Returning g to work :-(

[Vicky loves Chachi]

I work in a school system and will be returning to work come Sept. Chachi will be 20 weeks by then. We have had him since he was 12 weeks and never really left alone as of today. I'm unsure of how to transition him to being in his crate for almost 7hrs. I am considering having friends come take him out midday but I will owe lots of favors and or will have to spend Xtra money I don't have. Is it awful to keep him in his crate during the day for so long? He is not great in his crate during the day yet. Whenever he is alone downstairs (never for more than a few minutes due to potty training) he whines and barks. Another thing is that Chachi doesn't usually eat all his 3/4th cup kibble in the morning ( he probably only eats 1/2 cup). He seems to like to graze but since he'll be in his crate he won't be able to do that. I have started picking his dish up after 20 minutes however about an hour later or so he is nippy and sniffing for food. I usually do some training with treats at this time to stop him from nipping so much. We do several training sessions with treats throughout the day. Come September we will b limited to training sessions til after 3p. Dinner he usually eats all of it but sometimes not. Any advice on how to transition him to our September schedule would be appreciated. I'm very anxious and don't want to traumatize him.

[Molly&Douglas]

Hi Vicky, I am in a similar situation going back to school on August 14th.  I have been transitioning Douglas out of his crate during the day and now at night.  He has been doing great!!  I'm lucky in that regard but he is a couple of months or weeks?  older than Chachi and has an older brother role model.  I plan to gate him in the kitchen once I'm back at work at first, to see how he does.  That way he can move around and have access to his food.  And if he has an accident it is on a hard wood floor and not the carpet.

I think it will be harder on you to leave him in his crate for 7 hours than it will be for him.  If you feed him before you leave and he only eats some of his food, he might learn to eat it all eventually, they are smart!!  It will also help him learn to hold his potty for that long for the time that you will be transitioning him out of the crate all together.  Douglas turns 6 months today and I am ready to put his crate on Craigslist. Maybe you should try some daytrips before you go back to work to see how it goes?  Good luck!!

[Mindy Rapp]

I have to leave Doodle in a crate all day. I started off leaving her in the bathroom and that was a disaster. She tore it up. She was around 9-11 weeks then (some confusion on her age). So, I put her in my smaller dog's crate. I put her in there in the morning and shut the bathroom door. I came home to find her loose in the house. Not sure how she pulled that off. Since then it has gotten much better. We've had her for about 3 weeks now. She has a big crate (with 2 latches) and she seems to be doing much better. I have someone come and let her out in the midday, but a couple of times she has been in there all day while I'm at work. She tries to run from me in the mornings, but she doesn't put up much of a fight. I think it was just the first few times and she wasn't sure I was coming back. Now that she knows the routine, she's fine. However, I think she sleeps in there all day so she is full of energy when it's time to get out. I would put him in there and go run some errands to start building him up to it. I was a nervous wreck the fist few days while I was at work and had no one to check on her.

[Kathryn digregorio]

Hi Vickie, it is hard to start leaving our pups alone. All my puppies and Breezy have been locked in the kitchen with a gate, lots of toys and food. The poodles did some chewing but it was benign. Worked 12 hr shifts and a neighbor came in to check. With Breezy, she did well (do not work 12 hr anymore) left her Kongs filled with treats, radio on and kibble, she is a grazer. Good luck, but the gate really worked because she could see out.

[Becka]

". I was convinced that one day he would come home and we would find some new shelving he learned out to make" LOL!!! Maybe if you'd left the Food Network on he'd have had dinner ready for you!

[Gail & Bogey]

Too funny!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna was 8 weeks old when we had to start leaving her alone all day while we were at work.  We had her in an ex-pen with her crate, water and a pee area in there (covered in newspaper).  We also made sure the door to the crate was secured so she couldn't lock herself in or out of her sleep area and took her collar off.

She did just fine :)

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

We did the housetraining when we were home, since we couldn't do it when we were at work.  We just kept her close (either tethered to us or in a crate) and took her out every couple hours.  She got the idea pretty quickly that outside was the place she should do her business.  Even by the time she was about 16 weeks old and we went to puppy class, she refused to pee inside in the training area. 

As far as we could tell she just used the "pee area" in the ex pen as a last resort.  

Now she has an incredible bladder and can hold it for the whole work day and she has the run of the house.  

[Gail & Bogey]

I was feeling guilty leaving my Bogey (currently 6 months) in a crate longer than a couple hours. Recently just started leaving him in our master bath. Tile floor and really not much he can get into. Now he's a miniature doodle so not big enough to get in tub, toilet behind closed doors and I push everything away from the edge of counters. This way I can leave him food, water, toys and if it's going to be all day I even put his crate in there since that's his preferred place to sleep. Yesterday my husband had outpatient surgery and he was there almost 8 hrs. No messes when we came home - only thing was he was attached to my feet for a couple hours after I got home. I don't feel nearly so guilty knowing he has options and not stuck in a small crate.

[Vicky loves Chachi]

Thank u all for your advice. I'm feeling better about it. I left Chachi home alone (sort of my husband was working in his office) for about 45 min. I don't think it was the greatest situation since my husband was home and Chachi could here him so he barked for a while. Today I decided to just do it. Put him In his crate with his kong and off I went (no one home this time). Please don't think I'm crazy but I set up my ipad to record him. We were gone for 2 hrs. He barked for a little bit then he fell asleep. We all survived. He was so happy to see us! I will increase the time little by little. We r having a small area fenced in the yard for him and perhaps we will leave him out there with a doggie house when the weather is nice in September.