# Leaving your puppy at home



## Becky67 (Feb 16, 2016)

Hi, we are hoping to get a puppy in the summer and busy doing lots of research!! I was just wondering how old and for long can you leave a puppy? I'm guessing you build up the length of time? Do any of you work full time? We do but I go home for lunch and my husband has 1 day off in week, I finish early 2 days a week & I'm term time only so will get loads of time to spend with the poo! Any advise would be most welcome


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## Florida Cockapoo (Aug 24, 2012)

I think it really depends on your life style. You just have to go about your life the way you would be the puppy.

My husband and I work from home, so that does help a LOT. But we did leave Piper alone when we both had to go out. We "tried" to keep her confined to the Kitchen. That did a lot of good.  The way our kitchen is design its a square with a pocket door that goes to the dinning room then on the other side a walk through. Which we added a baby gate. The 1st time it worked fine. That way she could do her business on the tile. But once she found out she could jump over the gate, it was useless and it didn't take her long to figure that out.

So the baby gate didn't lasted long for us. We did leave her alone for a few hours at an time. She got use to it as much as Cockapoos do. 

You will figure out what works best for you and your dog.


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## MHDDOG2016 (Jan 2, 2016)

I work M-F and am gone from 8:30-2. My husband works all day but is off Wednesdays and works until noon Tuesdays. We are planning on having the puppy in an exercise pen with the crate attached so it will be about a 4x6 space for him/her. Unfortunately we don't have the ability to block off an entire room because our layout is completely open. In the pen will be toys, food/water, and a toileting area which will be a patch of grass/turf. This set-up will be for when no one is home so puppy has space to play and do his business. Once someone is home, puppy will go out very frequently and be supervised closely to avoid accidents on the house and learn to use the potty outside. There is a lot of god information available if you do a search for "longterm confinement area for puppies", both to read, and watch on You tube.


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## TanzyRose (Dec 26, 2015)

I work Monday through Friday. I leave the house at 7am and get home at 6pm, as I work an hour away. My fiance let's our puppy out at lunch time. So she goes from 7am-noon and from 1230 until 6pm. We haven't had any issues. We only crated her long enough to potty train her. She is 6 months now and enjoys the freedom of a large exercise pen taking up nearly our entire living room. She doesn't have accidents and never seems to be in a hurry to get outside to potty. We are wanting to eventually get to the point that she doesn't have to go out at lunch, but I'm nervous about that. My fiance currently leaves the house at 6am, so that he can take a 2 hour lunch everyday. He works 45 minutes away, so it's a lot of stress for him. 3 hours of driving a day is hard on him. 

Once we stopped using puppy pee pads and did about a month of crating, housetraining became super easy.


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## CockapooTeddie (Oct 27, 2015)

My partner works fulltime monday to friday and im fulltime at uni so there isnt usually a full day teddie is left, however its not uncommon for me to have to leave him home alone for upto 5 hours. On the days im busy at uni and cant pop home to take him on a walk i pay for a dog walker and they are fantastic. Teddie is crated when we arent here. I think the genral rule is any dog can be left aslong as they are safe and recieve enough attention and stimulation when you get home


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

According to Caesar (HO insisted she get his puppy book at Christmas) dogs left alone must have a one hour walk in the am and a one hour walk in the evening. (This obviously does not apply to young puppies with growing legs.) I haven't read far enough yet to know if he follows the puppies age in months to number of hours left alone ratio that most people follow. I am a big believer in dog sitters, doggy day care and multiple dog families. Dogs are pack animals, it is how they are happiest.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

It is a me thing - but frankly I would not want to get a dog and leave it regularly on its own for more than 4 hours at a time.
That said a well exercised dog that is not made anxious by being on their own would undoubtedly get used to the routine and would sleep the time you were away. But a young puppy should not be expected to cope on their own for so much of the time.
Years ago my first dogs in this country were two GSDs. When they were about 18 months old I got a different joy which meant that for 4 days a week I could be gone from 8 til 5. I had friends organized to come and take the girls out for walks and my neighbor who was in his 80s loved the dogs and would come and do my gardening and let the dogs play out with him - even taking them back to his. Lovely man  For about 18 months this was how we covered that time... the next job I got was very local and I could go home in my lunch hour and be home 5 mins after finishing work. My dogs were so pleased when I eventually got pregnant and became a stay at home mum 
Now on the days I work 8-4 and my son is out at college all day I have a friend who I pay, who picks the dogs up at 12.30 when she finished work - takes them back to hers while she has her lunch and then take my three and her two out for a good walk dropping them back to me around the time I get home. Some days it feels as if I only work to pay for dog care and transport costs!!!!


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## Mazzapoo (Jul 28, 2013)

Marzi, you're not alone, it's a 'me' thing too. I must admit to being quite horrified by the the idea of a search term 'long term confinement area for puppies'


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## Alittlepoo (Apr 29, 2015)

I agree with Marzi, I could not leave them alone for hours upon hours. Sophie is 10 months and she is house trained and is still in her crate when we are gone. We go out to dinner on weekends, go to movies, shopping etc., however we only leave her for 4 hours at a time. If she were not in a crate it wouldn't matter, we still wouldn't leave her for long alone. 

I have a 25 year old daughter and a 30 year old son that will always puppy sit if needed, I just don't feel right leaving her alone for long. We take her with us a lot too.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

I work full time at the moment unfortunately so I drive half an hour or so to my friends house before work to drop them off and the same in the evenings to pick them up. It adds extra time to my working day I would rather not spend driving but I consider it part of the cost of having dogs. 

Weekend and evenings i generally spend with them although they are fine left for short periods as long as they have a decent walk first


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## Kirsty p (Dec 4, 2015)

Rupert is 4 months and the longest we've left him is 3 hours. I wouldn't want to leave longer than 4 with out someone coming to see him. Due to changes in work there is now going to be 3 days a week when everyone will be out so we're planning to use a mix of dog walker in the morning and family in the afternoon so that he's not on his own for two long.


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## MHDDOG2016 (Jan 2, 2016)

Mazzapoo said:


> Marzi, you're not alone, it's a 'me' thing too. I must admit to being quite horrified by the the idea of a search term 'long term confinement area for puppies'



I feel that is better for 4 hours than being locked in a crate. I agree, a puppy shouldn't spend endless hours alone, but up to 4 hours a few days a week isn't terrible.


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## TanzyRose (Dec 26, 2015)

Y'all are making me feel so bad for leaving my baby home alone Monday through Friday. I just assumed most people working full-time did what I do. Tanzy doesn't have any destructive behaviors or separation anxiety that we know of. Doggy day care around here is pretty expensive. I don't have family or friends that don't also work 8-5. Dog walkers need a key to your house, and my fiance is strictly against that. Are there any other options?? If she seems happy with the schedule we have, should I not stress over it? She has plenty of toys to occupy her.

Attached is a photo of the amount of space she has, only we scoot it a bit to the other side to exclude the couches.


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## Florida Cockapoo (Aug 24, 2012)

I don't know about the UK but here in the US we have Dog TV. We tried it with Piper a few times. Don't know if it work or not, but the "rare" times we have had to leave her more then 4 hours, we put that on.

At least there was some entertainment for her. Although, we are rarely gone that normally she is with her pet sitter. But it does happen that you need to leave your fur baby longer then you think.

We just have a back up plan, if we have to leave Piper and our Pet sitter can't take her. Everyone has to deal with the way their issues are.


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

I feel bad that you feel bad Naomi. No one is trying to show you up, you have just found a site where most/all of the regulars are totally besotted with their dogs.  I think you'll find we are at the far, far end of the spoiled dog spectrum. Dogs are quite fine left alone, by nature they are active in the morning and evening and sleep most of the day. As long as you treat her like a queen before you go out, when you get home and every weekend she will still have a better life than roughly 80% of dogs on this planet. If your boyfriend is too paranoid to give the key to a dogwalker I bet he'll relish the stress of all the extra driving. Some people are just plain nutty.


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## TanzyRose (Dec 26, 2015)

fairlie said:


> I feel bad that you feel bad Naomi. No one is trying to show you up, you have just found a site where most/all of the regulars are totally besotted with their dogs.  I think you'll find we are at the far, far end of the spoiled dog spectrum. Dogs are quite fine left alone, by nature they are active in the morning and evening and sleep most of the day. As long as you treat her like a queen before you go out, when you get home and every weekend she will still have a better life than roughly 80% of dogs on this planet. If your boyfriend is too paranoid to give the key to a dogwalker I bet he'll relish the stress of all the extra driving. Some people are just plain nutty.


Thank you! My little girl is treated like royalty. I'm in Maine for 3 days for work and I miss her so much


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

I agree that she will cope and I know there are millions of dogs around the world suffering real cruelty and this is nothing of that sort but personally I do feel it Is a long time for a pup, I wanted a dog all my life but waited until I was nearly 50 and working from home until I felt I was in the right position to have one - just ensure she gets plenty of exercise before you leave her and after you get home, and please don't leave her all day and then go out for the evening as well. Sorry if sounding like I am getting at you, just seen too many dogs needing rehoming because people got them and then realised they didn't really have enough time for them.


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## Annabellam (Nov 3, 2015)

Sometimes i have to work late or even out of town so i leave Sammy back home at times. However, i always ensure that i leave someone to take care of him. Even though he has a feeder i always ensure that there is someone to take him out for a walk when he needs to go out.


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## bearthecockapoo (Mar 17, 2015)

When we first got Bear we took some time off work, then we arranged it so that both of us were coming home multiple times throughout the day to feed him/take him out/play . Now Bear is almost 1.5yrs. Both of us work full-time, however, I can sometimes work from home and I am also allowed to bring him to work with me (although it really is only doable when it is warm enough to walk 1hr each way to work, as he is not allowed on the bus). OH has a very flexible schedule, so he can leave the house late/come home early/come home during the day/work from home sometimes. Bear gets walked in the morning and a long walk at night, plus is off leash Friday-Sunday in the country and gets a ton of exercise up there chasing ATVs and wildlife all weekend. If he is going to be home for a long portion of the day, we make sure he gets lots of exercise, gets to see other dogs when we are home, and has a kong or other mental stimulation toys while we are gone. Obviously it is way preferable if someone can be home full-time with your pup, but that isn't always possible for everyone. Of course everyone here would prefer to be at home all day long with their pup if they could afford it.


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## Lottierachel (Mar 3, 2013)

When we got Tilly, we both worked full time as teachers, but we're lucky enough to have the most amazing neighbour who took Tilly to her house 10-3 every day and always included an hour long march round the fields!!

Then we had a baby.... And moved house... So now I work three days a week, on two of those days, grandparents are at our house all day looking after our son, so Tilly isn't left on her own for even a minute! And the other day, my father in law comes round from 10-11:30am and walks Tilly, then my mum comes to collect her at 4pm, so she is on her own for about 4.5hours once a week.

If I ever go out without Tilly, I always make sure she has a long walk first and am never out more than 4 hours (the guilt starts to really set in after 3hours)

I know everyone loves their dogs and it doesn't always do harm to be left alone, but for me, I want Tilly to have the best life possible and I just don't see being alone for 8+ hours a day as the best life. No offence intended, just the opinion of a mushy hearted softie!


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## Tesseract (Feb 3, 2016)

Unfortunately going to work for most people is the reality, dogs have managed for ever with that long before modern days.

For me, I've hired a professional dog walker to drop by twice a day (and I come home for lunch - lucky me) so Pepper will have three visits during the day. We will see if that works out for her.

I know she will sleep/crate if undistrubed for 2.5-3hours but today I'm testing the theory by trying to crate her as much as possible and be as quiet as possible (although I do need to go out and get some groceries later) to ensure she will crate well all next week.

So far so good, it's taking some "tough love" but I'm sure for a puppy that sleeps 8 hours a night without complaint and learnt Sit & Down in one training session and after three days now does it on command (when you have her attention) without treats ~90% she will learn the routine we started her towards last week.

Being alone also helps build puppy ability to be independent and socializing your puppy will teach her to behave around others, as you will not necessarily be there for your puppy 100% of the time (trips, sick, events, work, shopping, etc).


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## Toffin (Aug 8, 2012)

Just my take on it and I in no way would judge anyone who left their cockapoo for longer than this. Polly is getting on for 4 years old and we have only left her for longer than 3 hours on one occasion. It was a winter evening so dark from 5pm and we managed to kid her that it was night time - a calm couple of hours snuggling up on the sofa, 'last' wee of the day then into bed with a 'night night' and the door shut. We crept out of the house then crept back in again when we got home...

Other than this one occasion, she's left on her own about once a week for 3 hours, first of all in a crate, then in the kitchen and now she has the run of the house.

I'm sure that if you start right at the beginning, your puppy will be used to it in no time. P's half sister is left for 5-6 hours every week day, and she's always coped with this just fine. Being alone is good for our little cockapoos - they can get too dependent on human company!

Toffin
x


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## Walter (May 31, 2015)

Walter's 11 months and we left him from 5pm until 2am a few days ago. That's the longest he's ever been left alone, but he got a tough 90 min walk before it to wear him out.

I think I started leaving him at a few months old, probably after he'd been housetrained and had proven that he could hold it for an hour or two without needing to go out. It helped that he never did a poo in the house from day one and that his housetraining was relatively easy, but I did spend the first couple of months watching him like a hawk and getting ready to pounce whenever he tried to wee in the kitchen.

I'd have liked to have left him earlier, but it wasn't an option, even though he's fairly independent. He's happy to entertain himself if we're too busy for fetch or tug of war, or he'll just nap, and he never plays up out of boredom (I'm not sure he knows how to). I can imagine a lot of owners have a much harder time though.

If you luck out, you might get a dog who housetrains in ten weeks and will make their own fun. You could also get a dog with serious separation anxiety and a taste for sofa cushions.


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