Am I barking up the wrong tree?

Dorisx

Me and my OH have just bought our first house so for the first time we can have a pet! :j

We have a problem though - i'm hoping my bubble wont be completly burst when I explain our situation - hopefully someone can just let me know which kind of dig is our best option (if any! )

My OH is in the Army so I spend alot of time alone so I'd love a dog to keep me company! BUT I work full time so I'm out of the house from 8am - 5.30pm Monday to Friday. - Does this mean we really shouldn't have a dog?

We have a large back garden which nobody can get into. We are willing to buy a large kennel so that if it had to be kept in the garden it would have somewhere warm to stay.

Our house is a 2 bedroomed house with a good size kitchen that would be fine to have a large dog bed in.

Do you think we should be even considering having a dog? Would it be creul for it to be left for so many hours?

I'd love to get one and I would spend a lot of time walking it and showing it love whenever I am home.

I'm scared that I havent thought about it enough and may not be making the right choice for the dog.

If anyone could let me know what they think that would be great!

Thanks in advance!xx

krlyr

I work fulltime and have two dogs. You can make it work. I do have the benefit that the nature of OH's work means he's often home with them for the morning or the afternoon (or, if he's lucky, both!) and I work near enough to drive home at lunctime if needs be.
A dog won't be very comfortable crossing its legs for 8-9 hours so leaving it indoors is unfair, but leaving it outdoors is not only putting it at risk (dog theft is on the rise) but could also become a nuisance for the neighbours - 8-9 hours without company and it's likely to get bored and amuse itself. If that amusement is in the form of barking at the birds as they fly over the garden, your neighbours may soon get headaches!
I don't think it's unreasonable to adopt a dog while working fulltime but you need to make arrangements. Left during the day, mine spend most of it sleeping anyway. Even when I'm home, they often can't be bothered to leave their comfy bed if I'm offering an extra walk! So one option could be to pop home at lunchtime to let them out for a pee and have a 10 minute play before you head back to work. Chances are they'll sleep the few hours either side of your lunchbreak.
Alternatively, if it's a more active dog, you could have a dogwalker come in and take the dog out for 30 minutes/an hour for a walk. Dog eats breakfast, sleeps it off, goes out for an hour's walk at lunchtime and snoozes again until you're home at 5.30. Obviously this option costs money. A less expensive way could be to have a neighbour walk the dog, but bear in mind the implications of a walker with no insurance - e.g. if the dog was to get loose and cause a dog fight or a car accident, would your personal dog insurance policy cover it if it was a neighbour in control of the dog at the time? Would the neighbour have the ability to get your dog to a vet if it collapsed on a walk? Dog walkers charge what they charge because they have to make these considerations and have the necessary insurances and transport.
Other things that can help a dog left home alone - give it its breakfast in a Kong or an activity ball. The former is a rubber cone-shaped 'toy' that you cram food into, so it takes time and effort to remove the food. The latter is a ball with holes in for filling up with dry food - dog has to roll the ball around to dispense the food. Provides mental stimulation for the dog and keeps it busy while you're out of the house.
Mental stimulation in the form of trick-training can be great to tire a dog out too. As well as a morning walk before work, if you can spend 5 minutes teaching it a new trick, you'll give its brain a workout and it'll want a good sleep afterwards. Other mentally stimulating exercises can be stuff like scentwork, retrieval, etc. - which can be fab if you go for a breed that was bred to use its nose, for example.
Company can be fab but two dogs are more of a responsibility than one so you may be best off starting with just the one. You could always arrange doggy playdates with local dog owners to give your dog a social outlet.

It could be a good option to approach a rescue for an older, calmer dog too. A young puppy or adolescent may find it harder being left all day than a middle aged or older dog. Certain breeds may suit your situation better too - a Border Collie, for instance, may have far too much pent up energy and need more mental stimulation than you could provide, but an ex-racer Greyhound that is happy to have one daily sprint before curling up in bed could be perfect. But each dog is different, and a decent rescue will consider each dog individually. Don't feel you'll be discounted for working fulltime, admittedly many rescues will but many rescues are happy to consider the provisions made - my second dog was from a rescue centre and they knew I worked fulltime but had planned around this.

nannymiaow

I have two dogs and they are occasionally left (indoors) for about eight hours. They're fine, they have an hour walk before I go to work and sleep all day. However, it has taken a long time and been quite a gradual process.

jaqui59

No, you shouldn't get a dog if you work full time as the poor creature would eventually go crazy with boredom and loneliness ... I think what you have to do, is to imagine how you would you feel if you were in the same situation day in day out, im sure you would hate it and go crazy too!

But, If you are determined, there are some ways around this, and one of them would be to find someone who offers a Monday to Friday daycare service to include a walk, or (but I feel others might disagree with me here) another idea would be to get an older rescue dog from somewhere like https://www.oldies.org.uk and to hire a daily dog walker so that they are out for at least part of the day, as there might be good chance that after a nice long walk, he/she would probably sleep for the rest of the afternoon, but no doubt when you returned home from work, they would certainly be looking for another, possibly shorter walk before bedtime, and lots of attention, fuss and cuddles.

krlyr

jaqui59 wrote: »

No, you shouldn't get a dog if you work full time as the poor creature would eventually go crazy with boredom and loneliness ... I think what you have to do, is to imagine how you would you feel if you were in the same situation day in day out, im sure you would hate it and go crazy too!

But surely better than being in the same situation day in day out in a kennel? I agree that daycare/a dogwalker should be used if the owner cannot get back to give the dog a break at lunchtime but 2 lots of 4 hour periods left alone aren't the worst thing that can happen to a dog IMO, and many will just sleep through these periods.

MentalMinnie

I have a dog, and work FT. She's an old girl now, so pretty much sleeps alllllllllll day, but i have a friend that pops in 2 or 3 days a week, to put her out and she goes to my mums 1 or 2 days a week. She's very happy. Don't let people make you feel bad about owning a dog and working. I would think long and hard about getting a pup though if you're working. How do you plan or training it?

MentalMinnie

krlyr wrote: »

A dog won't be very comfortable crossing its legs for 8-9 hours so leaving it indoors is unfair,

What about night time though?! My girl will sleep for up to 10 hours and won't need a wee...or is that rare in dogs? She's a bit of a oddball TBH...

Money_maker

How about a couple of cats instead? Can come and go as they please, play together, keep your lap warm at night yet not be too needy.

Dorisx

jaqui59 wrote: »

No, you shouldn't get a dog if you work full time as the poor creature would eventually go crazy with boredom and loneliness ... I think what you have to do, is to imagine how you would you feel if you were in the same situation day in day out, im sure you would hate it and go crazy too!

Thank you for taking the time to post but I feel this is probably a bit of an over reaction to my question! I have come on here for advice about getting a dog instead of just rushing into it and not thinking about what it would be like for the dog! Although I appreciate your concern, please remember as of yet I havent got a dog, and if information i get from here tells me that getting a dog would be unfair then i'd re-think my decision.

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to post. Unfortuantely where I work is 35 minutes away from where I live, I cycle to work and back as this is the quickest (and cheapest!) option for me. But unfortuantely that means i'd be unable to get back to the house during my lunch break.

I didnt even consider getting a puppy, I think that would be very selfish of me as I know they require lots and lots of attention and due to my working hours i'd be unable to give that sort of attention!

I'd definately want a rescue dog - I've visited the kennels in the past and I always want to take them all home! lol.

A dog walker sounds like an option I could look into - my OH's family live close so they may even help out IF i got a dog.

Do you think it would be worthwile going to talk to someone from the kennels? Surely they'd know which doegs would be best suited to my situation?

Dorisx

MentalMinnie wrote: »

I have a dog, and work FT. She's an old girl now, so pretty much sleeps alllllllllll day, but i have a friend that pops in 2 or 3 days a week, to put her out and she goes to my mums 1 or 2 days a week. She's very happy. Don't let people make you feel bad about owning a dog and working. I would think long and hard about getting a pup though if you're working. How do you plan or training it?

I wouldnt get a pup because I feel it would be unfair. My OH has 6 weeks off at Christmas so hopefully which ever dog (if we get one) we get will have 6 weeks of settling in when someone is with it al the time

Thank you for saying about not letting people make me feel bad! Sometimes I feel its unfair that if you work you cant do certain things. I'm looking into this as much as I can before rushing anything

Dorisx

Money_maker wrote: »

How about a couple of cats instead? Can come and go as they please, play together, keep your lap warm at night yet not be too needy.

I dont like cats very much - they freak me out when they sit and stare at you. I know, I know, I'm wierd - but it really bothers me! lol