A question for dog owners

Parent Cafe
1

<p>If your household humans are gone during the day due to work and school, what do you do with the dog? </p>

<p>Do you put him in a crate during the day? And if so, does he also sleep in a crate at night? Batman (11-week-old black lab) is currently a great crate sleeper at night. Even so, the prospect of having him in a crate all day kinda makes me :(. </p>

<p>Does your dog have free roaming of the house at night? And crate during the day? </p>

<p>DH is self employed and works from home. So currently Batman is his office buddy. However, in busy times before the recession, DH could be gone for up to 10 days at a time. I’m concerned about managing the dog during his future absences. Especially when he’s 7 months old and school resumes after a summer of dog freedom with the kids. Isn’t that the “wild age” with labs?</p>

<p>TIA.</p>

2

<p>I don’t think a dog should be home alone all day. I’ve lived next doors to lonely dogs barking in their backyards, and that’s no better. At the very least you should hire a dog walker to take him out.</p>

3

<p>I agree with mathmom. We’ve always had dogs and have never left them alone for long periods of time, four or five hours would be the absolute maximum without having someone come in. They’re not crated but they are restricted to certain areas of the house, but were crated as puppies. That’s one advantage of cats, you can leave them for a long time with no worries. :slight_smile: Dogs are social animals and need interaction(and exercise), in addition to the obvious need to go out and do their business. Most of the people I know who work full-time have someone come in once or twice a day to let the dog out and also to walk it. A few take their dogs to doggy daycare facilities.</p>

4

<p>Yes, you’re right. Ideally he would never be alone. But there will be days when it’s unavoidable. </p>

<p>I like the dogwalker idea. Is that what you’ve done? Do you know what they charge?</p>

5

<p>We’ve had three newfs, all as puppies over thirty years. The breed is extremely easy to train. They were all crate trained as puppies, slept in the crate overnight. If we were gone during the day, the pup was crated. I had worked locally for the first one, and part of the second one so coming home for munch to let them relieve outside was not an issue. </p>

<p>We weaned them out of the crate by leaving the crate door open, first at night, then during the day. We did have gates across the doorways, so the dog was confined to the kitchen area, not free range.</p>

<p>Depending on the dog, and the behavior, we started leaving the gates open at night when the dog was between eight months to a year. Most mornings, the dog was in the crate. On occasion, sleeping at the foot of the stairs to the second floor.</p>

<p>We also trained the dogs as pups to stay out of the living room. They were always good about it, no encroachment.</p>

<p>At about a year, the crate came down. They were all fine in behavior, with the issues coming later with sickness or old age when they could not go a full day without relief.</p>

<p>Daughter brought a retired greyhound home from college about two years ago. The dog was an adult, and spent life in a kennel. We crated him as we did the pups for aboout six months, and did the gate trick, and followed the same pattern. Within six months, the crate was down, the gates gone. He followed the Newf’s lead in adapting behaviors.</p>

<p>They both are “free range” during the day and night, normally just curled up sleeping or snoozing. </p>

<p>Depends on early training, the breed and what they are used to. Behavior cannot be changed overnight, they are creatures of habit. Patience and consistent reinforcement pays off.</p>

6

<p>Many dogs are fine left on their own in the house during the school day. It does depend on their age, breed, temperment and training. Our mix breed is fine on her own in the house until S2 gets home from high school.</p>

<p>On labs in particular, our experience is that they stay puppies for a long time. Up to at least age 2 years they are quite boisterous and love to chew anything and everything. Sample size is 1, but it is consistent with what we’ve read and heard about labs from others. They are great dogs, however, and well worth dealing with extended puppyhood.</p>

7

<p>DougBetsy, do you have a neighbor or a hungry HS or even MS student to whom you could pay some small amount? You mentioned this is only for 10 days or so.</p>

8

<p>We live in a rural area and use a dog door and wireless invisible fence for our 2 dogs. One is a big deer lover and completely obeys her collar…works wonders. Gives them a 90 foot radius to roam about the yard, and no worries about running in the road, chasing cars, etc.
2 dogs are often better than 1, if you can handle it!</p>

9

<p>We are also rural and plan to install the invisible fence when he’s about 5 months old. Our yard is an acre. The neighbors on both sides (2 acres each) do the same for their dogs. </p>

<p>I’ve thought a lot about a doggy door. My only concern is winter drafts. Do you find you lose a lot of heat?</p>

10

<p>My D’s job in junior high was dog-walking. She had the key to a home several doors down, and walked & played with their dog every day after school. It was a win-win-win situation. D earned a little money & was proud to have a “job”, neighbor had a cheap solution to her problem, and Milo got a nice walk around the block each afternoon.</p>

11

<p>My 2 have the run of the house all the time. We just make sure they are “dog-proofed” before we leave. I work from home so I am with them all day but that is only recently. We used to leave them in the morning and when kids got home from school, they left them out.</p>

12

<p>Dog door is excellent, no drafts…check out dogdoors dot com. You can also lock them when you want the dog kept inside. Really check out the wireless invisible fence…vs. the wire invisible fence. The wireless has a box you plug in your house and it sends out a circular field and when you dog gets to end of it, it beeps…warning dog it is reaching the end of its range. We tried the invisible fence where you bury the wire but you need to make sure your configuration is circular, no angles, and buried metal objects will interfere. Also, the wire can fray, break. We LOVE the wireless one. You can also buy 2 and give your dogs a larger range.</p>

13

<p>I had a lab many moons ago. My first husband was a police officer (in fact that is how we came to have a lab - he did a 6 month stint at Buckingham Palace and the Queen would not have German Shepherds there so the police dogs were labs, and he fell in love with them) so did shift work, while I was a 9-5 er, so she was never left alone more than a few hours. She was an absolutely wonderful dog but goodness as a pup she could be destructive when left alone for those few hours! I came home to eaten carpet, a foam mattress, not a topper, an actual mattress, chewed into thousands of pieces (you would be amazed how far a foam mattress can go, the entire floor was covered in foam). She would nibble on wallpaper till she got a piece loose then pull on it and strip the wallpaper. She chewed holes in the walls around plugs (an older property with more plaster rather than the board of current days so I guess the surrounds to the sockets were softer than the rest of the walls). Chewed the front off the couch. The destructive behavior stopped at about 18 months. Labs are very intelligent and trainable and seem to actually enjoy being trained. We spent hours training her. Loved that dog. </p>

<p>Any way - a long way of saying - while your pup is a pup you may find him a little destructive if left alone for too much time.</p>

14

<p>I think that leaving a dog outside behind an invisible fence for long periods is a poor idea. They MAY not go out–although I’ve picked up several dogs roaming the streets with an electronic collar on–but others (human and animal) can get in. And it greatly increases the possibility that your dog will become a nuisance barker. If you can’t do a dog walker, a fenced dog run–with dog house or other shelter–that is located out of sight of the street and the neighbors, is the best alternative. (Location to avoid barking stimulus and being stolen, not for aesthetic reasons.) Other than that, gated into the kitchen or other suitable area is a good idea for a young dog. Remove from his level everything chewable–my last puppy ate several cookbooks! <g>–and leave toys and chews to amuse him.</g></p>

<p>We’ve always been able to give our dogs free run of the house after they grow up. They don’t get up on the furniture and don’t wreck anything. But that is definitely not until they are at least 2!</p>

15

<p>I have a cocker spaniel who is about 9 years old now. We got her when she was just 1 yr old from the humane society. they said she was crate trained and she was - sort of.</p>

<p>A few months after we got her she started barking at night. ugh - I was terrible with my crying babies (always brought them to my bed) and this was no better.
I took her out and she slept in my room.</p>

<p>For a long time (a couple of years) there always seemed to be someone coming and going and she was crated during the day when no one was home.
Eventually, we started leaving her out of the crate and I don’t think it’s been used for 6-7years.
Now she is home alone for 8 hours a day and she sleeps all day. She won’t even eat unless I am home.<br>
When going away for the weekend I used to kennel her but she came home with a urinary tract infection that didn’t make either of us happy.
Now I get a dog sitter. She is even fine home alone in the house all night.</p>

<p>For a puppy - I would go with the crate. Just make sure he gets enough excercise each day.</p>

16

<p>Like many others, we crated our dog for his year of life at night. But, we put his crate on our daughter’s bed with the door facing her pillow - very cute! After that, we put a dog gate at her doorway and he slept in her room for probably another year. Then we let him have free roam of the house at night, but he chooses to sleep in our room - rotates between the cool bathroom floor, an overstuffed chair, and between our pillows. When he was younger and I had to be gone, I would put him in the laundry room with a gate at the door (when it was unpredictable whether he could even go a couple of hours without needing to relieve himself). Now during the day, I shut a couple of doors keeping the dog and two cats contained to the breakfast room, kitchen, and entire basement (which is finished). I NEVER leave him longer than 4 or 5 hours at MOST without having someone come in and take him out if I have to be gone. I know people say they leave their dogs 8-10 hours during the day while they are at work without a way for them to relieve themselves saying, “well, they do it at night.” Night and day are two very different things.</p>

17

<p>I would not live a dog alone behind invisible fence.</p>

<p>Friends of ours had a dog who would get close enough to the fence for the collar to start beeping, sit there till the battery runs out, and then roam free.</p>

<p>If the problem is only on some days (when your H is away), a doggy day care could be a good option. Some pet stores offer it too.</p>

18

<p>^^^^^ Damn smart dog!!</p>

19

<p>I would get a doggie babysitter or walker to check in on your dog - especially if it’s over a period of time. </p>

<p>We have a lab - an old one. Both h and I work from home and he usually spends the day sleeping right outside my office door (with a few friendly visits throughout the day). He’s usually fine on the days that both my h or I are out on appts - doesn’t happen too often though. He stays in our spacious laundry room and sleeps on his pillow. </p>

<p>Now, we have left him in a room for an evening in our second home (a small cabin) and last year he chewed our blinds into a thousand pieces. How’s that for a message?</p>

<p>Labs are so sweet and we adore ours. They hate being alone though…so watch out for that destructive behavior.</p>

20

<p>We have a golden retriever who we started crate training right away as a puppy. At about 6 months, we took the door off his crate but left the crate up. He has two doggie beds (in different parts of the house) which he starts sleeping on at night - but most mornings I come out to find him curled up in his crate. He has portions of the house he is not allowed in (e.g. the bedroom wing) - we use a baby gate to keep him out of that hall - but other than that, he is free range at night.</p>

<p>During the day, he is normally outside if we are gone - or inside with me in my home office if I am home. We have a fully fenced yard - nearly an acre - so that he is free to roam anywhere he wants within the yard. Normally we come home to find him either sleeping on the front porch or out on the lawn in the sun. </p>

<p>I am not a fan of the invisible electric fences - we have a neighbor with one and their dog spends most of the day running up to the line, barking at people going by, and getting shocked and then urinating in response to the shock.</p>