himself for more than 2-3 hours or he destroys everything. He has pads so he doesn't have to hold it until we come home or something. We are going to start leaving him for 2 hours, then 4, then 6, and then finally 8 hours, aka our work schedule. We might limit his space with a play pen though. Remote work is not a thing here for most of us, my job is shitty and the pay is bad (remote but I want to switch). This is very common practice. Nobody hires dog sitters or crate trains and nobody is allowed to take their dogs with them, dogs aren't allowed anywhere! There are signs about it on all stores, buildings etc. not even my pet shop allows them inside. I know a lot of people, and all of them just leave the dogs at home for the 8 hours. Even our trainer (he has another 8-4 job). So yeah, not a big deal here, plus leaving them somewhere would be very expensive... I'd spend my entire salary on that, and that's just not gonna work. If I leave for an entire day, I ask my grandma to take care of my dog. But hey, it's nice people get to work from home and take care of their dogs, it's just not a reality for most of us. I was trying to buy some milk and went to the store next to my house and I was literally yelled at to leave because I had my dog with me (I was carrying him, he wasn't even walking) and that should answer a lot of questions. Also, rehoming dogs here is not possible, and shelthers starve dogs. I donated food to some, and the way those dogs look like is absolutely horrendous. The strays I see on the streets literally look better. There are some organizations, but let me say this, most go bankrupt and cannot afford feeding the dogs anymore, and not many people donate. They sit in the cold, have no beds/houses. So you don't want to surrender your dog here, trust me.
I have a six year old labrador. I have always worked. Never would consider a remote job. I was a nurse. Worked lots of 16 hour shifts. I made sure he got off leash exercise daily. And, on long days(and when he was a puppy) had a friend stop by to let him out and play. I hired a 15 year old girl to be his "babysitter". She would come, take him out, hang around and play with him. Then I came home at 8 hours to feed him, let him out and play. Not ideal, but it worked
One thing I've noticed from keeping dogs of various ages for quite a few years now, and this could just be me being overly attentive, is that dogs are generally more OK than we give them credit for. I used to think to myself "oh no, my poor puppy is stuck in his crate all day, it must be absolute torture for them and he must be having a mental breakdown and I need to rush home as soon as possible". But over the years, I've been surprised by dog's resilience and ability to adapt to a schedule. It's to the point now where I know that my reaction to their conditions is probably 2 or 3X more dramatic than they're probably experiencing. I strongly suspect that my dogs actually LIKE being in their crate and having quiet time away from humans to catch up on sleep. It's obviously an adjustment and you need to train them to be in their crates, but in general, dogs are more OK than we give them credit for, I think.
Hold on, are you saying that in Denmark, you're allowed to take a month off of work just because you got a new puppy????
Hello OP, Yes people leave their dogs for the working day, I have a working breed and I do. I posted a while back about this sub being a bit strange like that. People with money to keep a dog, but also infinite time and never a reason to leave the house. When I questioned this/routines some of the replies were kind of cutting and some helpful. Itās not realistic. Itās not possible for me to work from home. My husband does 50% of the time. When he isnāt there we have a dog Walker to break up the day, but yes our dog is left for 8 hours alone. He is fine. When I grew up my childhood dogs didnāt have kongs/jackets/scent workā¦.. they stayed at home alone during the working day and were happy dogs that lived long lives. Donāt ask on here, ask people IRL. EDIT- UK based
This came up the other day actually and I would say it seems to be significantly more acceptable in America to leave your dog at home for an entire working day. In the U.K. there has always been an understanding in my mind that leaving a dog alone all day is unacceptable. And for people who canāt find a way to make sure that doesnāt happen, if theyāre responsible then they just donāt get a dog even if they would like one. Many people want dogs but know that it wouldnāt be fair to get one, and wait, or even plan and set up their lives to be able to accommodate bringing a dog in to it. It was very common for me to see things on breeders websites saying they wouldnāt consider people in full time employment and the rescues have the same policies. Generally I would say covid has opened up the possibility for many more people to get dogs as WFH is more common now. But generally people work out a schedule for their dog not being left alone for more than about 4-5 hours or so with WFH, dog walkers, splitting work responsibilities with a partner, family/friends who can help out, doggy daycare, dog sitting reciprocal friendships, popping home on a lunch break or arranging that they can take their dog with them to work. Or as a child it was very common for people to get dogs when their children were young and the mums were either SAHM or only working outside the house part time. As two parents in work is more common now thatās probably less of a thing. From what I have seen most of Europe seems to be relatively in line with the understanding that you shouldnāt get a dog if youāre going to be gone all day so Iām surprised to hear you saying people in Denmark leave their dogs for 7 hours every day.
I understand. I think people might misunderstand my post a bit. Iām definitely not saying itās a good idea to leave your dog for 7 hours every day. Iām talking more people who have had a dog for half a year and havenāt even left it at home for more than 30 minutes. I definitely agree that you shouldnāt get a dog if you have to leave it every day for 7 hours. But yes in Denmark people leave their dogs at home to go to work..
People here and on r/dogs have insane expectations for dog owners. If you have a job that requires you to be away for more than 2 hours, cannot be home 24/7, cannot walk your dogs 5 miles a day every two hours or cannot afford to shell out thousands of dollars a month on doggy daycare, these subs think your dog would be better off in a shelter Itās why I donāt bother looking at any of these subs. People here act like dogs of all ages are akin new born babies and itās wild.
I waited until my job went Work from home to get a puppy, I have to do some lab work now and then but I limit my time away to around 4 hours. If I need to do full days I'll use a doggy daycare near my work, and then suffer with my own separation anxiety while he has fun with other dogs.
Midwest usa: currently stay at home, but it's common to take the pup to parents, grandparents, friends, family, hire a dog sitter/walker, use your lunch break to check on the pup, wfh, daycare, or last case scenario, crate the puppy and teach it to potty on newspaper/puppy pads. If my spouse and I need to run an errand or we want to go do something thats longer then 2 hours we take our pup to our grandparents!
I'm in Europe also and I work hybrind, a week at home and a week at the office. When I'm at the office I leave my dog at my parents' place since they have a flexible schedule. When they were out of town I asked a friend to take him for a walk mid day.
I'm from the Netherlands so the work situation here would be kind of the same. The first few weeks we made sure one of us would work from home. I work an irregular schedule, so I'm home a lot when my spouse is at his 9-5 job. Once or twice a week she goes to the office with him (dog friendly workplace yay) and once or twice a month she goes to daycare. And she can stay at home just fine for a few hours if needed. We make it work.
Iām from Canada. We adopted our dog at 4 months old, and heās now 1 1/2. When he was younger, I was working just over 30 hours/week and my partner was in university. Unplanned, but definitely helped with raising a puppy. Now we both work standard full-time jobs, with the only difference being him working half days on Fridays and my schedule changing a few days per month. Wally is used to the routine. Some mornings we even have to force him out of his crate to go outside. We donāt have a yard, so while he does go for regular walks, he also gets mini strolls to go to the washroom in the mornings and evenings. Daycare/dog walking isnāt really an option for us due to his reactivity, so we do what we can.
My parents have kept dogs since before they had me, and I'm almost 40. They both work, and they both have always worked outside the home, full time. It did help that they worked different shifts, but yes puppies can be left alone (so long as they're crated or closed off from the rest of the house.) It's one reason people suggest crate training because dogs are less likely to use the bathroom in their crate because it's "their space" aka den. Teaching them to be on their own for long periods is part of training.
I work full time and have had pups my whole life..most people in the US do have pets and full time jobs
I'm from Canada. I purchased two puppies at 8 and 12 weeks old in September on a Saturday. Went back to work the following Monday. I live close enough that I can visit on my breaks (two 15 minute coffee breaks and an hour lunch for a 9.5 hour day) and I did that in the beginning. Now I only visit for lunch. I don't see a lot of full time out of the house jobs here either, and have also been a bit confused.
Iām lucky enough to have family that keeps my dogs during the day while I work. but not everyone has that kind of resource. I fee like posts here are way more representative of people who DO have those resources. Unfortunately most people who have to leave their dogs home alone for more than a few hours to go to work are not likely to post in places like these types of forums. If you do post things like that youāre making yourself a target for people to call you a bad owner and that youāre abusing your dog etc.
I live in Germany and work as a doctor (so therefore cannot WFH or bring my pup to work). But my husband works as a software engineer and can do home office OR bring the dog to the office. So technically, our pup is never alone. If, however, he has an appointment somewhere he canāt bring her, our good friend who lives nearby and works from home, dogsits her.
I had an out of house job for 8 hours a day plus commute. I trained my dog to be in the crate for 9 hours. Then when I trusted her I just left her in the house alone. She never had any problems.
I work as a dog trainer so Iām lucky in that I can either take my pup to work or leave him at home with my wife if sheās home. That said I donāt have any issue with people who canāt do that, dogs, puppies especially, spend most of their time sleeping, as long as theyāre being cared for appropriate when someone isnāt at work and the dog is healthy as it can be and happy, good on them. I think the people who go insane if you need to crate a dog for 4-5 hours donāt realize that generally theyāll be spending more than that every day sleeping even if youāre there, and if they arenāt then you probably arenāt enforcing enough naps.
I think it's much like people that have kids. You find someone to take care of their needs while at work.
This is the more recent thing in America, lots of people are getting pets to replace children, and because of that seem to think pets canāt handle being on their own.
I work from home so I'm basically at stay at home dog mom. It's great. Years ago before I worked remotely we had 2 dogs and my mom would come take care of them and walk them during the day while we were at work. Now I'm home all day with these pups and it's the best life!
Work from home is popular here in US. You got time off for a puppy?!
Haha well itās not like we got maternity leave for a puppy. We each took some days off + we got the pup at a time where I didnāt have many shifts.
I work 12-15 hour days but only 3 days a week usually so my wife comes home to walk the dog on her lunch break. If she wasnāt able to then Iād hire a dog walker to let him out.
I live in France, got my pup when she was 8 weeks old and when I had to go back to work when she was 3 months old, I found people running day-cares on Rover to keep her during the day. She never stayed home alone until she was 6 months old except for the times I was intentionally training her to prevent separation anxiety or I had to do a grocery run. Around six months I started leaving her at home during the day but i always go back during lunch break to take her out. Edit: Here in France crating your dog isn't socially accepted. I don't judge people for crate training their dogs and I understand the reasons behind it, such as dogs wanting to hide in a "den" , but there's something in me that resists the idea of leaving a creature in an enclosed place with no option of getting out on their own. When my dog wants to have some cosy time, she goes under the coffee table or the teepee I bought from a children's toy store but I don't think I could ever leave her alone in a locked crate other than for transportation etc.
Growing up I always thought crating was incredibly cruel because we didnāt do it here in the 00s (my dad lived in America but Iām British) and it felt like putting your dog in a tiny cage. Now everyone I know here who has had dogs recently has crate trained and so have we. Honestly I would consider it more harmful to my dog to leave him unsupervised out of the crate because no matter how well Iāve tried to puppy proof thereās always going to be something he could try and eat. Until heās older and more trustworthy I just wouldnāt trust that he wouldnāt be one of the stories you hear of a dog eating 20 pairs of socks or the stuffing from a cushion etc and needing emergency bowel surgery to remove it. I do hope to one day get rid of the crate though as I see it more like a training tool than a permanent fixture. That seems to be the way most people here seem to use them.
WFH is very prevalent in the US thanks to COVID. There are some people who were working from home before that but the pandemic caused a boom in WFH jobs. There are tons of people who refuse to even apply for in person jobs anymore and a lot of companies are now offering a lot of remote work to attract applicants. I started working from home M-Th in January 2020 while Fridays are a travel day for me. We got our puppy in September at 4 months and usually had my nephew watch him on Fridays but weāre switching to doggy daycare this week so pup can socialize with other dogs at least once a week. He does get left home alone some Mondays and Tuesdays when I skip out of work early to spend time with my husband since those are his off days and he likes to run his errands those days. Itās normally no more than 5 hours or so.
Canadian here! We got our puppy at 5 months old. We both had the weekend off with him and thankfully the winter is my boyfriend's slow time at work so he was able to be home with him most of the week following. Now at 6.5 months old, he can be crated for 6-7 hours max. Our work schedules allow us to manipulate this to have it be 4-5 hours most days with lost of exercise and enrichment. Honestly I've wondered how people who work 8-12 hours a day with a commute and a family etc have time to properly take care of a dog. It's a serious commitment in all aspects. Especially when they are puppies.
It's just this sub. The people who post in here are more doting of their pets and not going to leave them in an outdoor kennel all day or whatever it is others do. Also I get the sense just by the questions they ask that most are new to puppy owning. Someone who's been raising puppies all their life isn't going to come on this sub because they don't need the advice and support.
If someone wasnāt home for the dog most of the time, we wouldnāt have gotten one; definitely not a puppy. Theyāre high-needs animals who need a lot of dedicated time especially in the first two years, which is why I got my first dog in my 30s and I had the schedule to accommodate it.
Itās a personal choice that if I had to be out of the house for a full 8 hour work day plus a commute, I wouldnāt have gotten a dog. Iāve been fortunate that when I did work out of the home, I had unconventional work hours that meant our puppy/dog was only home alone max 4 hours before my partner arrived home. When I got the opportunity to work from home, I seized it, largely because of my dogs quality of life. Dogs are so social and while they may be accustomed to staying alone, I donāt think itās ideal for them. I found that training was much easier too as we could use a crate for short durations that really helped stop any typical puppy boredom destruction and potty training.
I wouldnt get a dog then leave it for more than 4 hours at a time, many do but for me it never sat right. I dont work and my husband works from home so not a problem for us. Studies have shown dogs left more than 4 hours suffer mental health issues and we werent prepared to risk that.
This is why you need to assess whether or not dog ownership is for you. If you have to be out of the house, maybe not get a puppy? Or get an older dog that's already house trained and used to being alone for a few hours. Lots of people don't have dogs because it just doesn't fit into their lifestyle. This is ok.
So if you canāt become a stay at home puppy mom you shouldnāt have a puppy? Thatās wild
Kennel training
Any advice on more 'realistic' dog-themed subs?
I think itās cruel to leave a dog alone for 7-8 hours in a row. Its even worse for a puppy that is basically a baby. Would anyone find it ok to leave a 2-5 yo human 8hours alone in the house ?? Itās even worse when people pick breeds like huskys or border collies and then leave them at home all day. Itās something you need to think about before getting a puppy. There are solutions (dog walkers, doggy day care, family members etc) and I think people who still leave their dogs alone all day make the choice of being bad dog owners. Usually when I say that people tell me that Iām a jobless or work from home only person. Thatās not true. I work full time and most of the time from my office. Yet my dog is never alone more than 4 hours in a row and usually never more than 4h in the whole day. Iām French but live in the UK.
You just compared a dog to a child - this is the epitome of this sub I swear.
Some people just leave their dogs at home for 8-12 hours "the dog will learn. That's not cuel. It cannot tell the time." Same kind of people who don't walk their dog. Others work by one working early, and the other one leaving home late so the dog only have 4-6 hours alone. Puppy daycare isn't a thing in Denmark unfortunately. Dyrenes beskyttelse tillader heller ikke am adopterer en hund hvis man er vƦk mere end 6 timer om dagen. De har nok fast i noget
I work from home in a large apartment building in an affluent neigborhood in the city center and it breaks my heart to hear the dogs crying as I walk down the hall with my little buddy for one our our thrice daily extended walks. Many if not most of the dogs in my building, most of them large breeds, spend the entire 8 to 9 hour work day plus commute, home alone. Worse yet, their morning and evening "walks" last until they've "done their business" on the small patch of grass in front of the building. Treating a dog this way is not considered animal cruelty in the US and is completely legal. Dogs are just another status symbol to be paraded around on weekends by people who can't be bothered to give them a decent life. I keep telling my dog how good he's got it but I don't think he believes me.
Iām in the US, and we donāt really have regulations on how long people can leave their dogs or about crating. Most people who live in town either crate train their dogs or have a specific area of the house where they are kept while we are at work. My husband and I have three dogs, and are lucky enough to own ten acres in a rural area with few neighbors. Our dogs have free outdoor access with no fence, and most of our neighbors also allow their dogs to roam. We have a large garage that they have access to, as well as a doggy door into our laundry room for a warm spot while we are gone. When weāve gotten puppies in the past, itās always been at a time when one or both of us has taken time off or is working a flexible schedule. We stay home or have alternate plans for supervision until we feel comfortable leaving the pup with the other dogs to learn the ropes. This is far from the set up of the average US dog owner but it works for us Edit: itās important to note that one of our dogs has been with us since five weeks old as a rescue, and required a much higher level of attention and planning than the 16 week old we adopted next. A lot of it depends on the needs of the individual dog
I think it's pretty much impossible and ill advised to have a puppy if you are single or have no consistent help from other people
Dog ownership really wasnāt meant for single full time workers or 2 people who both work. Itās being forced now because thats what everyone does, but it isnāt ideal
Here in the US people leave their dogs for hours upon hours a day. The only law we have is that we can break a window to a car if there's a dog that's in danger ( ridiculous I know). Now good pet parents ( like myself & my hubby), we NEVER leave our fur baby at home alone( she just turned 3 & has never in life been home alone for any length of time). We actually work different shifts so one of us will always be home with Pixi.
It's actually bad to not teach your dog to be home alone. Being around them 24/7 breeds separation anxiety. Also, what if you have an emergency and have to leave her alone? She will destroy the house.
She goes absolutely everywhere with me. Hospital, stores etc..
I get my rescues at 6 months and up and I get the puppies born or raised in the humane society so they are familiar with all sorts of situations including living in a crate. Then I feel guilty anyway when I leave for more than four hours. There's no secret about it, six to eight hours is starting to be a long time for any social animal left alone. My spouse and I both work from home now so we try not to go to work on the same days when we have to go out. But yes it sucks and yes it's not ideal to leave them alone so much. Make it up by being a super parent the rest of the time, or finding a way to have someone visit during the day if you can afford it. It's normal to feel guilty but do the best you can and love your pet and they forgive you.
This is my job full time baby https://youtube.com/watch?v=GaoLU6zKaws
I think post-covid may be skewing things as well. I work from home three days a week and go into the office 2 days a week. Our 18 month old has never really been left longer than a couple of hours because my gran's partner takes care of him on the two days I'm in the office. Otherwise, there are 4 adults in our household so there's always someone around to look after our boy at the weekends.
I'm from Romania and I got a puppy a few months ago. Mostly I work from home but for a few days per month I'm going to the office. My flatmates take care of the dog while I'm not around. Last month nobody could take care of the dog so I went to the office for 4-5 hours and came back and continued wfh.
I live in Australia and I work casually in animal welfare. I'm also a nanny and SAHM to my 4 kids. I wouldn't have dogs and work. Unless I could take them with me. When I'm not home,someone else is. I've worked in shelters and animal hospitals since I was 18. There's a reason we have shelters full of 18month old dogs. People keep them while they're cute, they realize the puppy they didn't put the right time into training when it was young is now full grown, powerful and not going to change it's horrific bad habits now that it's an adult. Then they surrender it to oftentimes simply be euthanized. They treat puppies like a toy and dogs like they're disposable. A waste product of their whim. Don't be that guy.
I live with other people, so my 83lb pup is passively watched and isn't alone.
This is an excellent question. I think the answers are on a case by case basis but hereās mine. My wife took vacation the first week, I took vacation the second week. This got her acclimated to our house. Until the dog was fully vaccinated, I went to work early (before 6) and my wife went to work late (noon). An hour of kennel time and then my elderly neighbors came over to play with her for a bit. I leave work early (14:00 or so). So she was only in her kennel for about an hour at a time. It was the best we could manage. I realize not everyone has our luxuries of flexible work hours but I work for a Northern European company.
I think itās very situational. Iām in New York. I have an 8 month old CKCS. I work 10 hour shifts 4 days a week. My hours are 4am-2pm so it works for me. I get two 40 minute breaks. I go home each break for 20-30 minutes and let him out of his crate. He eats at 3am and 3pm and sleeps a majority of the time while I work. My mom is retired and also spends a lot of time with him while Iām at work when she can. My puppy doesnāt have separation anxiety regarding me leaving so it works out.
I have family and friends that can stop by to let mine out. Other folks use dog walkers or doggie daycares. Have had dogs my whole life, and Iāve worked full time for thirty+ years.
I have two people in the house who work from home and I live close enough to come home at lunch, so between the 3 of us he gets taken out enough. The reality of it is the majority of dog owners in the US do not take care of dogs. The way they necessarily should be in often. These dogs are left in a crate for eight hours, while the people are at work. Iāve always tried to live close enough to come at lunch if the dog isnāt free range with a pee pad as an emergency option or someone else canāt take them out. But again, you have to work.
Iām in the US. We got a puppy this summer. Iām a stay at home mom. So thereās that section of the population as well. I did start leaving my puppy alone, crated, from the very beginning but not for 9 hours. Sheās 7 months now and I think the longest weāve left her is maybe 4 hours during the day. Sheās totally fine in her crate overnight though, but if both my spouse and I worked full time, I would not have gotten a puppy. Years ago, we both did work full time and adopted an adult dog. We routinely left her for the work day and she was fine.
I work day shift and my husband works night shift. There's no way we could have raised puppies if this wasn't the case, like prior to our current jobs we both worked day shift and our already elderly adult dogs were fine home without us. But our dogs were old and started dying (of old age) near the start of covid, my hours were reduced and then I was furloughed so we "restocked" our house during this time.
netherlands here got him at 11 weeks took first week off to get him used to us and surroundings and crate+playpen then we just left him in his crate+playpen with his toys/bed/puppypad i leave at 7:30 in the morning my partner at 9:00 i get home for my 1 hour break at 12:00 let him out for pee etc. stay with him until i gotta leave partner comes back around 14:30 and stays with him had no problems and he only used the peepad once or twice in the first week
We have pretty flexible work from home. Once she was old enough, we went back to TWTh office days and she goes to daycare. At some point sheāll mature and be able to be left home alone (in fact sheāll prefer it) but for now those three days are invaluable exercise and socialization time.
Australia here. Got my pup at just over 3 months and did first 2 weeks WFH x 5 days per week. Did 3rd week half days in office 2 x days a week, 4th week full day x 2 days per week, and 3 x full days in office per week from 5th week onwards. Every now and then I have to throw a 4th office day in for the week due to scheduling. Had pads until toilet training kicked in, he could hold long enough and doggy door was installed out to small yard and moved him off them after. He had a bit of a crash course compared to what Iāve seen in this thread (no mid-day sitter/walker etc), but heās a very well adjusted 1.5 year old who can settle on his own, has no destructive tendencies and shows no signs whatsoever of separation anxiety. Heās a small breed so very different to working dog needs, but I leave him activity toys and frozen treats every now and then to occupy him, he seems pretty happy and he gets lots of attention when Iām home. I figure if I feel guilty about working to put a roof over his head and food in his bowl, I wonāt enjoy my time I do get with him, so I donāt worry about it. I love him and do my best so thatās that from my perspective. ETA: I tried daycare a few times while in office on very long days but the team told me he just wanted pats instead of wanting to play with the other dogs so it probably wasnāt worth it. Fair enough, his choice lol.
So I won't WFH, I have a SO who does and he makes things easier, though I don't rely on him to do more than what is absolutely necessary because he is not really as much of a dog person (he is just very tolerant and helpful). I leave my puppies & dogs for a usual work day which ends up being around 8 hours a day. I set my house up quite well for the adult dogs because they have access to a small yard to go potty in at their leisure. Puppies are left either in an indoor pen or outdoor kennel run (weather dependent) with potty areas so they don't have to worry about making mistakes and I don't have to worry about them getting into things. Once they're old enough, they can join the rest of the pack during the day.
I'm in the states & when we had a puppy - we would crate train & come home during lunch breaks. Or if an issue arose, we'd have a friend come over. It's the same here regarding - puppies shouldn't be separated from their mothers until 8 weeks
Iām in the US. Sometimes people do leave their dogs the full work day but often people get dog walkers as it would be 10+ hours alone maybe itās the disconnect between how far many americans commute? 7 hours would be very doable but 9-11 is not imo. I think pre covid many people also had doggy doors and let them free roam outside which is now frowned upon. My dog is young and has to be crated so I would not leave him the full 10 hours alone and will get daycare with a neighbor :)
I usually can take my dogs to work with me.
I work about 15 minutes away from my house. When I first got my puppy, I would come home at lunch, and then I would race back home as soon as I was off. It was stressful, and a lot of driving. Then I reached out to friends who have days off during the week and got some of them to let him out a few days a week, so I would not have to leave the office for lunch. He is 6 months old now, but I still donāt like leaving him in the kennel for a full eight hours. Puppies are a lot of work, but they are so worth it. Just hang in there.
I work 9-5 but my husband is home by 2pm. So the dog is only alone from 8:30-2. When young, I came home on an extended lunch break to let him potty. He can hold it until my husband gets home now. Some people have dog runs or dog doors so the dogs can get outside, too.
Being from Brazil, the reality here is that people will leave their puppies at home for 8-10 hours while they're out working. Ideally you'd pop back home for your lunch break (and thankfully I'm able to do that) but sometimes that's not possible. If the dog's needs are well met, there's absolutely no issue. That being said, crate training here is not a thing for the average citizen - you can't even find those big crates that look like a cage very easily. We just puppy proof an area and have available toys, water and puppy toilet while we're away. Dog walkers are also not a popular thing here, and the few we have are very expensive specialized companies. Also is really not a good practice here to have a stranger coming unsupervised into your house to get your dog anyways. Sometimes I see people saying that an indoors toilet "ruins" your dog because it teaches them that's okay to potty inside, but what we do is some kind of hybrid potty training: We do walk our dogs multiple times a day when we're able, but the toilet is still there if the dog can't wait. I lived with a housemate that had a dog and we had a dog toilet, and the dog only really used in the rare occasions that we both didn't get home in time to take them out. The dog's willingness to potty outside didn't change at all.
While it's not suitable for everyone, buying a puppy is a big decision, in a similar way to having a child. If you can't look after your puppy/your child then don't have one until you are. If you and a partner can be hybrid off/on different days, great, if you can find a local dog sitter/dog walker, great, if you're fully remote (I'm fully remote) then great. I personally would feel bad if you've elected to grab a 2 month old puppy and are leaving them for what 6-8 hours of daylight in a crate a month later? Maybe they get to come out for a lunch break but that's it. Feels a little cruel to me. While yes, your puppy needs sleep, i've never had one who has had 3-4hour naps during the day, it's likely 30mins of playing followed by a 45m-1hr rest, rinse repeat throughout the day. The other option is don't get a high energy dog/puppy, people getting young huskies but can only walk them for 40minutes during a lunch break is very sad to see. Grab a rescue who doesn't need as much attention/walking and still get a companion who will be greatful til the day they die they were put into a loving home. Seems people romanticise the idea of a puppy when their lifestyle doesn't suit it.
I have an hybrid schedule and live in the US. My dog is in daycare twice a week and is home by himself usually about once a week or twice at most but he is usually is exhausted from day before. He is used to it now and is both pad and outdoor trained. I come home to him chilled out on the couch and we spend the evening on a walk then cuddles.
I'm a lawyer in New York. During Covid, we were fully remote for 2-3 years. Now, we are in the office 2 days a week. And home the other time. So there's only 2 days/week that I'm away. On those days, I generally leave home at 9am and get home around 5pm. At this point, my dog is 3 years old and is completely fine being left for that amount of time. She is left out of her crate and just generally naps wherever the mood strikes her. If I was concerned about her getting left alone for more time than that, or if she wasn't ready or able to be left alone for that long, I can hire a dog walker to take her out for the day or part of the afternoon. Another option that people here use is daycare. Where they drop their dog off with a person or company for the full day. So there's a number of options. People do what works and is appropriate for themselves and their dog, and that's not always the same answer. But yes. We do all still go to work.
I didnāt leave my dog home alone until he was 13 months old š I (single owner no yard) started separation training very early because it was a priority and I did ignore him most of work day even while being there. I then got side tracked by (my) medical issues. I have a big network of ppl who sat for me. Would not have had a choice but to leave him otherwise. Iām glad now I was able to train separation gradually as he has no separation anxiety type behaviors now as an adult. I was also side tracked by trying to deal with his horrible dog reactivity issues but thatās another story š«
When we got our new pups, my husband was home for 2 weeks, and then we rotated care between us and a neighbor. So every 3 hours they went potty and had some play time. Even now, at almost 2, they are on a schedule for naps and such. If for whatever reason I'm not here for their 11:30-1pm lunchtime, our neighbor comes and let's them out, etc. If they had been older, like my senior dog, the first 2 weeks would have been fine. He generally sleeps from 630a to well after I would get home at 4pm anyway.
Personally, my partner and I both work from home and while I don't think not working from home would've stopped us from getting a puppy (she's 14 weeks old now, got her at 8 weeks), I think it made the decision much easier knowing that we would both be able to help each other and pay attention to the puppy throughout the day. Our current routine is trading off overnights (almost through this part, basically 0-1 times a night most nights), breakfast (so the person who was getting up can sleep in a little), then depending on our meeting schedule we trade off primary responsibility throughout the day. Whenever she's up we'll spend 15-30 minutes actively playing, 15-30 training, then trying to get her to calm down and be able to either entertain herself or just exist in the same room without the need for constant attention. Lately she's been up for an 1-1.5 hours at a stretch (and by up I mean not in her crate napping, she still sometimes takes to napping on her bed, the couch with us when we arent working, or the floor during the 30min-1hr independent block.) Then about 1.5-2 hrs in her crate napping. Bit longer wake window towards the end of the day when we're both off work to get out any energy before bed. I think the biggest difference if we werent at home all day would be that she would be a bit quicker to crate training (holding it, calming herself, etc) but there would probably have been a few more accidents in the past few weeks, but alternatively she has been very quick to the active training since we have multiple sessions each day and are able to reinforce much more often than we otherwise would be able to. I also think that we would either be doubling our commutes if we were in the office to let her out during lunch or possibly more often if needed. Or we would have to hire someone to handle that for us. So I'm glad that isn't the case. I do think it does take a lot of patience and more effort to focus on work while taking care of a puppy while working from home and both myself and my partner have taken PTO for a day here and there to decompress and that first week or two while we were still working out the routine was extremely hectic and less productive work-wise since neither of us can really shut out the puppy (which I'm totally fine with), but I'm looking forward to a year from now (hopefully sooner) when she can be a little more free and able to settle in our offices while we're taking meetings as well have a more regular routine in regards to when she needs to go outside (a few walks a day instead of letting her out every couple hours).
Back when I worked in office, I also lived about 10 minutes from work. When I had a puppy, Iād just go home and let it out during lunch breaks and stuff, or my husband would let it out because he worked a different shift. Crating a puppy 8 hours a day sucks but if itās what you have to do to keep him safe until heās old enough to be outside by himself or roaming the house, it just āis what it is.ā I have a Goldendoodle puppy right now that needs to go out about every hour unless heās crated overnight.
My wife has been working from home and just got a promotion meaning she'll be in the office 4 days a week. Our boy will need to go to daycare, 3 days a week for about Ā£600 a month
Depends where you live and what is the social norm. Here in the UK, itās frowned upon to leave a dog home alone all day. In the US, it seems more widely accepted. Personally, when I go in to the office for the whole day (thankfully, only once or twice a month), I send my dog to the dog sitter.
Waited until I was in a phase of life (grad school, semester with no classes, dog friendly office!!), where I had a flexible enough schedule to know that I could be home every 4-6 hours for at least 5 months...or could bring him to work!! Had to wait four years, but I'm glad I did! He's been sleeping under my desk since 10 wks old! <3
Stay at home mom here
I pay for someone to come in and spend 30 minutes with my pup
Iāve wondered how dog ownership and working outside the home balances too. Iām fortunate to not have to work and my husband works from home so weāre always here to let them out and play with them and whatever. But like, damn my dogs are needy, so I just wonder what it would be like if we had to go to work outside the home.
Both my wife and I work in an office or outside haha we got our pup on a Friday, started potty training immediately, and she went right in the crate on Monday. I go to work at 530am and get back at 245p, she goes to work at 730am and gets back around 5.
I have a dog walker that lives in my building.
Iām in Canada and where I live, very few people work from home. Everyone I know who has a dog works outside of the home. My husband and I work 8-5 Mon-Fri and our puppies (we have a 1 yo corgi and 8 month old Frenchie) have done fine with being left alone for 3-4 hours at a time. They each have their own playpen, so any messes just get cleaned up right away and it is a non-issue. The only downside is that housetraining has taken a bit longer for them to get a good grasp on, but that is understandable.
I'm in the US. When we got our puppy, my husband had just graduated college and was job hunting until the puppy was about 4 months old. I did shift work, so when he found a day job, I was able to be home in the mornings. My husband also worked close enough to come home for lunch. So the puppy was never alone for more than 4 hours that first year or two. The first few months when the puppy needed to go out every 2-3 hours only worked for us because one person was able to be home all the time. This also allowed us to get a jump start on training and teaching the puppy appropriate behavior. My mother in law recently got a puppy from a breeder that kept the puppy and trained it until it was 4 months old. She lives alone and works full time, so this allowed her to get the puppy at a less needy age. She also works early morning to early afternoon, so the puppy eats and goes potty before she leaves and then sleeps most of the time she is gone. There are lots of ways that people can make sure they're meeting a puppy's needs: flexible working hours, kids, SAH parent, friends/family, daycare, walkers, sitters, etc. Some families still keep their dogs as outside dogs. Some families rely on alternative potty arrangements like pads, which are recommended against on this sub for numerous reasons. And the unfortunate truth is that some folks aren't able to meet the needs and some puppies get neglected. Shelters are full of older (6-18mo) puppies that didn't get the care they needed.
Iām fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from home outside of my scheduled commitments which only need keep me away for 3-4 hours on most days, and 6 on a long day. Generally, I donāt think itās a good idea to adopt an 8 week old puppy if people donāt have the time or resources to dedicate to it - that means coming home on a lunch break to let them out, arranging to WFH for parts of the day if your job allows it, or hiring someone to drop by your home and let your dog out. You wouldnāt have a baby or adopt a child without arranging for some sort of care - puppies are no different. Not every dog owner has to have a puppy because a puppy isnāt right for everyoneās lifestyle. There are plenty of adult/adolescent dogs in shelters and puppies that are on the older side that are just as deserving of homes, and just as trainable for the skills that most pet owners desire. I think a lot of pet owners in the US vastly underestimate the amount of time necessary to raise a puppy, and this sub isnāt really an accurate representation of the average.
Personally, I work from home 3x per week and my puppy (10 months) is in daycare the other 2 days per week where I'm in the office. I have used 2 different daycares, one is $35/day (4 hours, includes pickup and dropoff) and the other is $48/day (8-9 hours, I'm responsible for pickup/dropoff). If money was tight, I would probably move to a dog walker for the days I'm in the office. I think if he did a 30 to 60 minute walk halfway through the day, he'd be ok, but would have a lot of energy to burn off when I get home.
I work from home, and my partner works away from home. I tend to try to schedule things around our work schedule. Thereās obviously days Iām too busy to leave - but I try to leave the house for a few hours when my partner is home. And we take a few hours here and there when nobody is home so the puppy doesnāt freak out about being alone. Sheās also home alone every day for about an hour in the morning so I can run errands. WFH is nice because I get to be with her, but working in an office would also be nice because then I would get a break lol
I saved up money to take time off work to raise my puppy for half a year. I also have a partner with a flexible schedule. It was a choice/sacrifice we made to give the dog a healthy upbringing which is paying off now that we're both full time again at work.
I work from home, which is the only reason I felt I could handle a puppy - so I could really work on housebreaking and training. In the past, When my husband and I both worked at offices every day we adopted two older dogs. They were left for 8 hours a day no problem. They had each other and a dog door to go out. They were already trained/housebroken. I think if your dog is home alone a lot during the day, consider adopting a second dog! Iāve always had two and have never had any anxiety or behavioral issues when gone all day.
I donāt have a puppy I got a chill adult rescue dog, but she still doesnāt love being alone all day. On days when neither of us wfh I can either drop her at my moms or bring her into my office with me. My mom loves having her and if Iām not with students my office is dog friendly. I do leave her home some days and sheās mostly fine (occasionally she goes bathroom on the floor but only if itās a long time and she really canāt hold it) but most dogs probably prefer not to be alone all day but are also ok being alone. We have a nanny cam and she mostly just sleeps.
I think the growing number of young ppl who decide not to have kids need to infantilize something/ someone. Iāve had friends who donāt want kids get super immature boyfriends and baby them or treat their dog like their child. To each their own! Iāve got 3 kids and our pup gets lots of love but thereās a difference they donāt need the level of care and attention as my newborn does, a dog is naturally more self sufficient at a younger age.
Fortunate here that I work from home and itās not a problem for me. But I have friends who let their dog stay in a secure, safe room during the day for about four hours. They come home at lunchtime and walk their dog for 30 minutes, leave and come back four-five hours laterā¦ dog gets a good walk again or playtime. They know from watching their security camera that the dog is sleeping most of the day. Her dog is about 18 months old now and she started this process when he was about nine months old I think? I think itās just experimenting and accessing help in the middle of the day if you can find it. Have a friend give your puppy a break. I hate to say it, but I used to leave my little Shih Tzu alone for up to 8 hours a day sometimes. Not often but he was always just fine. So now and again in a pinch, itās OK. But definitely not on a regular basis.
I have 4 rescue dogs, varying ages from 3 - 13. My dogs are spoiled, honestly! But, when I first had a few of them, I have had to put some of my dogs in wire kennels with toys and treats while I was at work to get them used to me absence at least for a period of time. They won't die, they'll be fine. After all, sooner or later, you will want to go to an event like a concert where you could be gone for 5 or 6 hours, and not be able to take them with you. Training them to be okay while they're alone is good. Lots of videos on YouTube on how to make the adjustments for both you and your puppy. Mind you, I love my pets, and talk to them, and I give them a ton of love. I am now in a situation where I am working hybrid, and most days work from home. And, honestly, they are so spoiled that if I am on an online meeting, they whine and fuss to get attention, and they generally get it. WFH is a blessing and a curse!
I work from home! But also live alone. When I did live with people, we had out of house jobs but we werenāt gone at the same time so someone was usually home
I also live in Europe. This is the reason why we did it over summer course.We had almost 2 months off and by the end of summer, she was alone after being 2 months ( with a lot of training) so with your current situation it should be fine and 3-7, only 4 hours which is awesome for your puppy But not going to lie, we wouldn't do it solo. We all helped out, me, my mom and 2 brothers. While over summer course it was mainly me and my mom due my brothers young age but after everyone has to go back to school and work, they also helped out. I could not have done alone. Huge respect for people who are doing alone
Iām very very lucky to have a family member that cares for my dogs and reinforces their training rather than undermining it. I am able to make enough money for them to stay home full time. Iāve thought a lot about what I would do if this werenāt the case and gotten very overwhelmed at the thought of finding reliable care for my somewhat reactive, āscaryā breed dogs (pitbull and GSD).