Time Alone?

[Sandy]

There is a week in December when Toby will have to spend significant time alone. Our church is doing a major drama/music production, and my son, myself, and husband are all involved. So...on Tuesday and Thursday, Toby will be alone from about 6:30 until 10 or 11. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday he will be alone from 7 till 10 or so. I am hovering between trying him out of his crate and alone, and getting one of my married kids to come over and pet sit. But at some point Toby has to just fit into our routine, and be alone when we are out. We can go for two or three walks during the day, and play ball in the yard to run out more energy before we go. There's really no point to this post, I guess, I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts! :) One thing I don't think I can do is crate him the whole time - because of course we'd want to go to bed when we get home, and I can't see going from crate, to potty, to bed. That doesn't seem fair, and I don't think Toby would be impressed.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Maybe do your normal walks, play time using up all that energy...If Toby is use to crate time..than try with the Crate till he is a little older, but...have one of the kids stop by and walk him and give him a play break in between, that way when you come home going from the crate, to potty, to bed....won't be as bad as it sounds. You can try it and if does not work out...you can try another way.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Does Toby ever go to Daycare? We find that if Guinness is in Daycare he is exhausted when he comes home, and all he wants to do is sleep. He basically comes home, eats, and then he's down for the whole night. He really wouldn't mind being crated at all on these days. If that won't work for you, then the key is getting him really tired, and I don't think the walks will do it. Do you have a dog park you could take him to?

[Sandy]

The dog park here is not good. There are some people that use it that are very irresponsible. Toby is not an aggressive play-er, so I find that I don't get more tiredness out of him than I would if we played ball in the yard. He is not one of the extrememly high energy doodles.

We've never tried doggie day care. I could look into that. It does seem to me that, when we're out, he's still in the same spot when we come home, if he's been left out of his crate. So perhaps he would be fine out...it seems like he just lays down and waits for us to come back.

[sandy b]

Sandy, Toby & Max are about the same age and a few months ago I started leaving him out of his crate for short periods of time and gradually increased the time. I always take him out to potty before I leave and make sure ther's nothing laying around like the tv remote or paper, books etc. Several months prior to this we let him sleep w/us so he was use to being out of crate at night. Since your events aren't until December you have some time to leave him for awhile. Just start out 15 min at a time. I don't know for sure but I think Max probably sleeps while I'm away.

[Sandy]

I do leave him out some - for up to an hour and a half or so. He's done well with that. I always "tidy up" too. I make sure to put away anything that might be tempting to a 15 month old doodle. :) And I close ALL doors - no need for him to wander about in our bedrooms.

[Adina P]

I'm not sure crate to potty to bed would be any different than bored in the house to potty to bed, honestly. In both cases he isn't expending any energy--if expending energy is what he NEEDS to go to bed, that is.

But I think he should be okay either way.

[Sandy]

You have a good point. And actually, he's to the point where most evenings he crashes from 9-11, then goes out to go potty, then goes to bed for at least 8 hours. I guess he's growing up!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Is this just at night? Or is it all day? If it is nighttime, I think he will be fine. One thing DH and I do is take Peri to daycare if we are expecting a night out, especially after work. We do this on Fridays so we can make social plans at night and not feel bad about leaving Peri. She is so tired, she actually goes into her crate on her own.

[Sandy]

It's in the evening, which hopefully will be a chill out time for him anyway.

[Stella]

Let me know if you need any help or someone to pop in and make sure he is doing ok. As it is the evening he will probably be fine as long as he is good and tired.

[Sandy]

Thanks for the offer, Stella. You are so sweet! I'm hoping he will be fine if I work hard on tiring him out. At some point we have to be able to leave him alone while we're out for longer periods of time. Before our other dog died, we could leave him alone for 8 hours or so and he was just fine.