How To Leave My Puppy Home Alone

[Livi]

I would think lilysmum any pound puppies possibly incubating parvo would be kept in foster care until all clear.

What other problems have you seen occur from a pup being left while the owners are at work ?

[shoemonster]

To the OP, I think you're pup will be fine with 10 hours, as long as they are walked and spend quality time with you when you are home

As I said earlier, it was more disruptive to Eddie for me to come and give him his lunch meal than it was to leave him the day, and he was never too hungry and we never missed any medical attention that he needed

If he ever had medical emergencies (which only happened once and it was while we were home as his run is secure and free from anything which could potentially harm him) I would take time off work to get him to the vet

He is healthy and well adjusted to spending time at home (now with Molly)

[Akitaowner]

i brought home another pup a couple of months ago and while i was able to get home for the first 4 weeks or so - she was on 2 meals a day from 8 weeks and has been left for up to 10hrs with Mav as company - they are secure and watered and left outside when we are not home. She has never been a problem - not destructive, escaping, noisy, poorly behaved - my neighbours have even commented on how they just lounge around all day.

Im with Sunny70 - mine sleep most of the day even if i am home??!! its why i chose the breed i did

i have fostered quite a few dogs now too and they all adjust very quick our routine - if your taking fosters which havent been quarantined prior to coming home then IMO more fool you! again IMO i would never have a foster/guest dog that may be incubating parvo at my house thats not fair on my 2.

Providing a safe/healthy environment is maintained what does it matter?

[Pawprints]

Parvo virus. Nuff said. :D

Please stop trying to scare the crap out of us and make us feel bad for leaving our pups while we work.

Enough is enough.

I think the amount of well adjusted, happy healthy pups on this forum who are left speak for themselves, mine included.

You say that one of the main reasons a pup shouldn't be left alone unchecked for 8 hours is because they can go downhill fast (see the parvo threat comment). You say they should be checked upon constantly. What about night time, is a pup not left alone in his crate for 8 hours unchecked??? Or do you spend your whole sleeping hours not sleeping and disturbing the pup every 2 hours to check if he is alright? Whats the difference with 8 hours during the night and 8 hours during the day??

[shoemonster]

You say that one of the main reasons a pup shouldn't be left alone unchecked for 8 hours is because they can go downhill fast (see the parvo threat comment). You say they should be checked upon constantly. What about night time, is a pup not left alone in his crate for 8 hours unchecked??? Or do you spend your whole sleeping hours not sleeping and disturbing the pup every 2 hours to check if he is alright? Whats the difference with 8 hours during the night and 8 hours during the day??

Exactly, extremely well put, I agree completely

[LilyW]

This could go on forever... it is getting ridiculous..

But as i said, you would raise your own children the best way YOU see fit. And i believe the same goes for your pup, sure there are times when you need advice or a second opinion but in the end we all know our own dogs better than anyone so you do what you think is the best!

And as for parvo, well in Victoria it is not as common as other states, infact in puppy school we were encouraged to take our dogs for walks before they had all their shots and we didn't actually put our pup in the backyard till she had all her vaccinations anyway - so that is being responsible i believe. The chances of her getting it in a room in a house were fairly slim.

And Pawprints is right, stop scaring people who are new to owning dogs - we all know what the risks are and i am sure people are smart enough to make sure their home is secure and safe for their pup.

AGREE TO DISAGREE!!

[LilyW]

You say that one of the main reasons a pup shouldn't be left alone unchecked for 8 hours is because they can go downhill fast (see the parvo threat comment). You say they should be checked upon constantly. What about night time, is a pup not left alone in his crate for 8 hours unchecked??? Or do you spend your whole sleeping hours not sleeping and disturbing the pup every 2 hours to check if he is alright? Whats the difference with 8 hours during the night and 8 hours during the day??

Exactly, extremely well put, I agree completely

Yes, was thinking the same thing...

[Akitaowner]

Congrats

looks like the OP has well and truly left the building!!!

[Pawprints]

I don't blame them for leaving the building lol

[7464]

That Simba is one cute puppy.

[Meetu]

You say that one of the main reasons a pup shouldn't be left alone unchecked for 8 hours is because they can go downhill fast (see the parvo threat comment). You say they should be checked upon constantly. What about night time, is a pup not left alone in his crate for 8 hours unchecked??? Or do you spend your whole sleeping hours not sleeping and disturbing the pup every 2 hours to check if he is alright? Whats the difference with 8 hours during the night and 8 hours during the day??

Exactly, extremely well put, I agree completely

Yes, was thinking the same thing...

:D :p

Lilysmum- Maybe it's time to ridicule you as you don't check on your puppy at night whereas guess what - I DO !! And Simba sleeps in my room at night so if anything goes wrong I can hear him. I keep waking up every 2 hours to check on him...do u do that by the way ???????????????????????????????????????????

Look we all can keep having a go at each other but fact of life is that anything can go wrong at anytime. Simba has been staying alone for the last 3 days (weekdays) and he has been fine. Most of my friends are dog lovers and on weekends if we're invited so is he & they love him as he is really well behaved!

Please kindly stop being critical as we all seem to know what we're doing with our puppies, atleast now i do Initially after joining the forum I felt horrible as thats how everyone made me feel but ther are plenty of other people in the same situation and their dogs are doing fine being alone.

Everyone elsse - I am very much here just had a busy weekend with SIMBA

Here is another pic:

Edited December 4, 2006 by Meetu

[shoemonster]

Awww great pic!!!!

Glad you are doing well Meetu

[LilyW]

Oh Simba.. you are gorgeous....

Meetu - you are a great owner. Like i said you know your puppy better than me or anyone else would. So whatever you think is best for your pup is the right answer!

Keep sending through those photos though...

PS - don't get me confused with Lillysmum as i am on your side...

Edited December 4, 2006 by LilyW

[Akitaowner]

he wont fit in there for long!!! too cute!

[Toohey]

:rofl:Lilysmum- Maybe it's time to ridicule you as you don't check on your puppy at night whereas guess what - I DO !! And Simba sleeps in my room at night so if anything goes wrong I can hear him. I keep waking up every 2 hours to check on him...do u do that by the way ???????????????????????????????????????????

Look we all can keep having a go at each other but fact of life is that anything can go wrong at anytime.

Where did Lillysmum ridicule anyone, and where did she say anything about checking a pup during the night? Why would a pup need checking during the night if it were sleeping in your room

Seems to me that LM stopped posting a while back and you are still having goes at HER just to amuse yourself.

Yes, anything can go wrong at anytime, but if they go wrong nine and half hours before someone is home to check on the pup...???

I myself would worry if I had no way of checking on a baby puppy for ten hours. The pup may well be ok, but I would not be. That's just me, and I would not allow that situation to happen.

Others obviously don't see a problem... that's them. Why the need for arguing? As stated previously, the OP can take the advice offered and do with it what they will.

Preferably without being rude to those offering the advice.

And as for parvo, well in Victoria it is not as common as other states, infact in puppy school we were encouraged to take our dogs for walks before they had all their shots

Parvo is around all the time, especially at this time of year, and I would be very concerned about a puppy school that tells you to walk an incompletely vaccinated pup. New puppy owners need to be well of the threat of Parvo, and a little scare mongering is not a bad thing IMO.

[Natashja]

OH and I were curious about what our 10 month old little bundle of joy got up to when we weren't home (he's secured in a 5m x 5m kitchen with loads of toys and a kong). So we installed a webcam.

As it turns out, the little monster goes straight to the kong then heads off to sleep within minutes of us leaving. He generally only rouses when he hears the car in the driveway. We try not to leave him for more than 8 hour stints, though recently a family emergency meant he was home alone for 12.5 hours. When we got home, he rushed past us to do the biggest pee of his life and as soon as he was all done, it was business as usual, no whinging, no distress and certainly no crankiness.

I get where Lilly's Mum is coming from but there is such a thing as anthropomophism going too far.

[Ripley]

and they wonder why foster carers for dogs are hard to come by? When I fostered, I rescued a chihuahua x puppy. She was so tiny and cute. Guess what? I had to work to earn a living. So I left her inside the house for 10 hours a day. Big deal, she coped very well and kept getting out of her puppy pen to play with my Burmese cat.

At no time at all did I think geez, I should have had someone call around and see her.

I do feel that it's no wonder some rescues have a hard time rehoming dogs when they won't rehome a pup to someone who works full time. Silly IMO.

edited to add: I kept the puppy with me until she was 12 weeks old before rehoming her.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Ripley

[mollynme]

and they wonder why foster carers for dogs are hard to come by? When I fostered, I rescued a chihuahua x puppy. She was so tiny and cute. Guess what? I had to work to earn a living. So I left her inside the house for 10 hours a day. Big deal, she coped very well and kept getting out of her puppy pen to play with my Burmese cat.

At no time at all did I think geez, I should have had someone call around and see her.

I do feel that it's no wonder some rescues have a hard time rehoming dogs when they won't rehome a pup to someone who works full time. Silly IMO.

edited to add: I kept the puppy with me until she was 12 weeks old before rehoming her.

This is what happened to us, we wanted to adopt a puppy and they refused us because we work full time. I even mentioned that we'd be home on our lunch breaks (work 5 minutes from home) but that wasn't good enough and the longest it would be alone would be around 4 hours

We have always worked full time and have had puppies in the past with no problems so i do not know what the problem is.

Edited December 5, 2006 by uforia

[Ripley]

The problem is a select few nutters, not you. My friend also was turned away from a rescue org. She eneded up adopting a pure bred pup from a registered breeder and this dog has the best life. Some rescues are just ridiculous with some of their rules.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Ripley

[huski]

OH and I were curious about what our 10 month old little bundle of joy got up to when we weren't home (he's secured in a 5m x 5m kitchen with loads of toys and a kong). So we installed a webcam.

As it turns out, the little monster goes straight to the kong then heads off to sleep within minutes of us leaving. He generally only rouses when he hears the car in the driveway. We try not to leave him for more than 8 hour stints, though recently a family emergency meant he was home alone for 12.5 hours. When we got home, he rushed past us to do the biggest pee of his life and as soon as he was all done, it was business as usual, no whinging, no distress and certainly no crankiness.

I get where Lilly's Mum is coming from but there is such a thing as anthropomophism going too far.

Natashja, all our dogs do during the day is sleep too. Our Tibbie hardly even gets off her bed. I know puppies are different from dogs but don't they spend a lot of their day asleep too? Personally I wouldn't buy a pup if I couldn't be home for the first week with it, to make sure it was settled in. I would then be able to leave the house for short periods of time to get the pup accustomed to being by itself. We have always bought our dogs around our holidays so we have time to settle them in.