Poll: Do you work and what do you do with your dog while you are at work?

Question

Just curious: Me first.

I leave the house at 7:30 after spending an hour with my dog walking and playing. I come home for lunch from 12:00-12:30 (the rest of the lunch hour is spent getting home and back) and take him out and feed him, play with him etc.Then I get home about 4:45 and spend the whole evening with him. That's Monday-Friday and the weekend is mostly spent together.

I want to hear what everyone else does...

Yeah! I was basically just told (by 2 people) that I am a bad owner for leaving my dog alone while I work and if I can't afford doggy daycare I should give him up to someone who can afford to take better care of him. I'm not the only one who loves their dog but works/goes to school etc and leave the dog alone for part of the day.

I know I shouldn't let people get to me. This is my first time owning my own dog- we always had dogs growing up but I never was responsible for the decisions- my parents made them.

He is my baby- I don't humanize him, spoil him rotten, etc. But I do get really hurt when someone tells me I am a bad pet-owner and he'd be better off with someone else. Especially since I got him at a kill-shelter and no one else seemed to want him (he'd been there a month). So without meaning to they're basically telling me the dog's better off dead then with me- and that hurts.

Answer 1

Well, if you take him to 'doggy daycare' will they then say 'if he's going to be raised by others, please just give him up?' There's no winning, I'm sure. The fact is, they're dogs...not children. Speaking of which, do or will they stay home with their children? Of course, dogs need time and attention. Lots of it!!! However, that doesn't mean they can't be alone and you need to quit your job. I'm home 24/7 and my dogs are not at my leg begging for love all day. They nap...I have to wake them for training and play time.

Answer 2

My husband and I have 2 babies. A 3 year old mutt hound (part basset hound part beagle) and a 3 month old American Bulldog and we both work. We have different work schedules but there is a 5 to 7 hour period of M-F that the dogs are home alone. We both hate it but what are you going to do? We love both of our babies very much and we spend all of our none working time with them. We take them everywhere with us and we make arrangements for someone to keep them if we have anything to do that requires us to be away from the house for longer periods of time or if we have something to do on the weekend. Our oldest baby has actually gotten so use to our schedule that when we happen to have a day off work she acts annoyed that we are in the house during her sleepy time...lol.

I think it's terrible for people to say that you're not a good dog owner because you work. I know for a fact my oldest baby would have died if we would not have taken her in and I cannot believe that she would have ever been better off as a stray rummaging the streets at barely 6 weeks old when we found her. She was full of ear mites, she had a yeast infection, she had the normal worms and tape worms, she was a mess. Now she's the Queen of the house, she even has her own couch. She goes for walks everyday and lounges in the sun. She's spoiled rotten. I also know for a fact that our Bully would have died if we would not have taken him because the day after my husband and I brought him home his brothers and sisters got out of the pin they were in and they procedded to eat trash around the neighborhood and they all died within the week from something they had ingested.

I love my dogs. I have no children yet so these guys are my babies. They are our family, we work to support them and I have no doubts they love us for it. You're doing fine. You did a wonderful thing taking your baby home, now just love him and don't worry about everyone else.

Answer 3

Don't listen to the others BS. I work and I have eight dogs. I just got finished a twenty hour shift. My dogs have an outdoor kennel and a dog door to enter the house whenever they please. My dog house is air-conditioned and I have installed automatic watering bowls. My dogs are fed twice daily and each person in my home has a job to do involving the dogs. My son cleans the kennels and makes sure their pool is filled with clean water everyday. My daughter does the brushing and teeth, my boyfriend feeds them or transports wherever they have to go. I get the luxury of paying for everything and training. My boyfriend and I work opposite shifts so all of this can be done. We love our dogs and take great care of them but, they do have hours each day when they are left to play as a pack. Right now I have two separated due to aggression towards one another but, that too will end soon.

Answer 4

You are a good owner, many people leave their dog for the entire day and spend no time in the moring with them. I am lucky I do not work right now because of an injury so I am always home with my dog. When I leave it is only fo an hour and he is crated then.

Answer 5

Yes I work and my dog is crate trained. He is walked early in the morning before work. When I get home from work he is taken for another long walk. He is free in the house for the remainder of the day and all night. This is repeated three to four days a week as the love of my life does not have a Monday thrugh Friday schedule as I do so our dog usually has weekends and one or two week days that are crate free.

Answer 6

Not working ATM. Decided i would like to take the summer off. So right now its me and the dog mostly all day everyday. We spend atleast 3 hours a day at the dog park. Its a huge 1000+ acre park with ponds creeks rivers that he and I can swim in. TONS of dogs to play with. great people to meet up with and TONS of hiking trails lol


When I do work I guess it depends on my times. Normally it is 9-5 so he stays home with my grandparents. When I come home its a few hour walk/run/play.

Answer 7

My doxie goes out in the moring. He stays inside while I am gone during the day. He is trained very well and does not need to be crated or anything. He usually just gets under his blanket on the couch and sleeps all day. When my kids get home from school they let him out to go to the bathroom and then he spends the rest of the evening with us either in the house or playing outside.

Answer 8

My husband and I both work. Since our new puppy is only ten weeks old, we have to kennel her while we are gone. I am the last one to leave, which is about 8:00 a.m. and my husband doesn't get home until 5:00. In the evenings one or both of us spends all our time with her and on the weeknds we spend most of our time together because she needs to be socialized.

Answer 9

Okay, for one, most dog owners work, so don't feel bad.
Secondly, I work from home, and guess what my dogs do ALL day? They SLEEP!!!! They hang out in the house with me and SLEEP!! If I wasn't there, guess what they'd be doing? That;s right, they'd be sleeping! Dogs need excercise and interaction, but the majority of their day is spent sleeping.
Your dog is fine being left alone during the day, and it sounds like you spend plenty of time with him in the evening and at lunch. He gets plenty of love and interaction, and so don't feel bad at all.

Answer 10

I wake up at 7:30, and I let Jack out (he sleeps inside). After I get dressed, I let him back in and feed him. We take a little walk around the neighborhood until 8:15, when I have to leave for work.
He goes out in the back yard until I get home at 5, and then he gets a longer walk (after I take off icky office shoes!). Sometimes we go to the lake or the park or the dogpark, but usually just in the neighborhood. When we get back from our walk, it is his dinnertime. We hang out at the house until it is time to go to bed.