dog but work full time

Person_one

merlin68 wrote: »

Puppies are hard work and so is a baby, you will be exhausted from having a baby up all night and my puppy wakes up at 6.30 for walkies. I would be too worried having a young dog and a baby together. As all puppies go through a bitey stage. My friends a breeder and won't let her dogs go to anyone with kids under 12 for that reason.

How did I miss that you're expecting a baby!?

Please please wait and get the dog after you've re-oriented yourselves to your new family. The baby will be exhausting and demand 150% of your attention for the first few months, possibly dropping to 90% after that. You absolutely will not be able to give a new dog the attention, training and exercise it needs while you are coping with your first newborn baby.

An already resident dog or a second baby is different, but a new dog and a first baby both require huge life changing commitment and you can't really do both at once, if you try it will inevitably be the dog that gets short changed and you'll be setting yourself up for years of issues.

Please wait!

Person_one

andthethreebears wrote: »

The only people who say 'dogs can be left for long periods' are people who leave their dogs for long periods.
I'm sure there will be NO dog owners who are retired / work from home / stay at home would say 'oh I'm sure my dog would be happier left alone for the majority of the day'

There are already far more dogs than there are homes for, if all the people who go out to work gave up their dogs the rescues wouldn't cope.

A home with a worker CAN be a happier life than one in kennels if the full time worker does their best to make it so. I wouldn't advocate buying a puppy to leave home all day though.

catkins

andthethreebears wrote: »

The only people who say 'dogs can be left for long periods' are people who leave their dogs for long periods.
I'm sure there will be NO dog owners who are retired / work from home / stay at home would say 'oh I'm sure my dog would be happier left alone for the majority of the day'

But the dog is only going to be left 1 DAY A WEEK alone! I don't see how that can be too much.

I am lucky in that when we first got a dog I could afford not to work, then when circumstances changed I worked 4 afternoons a week and am now back to not working at all but not everyone is so lucky. Most people I know that have a dog work - most of them full time. I know of several dogs that are left 9 or more hours a day 5 days a week and that I think is unfair. This situation is different and the OP is asking for advice and thinking things through unlike most people who rush out and buy a pet.

cjmumto2

Gosh I think you are going to provide a great home and as long as you get a dog walker or similar for the days when you are out that would be good. Having lived in South Africa and France I can tell you that the Brits are truly soft with their dogs. In france my neighbour had his dog chained up all day every day with a kennel with no bedding, it broke my heart. It never got walked either and that is the way with most dogs in France. Whilst I ran a boarding kennels from home with british people paying a small fortune to have their dogs stay indoors in a heated house with love and attention all day..

I will add though that maybe you should wait til after the baby is born, as you dont know how that is going to be . I am sure a rescue will consider you especially if you tell them you are going to employ a dog walker.

mikeandrach_2

thanks so much once again everyone, i have taken on board everything you have all said and will just give it some time now before deciding what to do for the best, thanks again

CFC

if you do decide to go ahead and not wait till the baby is born:

1. I would pick a small dog that can tear round the garden chasing a ball to exercise him/herself. You will not want to be walking a big dog while pushing a pram, I can assure you.
2. I would leave the dog in the house not outside. Dogs DO get stolen, sometimes because some scumbag fancies them, at other times just for sale or blackmail.
3. The amount of time that you intend leaving the dog alone is fine, PROVIDED you don't leave it alone otherwise! This means pretty much no going out to friends in the evenings or weekends, no family trips out without a dog, all shopping trips one person only, allowing the dog to sleep near you (could be in a crate overnight if required) so sleeping time is also pack time...think it through.

Person_one

CFC wrote: »

if you do decide to go ahead and not wait till the baby is born:

[*]I would pick a small dog that can tear round the garden chasing a ball to exercise him/herself. You will not want to be walking a big dog while pushing a pram, I can assure you.
[*]I would leave the dog in the house not outside. Dogs DO get stolen, sometimes because some scumbag fancies them, at other times just for sale or blackmail.
[*]The amount of time that you intend leaving the dog alone is fine, PROVIDED you don't leave it alone otherwise! This means pretty much no going out to friends in the evenings or weekends, no family trips out without a dog, all shopping trips one person only, allowing the dog to sleep near you (could be in a crate overnight if required) so sleeping time is also pack time...think it through.

Small dogs still need to be taken for walks, you can't get away with just putting it in the garden because its little!

mutter

I've always had dogs around, my parents had them, then when we set up home and had kids, and I worked part time or evenings after my partner got home, or later, when the kids were coming home at 3.15, dogs were a big part of our family.

Now I live mostly alone, I'd absolutely LOVE to get another dog.
But because I live mostly alone, and I work, I won't get one.

I've thought long and hard, and I've come to the conclusion that to get a dog in the knowledge that it would be home alone for 7 or 8 hours, four or five days a week, would be incredibly selfish of me.

Dogs weren't built to be isolated and locked in crates, garages or even palatial living rooms for hours on end.
Unless or until there are more people coming and going in the house, or I can cut down my hours at work, I won't give in to my selfish feelings, and I'll stick to my cats.

chucknorris

mikeandrach wrote: »

i am definitely going to look at the dog walker option, does anyone know what typical prices are? we are in yorks so not expecting london high prices!

there are no fumes in the garage, the only thing in there is our chest freezer and some tools (which are all way out of reach of any dog and would be moved even higher). we have never put any of our cars in the garage and never will, so thats no issue.

I agree with those that have said it's not a good situation for a dog (to be left alone for so long) and an hours walk or so during the day will not be enough to make up for it. He will still be lonely for most of the day.

I understand why you want to get a dog, I wanted one badly but waited until I worked part time. I go into work an average of about 2 - 2.5 days a week and my wife works from home one day a week. Plus I am at home about 10 weeks a year full time. We make sure her day off is a day that I go to work so that leaves 1-2 days that we need cover. We pay someone to come over collect our dog, take him for an hours walk then keep him as a companion for the rest of the day. It wasn't expensive I found someone who did it semi commercially who charged only £10 a day but we paid her £15, and even better a couple that used to have a dog but can no longer look after a dog full time. Between these two dog sitters, my part time work and my wife's day working at home we manage.

But I would never dream of leaving our dog alone all day long term, occasionally things have got messed up and we have had to leave him for about 8 hours which is far from ideal (this happens about once every 3 months). I feel terribly guilty when this happens, we leave him in the conservatory with the door to the garden open so he has the choice of indoors or outdoors (we have a very large garden). But there is no way that I would make him suffer this as a normal arrangement.

CFC

Person_one wrote: »

Small dogs still need to be taken for walks, you can't get away with just putting it in the garden because its little!

Of course - but a small dog and a pram can be a challenge, I should think a large dog and a pram would be a nightmare.