Hi there, We would love to take a Labrador to join out family, it's just me and my partner living in a big house in Bristol. We don't have a garden tho. Our concern is that we both work in the morning from 08.00 till 16.00 so the dog would have to stay home alone. Of course for the first weeks we'll try our best to spend as much time as possible with him, but of course we are a little worried to leave him alone. Do you have any suggestions? We really would love to have our puppy with us. Thanks Marc
You will have to have someone come in several times a day initially and then at least once a day later. Full grown most dogs can probably last ok for 8 hours, but not pups. We took care of our neighbors Sammy for 3 or 4 months when he was a pup. When we got Cooper we could not deal with both of them and she had to put the Sammy in dogie daycare part of the time. It depends a lot on the dog. Some dogs will sleep most of the 8 hrs you are away, but others may be a destructive tornado. Older pups, are likely to be the worst at this. It is not fair to keep a pup or a grown dog in a crate all day. Our dogs have the run of the house and a dog door to the fenced back yard. They are pretty calm when left alone, but we are pretty lucky with both of them. We work from home, but occasionally are gone all day.
Daycare could be an option once your dog is not a tiny puppy. Or skip puppyhood & adopt an adult dog - that is what we have done. I only work part time - our dogs are left for 4-5 hours, they sleep.
Hi Marc, I believe in the beginning a Lab puppy is truly about as much work, if not more work than bringing home a baby. A baby sleeps way more, doesn't run around, doesn't need constant training, doesn't nip and jump at you, loves to destroy your house, doesn't have to go out to pee or poo every couple of hours, even at night.. it takes a lot of work and commitment to train a dog with good social skills, that you will be able to leave home by him/ herself for 8 hours at a time. I have a daughter with special needs that I have to be home with all day, so I pretty much supervised our puppy all day, and still had times where I felt a bit overwhelmed with all the typical puppy behaviours. She wasn't our first Lab, but I hadn't had a puppy in quiet a few years. She's 22 weeks now, and she still needs lots of training and supervision every day. A Lab is a pretty energetic dog, and really needs a yard to run and play in as well. I totally agree with edzbird, either older dog or day care is a option, but for a little puppy not always a safe one, and I wouldn't even consider that before the puppy had not had all off his shots around 16 weeks.
I'm guessing from your post that you work from 08:00 to 16:00 but that there is also extra time for travel to and from work so a puppy would be left for 8+hrs a day which is nit acceptable. Recomnendations are that an adukt dog shouldn't be left for more than 4-5 hrs. Puppies require a huge amount of input to help them develop social skills, toilet skills plus training. Can you arrange for someone to come in at least every 2 hours to take the puppy out for the toilet, to play with him/her, feed him/her and generally interact with them for a period of time? How do you plan to take a puppy out and about to help socialise him/her to all the sights and sounds they will encounter to give them the best possible start in life? Sorry if you feel the comments are negative but taking a puppy into your home is a massive life commitment - for both you and a puppy. Puppies are are a living, breathing, biting, peeing, pooing machine which needs a massive amount of time and training to become the family companion we all dream of.
Hi, We have had our lovely girl Lola since mid September and I can tell you it is damned hard work day and night. We started off with a few hours sleep at night then during the day is spent running in and out of doors trying to help train her but to avoid accidents and then whilst she is wandering around the house, we do not let her upstairs, you are up and down from the chair checking out what they are up to. We are quite fit for retirees but I must admit it does get to you and then some days you have weepy ones when you think everything is against you but there it is, you have committed your life to this person who will rely on you for the rest of their life. Lola is now just coming up to 6 mths old and we feel that we have just about managed the toilet training and she is now waiting a little longer each day/week before she wants to go out but she wont wee and bob outside of our home environment which is a huge problem but if she were desperate we presume she would. We have only left her at home in her crate for a couple of hours and sometimes, we take her with us just so she is with us in the car. Our neighbours have a Springer and leave home at 7.30am and sometimes no one is in until 7pm and we have to listen to him howling and barking and it breaks my heart ........ we have tried to help offering to walk him but our offers have been rejected ........... Even if you want a puppy, you have to have the right environment to bring them into and working full time is not great..... Sorry
Me and my OH work full time and it can be done. But you need lots of support and sacrifices have to be made. For the first few weeks I took time off work, then until he was 16 weeks he went to my FIL all day for company. At 16 weeks - 18 months he went to Doggy day care - this cost roughly £300 per month. Now he’s 2 and a half and we have a dog walker. He’s left for a maximum for 6 hours with an hour walk in the middle, so 2.5 hours each side. We don’t tend to make plans through the week on an evening, he’s been alone through the day, he shouldn’t be alone on a night too. I would leave him for 8 hours even now. If he’s going to be left longer than the 6, someone else comes in to see him or he goes to daycare for the day. He’s definitely worth it, but it’s hard work.
Hello!!! It's great to be back in this forum after being inactive for a while I agree with @JenBainbridge it can be done if you're willing to do it. I believe it takes a village to raise a puppy. We didn't leave Bowie by himself for more than a few hours at the time when he's a pup. And he's normally contained to a space (in our case it's the laundry or an outdoor enclosure). A pup needs social interaction and of course the initial training of number ones, twos, etc I guess it's a sacrifice you make and a responsibility you take when having a puppy - but it's completely worth it. Bowie is 2.5 now and we just recently left (trusted to leave) him by himself in the house for 8 hours now. Of course we make sure that he's well exercised and walked before we leave him. We actually installed a live camera, just because, we're curious with what he would do all day... and guess what... he's just sleeping - here's the proof https://www.instagram.com/p/BqL4nq-Akxh/ Best of luck Riesa & Bowie
Loads of great points here. I would really recommend rescuing an adult Labrador which is able to be left alone. Even so, they won't be able to be left that long and will likely need a walk in the middle of the day and/or some company. Dogs are social animals and they don't do best left alone for long periods - at any age - but definitely not as a puppy. A puppy is really a baby. Think about leaving a toddler alone in a house from 8-4pm and you will start to understand the effect on their developing brains from this...
