Leaving dog alone for a work day :(

[Silaria]

While I've never had a very young puppy (Edan was 7 months old and already house trained when we got him) I really have to advocate for the crate at any time when you or your parents can't watch him.

It's NOT cruel. A crate, when made a positive experience, becomes their little den - their room in your house. A crate can also help expedite the potty training process because, unless sick, a dog will not pee or poo were they have to sleep. Ideally you want the pup to have enough space to stand up, turn around, and lay down. Usually spacers are used in adult crates to help achieve this and reduce costs.

Read this recent thread, http://sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=17825, about another member who left their pup to roam a large confined space and the issues they are encountering with potty training. Please reconsider the crate for training.


As for your other question about leaving the dogs for work. My husband and I work standard daylight shift. We leave at 6:30 in the morning and don't usually get home until nearly 5:00 in the evening - and that's assuming one of us doesn't get hung up at work for a problem or accidents on the road. Both our dogs are able to hold it for that entire time. We don't like leaving them much longer than a normal work day because it's not fair to them.

[cheesla44]

Originally Posted by Silaria

While I've never had a very young puppy (Edan was 7 months old and already house trained when we got him) I really have to advocate for the crate at any time when you or your parents can't watch him.

It's NOT cruel. A crate, when made a positive experience, becomes their little den - their room in your house. A crate can also help expedite the potty training process because, unless sick, a dog will not pee or poo were they have to sleep. Ideally you want the pup to have enough space to stand up, turn around, and lay down. Usually spacers are used in adult crates to help achieve this and reduce costs.

Read this recent thread, http://sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=17825, about another member who left their pup to roam a large confined space and the issues they are encountering with potty training. Please reconsider the crate for training.


As for your other question about leaving the dogs for work. My husband and I work standard daylight shift. We leave at 6:30 in the morning and don't usually get home until nearly 5:00 in the evening - and that's assuming one of us doesn't get hung up at work for a problem or accidents on the road. Both our dogs are able to hold it for that entire time. We don't like leaving them much longer than a normal work day because it's not fair to them.

Thanks for that thread :)
I do plan to crate train for the first few months...I've raised two puppies in my life (both large breeds) and potty training has been pretty straight forward if you stick to a routine and schedule. I guess my main concern is crating during a full work day...but I guess that's a guilt that every dog owner has. I will definitely take full advantage of my parents help for the first few months but I will make the day-crating work.

Hopefully after the first year I can let the pup roam free in the house but if he grows to like his crate this may be the permanent option :)

[penny w]

Ours are crated from 7:00 am until 4:30 pm during the week. We have a dog sitter come every day at noon. She is here for around 30 minutes playing with them outside. Works great.

[melbell]

here's a good math equation for you.. puppies can generally hold it for how many months old they are plus an hour.. so like my little boy is 2 months. he can hold it for 3 hours. That being said, he usually holds it longer as I go home on my lunch break and thats usually 4-5 hrs since i left with no accident. he also sleeps in his crate and holds it usually for 5 hrs before waking us up. so, to hold it all day like that, he would have to be at least 5 months is my guess, but some dogs learn quicker to hold it longer. Let me tell you, it sucks cleaning up poo if they do it while you're gone.

[tim15856]

You won't have to be gone all day to see if he has separation anxiety. When we got our first Sheltie we knew she was going to be home alone longer than we'd like so we paper trained her. That came back to bite us when I changed shifts later on and the dogs weren't home alone all that long. We re-trained her to go outside along with our second Sheltie but there were times she'd still do her business on the kitchen floor. Even in the new house she did it in the kitchen from time to time. I was thankful of that. Luckily, her separation anxiety was rather mild. We had towels laid down in her bed and she would drag them to different parts of the house, that was all she'd do. We were lucky to have her.