For people who have indoor dogs. What do you do with your dog when you leave the house to go to work?

Question

I am curious to know what in door dog owners do with their dogs while they are away from the house. Do you put them in the garage, laundry room, or do you let them run free and destroy your back yard? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

My five are fine on their own. Sometimes I crate just to do it to them. But I also have five fosters now that use the crates. Today I left my five out and two fosters out. I never leave un housebroken or dogs that tear up toys out. Only mine that have proven themsleves (youngest 3) and fosters that are too good to be homeless.

When I first bought the house I left my two dogs out when it was nice but my neighborhood has gone down hill I don't let anyone out when Im not home. SOmetimes on Saturday s I will let my old newfie stay out there but she doesn't do much. She actually scares me when she does get a burst of energy.

Answer 2

Before we leave to go to work we let the dog out for its morning constitutional, then he is put into his crate for the entire day (about 8 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week). When we get home in the afternoon, one of the very first things we do is let our dog out to do his business again. Have never had a problem with him doing anything in the crate. Sometimes we will just put up a baby gate across the doorway to the rest of the house from the kitchen, and he stays in the kitchen all day (there is a water bowl for him and the 6 cats that we have), and we have very rarely had any accidents during the day (the only accidents we have are if we are much longer than about 9 hours returning home from work)

Answer 3

We have 3 boxers. My oldest dog had separation anxiety and was really destructive when he was little, and the only dog. So we crated him for a long time. Then we got the second dog, and we kept crating them both (separately) since we still worried about the destruction. But then a friend who was house sitting for us let them loose while he was gone and they just slept the day away on the sofa, or at least didn't cause any problems. So now the two of them are allowed to be loose in the house. We just make sure we never leave anything out that they could get into trouble with (i.e. chicken bones in the trash can). Our youngest isn't doing so well with her potty training, so until she can be relied upon not to pee in the house, we'll crate her while we're away, but the others are still loose.

I think if your dog is destructive, it needs to either be in a crate or isolated in a single space, such as a room where they are not going to get into trouble for ruining things if you know they tend to chew on things while you're gone. But generally, a single dog will get into a lot more trouble than two together--they seem to calm each other down, and don't look for something to do.

Answer 4

Our dog has free run of the house, and we have a dog door so she can go in and out as she pleases. She doesn't destroy the back yard, or anything else for that matter. The worst we have to deal with is muddy pawprints on the tile when it's wet out.

Before we had a dog door, we would let her out right before we left for work, and let her out first thing when we got home. The rest of the time she had free roam of the house. If there was any question about whether or not she'd be able to "hold it" (she was sick with a UTI for a while when we first got her), we put a gate up across the entrance to the kitchen (tile floor for easy cleanup) and put her bed, water, food, toys, etc. in there so she had room to play.

We have always adopted older dogs who were already housebroken, mainly because we know that due to work we aren't able to go home and let them out every two to four hours, and it's not fair to them. Plus, there are so many wonderful older dogs out there who need homes.

Answer 5

I have three dogs, I crate my new little one because he is younger and loves to play while my older ones don't so I don't want fights to break out unless I am there, I then put up a doggy dog due to I have a cat and she has the kitchen and living room while the dogs have the bedrooms, and computer room. I would say, you need to observe your dog when you are home, do they destroy things while you are there? I would think the best thing is to always give them a domain where there is nothing that you want destroyed, if you cant trust them then crate them with water. If they don't like that try putting on music or TV to relax them and do this even when you are there that way they don't have separation anxiety. hope that helps good luck

Answer 6

My dog is crated. We tried giving him run-of-house privliges, and we tried giving him kitchen-only privliges, and he's just not ready yet (I hope someday he is, so I can leave him snoozing on the couch!). My stuff is just stuff and can be replaced (although this is costly - my coffee table, a side table, a kitchen chair and a couple panels of my curtains were all chewed!!), but my dog is chewer, and his safety comes first. If he were to choke on something he chewed, or chew a cord and get hurt, I'd be devestated. Absolutely devestated.

So for now, for his OWN safety, he's in his crate with a sturdy Nylabone he can chew if he wants to, a small dish of water & two towels to nest in. I'm lucky enough to live close to my office, so I go home at lunchtime and let him out, and then after I eat a quick bite, we have some play/cuddle time.

Answer 7

I crate my dog also. Sometimes I will let her run around in a confined area, but she will usually get into something while I am gone. I think keeping them crated is for their own safety. My puppy got into a box of brownie mix up on the counter once. I still don't know how she grabbed it. I thought it was far enough back against the wall. Luckily she didn't eat any of it. It just ended up all over my kitchen and bathroom floors. You never know what your dog is doing while you are not home. Puppies will get into everything and everything and I really suggest either crating them, or make sure they are in a confined area.

Answer 8

From the time he was a puppy he has had free roam of the house. However, he is rarely at home when I am away. My dog goes everywhere with me, even if it is to just run to the store. I call him a gas butt. he hears the keys and he is ready to roll. Of course I have to clean snoot prints from my windows all the time. I own my own business and he is the VP (sort of) Everyone knows him and he knows everyone. Sometimes he even goes to the job sites with the crew. At the office, he has free run of the place as well. He never goes beyond a certain boarder, just as with my yard at home. It isn't fenced, yet he will never leave the yard. He is even trained to pick up his toys and put them back into the basket before going home. If you are wondering what kind of dog....well I think he is part shepard and part sneaky neighbor dog. He is a mutt who ended up on my door step and I fell in love with him.

Answer 9

theres a million things you can do with your dog when you leave

if hes good and you've tested this, you can let him go freely around your whole house.

if he isn't so good with that, you could put him in the laundry room, but make sure that all of your detergents ect. have been put on a high shelf or in a box so he has no way of getting into it. the garage does not sound like the best idea because a lot of us have cluttery garages. there would be a lot of potential toys in there and maybe even some wires.

you could crate them but i would come home as much as you can for lunch breaks ect. to take him out stretch his legs and go outside to do his business.

you could also let him outside the entire time. in your fence if you have one.

well good luck.

Answer 10

We used to put him in his crate when we left for work when we lived in an apartment. In the house we now own, he has full reign of the kitchen. My husband is able to come home during his lunch breaks, and if our dog does his business in the yard during this time, then he has full reign of the house for the rest of the afternoon. If he won't do his business, then he stays in the kitchen until we both come home from work.

My previous dog could "hold it" a lot better than my current dog can. That dog had free reign of the house whenever it was alone.