What do you do with your dog(s) during the week day

[Indydog]

Unlike our 8 yrd who just lays out in the sun and sleeps during the day while we are at work, our 6 month pup understanbly can't be left alone. She is curious about everything, digs and eats everything..I mean everythign if you let her. We crate her in the morning and then around 11am puppy day care comes get her for a off leash romp with dogs her age. She gets brough back at about 2 to 3pm and I come home around 6. Sounds great right?! Whats the problem? It basically comes down to cost. It use to be about 35$ per day but its 20$ for walks since she is older. My gf and can work from home 1 day a week so that helps. I'm just thinking long term since its going take at least a couple years before we can leave her unspervised in the backyard. A dog run might be a solution but I wouldn't be surprised if learn to climb it or dig under it.

 

So what do you do with your dogs? (I need to get a job with google so I can bring my dogs to work with me )

[Ninso]

Mine is crated 9 hours a day while I'm at work. He's almost 3 and reliable in the house, so he really doesn't need to be, but it's been his routine since he came home at almost 2 and he likes his crate, so I figure why change anything. He does like to in the backyard but I would never leave him out when I am not home. He probably wouldn't leave the yard, but you never know and I would worry about him getting stolen.

[sweet_ceana]

We crate as well.

[Sam'smom]

Am lucky when I go to work, Sam gets to stay with my Mom who lives just down the road from me. I work 12 hr shifts 2 days 2 nights then 4 days off and he's still a pup at 6 months almost would not be fair to keep him in a crate, insted he goes to "grandma's" get to play there.

[Shetlander]

Most of my dogs have been able to spend the day cooling their jets while I was at work without even a break at lunch. I start out crating them and as I gain confidence in their house manners (not chewing up my house or using it as a toilet), they are eventually allowed free roam of the house while I'm at work. Until my Lhasa who not only needs a potty break at noon but also needs a small meal. He's always been that way and no tests give any medical reason for it. I figure it is due to his royal blood. So I either have a friend come by at noon or pay a sitter. Two or three days a week I can bring the dogs with me to the office. So now I have Quinn who has never learned to hold his urine all day since he grew up with the Imperial Lhasa.

 

That said, Quinn was crated while I was at work until he was about 22 months old. At 6 months, he got a walk in the morning and sometimes a little play. He was let out and a little more play for about 15 - 20 minutes at noon. And then we played/walked/trained/whatever in the PM. He grew up very nicely on this schedule and now at 3 years old he's fine waiting until after work before he gets any significant play/exercise. When he stays home, my friend or the sitter will play a little fetch with him at noon. At the office, I frequently hear people comment on how laid back he is.

 

Years ago, I used to allow my dogs access to the backyard while I was at work. This worked fine for three dogs. Then I got a dog who became a nuisance barker. I wouldn't trust any of my dogs to stay out of trouble and/or not bug my neighbors if they had outside access. I also am less trusting of people than I was 10 years ago. Today I would be worried that someone might try to tease, harm, steal or even kill my dog if he was out unsupervised.

[Ms.DaisyDuke]

Daisy was crated up until about 1.5yrs. She was then allowed a small gated off area in our hallway. Once she had proven herself house worthy we allowed her out for short periods and built up to the whole day. When she was a pup, one of my room mates worked odd shifts, so she was never alone the entire 8 hours, but she did eventually have to spend an entire day in her crate with no problems. The BF moved in and she got to sleep with him (he worked nights) durring the day and now that he is also on days, he will come home for lunch, but I think that's mostly for him and not the dog...he's a big ol' suck that one! I think I tested out Daisy with the gated off hallway around 7-8 months old, so it may be worth a try. She was one of those dogs who could have easily jumped or knocked down the gate, but simply respected it, so I did get lucky! However, I came home from work yesterday and found her eating Zest body soap...and no one knows where she found it!

[MrSnappy]

My dogs are loose in the apartment all day. The only one I crated as a puppy was Tweed, and I don't think I'd do it again. I am all for crates and crate train all my dogs, but I am just not down with 9 hours of crating a day, and putting them back into it at night again. It hurts.

 

Piper was in an XPen with toys and bones until she could "hold it" then she was in the dog *room* with the other dogs. In that apartment, they stayed in their room with all their beds and toys etc. while we were at work.

 

Now that I live solo in a smaller place, when I got Mr. Woo he stayed in an XPen briefly but soon had free roam of the apartment. The only things he ate were a couple of books and all of the eyes off my decorative stuffed sheep

 

If I got another puppy now (so.not.going.to.happen) I would use the XPen again, not the crate. But that's just me. Lots of people use crates happily and successfully.

 

Leaving my dogs out in the yard would never be an option for me, I'm afraid.

 

RDM

[bc4ever]

Luckily, I'm home most of the week, and the days I go in to work, my husband is home either before I leave or shortly after, so we've never had to worry about what to do with Scooter. On the rare occasion when we're both gone for more than five or six hours, he's crated and a neighbor or family member is more than happy to come in and look after him. Eight hours in a crate isn't the ideal, but they learn to adapt to our schedules, doG love 'em.

[sweet_ceana]

After RDM's post I think it might help to clarify what we do. We crate while we are at work, but the pups sleep on and around the bed at night. We do the oppisite. I cannot justify putting them in their crates for bed after they were in there while we are at work either. IMO that would be too much time for my dogs to be crated. We choose to crate during the day because Poke reeks havoc still (almost 1 & 1/2 yrs old we are getting there with him) and Ceana will tease him that she is out and he is not. She will either bug him at the crate or tease him through the door. Thus Ceana gets crated in our absence as well.

 

Actually, I forgot to shut Ceana's crate on Tuesday and I came home to find bones all over the couch. Miss Priss spent the whole day lounging on the couch, watching TV and chewing her bones. What a tuff day!

[tualizzy]

Mine are loose in the house all day.

I would never leave them unattended in the back yard...I just don't feel its safe option for us.

 

When Jak was a wee little guy, he did stay in a HUGE crate at night only, but during the day he was in the bathroom, with the door fixed open and a babygate in its place so he could see out. I only did this because he wasn't 100% house trained yet, and we only had to do this for a few months. I wanted him to have more room during the day to play than the crate offered, so the bathroom seemed like the safest option for him.

 

I'm lucky that I work only 5 minutes from the house, so can now go home every day at lunch and take them outside for a play... which I have to do 'cause Miss Brassy Pants can't hold it that long anymore and needs to get out half way thru the day.

 

That's what we do... and everyone seems pretty happy.

[MrSnappy]

and Ceana will tease him that she is out and he is not. She will either bug him at the crate or tease him through the door. Thus Ceana gets crated in our absence as well.

 

Actually that was one of the main reasons I regret crating Tweed. Briggs taunted him constantly, and would bring stuffies to the front of the crate and play with them in front of Tweed, and stuff like that. I sometime found the entire toy box in front of the crate, and Briggs was sometimes exhausted from all the running around showing off for Tweed he was doing. I think it was probably really frustrating for Tweed, and as Briggs was already 3.5 years old when I got Tweed, I was not going to start crating him all day as he had never been crated, not even as a puppy.

 

On kind of another, but slightly related topic ... Mr. Woo has a super specific form of separation anxiety: I can leave the house with none of the dogs and he is fine. And of course he is fine if I leave with ALL of the dogs. But if I try to leave the house with ONE of the dogs, that dog not being Mr. Woo, he flips out. He screams, he throws himself through and busts the babygate and then hurls himself against the front door (did I mention he SCREAMS?). It's weird because he will even do it if I leave with Tweed, and he and Tweed are not exactly friends. If something ever happened to all of my dogs except Woo, he would for sure have to be crated in the day ;-)

 

RDM

[MaryP]

All of mine are loose in the house. I used a crate for Charlie and Skittles when they were puppies. But, I came home at lunch every day and let them out for about an hour. Skittles graduated from the crate pretty quickly. He was probably around 5-6 months old when I stopped crating him. He doesn't care for the crate, so I was glad he could be trusted loose in the house pretty early on. Ironically, now that he's almost two, he will occasionally decide to destroy something when I'm at work. It's pretty infrequent, though, and never anything of any importance. He usually just tears up a piece of paper or a magazine. Once Charlie was old enough to not need midday breaks, I moved him to a penned off area in my kitchen/dining room. My bf constructed some big, long gates that we used to pen him in. He had a dog bed, toys, and water in there with him. He graduated from that by about the time he was 9 months old. Milo, my oldest, was never crated - didn't even own a crate at the time. I got him in grad school and was lucky to be able to bring him to my office with me every day. It wasn't until he was about 3.5 years old that he had to stay home while I went to work. Milo is a total angel, though. Always has been.

 

These days, Charlie and Skittles get to go to doggy daycare for half a day two days per week (I can't believe that you pay $35 a day for day care! ). I pick them up at lunchtime and take them home. They usually crash for the rest of the afternoon. Milo is perfectly happy to hang out at home all day. All the dogs usually stay pretty mellow during the day, regardless. They know that when we get home from work, they will all get to go to the park or the beach. So, they are perfectly happy to wait for that time to come.

[Ooky]

So what do you do with your dogs? (I need to get a job with google so I can bring my dogs to work with me )

 

Hey, more places in Silicon Valley allow dogs than just google! Although I admit I would describe our office as "google-style". Seriously, it totally rocks. All our work with crate training has really paid off. I have taken Odin to work a couple more times and people just keep asking me to bring him back in. No one can believe how quiet he is in the crate, that I can attend meetings away from my desk, etc. Some of my coworkers stop by and feel so sorry for him that he is in the crate, and start talking about how "mean" the administration is for that. Odin seems to love his crate at work best of all and knows it's HIS place. He goes right in when we come in from walks. If this is the requirement for coming with me to work, both he and I think it's more than doable.

 

When I don't take him and DH is at work, he is in the crate at home. I have found cat toys in front of the crate, too, so I bet he also is taunted a bit. We also do not sleep with him in the crate, but we do close him up in the bedroom with us and the cats.

[Shetlander]

Eight hours in a crate isn't the ideal, but they learn to adapt to our schedules, doG love 'em.

 

My experience is that most dogs adapt quite nicely to the schedules/structure they are given as long as we are fair about giving them the exercise, attention and interaction they need. On the days my dogs come to work with me, they spend the majority of time snoozing despite having three rooms to move around in and a variety of people to interact with. I figure they can sleep just as easily in a nice comfy crate if need be. Sometime I look at the Lhasa in his very oversized (for a Lhasa) crate with the soft bed and think I could use a cozy little place like that to nap.

 

We crate while we are at work, but the pups sleep on and around the bed at night. We do the oppisite. I cannot justify putting them in their crates for bed after they were in their while we are at work either.

 

That is the route I take with my dogs too, though the criteria for that is the puppy or dog will stay on the bed/in the room and out of trouble while I sleep. My youngest was 8 weeks when he was on the bed. The oldest 8 months. Again, they are sleeping so I don't feel bad about them being in a roomy crate if needed. But I like them having a little more freedom if at all possible.

[Indydog]

(I can't believe that you pay $35 a day for day care! ).

 

Perks of being in SF, California.

[afrancis]

Actually that was one of the main reasons I regret crating Tweed. Briggs taunted him constantly, and would bring stuffies to the front of the crate and play with them in front of Tweed, and stuff like that.

 

Don't know if Tweed and Briggs played together outdoors, but in my case I never realized that dogs that play and run together outside could have a hard time actually being at home alone together, without human supervision, even if one is not crated. When I started full-time gardening last summer, I brought Skye to my co-worker's house thinking she would have a better time with her two dogs during the day rather than being all alone at our house. Well, it took about 1 week for me to realize that she was miserable. By the end of the week when we came home for lunch, she planted herself at the door and actually made a break for the car saying "Lemme outta here! These guys are nuts!" Goes without saying that she stayed home alone from then on and was perfectly happy again. Keep in mind she was 5 years; but she has stayed home during the day alone and uncrated since she was about 1 year old. Only ate a corner of a book, gnawed on the phone antenna and only once, played snowstorm with the feather pillows. I consider that pretty benign collateral damage.

Ailsa

[Anda]

Here's another one who never crated her dog.

 

We were lucky that for the first year and a half, Chris had such a schedule that allowed him to be at home most of the time while I was at work, so there was almost always someone with Ouzo to take him out at lunch and then I'd take him out at 4 or 5 when I'd come from work.

 

Almost all the damage my dog did growing up was while we were both at home. He doesn't find it as tempting to destroy something if there isn't an audience to perform for - he's all for instant gratification.

 

Now he's almost 3 and he's been left alone in the house of 8-9 even 10 hours sometimes without any problems.

 

The one thing I worry about is him barking - we had some issues when he was growing up, and our neighbour left a note on our door while we were shopping one weekend. It horrifyied us and had addressed the problem. But in the new place there are new temptations and more windows - he had a bit of a loud epoque for a couple of weeks, but hopefully he's over it - haven't heard from the neighbours... and there are other dogs who constatly bark

 

I have to admit that before having Ouzo, I had never heard of a crate, and when at our first vet visit, they gave us the "puppy package" including a pamphlet about crate training, I was shocked at the cartoon of a emprisoned puppy, standing up and trying to get out of the X-Pen. That was pure misery to my untrained eyes, and I decided against it. Didn't consider the benefits of crating, just the emotional impact it had on me.

 

I find out that those who always crate their dogs, end up not trusting their dogs to be loose in the house even as their dogs become adults. I don't know, I rode the wave of puppy-tornadoes, and now I have a stable and trustworthy dog. I am happy, he is happy, we are happy

[MaggieDog]

I now leave both girls loose in the house when I'm at work the majority of the time, but every once in a while I'll crate Z for half the day to keep her skills up and give Maggie a break from the pest.

 

Ziva didn't get house privileges until about 14 months, though she slept loose starting 5 months after adoption (10 mo). When crated she had/has a large crate (2 sizes larger than needed), a cushy bed, lots of chewies, and at least one treat dispensing toy.

 

My schedule is a bit skewed but DH works a normal 8 to 5, so the girls are only left alone between 10:45am-noon, 1pm-3pm, and then 4pm-5:30pm if we both come home for lunch. The longest we generally will leave the girls loose together is 6.5 hours (11am to 5:30pm); if we'll be gone longer, Z is crated to keep her out of trouble (her bladder isn't as strong as Maggie's), but that happens very rarely.

 

Before I lived with DH, I came home for lunch and crated Z for half the day to give Maggie her space.

[SoloRiver]

Solo and Fly can be loose up to 10 or 11 hours (this has never been a regular occurrence but life happens sometimes) with no problems. Occasionally if they are left for a very long time, they will start counter-surfing. I guess I can't blame them for wanting a little snack, and since they never do it when I'm at home, I never have a chance to redirect them and they have no idea there is anything wrong with counter-surfing. They have never destroyed anything they weren't supposed to and do not have accidents in the house unless it can't be helped (I don't know any humans who can hold diarrhea all day either). Solo was 16 months old when I got him, and Fly was about three years old.

 

When I first got Solo he had severe separation anxiety, by which I mean he would start totally losing it 30 seconds after I walked out the door. So, for the first few months I had him, I did not leave him alone. At all. I was in grad school at the time, so I'd bring him to campus with me, and take him to the classes I was teaching, and take him to the classes I was taking, and skip classes if he was having a bad day and wasn't going to be able to handle sitting in class quietly (Solo was quite, er, messed up at the time in general). If I'd had a full time job then I am not sure what we would have done, because he absolutely could not be left alone. I even did all my grocery shopping at farmer's markets so I could take him with me. (Ah, I miss the Italian Market in Philly. It's the one Rocky runs through at the beginning of the movie.) Solo started on the meds he's been on ever since (not just for separation anxiety -- for being generally totally wigged out) and I religiously practiced behavior mod protocols and all the stuff you do for dogs with SA (leaving over and over again for 10 seconds at a time, that kind of thing) and slowly he got better.

 

Once he was a bit better I could start having a life again and leaving for short periods of time (like to go to the drugstore, or whatever) but he was not what I would call happy about it. Solo was never destructive and did not eliminate in my absence (the few times I had to be gone), but he would cry and cry and cry (high, strangled yips) and when I got home he would be sitting right in front of the door in a giant puddle of drool. I left a tape recorder going once to see how much noise he made while I was gone and he filled up the entire 45 minute side of a 90 minute tape with non-stop howling. I cannot believe my apartment neighbors never complained. The walls were thankfully very thick. It was a very long time before I really felt comfortable leaving him, and I did not consider him anything like cured until I got Fly. Once he had Fly, he became blase about being left. Fly, for her part, has never minded being left alone.

 

I think if Solo had been adopted by someone in a regular detached family home he may never have been treated for SA. Many owners do not seem to think it is a problem unless the dog is destroying things or soiling the house, despite the fact that any casual observer should be able to tell the dog is experiencing abject panic when left alone. I would have treated him anyway, but being in an apartment made the treatment even more urgent.

 

I got Jett at 7.5 weeks of age and was lucky enough to be able to bring her to work with me for about three months. She would stay in a crate under my bench, and I took her out for potty trips every couple of hours or so. Eventually the safety officers decided that having a dog in a lab was not OK, so she could not come in with me anymore. I had already started leaving her for short periods of time so we managed. At first I would go home every day at lunch to walk her (and the others, who liked this new arrangement) and then eventually I could leave her for 7-8 hours or a normal workday. I would also work from home as much as possible. When she was very little I would leave her in a crate, and then started leaving her in the gated-off kitchen of my small apartment. Jett pretty much housebroke herself and would not eliminate in either her crate or the kitchen unless I left her alone longer than she was physically capable of holding it. Now that we live in a house, she is crated while we are gone, although she could probably be loose -- I just haven't done the experiment yet. She does not like being the only crated dog, but the others don't taunt her, or at least I have never seen any evidence of this. I have been working from home for the summer, so the dogs have not been alone much, but this will probably change soon.

[SoloRiver]

Perks of being in SF, California.

 

Another perk of living in SF: I had to board the dogs in May while I went to a conference in Vancouver. I was gone for a day and a half -- I flew in, gave a talk, and flew out -- specifically to save on boarding fees. Solo needs to get his meds every day so I cannot just leave the dogs any old place when I travel. Unfortunately, in the Bay Area, once you go above "bare bones" on boarding you are in the realm of doggie "apartments" and "full service" boarding whether you want it or not.

 

The total cost of boarding three dogs for about two days? $454.

 

Don't get me wrong, it was a GREAT place and they did a wonderful job and I'm sure the dogs were very happy there, but paying that bill was one of the most painful things I have ever done that involved a credit card. Man, am I glad I don't live in SF anymore. Best city ever, but really hard to enjoy properly when the cost of living is so ridiculous.

[DeltaBluez Tess]

Melanie

 

I remember the long road you had with Solo and you have done wonders with him!!

 

He is blessed that you are a part of his life.

 

Diane

[Tassie]

Melanie - totally agree with what Diane said.

 

My previous 2 dogs used to stay home with free access to the house and the fenced 1.25 acre block. When Sam died and I got Fergus, he and Jessie had the same deal. When Miss Kirra arrived, she demonstrated that the stock fencing was not puppy proof, so she stayed inside in a 4' x 4' X pen, with papers for toilet in one corner, and a bed. After Jessie passed, and the pups had escaped out on to the street a day after being apayed, they started coming to work with me, staying in a big wire crate in the back of my station wagon, which I can park in a shady spot, which I can see from the library window. At lunchtime, we go for a walk in the nearby park. Now I only work 4 days a week, 8.30 to 3.45, so their day is not too long. They seem perfectly happy with the arrangement. If I happen to go near the car other than at luinch time, they are sound asleep.

 

If I'm only leaving the house for a couple of hours at a time, they stay inside (with a frozen chicken wing to assist them in settling at first.

[Kelliwic Border Collies]

I rent a 1st floor apartment in a house and my landlord lives above me. So I crate all three during the day, as that's what I told my landlord I'd do (NJ is one of the places where it's pretty difficult to find dog-friendly rentals). The two adults are trustworthy out of the crates, and I leave them loose in the apt on off days when I'm out doing errands or whatever. Dare is almost always in her crate when I return. The adults are loose in the apt at night.

 

When Bran was younger, I drove home from work at lunchtime to potty her. Now she's just about to reach 6 months old, so I don't do the mid-day visit anymore (it's really a bit too far to do regularly). Unfortunately she isn't yet trustworthy in the house, so she's still crated at night, too. She'll spend her nights loose in my bedroom when she has earned my trust. (Seems like Dare was trustworthy by this age, but maybe my memory has glossed things over a bit. )

 

I give the crated dogs Kongs stuffed with cookies when I leave for work, so they are all very comfortable being crated. (I was going to type "happy" instead of comfortable, but that's probably going a bit too far.) After Second Walk in the morning just before I leave the house, they usually race back to the porch, and when I open the door, they charge into their crates, waiting in them for me to dole out the goods. If their crate doors have swung shut, they even use their paws to pull the doors open so they can get inside for their big jackpot!

[urge to herd]

My dogs have it pretty good. DH is retired, I work a very, hmm, inconsistent schedule and do work from home sometimes. Between DH and I, 98% of the time someone is home. We have a sometime housekeeper/good friend who does the occasional evening dog sit for us if we're both out for longer than a couple hours.

 

In Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco, I pay $110/day for all three dogs to be kenneled. Buzz and Shonie go to a great home style boarding kennel, where they have house privileges. Sami has always hated being kenneled, and as she got older, we started to send her to Aunt Jennie's (our housekeeper friend) where she gets to be the only dog and be even more cosseted than she is here.

 

Ruth n the BC3

[JohnLloydJones]

Mostly Senneca is home with my wife, but sometimes when she is visiting our daughters Senneca is home alone all day. I have never crated her while I am out. She is free to roam the house. Our daily routine is early (05:00 - 06:00) morning walk, and when we get back, we have breakfast (kibble for her). As I leave, I charge up her kongs with a few treats. I'm out all day (9hrs) and there has never been any problem. She is used to the routine -- it's the same even when my wife is home.