Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

We want to get a puppy, but I'm holding off because I just feel so bad to leave him/her alone all day in a cage by itself. It just breaks my heart, but I do want one.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I think most people have that dilemma. We had to leave our puppy home in his crate all day too. He was fine!

Message edited 9/28/2010 7:02:00 AM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

i think its unfair. we use to block off our kitchen or a small hallway so he'd have room to run around and play with his toys. he was pretty good at only going on his weewee pad.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Most dogs that are crate trained find their crate to be their safe place and do not mind being in it. However, a puppy younger than six months does not have a strong enough bladder to hold it all day and will have to be let out to relieve himself. While my dog is perfectly fine now being left alone all day, when she was a baby I went home on my lunch break to walk her. You can leave a wee wee pad in the crate but I honestly didn't like the idea of her having a soiled pad in the crate with her and felt it was sending the wrong message. You will have to give the puppy play time in the morning before you leave and lots of exercise when you come home. I STILL and will always feel guilty leaving her every day as I am sure all of us on here who have dogs and work do, lol.

Dogs are adaptable and will get used to the routine, but like I said the only issue is it's just hard in the beginning until they are old enough to "hold it in" so to speak. Good luck!

ETA: My dog is no longer in the crate, she has free reign in the house now.

Message edited 9/27/2010 5:06:56 PM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

How long are we talking about?

Personally I do believe it can be cruel if there is no social contact ALL day. Thats why I didnt get a puppy until I was home often.

Also...they need frequent bladder breaks during the day to train. They can't hold it for a long time, they have small puppy bladders.

They do get lonely and do need to play and stretch their legs. They have a LOT of energy and can get very stir crazy all day crated up. Too long is just not fair to them IMO, without breaks in the day.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Message edited 9/27/2010 6:21:39 PM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I think it depends on how long "all day" is. Many dog owners do work full time, and puppies do sleep a whole lot during the day, and they need to get used to being alone at some point. But if you work really long hours or have a very long commute and are practically never home, maybe a puppy isn't the best choice right now, KWIM?

Also I could never leave a dog crated all day. I know it works for some people, but it's not a choice I would make. We gated off the kitchen/family room when our dogs were young, and they got the run of the house once they were house broken and not chewing on the furniture anymore.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Thank you for all your responses. I'm thinking the puppy will be alone at least 10 hours a day. I don't live close to work, so I can't even go home during my lunch break. Maybe when SO's mom retires, she can help out during the day. We'll see. We both really want a puppy, but I don't know if i will be able to deal with the guilt of it being home all day alone

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Posted by butterflygal

Thank you for all your responses. I'm thinking the puppy will be alone at least 10 hours a day. I don't live close to work, so I can't even go home during my lunch break. Maybe when SO's mom retires, she can help out during the day. We'll see. We both really want a puppy, but I don't know if i will be able to deal with the guilt of it being home all day alone

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

When DH & I moved to Patchogue and were working in Garden City, my dog was alone for 12 hours a day and I felt really bad. Now I am home all day and he is a spoiled brat.

Instead of crating the puppy all day, maybe consider gating him off in a kitchen or hallway where there is a decent amount of room. They also make tons of toys to occupy his time like a treat ball or kong or something. But those only last a little while.

In the end, if you are commited to walking your dog and making sure he/she gets the amount of excercise it needs, then I don't think that should stop you from getting a dog. 10 hours isnt horrible and that is the reality of people who have to work. But you might have an issue, like stated above, with the housebreaking.

Message edited 9/28/2010 12:30:24 PM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

We leave our dog in the kitchen and he cant get to any other room. We tried the crate but he always looked so sad when we got home.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

Posted by butterflygal

Thank you for all your responses. I'm thinking the puppy will be alone at least 10 hours a day. I don't live close to work, so I can't even go home during my lunch break. Maybe when SO's mom retires, she can help out during the day. We'll see. We both really want a puppy, but I don't know if i will be able to deal with the guilt of it being home all day alone

Message edited 9/28/2010 12:55:42 PM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

First off, thank you for considering this *before* taking the leap into dog ownership. I think if more people made these kinds of inquiries before they adopted or bought a dog, there would be less dogs in shelters & euthanized.

My personal opinion, for my dogs and family, is that 10 hours is too long. I've been questioned on this from the beginning and have repeated several times that just because a dog "can" hold it's bladder for x number of hours, doesn't mean it's "ok" to me. We didn't get our first dog without having a plan in place either.

We got our first dog when he was 9 months old. What a BLESSING it was, I can't even tell you, for our first dog to be done teething and done with the bulk of the really time-consuming puppy period. He was still adorable and had all the puppy traits. We still had to do training but the damage to our belongings from a puppy were very small. We crated him for no more than 5 hours at a time, employed dog walkers, doggie day care, I went home at lunch, DH worked from home a couple of days a week, and eventually I started bringing the dogs into my office 2x a week.

My first suggestion to you is to consider rescuing an older puppy. There are millions of breed specific dogs in rescues, probably thousands in our area, depending on what breed you're looking at. I had ideas about what I wanted out of our dogs but once I opened up to different possibilities in age, location and appearance, we found two of the best dogs I could ever have hoped to have.

Second suggestion is a dog walker. There are lots of them out there. Using a crate or pen for 4 to 5 hour stretches with a dog walker in the middle is a pretty good option, in my opinion. It's a scary proposition to give someone access to your home but there are a lot of people here who hire from recommendations. I have actually never heard of someone having trust issues with a dog walker.

I hope my rambling helps a little, and I wish you luck with getting the right situation in place and the right pup.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

i think its unfair.

I can't be home all day so I have a dog sitter come in and spend time with them on the days we aren't there. she's there from 9-5 but by choice. I really only need her there from 10-3 so that they get time to rest and time to socialize. I had her coming for my 9 year old pug before we got the puppy.

think of it this way, if you had a big place to live in but 5x a week you were confined to a little space from 9-5 maybe longer would you be happy?

On top of that, puppies have to go to the bathroom often. And since they have a lot of energy, they often get bored, which means they chew on things, bedding, the cage, their feet etc which is never good. And you can't leave toys in there because they could chock.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

We got a 8 week old lab last January. As a puppy we never left her in her crate for more than 4 hours. Keep in mind that when they are very young they need to eat three times a day. I only continued the "lunch" meal until she was 5 months. After she was totally potty trained we left her for a max of 8 hours. I would say the 8 hours is very rare. If there were days that I had to be gone for longer we did doggy day care (when she was old enough) which I only sort of recommend. She is crate trained and only 10 months now, I still crate her when I'm out doing things. I love her, but I don't trust her yet. Honestly, she loves being in her crate; if i go to check the mail really quick and don't put her in there she barks and barks. I think that 10 hours may be really hard for a young puppy. Think about getting an older puppy. Also keep in mind the bread I could never have left my lab crated for 10+ hours and come home and relax. She needs loooooong walks and runs before she goes in there and after she gets out.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

We felt guilt for our dog (he is 2) to be home all day. We have only had him 3 weeks. We pay our neighbors 15 year old to walk our dog once a day. It makes our lives so much easier and she has never had a dog so she loves it. She texts me everyday with an update!

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

IMO, it's hard to leave a puppy for long periods of time, it needs to go out to pee - especially if you want him to be house-trained, you'll really need to focus on that. GL!

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I struggle with that a little bit, too. My older dog has already been weened off his crate, so he has free run of the house (mostly) when we're out, but the younger one still needs to be crated. She's always out otherwise though and honestly, she loves her crate. She hangs out in there in the evenings even when the door is open! Sometimes I even have to coax her out of there. It's their home, their safe place, their bed, so no I don't think it's cruel to leave them in their crate all day!

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

We got Daisy when she was 12 weeks old...I was home with her the entire 1st week of having her, but once I went back to work, one of DH's sisters would come by and play with her and let her out in the middle of the day. Daisy was in the crate before and after his sister was there. (We both work in NYC, so we are out of the house around 7:15, and one of us is always back by 6:30). After his sister did that for probably atleast a month, we got a dog walker who comes over everyday around 1 and lets Daisy out to go to the bathroom, play, etc. Probably about a month or 2 ago, we changed it so that once the dog walker leaves, Daisy has free reign of the 1st floor of our house, so she's just in the crate from 7ish to 12ish...

I had such a hard time with all of it - I really hated the idea of the crate. BUT, Daisy doesn't mind it AT ALL. In the mornings when we are getting ready to leave, she runs right in there...she knows it's nap time! And she is the happiest, sweetest dog I have ever seen. When we get home she shows us nothing but love. So for us, it has worked out fine.

If you can find someone to go over and break up the day a bit, that would really work wonders...

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I think it is unfair esp when you are out of the house for the entire day. My DH and I have horrible work schedules so we do doggy daycare, dog sitters, family, etc. so they are always doing something different every day. The costs really add up but it is one way of doing it if you really want a dog but work during the week

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I think it is. Coco has the run of the house currently. But as a puppy we would check up on her several times a day. We were lucky though since we worked close to home and I also had worked night hours. Dh and I were able to split up the day.

We have a new dog on the way and we plan on doing the same with him. I just don't have the heart to keep the poor thing crated all day long!

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

you're really not going to be able to leave a puppy home by itself all day. They need to be let out every few hours to use the bathroom.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I would rescue an older dog.. i think it would be a great match. You would be doing a wonderful thing and also consider a dog walker in the middle of the day.. There are so many homeless dogs rotting away in shelters..

Message edited 10/2/2010 10:29:09 AM.

Re: Is it unfair or cruel to leave a puppy home all day alone??

I won't say cruel if you do it the right way but I think unfair. We waited 10 years of desperately wanting a dog because of our jobs and commutes. We felt it wasn't fair to make a dog stay home alone all day. They are social animals with pack mentality.

Now I'm a SAHM of a 3 year old and we're FINALLY getting a puppy in 7 weeks.

Before we bought a house I would have done it with a dog walker because the dog only would have been alone 7-8 hours with a walker in the middle but we rented and couldn't have pets. We bought a house and had a much longer commute then before, so it just wasn't possible for us until now.