How long do you leave your dogs for?

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horsesatemymoney

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Hi, I usually post in the horses bit, but I was just wondering how long people leave their dogs for with work etc? I am really worried about leaving mine for mor than 3 hours, the dog is fine, but it's me! So am spending a fortune on paying people to come in and let out/walk! Thanks:)
 
I work full time and OH does a week of days and then a week of nghts. If he is on nghts then they aren't on their own. If he is on days then they are on their own for about 4 hours before I go home at lunchtime. Very occassionally they might get left all day which is about 7 hours. They are always ok.
 
Before we owned our own business (a restaurant) and could have the dogs with us we didn't have any, though we were both from doggy families. After that we had businesses where I worked from home. We never leave them on a regular basis for more than 2-3 hours. If we know we are going to be out for longer one of our liveries will let them out and see to them for us. They'd never be left longer than 4 hours.
 
4 hours, 5 once in a blue moon. But I can leave them out. I've got fencing all the way around and I leave the utility room door open.
 
i have had my dog 7 years she is a norrfolk terrorist and i am lucky to work for a dog freindly company so i rarely leave her as she is either with me at work or at the stables or at home i only really left her in the summer when it was to hot for her to stay in the car when i was shopping but if i do leave her she just goes on the bed and sleeps but years ago i had another terrorist and i use to leave him for 6 hours a day never worried him depends on the dog and the breed of dog
 
All day. All night,

and I don't walk them, ever, and they never, ever leave the property (with me anyway)...I have a mobile Vet visit the place.

But these are not house dogs, these are guard dogs with a job, with a 'bed' room and 30' x 30' paved yard to come and go in as they please.

They come out when I am out, early mornings and late at night, but some times at weekends they'll be in their yard easily for 12 hours straight.
 
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My dog will happily sleep in her room from 5pm-10pm when I let her out for a wee, then sleep all night... so I doubt she worries much in the hours I'm at work. ;)
 
Blitzenfys said:
All day. All night,

and I don't walk them, ever, and they never, ever leave the property (with me anyway)...I have a mobile Vet visit the place.

But these are not house dogs, these are guard dogs with a job, with a 'bed' room and 30' x 30' paved yard to come and go in as they please.

They come out when I am out, early mornings and late at night, but some times at weekends they'll be in their yard easily for 12 hours straight.
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Oh wow. How did you train them to do this? have they been like that since puppies? Or can they adapt at a later age? Also what breed are they?

we had a a yard dog when I was younger that lived out through the day with a kennel and little area and slept in a shed on the farm bit over night. He was always fine with people he knew but everyone was advised not to approach
 
I have a lurcher and a 7 month old bedlington pup. I sometimes leave them for 8 hours, the builder who is working here always takes them out, but they are never that bothered about going and will happily sleep on their sofa all day, they regularly get left for 4 hours,flodden the pup will often come out with me to do late stables at 10pm, then not bother getting up till 10am even if i am up doing horses, so clearly his bladder is fine with that. Slowly increase the time you leave them for, they won;t even notice. certainly I would never be worried about leaving an adult dog for 3 hours at a time. They barely have chance for a decent kip in that time :). Also bear in mind, that even if I am in the house with them I may be working, decorating, building and the like, they just take themselves up to their sofa and sleep until i ask for them :)
 
3 hours is nothing.....assuming it's an adult dog and not a puppy and doesn't have SA! An adult dog should be able to hold its bladder easily for that long, so assuming you walk the dog before you leave and again when you return I don't understand why you are wasting your money on dog walkers??

By all means leave the dog with Kongs or Buster Cubes to entertain it, leave the radio on or whatever, but 3 hours is nothing!! If exercised well beforehand most woofs would sleep for the majority of that time anyway.
 
You do what you want, most dogs are fine with 5 hours as long as they are tired out after a long walk.
If you want to, make a nice kennels and give them a friend.
I can't understand people who are at work nine hours per day and leave the poor things alone in a house.
 
MrsD123 said:
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I can't understand people who are at work nine hours per day and leave the poor things alone in a house.
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Not everybody has the luxury of not having to work full time to pay the bills!!!!! Why should people that work deprive themselves of dogs? In fact if most rescues weren't so bigoted in their approach there would be a lot more demanding rescue dogs in happy experienced and responsible homes that happen to go to WORK.

I know people that work for 3 hrs a day and are lazy good for nothing couch potatoes that can't be bothered and are quite frankly a ****** home for a dog !!

I work full time but give my dogs plenty of exercise and enrichment in fact one of mine would have been PTS by now by most who could not cope with him, as he has real problems from a former home that worked PART TIME!!!

It's not about the time you spend with a dog it's the quality of the interaction you have with your dog that counts!
 
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Yep, your boys would be much better in a rescue Karyn, so would mine, I mean look at the poor sods, they have no life at all.....I know a couple that don't work, they have lots of dogs they are home all day with. Those dogs have never seen a beach, the forest, they get a wee walk down the road for a piddle a couple of times a day, I know what kind of life I prefer for mine. It would be easy for me to sit on my arse all day at home but I cannot afford not to work, I am up at the crack of dawn, straight out again the minute I get home...but then, it's hard to understand :p
 
Wow KarynK!! You are my hero! I couldnt agree more!!

My dogs (all bought as pups because I am not allowed a rescue as I work full time) are left for anything up to 8 hours every day. They know no different and they are fine.

The woman next door works from home. Her dog spends all day and night outside, is never walked and never paid any attention but according to the RSPCA she is a better owner than I am :mad:
 
KarynK said:
Not everybody has the luxury of not having to work full time to pay the bills!!!!! Why should people that work deprive themselves of dogs? In fact if most rescues weren't so bigoted in their approach there would be a lot more demanding rescue dogs in happy experienced and responsible homes that happen to go to WORK.
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I struggle with this one, and some on here will know that I've been really vocal in the past about leaving dogs at home alone all day.

Most of us work full time - to pay the bills :rolleyes:- and a lot of us have made the lifestyle choice in the past of not having a dog because of having to leave it alone for so long.

I think that glib, sarcastic responses from some posters (as a means of defence, obviously) are very unfair - because the reasons of posters who do not have dogs because of full time work are legitimate ones. They feel it unfair to leave a dog home alone all day.

But the issue of a dog in a rescue kennel vs a dog in a home alone all day is a powerful one. And I must admit that over the past couple of years my opinions have changed somewhat.

I've come to the conclussion that if you can build a dog walker in to the equation, then there's no reason not to have a dog and work full time.
 
amymay said:
I struggle with this one, and some on here will know that I've been really vocal in the past about leaving dogs at home alone all day.


I've come to the conclussion that if you can build a dog walker in to the equation, then there's no reason not to have a dog and work full time.
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Yes, well the dog is not being left at home all day if the dog walker comes and takes them out for an hour.
 
amymay said:
I think that glib, sarcastic responses from some posters (as a means of defence, obviously) are very unfair
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Well when you spend all your time and money on, and work very hard on ensuring your dogs have a fit and active and fulfilled lifestyle, then people come along and UNFAIRLY insinuate you are not a good owner (and your dogs eat wallpaper?! Eh?) because you also happen to work, you will get a bit defensive.
Well done to you for being so principled but dogs are languishing in kennels and being denied good homes because of this hysteria, I know where I would rather be if I was a dog.
 
CaveCanem said:
Well when you spend all your time and money on, and work very hard on ensuring your dogs have a fit and active and fulfilled lifestyle, then people come along and UNFAIRLY insinuate you are not a good owner (and your dogs eat wallpaper?! Eh?) because you also happen to work, you will get a bit defensive.
Well done to you for being so principled but dogs are languishing in kennels and being denied good homes because of this hysteria, I know where I would rather be if I was a dog.
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I think if you read my post again, you'll see that I agree with the kennels vs home issue - how can you argue against it? It's nothing to do with principles, it's actually about conflict.

No one has accused anyone of being a bad owner (defensive again), and I most certainly have not said that your dogs are eating your wall paper.

I think that the vast majority of dogs home alone all day are probably very content. Owners like many on here ensure that they have really great lives. They are loved and well looked after.

I, like many others, stuggle with the idea of a dog home alone all day. It doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong for most dogs, but for some it most definately is. It also doesn't mean it's wrong to keep a dog like this - as long as it genuinly works for you.

There are definately ways around it - dog walker, visit half way through the day etc.

For years I wanted a dog - but didn't have one because of the work issue. That was my choice, because I felt it was unfair on the dog. However, reading posts on here has made me realise that there are ways around it, and what doesn't work for one, most certainly can work for another.

There is simply no right nor wrong answer.
 
Well anyone who can read can see it wasn't you who made the comment about the wallpaper and didn't get people's backs up in the first place with that oft-rolled-out line 'I don't know why people have dogs, blah blah blah'.

Anyway, I am grouchy because I eschewed breakfast to get the bratty one out for a nice long walk before work, someone put the bloody coffee on!!!
 
I've met dogs who are owned by "stay at home" type parents who are the most ill-adjusted, whinging dogs that can't stand to be seperated from their owners for the three hours I need them for. I've also met some "latch key" types take it all in stride. It's all in how they're handled, whether the dog is suited to being at home alone, whether there's at least another companion dog in the home (that helps), if they can get out to relieve themselves, run about and so on.

Hate this debate because there IS no one answer is right for all. Just wish those that are smug in their convictions would try to see things from another point of view. :rolleyes:
 
Betsy is left from 8 untill 5 or 6 in a kennel at work. She has two older companions in there to sit on and keep warm but they look at her like a mad woman when she tries to play. Some days she is kept very busy being walked, groomed and used in training lessons with very regular run / wee breaks. Other days she is only let out to wee every few hours.

Before I started to take her in she stayed at home with a wee break at lunch time, on occasion she was left all day and was absolutely fine.
 
amymay said:
There is simply no right nor wrong answer.
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I agree with this.
Ours stay at home from 8:45 till 6 BUT my housemate goes home at lunch and walks them for half an hour.

I don't agree with leaving them all day in a house without being let out, i can't hold a pee for 8 hrs so i don't expect my dogs to.
 
I am very lucky and can bring my dog to work with me, she sits next to my desk and snores gently except when someone plays with her :) We go for a nice walk across the fields at lunchtime then she sleeps and snores some more :D

But, generally speaking I wouldn't leave her for more than 3-4 hours (obviously she does get left sometimes but not very often).

Fairy
 
forestfantasy said:
I don't agree with leaving them all day in a house without being let out, i can't hold a pee for 8 hrs so i don't expect my dogs to.
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Sorry only just got back to this

Now that is an entirely different matter, leaving dogs with no toilet facilities for that long is unfair!

But people do tend to humanise dogs too much, they are after all two very different species! The human is active between meals, naturally a dog is not! Providing the dog is exercised and there is one hell of a BIG difference between a "walk" and exercise!!!! Then they will happily spend the day resting waiting to go hunting with you when you return!

Having taken on a "destructive" rescue, from a rescue place that gave her to me knowing I worked over a family that didn't!!!!!!! It didn't take me long to rehab her at all, she was exercised regularly having to use her brain as well as her legs, fed raw and apart from a couple of test chews, which got her nowhere, she was NEVER destructive with me. So that rescue manager was spot on!!

When I am not at work my dogs spend quality time with me, so that is why I hate it when people give ill informed blanket responses from ivory towers. Surely it is better to eat, sleep an be cared for properly than to be PTS because most people have young families and or have to work!

I choose to help dogs with big issues because I work and also because I do not have young children so I can persist with them, so no very young puppies for me but what I do have to always contend with it would seem is other peoples **** up's, and hey in 3 of the last 4 dogs I have rescued they were people that did not work full time, so yes it makes me angry especially as the arse personality that co habit's Blues brain bit me last night!
 
Tink went out for a piddle at 10pm and is still in her room, perfectly happy and its now 8.30am... Maybe she and I just have very strong bladders but I have no qualms leaving her home alone all day when I'm at uni/away somewhere. When I'm working I let her out at lunch but half the time she doesn't want out to toilet and sods off to amuse herself and doesn't see me till its time to be shut in again!
 
My dogs have their own room in the house (the conservatory) and have a dog flap out into the garden. I currently have 3 so they all keep themselves occupied while im out and have once or twice left them over night (leaving late that night and returning early in the morning). They are well walked and are very happy and well behaved dogs
 
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