What is acceptable when considering how long to leave a puppy alone

[JW1989]

Hi all,

My wife and I are looking in to getting a cocker pup next year, my biggest anxiety is making sure we can afford the pup the time it needs to prevent behavioral issues and make sure we have a happy dog.

I work away from home on a 2 week away 3 weeks off rota and my wife works 30 hours split over 4 days. In our favor is the fact her work is 5 minutes cycle away and she had hour lunch breaks.

I am not particularly concerned about an adult dog as when i am away at work my wife can walk before work and be home for lunch for probably 40 minutes, enough time to take the dog on a short walk, toilet, mental stimulation etc.

The biggest issue i see is the early months. If we worked getting a pup around my time off and she took 2 weeks annual leave that would give an 8 week period of someone at home at all times. If she took another 2 weeks annual leave (probably her entire years allowance) that would extend to 13 weeks of someone being home continuously.

Take an 8-10 week old pup then it is likely to be 16-18 weeks old in the first scenario or 21-23 weeks old in the second (less likely) scenario.

At that point the pup would be left for 4 hours unless we looked to get someone to come and visit.

I'd love to hear thoughts on this, is it practical, is it cruel on the puppy, is it a good time frame, bad time frame?

[Pepsi Hawks]

Hi

To give you an idea we got our pup at 9 weeks, put her in her crate at night around 10pm got up during the night for a toilet break back in her crate till 6am. We both work so she is normally out from 6am till about 8am but by 7am she is normally falling asleep on us. Back in her crate for 3-4 hours then out for 30mins-1 hour ( depending on work) back in her crate till we get home again 3-4 hours then out till 10pm although again she's normally napping on us. Weekends out as much as possible but plenty of naps. Think we have been quite lucky as she goes in her crate no issues. Every pup is different so I guess to a certain extent it's pot luck, but when she's out we do play fetch some training then hide food in her toys this all tires her out but found it really good for bonding.  But it is a full time hobby and you get some lows where you feel like crying but when she looks at you with the puppy eyes all is forgotten..... ( I'm sure more experienced will be able to give you a better insight but this is just our experience being first time owners! )

[sophie.ivy]

Let me start by saying, great choice getting a cocker! They're the best (but we might be biased here!)

I have a 16 month working cocker and to be honest, I found the puppy stage super tough and my girl needed quite a bit of attention during the day. At night, she slept really well in her crate and was no trouble at all though. We do have a working cocker so if you're going show type, then they might not be such a ball of energy and nap-resistant! We took 2 weeks off work like you're planning to and it was great - we could focus on settling pup in and toilet train (out every 30mins week 1, then 1 hour week 2).

My husband and I alternate working from home, but we both felt like it was a good idea to leave for short amounts of time each day to make sure she got used to us leaving (and always coming back!) We started leaving her for longer at around 16weeks and when we felt like she was comfortable with it. So same time as you were thinking. Personally, I wouldn't leave a dog for longer than 3-4hrs during the day especially if using a crate and still toilet training. It all depends on the dog though! I think we got lucky with our girl being quite a confident little thing, and I can't believe I just wrote we got lucky with her after all the stress she's caused us over the last year

I think you'll get a good idea of how well your pup will cope with being left after the first few weeks and you can always get a dog walker/nice neighbour to check in with them when you need to start leaving for longer.

Good luck with your puppy planning! 

[russ-g]

I am currently at 5 months (22 weeks) and the most I've left Stanley alone (crated) during the day is 3.5 hours. He was fine, needed a fairly urgent wee, but no adverse effects. I would go up to 4 hours if needed, but wouldn't make a habit of it in the crate. I am currently planning to introduce an indoor pen so that he doesn't have to be confined to his crate, but I don't yet trust him not to wee on the floor. He is house trained, rings a bell to go outside and rarely has accidents, but I'm not sure that would be the case in a pen. Time will tell.

The early days were very tough. We got him at 9 weeks and I took 2 weeks off work foolishly thinking I'd have things sorted by the time I went back to work. I did not. Crate training takes time, toilet training takes time, everything takes time, and it's very stressful if you're also trying to juggle work. You might be up in the night letting him out for a wee for the first 4 weeks, or maybe you'll get lucky. I had the benefit of being able to work from home (still am) and it's still been incredibly tough.

Everything got easier at about 4 months when he stopped biting everyone, got his toilet training sorted, and was much easier to be around. Prior to that I have to admit I didn't like him very much and regularly questioned my decision to get him!

Much of the advice you get here will "depend on what you get" - Not all cockers are the same, some are chill, others are nutters. My Stanley is somewhere inbetween