Newly expecting parents with lots of questions..HELP!

Good day to all!

My name is Nick and me and my wife are expecting to bring home a Chocolate Lab puppy in about two weeks (8months of age at time of adoption). I have grown up with dogs at all stages of my life. A black lab when I was a boy, yellow lab in my teens and a husky/shepherd mix for my mother after our yellow lab passed away. I am an early riser (5am) and tend to be active when not at work. Me and my wife love to hike, kayak, paddleboard, run and generally spend time outside if we aren't otherwise indisposed. We are both VERY excited and VERY nervous about being new puppy parents and are not taking the situation lightly. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on, asking friends, breeders, and trainers what to expect from this incoming furball. I work in sales and my wife is a nurse. Luckily I live close enough to home where I can drive home during lunch for a quick potty break, lunch (for me and Cooper), another potty break and a nice walk before heading back to work till 5pm. The thought of leaving the little guy at home gives me anxiety like you read about. I am fully prepared to set up a den area for him as well as a play place so he won't be confined to a crate for hours on end.

However I do get nervous thinking about the time I am away during the afternoon (4 hours) and don't want Cooper to become depressed or anxious with me gone. Being that my wife is a nurse, there will never be a time where Cooper is alone all day, or even more than 4-5 hours in extreme circumstances. We have arranged to take 2 weeks off when we first get Cooper to instill a daily routine with him regarding meals, bathroom breaks, play time etc etc. I guess what I am really wondering is, is 4 hours too long to leave a puppy alone for (keeping in mind he will have stimulation with toys and an area to explore while I/we are away. What have ya'lldone in this type of scenario? Thanks so much for all your help, we truly appreciate it!

 

Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie from Manchester UK


Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German.


Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab who is seven months old.


You sound like ideal puppy parents, but does the 4 hours mean once a day or twice? I think twice could be a bit much for a youngster. Once would be fine in my view, especially as you intend to have the first two weeks off for setting in time.

 

I'm sure others will have great advice for you but 8 months can be a tricky age. This is right smack in the teenage hooligan stage and as lovely as they are they can be such a handful. It's great you are taking some time off when you first get him to get him settled

So the time he would be alone is one 4 hour block after your lunch? I think it really depends on the dog...my lab is fine being left alone while we do errands and so forth on weekends, but he has another dog with him that he's known since he was 7 weeks old so that probably helps. I've never left a dog alone for 4 hours on a regular basis as I am lucky to work from home, but if I were in your situation I would be most comfortable with dropping him off at a daycare for that time period. That way I know he's being socialised and won't become lonely or destructive. Is this a possibility for you?

 

Just to say welcome , and so pleased that you are asking advice too ! I agree with the two above replies , in that one four hour period should be alright but two would be a bit too much without someone coming to play and take him out, good luck

 

Thank you for your quick reply! I am thinking the best way to handle this might be to bring him to a puppy day care instead of leaving him by himself for that time period. Is he going to be ok at a daycare being so young and would that potentially hurt the bond we are trying to make? Thanks again!

 

Thanks for the reply! That would certainly be an option. I am just nervous about leaving our little guy to mingle with the bigger dogs. I am sure if the daycare is responsible that would never be an issue but thats just me being a worrier. I have some family nearby as well that could come by to let him out as well. Just trying to think of the best scenario for him! Thanks again for your help.

 

Your bond will be fine. But it will rather depend on the day care how he gets on, some have too many dogs and let them over-play.

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It really depends on the daycare. The ones I opt for are home-based, with only a small number of dogs. Do you have that sort of thing in your area? I don't like the ones that are too business oriented, although it does need to have structure of course.

 

Hi and welcome. I work and have a really good bond with my girl. I work locally so used to pop home every 2 hours to let her out/play for half hour. Luckily my hours were flexible so I was able to do this (and only worked 18.5 hours at the time). Once Harley as 8 months old I would leave her for up to 3 hours in the morning, come home for 2 hours and walk her and play, then back to work for 2-3 hours. Now she is 3 I work more hours and have a dog walker and use daycare if I am working more than 6 hours that day (less than 6 hours my dog walker comes and takes her out for over an hour at lunchtime) if I'm not able to come home for an extended lunch. My OH is self employed so sometimes works from home so this helps too.
I'm really glad you are asking questions before you get him. It may take him a while to settle in with you and might be really placid or really destructive. It's good that you have a few weeks off to settle him in. It would be good to do training around being alone before you go back to work.

 

Sounds like Cooper is lucky to have found a great home! Do you know much about his history, and whether he is used to staying home alone?

I don't want to make you worry, but I adopted a 7 month old, with no information about his background, and from day 1 he would panic if we even left the room. We couldn't leave him home alone for quite a few months, as he would bark as soon as we went out and run around the flat between the windows and the door barking, even if just one person left. Lucky is three years old now, and stays home alone now with no problems.

I think that an 8 month old should be fine alone for 4 hours, but I would have a back up plan for day care just in case!

 

Hi Nick and family This is so exciting! Our pup is just over 7 months old now and I must admit that I am really enjoying her at this age, her personality is LOUD and clear but she is a very confident and easy going pup. Good luck with Cooper, I can't wait to see photos.

I don't know if everyone else will agree but what we have done when we have periods of leave is to keep Harley in a bit of a routine. So for instance, even though we are home all day, we will put her outside for an hour in the morning. I just felt it was unfair that she has non-stop attention for a few days and then we are back to work routine again. Now that she is older she even asks to go out and lay in the sun, or spend time in the garden during the day.

 

@nvanblarcom do you mean your pup will be 8 weeks or 8 months?

 

Welcome to the forum from me, Hattie 9 years and our rescue boy Charlie 6 years. Enjoy your puppy, sounds like you have thought it all through x

 

Are you bringing home an 8 week old puppy, or a near adult 8 month old dog? Just to check - the differences are very substantial!

And are you leaving the puppy/near adult dog for 4 hours, or 2 x 4 hours?

 

Hi and welcome. Nothing to add to the comments you have had already, just to say that my boy is now 14 months old and by working up to it we can now leave him for 5 hours occasionally. However we are in the fortunate position that either myself or my OH can generally have him with us. Once a month we are both out at the same time and he is fine for the 4 hours we are gone - just stretches out on our bed and snoozes away!

As said already it does make a difference if Cooper is 8 weeks old or 8 months old.

Good luck and enjoy your new fur-baby

 

Apologies to all! Cooper will be 8 WEEKS (not months) when we bring him home. Sorry for the confusion! Me and my OH often work opposite schedules me days, her nights. Often she will have weekdays off being a nurse and work weekends and I will be able to look after Cooper those days. However, there will be days where our jobs overlap and he will be home for a few hours, alone, during the day. I suppose my new question is what is the best course of action in this scenario with a young puppy? Daycare? I also have family that lives nearby that could come to let him out/play/potty should we not be able to make it home in a reasonable time frame.

Again, apologies for the miscommunication! And please, if you are lucky enough to be able to stay home all day with your new pup or have a job where you can come and go as you please I would appreciate it if you don't bring the hammer down on us. I am looking for advice and recommendations, not judgment and criticism. Thanks, everyone!

 

If you're talking about a few hours (3-4) alone during the day then I think he'll be fine on his own in a pen (assuming the pen is a couple of metres square meaning he has an area in the pen where he can get away from his bedding and pee etc if he needs to). If you can arrange for someone to pop in in the middle of this time period that'd be even better, but not essential IMO.

Since you'll both be home for the first couple of weeks you can use this time to gradually get him used to periods of time alone. Start with brief periods and gradually build up to a couple of hours. Once he can do a couple of hours you can jump up quickly to 3 then 4 hours. But don't always make the time longer and longer and longer - keep yo-yoing back to shortish periods too. All owners should do this, I reckon. All puppies and dogs need to learn to be comfortable being left alone for a period and we should be actively training them to be able to cope with this.

Leave him with a treat every time you walk out the door and stuff to chew on (Kongs filled with soft or frozen things are great).

It all sounds like a very manageable scenario to me.

 

Oh lol! Ignore my comments then, Harley is much older. And personally, cute as she was a puppy. I didn't enjoy that age. I didn't like the needle teeth and potty training. But that really wasn't that long (hindsight is awesome) and we had a much easier time.
Good luck and enjoy

 

I do not think it is a reasonable thing to say 'I don't want judgment and criticism' but I want all your good tips and advice. What you are saying is that you want free advice and tips, and all the good things we might be able to offer you, but no-one is allowed to say anything to you about the impact of what you might be doing on a dog. If someone finds its objectionable that you should be leaving a young puppy home alone, then I think they are free to say that to you. If you don't want to hear it, then posting on an internet forum isn't really the place....

It really depends what you mean by 'a few hours'. Three is a few hours, so is 8....

I don't think any longer than 3 or 4 hours is reasonable for a young puppy, and even my older dogs only do a total of 6 hours alone and that's with a dog walker popping in to give them an hour's walk in the middle. So they do 2.5 hours alone, an hour's walk, then another 2.5 hours.

If you get a puppy used to being alone in a structured way, then so long as you have him in a pen arrangement or on a washable floor (so he doesn't need to have a wee or a poo in his bed) then you can get to a puppy being fine alone for a bit quite quickly. Both my puppies have been fine left for 2 or 3 hours by the age of 3 months (although with my first puppy I had someone popping in until he was 5 months old, I was more relaxed with my second puppy) and by 4 months or so 4 hours was fine.

Other people on the forum haven't had it so easy, and we do hear from people that struggle getting tiny pups ok with being alone, and they have had to take things very slowly to head off problems around separation anxiety - so it is worth having a back up plan if your puppy doesn't seem to be coping.

I work full time and when I got my first puppy I worked quite long hours in an office. I didn't send him to daycare because all I had available was 'free running' daycare and I don't like that model. I did use a puppy creche which was ideal - it was a garage off the office of the local dog training company and they just took 3 or 4 puppies at a time. I also had my Dad help me. The long term solution for me has been a dog walker. I found a really good one, and she did puppy visits for me for both my pups, and then walked my dogs as they got older. She is out and about in the local area, and if I'm delayed getting back its a godsend to be able to ask her to pop in. It's worked out really well for me.

 

I was one of the unlucky ones that @JulieT mentions whose puppy did not cope well with being alone - even for 2 minutes when I would nip to the toilet he would bark and howl. We could never have left him for 4 hours, he would have got far too stressed.

We had to build up the time he was left from 3 seconds (no joke!). It was really hard! But he hit his stride and at 13 months can now be left for 4 hours easily snoozing in his bed. Any longer than that I arrange for someone to come in and take him out for a walk.

I think if we hadn't done that, Stanley could have quite easily developed separation anxiety but luckily (so far) he's a happy confident dog who works around our schedules.

I'm a big daycare fan, on our long days Stanley goes there and LOVES it. He's been going since he was 16 weeks. Stanley's isn't a free run place though, he goes to a woman's house where there's never more than 3 dogs (including her own), gets 2 walks a day and some play time then spends the rest of the day snoozing on the couch with his second family