Guilt-Stricken Parents

[Heidi & Milton]

Every day I go to school, and I have to leave my Milt.  I cannot possibly describe how difficult this has been for me.  The guilt is overwhelming, and all throughout my day I find myself thinking, "What is poor Milt doing right now?  He must be so bored."

Thankfully, Jeff and I have worked out a little schedule to make things more pleasant for our first born AKA our goldendoodle.  Three days a week, Milton goes to doggie daycare; he loves it!  (More details on daycare in another post.)  The other two days, the Milt stays home.

As you saw in Tuesday's post, Milton is gated in a really big area stretching from kitchen to bathroom.  On a typical day, I leave for work by 7A.M., and Jeff follows at around 8A.M.  First, to get the Milt ready to be sequestered, I wake up early to walk him for a solid hour around the neighborhood.  By the time we get back, Milton is super tired and on average will sleep for a good three hours (I know this from our summertime walks).  Jeff returns home around lunchtime to stay with the Milt for 30 - 40 minutes.  Then I arrive home by 4:30P.M.  All in all, the Milt is alone for 7.5 hours.  I absolutely detest this time frame, but I think his fun days at doggie daycare really make up for his lousy stay at home stints.

What do we do to occupy the Milt while we're gone?  Well, take a look:

Dog music

First, I quietly play this CD, "Through a Dog's Ear" (Amazon.com) from my laptop to soothe the Milt while we are away.  The selection features piano arrangements by famous composers, like Bach and Rachmanioff, whose music's tempo has been slowed to calm your dog when you leave him alone for a long period, during a thunderstorm, etc.  We are uncertain if it actually has a huge affect on the Milt, but it certainly makes me feel better. 

Next, we purchased a Buster Cube for the Milt, also from Amazon.  The way this works is you drop food or treats down into the central core, and your dog needs to flip the cube in order to get the treats to fall out.  You can adjust the core for the difficulty level. 

Hidden food

Let's just say, it is not the Milt's favorite toy because it does require a good deal of effort.  I did buy him the "Genius Level" cube though, so that could explain part of the problem.  Anyway, it is fun to use this toy along with him.

Of course, we throw in the old, familiar Kong.  On its own, it does not excite the Milt, like it does for some other dogs, but we jazz it up a bit.  We fill the Kong with a mixture of food and treats, and then we pour chicken broth inside and stuff the main hole with a sweet potato, peanut butter, etc.  Throw the Kong in the freezer overnight, and it adds a whole other element.  Milton is much more interested in extracting treats from this toy than the other one.

Filled with delicious treats.

Frozen water

We leave the Milt a bowl of ice cubes instead of water, so that he can slide, glide these along the floor for another activity.

All of these key elements, along with selective chew toys, combine to create the Milt's "Amusement Park" at home.  While Momma and Daddy are away, the Milt will play OR sleep...

The resting area

Bathroom - we sprinkle his meal on the floor too, so he can scavenge

Kitchen, Milt likes to tear up newspapers, and of course we put down a puppy pad just in case

All in all, the Milt would much rather be out of his area and sleeping on the cold tile by the front door.

Stretching out

This is probably why the Milt has been hopping on the fence.  Oh well.  At least Momma and Daddy are trying their best to amuse. 

To read more about the Milt, visit www.goldilocksandherdoodle.com

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

When Luna was a puppy we used to leave the TV on, usually on the food channel.  She is a people dog, and we figured all the voices of chefs talking would help her feel less lonely.  The food channel also probably wouldn't have any "scary" noises like loud bangs or sirens.  Her area was a small ex-pen in the kitchen with her crate inside, so she had a sleeping area and a small play area with newspaper that she could pee on or shred to her desires.  Pee pads didn't do us any good - she just shredded them.  She was in there until she was about 8 months old and then had the run of the house (minus a few rooms), and has ever since.

I have the guilt too.. Luna is sometimes left alone for up to 10 hours while we're at work.  I can't get home from work at lunch time (it's a 1.5 hour bus ride each way) and my DH has a "working lunch" meaning he's not supposed to leave for lunch most days.   This Fall I have an awful schedule on Mondays and Tuesdays so I'm hoping DH can come home for lunch a few days a week when I'm away all day (from 6:30-4:30.. bleh).  Luna has an iron bladder and can hold it for a SUPER long time now (12-14 hours), but I don't want her to have to do that; it's a quick road to a urinary tract infection.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I love this... I always, always brought Jack to daycare when I was going to be gone for more then a few hours. When I worked he went to daycare.. Now that I am home, he stays with me.  I think it is good to have some down days at home too though because daycare all day everyday can wear them out too much,

I have videos for Jack. I think it is called the Petsitter and it has a monkey and a donkey in it. Jack doesn't like it. I leave music playing on my Ipad if I have to leave him. I still don't leave him for more then four or at the most five hours but that is very rare.

Jack knows all the people in my neighborhood and I often hire a teenager to hang out with him if I am going to be gone long or he goes over to play at my friends house.. He loves it there.

The only problem I have is if something happens to me, who will maintain the lifestyle he is so used to?? I think  Milton has a great life...

[Heidi & Milton]

I am happy to hear I am not the only one who got duped into buying a dog CD!  It actually is quite nice.

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Very creative ideas! While we don't often have to leave Rooney for long stretches of time, I will be borrowing some of those ideas the next time we do.  And the fact that Milt hasn't chewed up all of those flip flops and tennis shoes is reason enough to give him an Academy Award!! Rooney would have made short work of those flip flops by now...

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Milton has a great life, don't worry about it!  We used to leave Peri crated and come home during lunch.  It's fine :)

[Lindsay & Leo]

Milton has such a great setup! Haha if that were Leo's, he'd spend the first hour pecking off all the bathroom rug fibers and then move on to yanking the shower rod down by trying to run away with the curtain ;)

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

I think you have done a wonderful job keeping Milt busy and thinking if he wants, otherwise sleeping is good.

We got Daisy that CD and it is her cue that we are leaving and she is staying, not that it happens very often, church and an occasional night out for DH and I. If we are going to be gone longer than 4 hours her friends (our Neighbors) come over for a visit.

We are very fortunate in that Daisy goes to work with me.

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Lach and Dec were reading over my shoulder and want me to tell you that they wanna come live with you, Heidi! They get about 45 minutes in the morning, then into the crates with some stuffed Kongs (some day, when they stop trying to eat the house, they'll be able to be loose while I'm gone) ... some background music (usually Leonard Cohen) softly from my computer ... a sitter who comes in to play with them twice a day and give them their lunch ...but that's it until I get home in the afternoon. After reading what Milt gets every day they're feeling like poor neglected puppies!

[Thuy & Hops]

That last picture is just like Hops! You guys are such great doggie parents. You must wake up so early. I walked Hops only 15 minutes this morning and was 30 minutes late to work...