Doggy day care in the car?

elsien

Dog sitting parent is going away for a week. She did tell me and I promptly forgot. This means I have booked in work commitments which make dropping Gitdog off at the kennels each day difficult as the pick up and drop off times are outside their usual times.
So my cunning plan is to take him to work with me. He'll have to stay in the car, but I can take an hour's lunch break to walk him. And possibly do a couple of short wee breaks in between.
He's unlikely to eat the car, and will probably spend most of the day asleep, although he might sulk if it's a bit cold - blankets will be provided.
Anything I haven't thought of?

Person_one

Will your car be in a secure place? Will he be in a crate in the car? Has he ever spent that long alone in the car before?

elsien

Car will be in a number of places - mainly hospital, care home or office car parks with some street parking for an hour or so at a time.
I have a crate but probably will use the seat belt harness instead as if I put half the back seat down he can have the seat and get into the boot as well (his preferred position after a walk). It gives him more room if he's not in the crate.
He's used to being in the car and has previously been left in it for 3-4 hours on his own.

Eta - my job involves visiting multiple sites so he'll have company when I'm driving between them.

teddysmum

Something to occupy him such as a stuffed kong.

Person_one

I can't see it being a huge issue if you're actually in the car pretty frequently and he's going to be left for fairly short periods of your visits. I'm assuming you don't keep any clinical equipment in the car that your clients might be freaked out to see a dog in it at the same time!

If you're confident that he won't be able to get to any bits of the car where he might cause any problems, and he isn't going to be left for ages in an area vulnerable to passing idiots, I expect he'll probably have a great day and love hitting the road with you!

kazwookie

Leave him at home and pay a local dog walker to come in a couple of times a day?

elsien

Too short notice to get anyone up to speed with Gitdog's quirks. Wouldn't trust someone I didn't know to take him out unless I was absolutely sure they could manage him.

gettingtheresometime

the only concern I would have is that someone sees him and decides to act in a public spirited way by calling the police etc

paddypaws101

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

the only concern I would have is that someone sees him and decides to act in a public spirited way by calling the police etc

Yeah I thought of this....so would suggest a poster of some kind on windscreen or window notifying passers by that you are on call or making a delivery etc

elsien

I don't understand why anyone would call the police? If it was hot, fair enough, but surely lots of dogs spend time in cars for various reasons? It wouldn't cross my mind to call the police unless a dog seemed to be in distress.

Elinore

I would also worry that someone may attempt to steal him. We have had several thefts of dogs from cars in our local area. Some were desirable breeds, others not.

One was a very aggressive German Shepherd but it didn't seem to worry the teens that smashed the car up to get at him (thankfully he was found just a short time later - no worse for the wear and just a large bloody cut not sure if it was the car glass or the little ********** who took him)

Thinking forward you may want to have a local dog walker introduced and aware of your dogs issues - do a couple of walks together, that type of thing. Then if there is an emergency you have a fall back plan.

PS people tend to err on the side of caution with dogs left in cars- even watery winter sunshine can warm up a car fast so people may just call the police/rspca being safe rather than sorry.