How long is your dog left alone each day?

[delila]

I was just wondering how long you pets spend alone each day.

I leave for work at 7:30 am and my boyfriend gets home at 3:45 pm.

We get up with them at 6:00 am to eat and have a quick romp. Once my boyfriend is home, they spend the rest of the day with us until bed time. They spend the entire weekend out with us as well. When we are not home they are crated.

During the week, they spend about 8 hours in their crates a day. Once we get home they are let outside to run/play. We take them for walks, and train them.

Is this too long? I hope not seeing that there is nothing I can do about this right now.

I was just looking for some outside info on what you all do with your dogs :)

[SRL]

I leave for work around 6:45am and do not return home until 5pm. She has run of the house, (well all but the bedrooms), but I don't think she moves much further then the couch. My spouse works out of town a fair bit, but when he is home she is with him all day.

There is one time that I had to work late and didn't get home until midnight and I thought for sure there would be a mess, but found no messes after leaving her in for about 17 hours!! She was sure excited to see me but ran for that back yard as fast as she could when I let her out. I figure she must have a huge bladder and awesome control!!:D

Shawna

[Katren]

Well, Cephas was "in the house" for the same amount of time, (7 AM-3:30PM) except we didn't crate him. Since both of our work schedules are now 7-6, we decided to move him to my mom's yard.

[Terrie]

I leave for work around 7am and come home around 5pm. He has full roam of the house but I doubt he moves off the couch until he hears my car pull up

They'll be fine....consider it nap time for them to get ready for all the fun they'll have when you get home:D :D

[kekaufman]

My gril is crated when I am at work, I leave at 7:45 AM and return around 5 PM. She is fast asleep when I get home. We are up at 5:00 AM and we go for a 20-30 minute walk or run, then she plays has a meal and goes to sleep before I leave. When I get home we walk for 30-45 minutes, come home and we play, she eats and goes to her pillow to sleep. She is very layed back, my first morning with her (she is a rescue) she slept through on her back while I drank 4 cups of coffee. I wasn't sure she was alive, I tried to wake her by disassembling her crate around her, she slep thru the whole thing, it was so funny.

[cinde33]

I did the same thing for a long time I work 7:30-4 but have an hour commute. My hubby didn't have to leave the house until 7:30 and I'd get home by 5. We made sure that they had water and things to occupy them i.e toys or kongs etc or a nylabone to chew on if they got bored. Once home they got a lot of play time, and dinner and outside time and then a walk.

Later on we moved their kennels into a spare bedroom and now they are in the bedroom all day with kennels open in case they want their "dens". They have a big water dish and a toybox full of toys to keep them busy.


We tried letting them have the run of the house until they chewed a big hole in my leather couch!

[moondog]

I'm gone at 7 am and home between 4-4:30 pm. Luna has run of the house except the living room. She's eating a milkbone when I leave and sleeping when I get home. Never touches a thing while I'm gone. She must do some barking that I don't know about, though, because the Gas Company has her down as a XX on our records. ;)

[Ladybeth1]

I work from 8:30-5:30 normally, and Odin's Dad works second shift from 3pm-midnight. I get up at 6am, and Odin and I take a nice long walk, and then he's running around the house or back yard until I leave.

I leave at 8, I gate the Kitchen off, and Odin has the room to himself, until Dad gets up around 12. Then Odin is outside (weather permitting) or hanging around the house with Dad until 2:30, and then he goes back to the kitchen. I get back home around 6 or so, and Odin is up until I go to bed, around 1 am.

Odin used to be crated, but he has HD, and it seems hard on his hips to not move around. Our kitchen if pretty large, so he has plenty of room. Hopefully one day he can have run of the house, but he still likes to chew Cd's at present!

Sounds like your dogs get plenty of time with you guys, and plenty of exercise, they should be just fine.

[LORHEL]

We have a rescue girl, who at first, I left in our family room during the day with the door shut, and tv on, etc..(due to her wanting to chase the cats) I would stop by on my lunch let her out, then go back to work. I knew she could hold it during the day, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to leave her all day since we had just got her...didn't want any separation issues.

Now, she has the run of the house, although all she does is sleep on the couch in the front room now. She doesn't destroy anything, and barely gets up when I come home at lunchtime..although I have been lucky to have my mom or mom in law come alot of times, and usually twice out of the week they take her out and about also. I have been contemplating not coming home during the lunch hour, because it is a major strain on me driving my whole lunch hour and only being home for 5-10 minutes. Then racing back to work. She has never had a accident since we have had her, and is low key now with the cats, they have moved out to her room, and she to theirs.

[LORHEL]

Oops, forgot to mention, I walk her before work, and every night after work..does anyone think with that going on, 8 hours a day would be BAD?

[maryc]

Well, like everyone else, I leave for work around 7:30, come home anywhere between 5 and 6:30ish... Moose was crated for about the first 5 years, then we would gradually let him have free roam of the house. Now every morning I put his bed by the door and give him a big kiss, tell him to be good, and know he's going to sleep probably the majority of the day. Every now and then I know he gets on the sofa to bark out the window, but otherwise, he's by himself the majority of the day. Actually, if I take a day off, and stay home with him, he'll go crawl into his crate and sleep.. of course I have to bug him and wake him up, but I know he's ok. And knock on wood, we have never come home to a mess.. no matter how long he's left alone!

[Burns]

i think dogs thrive on a solid predictable routine

i leave at the same time every morning for the office, and am home at the same time every nite. generally about 7-8 hours

i think that what matters most, is that the time you can spend with your dog M-F-- is quality time, doing something they look forward too each day.

recently i've been able to come home halfway through the day, which is always a plus

[amya1234]

Our girl only has to be alone 2 days a week. From 7 am to 2:30pm.
And she is so good, she never monkeys with anything or never has any accidents:)
She has been out of her crate since she was about 4-5 months old, she will be 8 months pretty soon.:D

[robotnix]

hey guys so this means I can leave a dog alone while I'm at work? the only reason I'm not getting one is because I don't know if I can or if it's human to leave my dog at home for 7 or 8 hours all by himself. So please advise. I see that you guys leave your dogs at home for 10 12 hours but I'm not sure it's an "acceptable" thing to do... or is it?

thanks.

[moondog]

robotnix - My post is about an adult (7 yrs) dog and she's been fine with my work hours for the past 5 years. When she was younger and more full of it I would take her on a good walk in the morning before I left and again in the afternoon when I returned. Now she prefers to sleep in a bit and is satisfied with one walk a day. I do take her to work with me periodically and I never leave her for more than 9-10 hours.

When she was a puppy, I came home every 2 hours to let her out and extended those hours gradually as she was able to handle it. A young puppy can't handle the number of hours we're talking about here for quite a period of time, so if you decide to get a puppy, you'll need to be able to come home during the work day or have someone come in and care for him/her when you can't. :)