Hello all! Larks is soon to be 7 months old and is a full fledged teenager! But she is a wonderful dog and we love her so much. I recently had a job change which will force me to leave Larks in her crate from 1:30-6:30pm 2-3 times a week. I'm just wanting some opinions on if you think that is too long or if she will be ok. My OH keeps telling me that "people leave their dogs crated for up to 8 hours when they work" and that she will be fine. I would NEVET leave her crated for 8 hours but is 5 ok? She has no anxiety in her crate, just goes straight in with a peanut butter kong. Thoughts?
Personally - I wouldn't. Stanley never gets left in his crate for longer than 2-3 hours and 3 hours is very rare. I usually just leave him out if I'm going to be longer than that and if my kitchen takes a hit - so be it. However, that's only been once or twice. Usually if I'm going to be longer than that I arrange some form of care. Could you not just leave her in the kitchen or something and see how she gets on? Or even corden part of it off so she has a bit more room to move?
That's a good idea. We have a mud room that I could block her in. I'm just a little worried that she will wait at the door to "go out" and be confused that no one is letting her out. She does have a harder time settling down outside the crate so that would be another concern for me. I should also mention that it is an oversized crate. Has lots of room to stretch out, etc. Not that she can run laps in there or anything.
We also encountered a similar problem when Quinn was around 6 months with a job change. We decided that around 4 hours was the max we would want to leave her at that age and hired a dog walker. I would leave her for 5 hours if it was just a couple of times a week - a good long walk before I left and straight out when I got home. If there is a chance you could be longer some days, I would consider having someone come in for a walk or potty break. Do you have a neighbour that could help out? We did not leave her out of her crate until 11 months - she was more anxious that we were leaving her when she wasn't in her crate and would look out the window and cry. We spent some time de-crating her the same way we trained her to like her crate in very short increments.
That's the thing, MOST days my husband will be home by 4:00pm to let her out but maybe 1-2 times a week he has to work late. I have set up an appointment at a daycare that does half days so maybe she could go play there one afternoon a week. I am around playing with her all morning and we go to the dog park and take a walk right before she goes in her crate so she is nice and tired.
Sounds like you have a similar situation to us with your schedules - having her set up for daycare is good, then you have a plan for any long days and don't have to worry! You will worry a bit less once she is de-crated...I know Quinn can get water, play with a ball, look out the window or change where she feels like sleeping now, which in my human opinion, seems better than a crate!
When Bailey has to be left on his own we leave him upstairs in our bedroom (his bedroom too), with water and food on the landing - he has the bedroom and landing to wander around, lay wherever he wants and of course THE WHOLE OF THE BED to use as his personal enormous bed! He is not left longer than 4 hours at any one time and that is rare - it is usually an hour or two at most.
When my Bailey was 9 weeks, we put up a baby gate to keep her in the mud room with access to her bed and crate. Came home a few hours later and she was on the other side of the gate standing looking back at us. We got the big dog crate, she settled right into it.
I'm afraid I do think that's too long in a crate. In my opinion the best solution would be to employ a dog walker on those days, but if that's not possible then dog-proof a room so that at least Larks can move about.
