Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
Discussion in my neck of the woods this morning...how long do you leave your dog alone, in the house, unattended?
My answer, three hours or so, I always worry that they will need to go potty. My girls are well behaved, don't chew up my house and keep themselves occupied. They go easily 8 hours a night without going potty, but they are sleeping and not up moving around. I always think during the day they must need to get out and go potty. Actually when we need to be out of town we hire someone to come and let them out to romp a few times during the day.
Others in the same discussion (they are not retired and need to be at work), trust their dogs in the house all day and don't worry about them going potty until they get home to let them out.
Just wondering what the common thought is here. Do you let yours go all day or always make sure to give them plenty of opportunity to get out?
Tags:
I feel that more than 5-6 hours is probably uncomfortable for them, but sometimes when I come home and let them out after that long, they don't even run outside or go potty. Other times after 3 hours they act like they can;t hold it till they get to the grass......I guess it depends on how much they drink before I leave the house. I do know that they don't touch their water bowl when we are gone, and then run to drink as soon as we get home. Do they know not to drink because they don't want a full bladder? who knows? No right answer. I know dogs who go as long as 10 hours without accidents. Makes me uncomfortable just thinking about going that long, but when people work, that's what some have to do and dogs do fine.
I'm retired and never need to be away from home more than 3 or 4 hours, but in the past when I worked full time, my adult dogs always went all day alone without a potty break and were fine. Never an accident. Most adult dogs also are sleeping and not moving around when they're home alone anyway. (If there are two or more, though, I'm not sure that's true.)
JD regularly goes 14 hours or more without "pottying" even when I'm home, lol.
I try to never leave Sadie alone for more than 6 hours, but that's more because I feel bad leaving her alone--when I've had to, she can go at least 9 hours without being let out. If she's only been alone 5 or 6 hours she never seems to be in a huge hurry to pee when I let her into the yard. I feel really fortunate that I've been able to arrange my schedule so that I can either take her with me or arrange to have someone let her out if I have to be gone more than 6 hours, and during the school year she gets one day a week at daycare.
For the most part, the dogs are own their own during school hours when we are at work and the kids are at school -- so, about 7 hours or so, then at least one person is at home for the rest of the day/evening. They are grown (dogs, that is, kids are teens) and we've never had a potty accident in the house. When we are home during the day, they don't seem to need to go outside during the day for bathroom purposes, though they do run outside to investigate whatever they think is in the yard frequently. They don't get into things that they shouldn't in the house. There are infrequent days when we are gone for up to 12 hours or so and even then we've never had a potty accident. It's not something I worry about at all.
The most we have ever left Libby is five hours. She has never had an accident while we are gone, but she also doesn't drink water while we are gone either. That makes me feel bad for her. She does not get into anything and most of the time stays on her/our rocker or goes up onto our bed. We have a couple cams so we an watch over her too! I hate leaving her period, but it is a fact of life and she does very well! I love our greetings when we get home! Best part!
My girls will go 8-10 hours and they do fine. I generally keep them on the same schedule, even on days I work from home and on the weekends, because I feel like they do better with a consistent routine for the days they do have to hold it longer. When I'm home, neither of them "ask" to go outside earlier than their "normal" potty time, and neither have accidents. They both mostly sleep when I'm gone - Ellie has free roam of the house, but I can see her on the doggie cam, going from one end of the couch to the other, lol. Beasley, on the other hand, is still crated when I'm away longer than a few hours - mostly because I expect she'll look for mischief if she has that much opportunity. She hasn't earned her all-day whole house privileges yet. :)
All that being said, I hate leaving them for anything more than just a few hours, but coming home to Eloise's big grin (and to Beasley's gleeful screaming) is the best part of my day.
When they're puppies I would not expect them to go more than three or four hours. Once they're trained and full grown I think it is possible for them to go all day. That said, I would probably not do it every day. I would use a dog walker or Daycare at least some of the time. Also, if they are alone all day they need some good exercise time in the evening.
Now that Quincy is no longer a puppy, he is left alone with the run of the downstairs all day. we both work long hours, but one of us will try to get home so it's no longer than 8-9 hours. that said, when we do come home, even if its a bit longer, Quincy greets us like we have been gone for weeks with tail wagging enthusiasm, runs upstairs, jumps on the bed while we change, grabs his chew toy and waits for us until we go back downstairs, never even looking to the door! He has an amazing bladder and we can only hope it stays that way until we retire!
We do take him to the local pet store day care for socialization once a week or so-especially if we both have hectic weeks when we are not home early. other weeks, I work from home here and there. He sleeps most of the time when I do and rarely, if ever, looks to go out until evening.
my favorite is when I come home early in the day and can't find him because he is passed out cold, sound asleep! what a great watch dog! he then gets up slowly, yawns, does his doodle stretches and then starts the tail wags!
Wow! I can't wait until I experience something even =vaguely= similar to that with Harley. I know he's still a puppy but I don't get anything done anymore.
Next week, he'll be 4 months. At least 8 more months to go. Hope I survive it.
Terri
Not only will you survive it, but you will miss his puppiness! He's so cute!
© 2024 Created by Adina P. Powered by