Arnie is now six months old and we have moved into our house and gotten all our fencing done. Obviously before this age we never left him home alone by himself for long periods. However, now it's starting to get to the time where I am considering it. I am a shift worker. So I work four on four off. Two day shifts and two night shifts. They can fall anywhere in the week. So there are a lot of times when I will be home during the weekdays. My wife has a normal job. 8-4 Monday to Friday. I have started trying to leave him outside for short periods and disappearing into the garage. So he doesn't even realise I am gone. This morning he woke up and I let him out of his crate for toilets and I went back to bed. He got really impatient when I didn't let him in right away (I think he may have been hungry too, exacerbating the situation). So what I am trying to figure out is the best way to have him be ok with being outside and home alone when we are at work. In effect, with my schedule he will only be home alone two days a week.
I wouldn't leave a dog alone outside here in England as there is a lot of dog stealing going on. Could you make a smaller enclosure and have a dog door into your house, or have a kennel and run in the garden for when you are out?.
Coming from the UK and living in Dubai leaving dogs outside is not something we do as a norm so it always makes me a bit uncomfortable although I totally respect and understand that it is normal practice in other parts of the world.... I guess you approach it in a similar way to crate training.Getting Arnie used to being outside alone gradually ......has he got a sheltered resting place that he can learn to go to settle? My dog will be restless and patrol about at times,say if I have visitors or I've taken him somewhere different as soon as I put a mat down for him,he relaxes and flops,because I've directed him about what he should do.Arnie won't have got yet that being outside is what he's supposed to do. It was probably too much of a change in one go for him leaving him out first thing in the morning if he's always come straight in with you..lets see if anyone comes along with advice on how to tackle that ...
Yeah, it's more than normal here in Sydney for dogs, especially large breeds to be outside. I don't wanna have him out all the time, I'm just thinking when we are both at work at the same time. He still sleeps inside in his crate. He has a mat that he can relax on when he's out. It's winter here at the moment so we aren't spending much time outside, but in summer it will be a more common relaxing spot for him and myself (beer in hand). I am worried about dog stealing as well. I guess I will have to re-asses this. It's not like it's a major issue here for Labradors, it's more an issue for owners of "fighting dogs" (pitbulls, agentine dogo and such). But, you can tell he's a quality dog from quality show lines, coz he's so pretty. So it does concern me a little.
Could you doggie day care him for those two days a week? Or even just one of them? My neighbours have a sheltered kennel/run for their GSD. Nothing fancy, just his house and a couple of metres of grass (which he doesn't use, he treats it like a crate). Dog-stealing is rife around Wellington too, but you can't see the kennel from the road. Presumably you'd introduce an outdoor kennel the same way you'd crate train - very slowly, and with plenty of positive associations?
It's very normal for dogs to be outside here in Melbourne too so I understand what you're trying to do. In fact, we often have people questioning why Ella is inside so much. We have an outside kennel for Ella and we put her vetbed, a bed and a blanket in there for her and we can always tell she's been in there when we get home. We built up the time very gradually and left her with something to do (kongs, breakfast in a Kong wobbler, sprinkle treats in long grass or bury in sandpit etc.). However, if the weather is awful (either really hot or really wet/cold) or if we're only out for about an hour we leave her inside. We have a gate across the laundry and half of the kitchen so we leave her in there. I do also worry about dogs getting stolen (I have heard, anecdotally, that labs are sometimes stolen to help train the fighting dogs) but my neighbour that lives in the unit behind us loves Ella and is retired so is home all day with a view of the only access to our back yard.
