On another general forum, not dog specialist, I have seen a great amount of interest in shared ownership of a dog. Some have proposed that the dog might live part of the time with one owner and part of the time with another. Many posters saw this as a great idea and a good way around problems of time and money that might stop just one person/family owning a dog.

I was surprised by how much interest the subject garnered and by how many people thought this was a great idea and could see no problem with it. I got the idea that shared ownership could take off - many felt it was preferable to leaving dogs in rescue. What do others here think?

I do know of one dog that spent time with one owner, and then (possibly weekends) time with the other owner. The dog didn't seem to mind, but had been brought up in the same household at first. It was only after the relationship broke down that they started doign this. I would think that it would really depend on the dogs temperament. Some would be happy enough with this, but others would get stressed out.

In a way it can't be that much different to a dog going to a dog sitters house for the day. Or to day kennels.

On the other hand, my dogs are mine and I couldn't send them away to someone else. :-) I would miss them so much. ;-)

Having given it a bit of thought I agree with you that so much would depend on the dog and yes, if the dog has started off with one family/owner and is sorted, then I'm sure some might be able to adapt to another home . However, I don't think it would be an acceptable starting point for a puppy or a rescue dog because of need for consistency, stability etc.. I also think that there are a number of breeds that might not do so well- the one person type dog.

I just came away from this other forum with the feeling that more and more people would be looking into this. I also wondered what breeders and rescues would say to prospective owners approaching them with this kind of scenario?

i thought you meant joint ownership show dogs!
how can a dog be moved from house to house unless its from a split family scenario?

No, sorry. What I mean is a dog being owned by more than one owner/family and living at two different households- say 3 days in one and the remainder with owner/family 2, somewhere else.

What you are saying is like when the couple get divorced and the kids get shuttled back and forth but this applies to the dog, not sure if I would be happy with this, when I split from my ex he took the dog and I kept the cat and our 3 month old son, the latter wasn't passed back and forth either.

Can't see rescues agreeing as a dog has already had a disrupted life and needs a stable one from then on.

The only shared ownership I know about is when a breeder wants to keep some control over a pup they are selling which has show/breeding potential and are mentoring the new owners, this goes on alot with breeders of my breed in the US/Canada, mainly with male pups but occassionally with females too. The new owner/partner agrees to show the dog to champ status and be advised as to which matches were appropiate when it came to breeding after that. The only time the dog changes home is if one owner is in Canada and the other in the US and they want to achieve champ in both countries. The pup usually costs less initially but the breeder will either want pups back from a female or share of stud fees for a set time.

These arrangements work out well for some and not for others, depends on how strict/limiting the restrictions placed by the breeder are and if the co-owner realises upfront what they are getting into. After a set time the dog is signed over fully to the person it lives with and the breeder has no further say in the breeding etc. but is usually still there for help and advice.

It would have to be a stable and accepting dog to begin with, I don't think many rescues which might have separation issues would go for it. My own 3 spaniels are perfectly happy to go to dogsitters, or if we go to the in-laws for the weekend they stay in the granny annex, but I imagine a lot of dogs would get quite unsettled with frequent switching from one household to another, specially if one owner has different rules about feeding / where the dog sleeps / dogs on sofas etc.

lucydogs,

Yes, my thoughts too. I feel that few rescues or breeders would countenance it but had many replies, arguing this was wrong and the dogs could do fine. Someone even suggested that rescue greyhounds, of which he had two, would be ideal for a shared ownership, of the type I have described.

When OH and I got together he and his ex had 2 Bernies. The ex worked nights and the girls came to us on the nights she worked and went home when she wasn't working. ( At the time I wasn't working at all) A weekly scenario could be Mon, Tues Wed at our house Thurs Fri Sat at hers then back to us. If she worked Mon/Tues night we had them from Mon pm till Wed pm to let her sleep without worrying about walks. It only took a couple of weeks for them  to settle into the routine, and they were very happy social dogs. I think they benifited from it really as no one was ever to tired after work to give them time. Only having them a few days a week I spent a lot of time with them when they were with me and the ex did the same. They got brushed every day and lots of one-to-one time as it is easy to spend lots of time with a dog if it is only a few days. Things like shopping could be put off till the days I did not have them. The housework was done on my "days off" I looked forward to having long walks and treated the days I had them like mini holidays. When we had them over a week end we had "family" days out and they got to go to lots of different places. If one or other of us went away for a few days holiday they just moved in with the other...a perfect solution.
Bless them Jodie and Sheena they are at the bridge now waiting for OH and I...the Ex joined them a couple of years ago too. When the time came to let them go we all came together at our house to be with them. They had so much love given them. Not to say that my Girlies now dip out....but shared ownership can work fine too. At the moment the girlies are in heaven as I am off work for 6/8 weeks with my hand....I have to make myself leave them for a few hours a couple of times a week or else they will forget what work days are like!
We are just back from a walk by the river, perfect for hot sunny days and the puppy has been scuba diving for mysterious "objects" on the river bed. ie rocks that she can feel with her paws but cannot pick up...LOL I love the way she puts her whole head under water to look for them!!
Aileen

Merlot, it sounds as though they actually benefitted from the arrangement.

Do you think it could have worked if they were young pups- or with rescue dogs?

I feel its worth a thorough thinking over because, as I said, it seems as though a fair few people are beginning to look at shared ownership as a very real way of working but also being able to own a dog that otherwise they could not. I guess, for me, the biggest stumbling block is in raising and training the very young pup.
Again, with the rescue dog all my instincts tell me not a great way to start....but I may be wrong.

I think it works in the split relationship kind of senario as long as all parties get on well. Every situation is different though so would need to be looked at for it's merits. Not sure about with a tiny pup. Maybe the first few months with one household to get basic toileting done but with regular visits from the second family, play dates and walks etc so the dog sees all those involved as "family" I think also all members would have to attend training classes together and take turns in doing excersises.  The problem would be of course having two families with different ideas for training (Some mixes I could never see getting on...Adam and Mastiflover ! :-D)
Not I think something that could be done as a comon occurance but it can work in some isolated cases.
I would have to say I am not in favour of the idea per say...but for us it worked very well.
Aileen

I have family dogs stay with me all the time when we holiday or have somewhere important to go, I've trained most of our family pups and practically had my brothers GSD's live with me when his relationship broke down whilst he went to work, my girl also always goes to stay with family too..........but we all know who the dogs belong to and the dogs all know who they belong to, that is why we are all secure no matter who is looking after our dogs.

The dogs don't tend to mind, (as far as we know, they know us all and our dogs, so secure environments for them) but you can't say that about humans, dogs do end up being shared sometimes when relationships break down but there was once a common bond, for two families to go into a rescue for shared ownership, can't see it working, really can't......

I can imagine the odd argument as to who gets it when and what happens if the families have a falling out or one family decides to keep the dog and move away, or one family decides they don't want it anymore or they don't like the way the dog is treated, I can see all sorts of problems arising. Differences in training issues or even the dog being happier in one home rather than the other. We tend to compete.

Nope for me a bad idea.

I have a arrangement with one of my dogs which works very well and she loves it! In fact I think she may even prefer her other 'mummy'! I had been waiting years for a puppy from a particular stud dog I already had one by him and he is an excellent working dog. Unfortunately he is 12 years old and had only had three litters. Then last year he was used at stud and I got a puppy, but my working hours had increased and although they are working hours at home as I work via the internet, I did not have time to train the puppy in Obedience which is a new venture for me. A friend comes every day and takes her out walking and doing the training. Some days she is out for half a day and sometimes the whole day and she has been away over night on a couple of occassions.
The puppy loves it she sits by the door every morning waiting to go and when she gets back she is very happy to be back, and mixes back in with my older dogs very happily. She has done this since she was 4 months old and is now 9 months old. This weekend she is out all day Saturday 10am til 4pm then on Sunday she is at a show, so she will be out all day.
I do think it depends on the temperament of the dog, my oldies for example would not go out with out me. Maxie is 11 + years and Arty is 8 years and very much a mummy's boy. Alice on the other hand adores Sylvia and loves the extra attention she gets from Sylvia and greetings when she comes home show she is happy to be home too.

Polly, yes again it sounds as though the pupster likes the arrangement. That's the value of a discussion like this, it does make me wonder if I have been slightly precipitous in being so anti on the other forum. However, like Carrington, I have question marks about consistency of training ideas, commands....the list goes on.

I suppose what makes your situation work is that for the most part the pup does come back home to you after training, so she is working out from a clear context. But then dogs are uber adapters and I wonder again have I been to harsh on the idea?

What about renting dogs by the hour? My reaction was how utterly appalling, but perhaps others know otherwise.

It can work.

I have a friend who works permanent 12hours nights shifts with the Fire Service Control Room, working 4 days on, 4days off.. for 4 days & nights, her Lab lives with her mother, then comes home to her for 4days/nights.  She had this arrangement with her last 2 Labs until they went to the bridge aged 12 & 14 and now does the same with her new pup..

Within a family not a problem, such as the case of a family where both of a couple work, who have retired parents who no longer want the full responsibility of a dog.

I sold a pup 11 years ago to such a family, the dog spends the weekdays with the retired parents who had lost their last dog, being dropped off in the morning and picked up after work, and spends all weekend with it's actual owners.

Those who want to have the company of a dog part time would be far better off posting a card at Their vets offering to be company for a dog owned by people having to work full time.

This would also stop many dogs (such as the 4 year old I had back recently) having to be re-homed when both have to work full time for economic reasons.

> Polly, yes again it sounds as though the pupster likes the arrangement. That's the value of a discussion like this, it does make me wonder if I have been slightly precipitous in being so anti on the other forum. However, like Carrington, I have question marks about consistency of training ideas, commands....the list goes on.
>
> I suppose what makes your situation work is that for the most part the pup does come back home to you after training, so she is working out from a clear context. But then dogs are uber adapters and I wonder again have I been to harsh on the idea?
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> What about renting dogs by the hour? My reaction was how utterly appalling, but perhaps others know otherwise.

As to training consistency I have no problem as Sylvia and I worked out which words to use before we started, and as we both train in the same style there is a constant back up for the puppy. It works much the same as living in a family where one partner is the principle trainer and the other (often the wife or husband) does not do the training as such but backs it up by following the same styles. Had I not known Sylvia and seen her working her dog before I got the puppy I would have been reluctant to do it. For me it amounts to one thing, would I trust this person with my puppy? Luckily for me yes I do trust Sylvia and we can discuss what she is doing and both monitor her progress, as Sylvia works her in the club I run and I can watch her working any time I like. One thing which is quite funny, is that as soon as we get to club the pup watches for Sylvia arriving, greets her like a long lost friend and then works for Sylvia while I am a few feet away running a training class. At the end we get together and pup happily gets into my car and we go home.

I would have before been totally against this, but having seen how my pup has adapted and how much she really enjoys it I am now happy with this. I suppose it is similar for me to have a puppy walker coming to my house except my dog gets a lot of one to one involvement, which is better than a dog walker who walks several dogs and therefore cannot devote the time to really immerse themselves into the pups training and life.

With regard to renting dogs that I definitely would not agree to. The reasons being numerous, such as how much doggy knowledge does the renter have, how would they react if the dog chewed something up, or peed on the carpet, what type of handling and training experience they have? and that for starters! From the dogs point of view if it was rented out by several different handlers would it become confused and stressed, does it have a temperament to be able to cope with this? Again this would be the tip of the iceberg for me and thats before we got started on feeding, bedding and exercise! For me renting a dog by the hour would be utterly appalling.

Just to widen this a bit and hopefully not stray off topic I have two more thoughts for this discussion.
Firstly Jet who recently won Crufts is owned by another family not his handler Jim. Many show show dogs will travel far and wide with handlers and then retire to the owners homes after the show season ends when the next season starts they move back with their handlers. Some dogs are exported to kennels to be handled by other people to gain an overseas title, then return home to their owner. One dog I know of went from Scandinava to the UK then USA and then to Europe and finally returned home.

Working dogs are trained then sold on as fully trained working dogs or they might be with a puppy walker such as guide dogs then they are taken into training centres and finally placed in a home. So these dogs in effect are moving through a series of homes, the one thing which defines these dogs and the show dogs and the situation I have is that the people concerned do check out the homes the dogs are going to and they are usually homes where treatment is consistent and welfare is consistent. These type of set up are totally different to renting out dogs where there would be no control on consistency of care, training and exercise.

So to sum up yes there are times when sharing a dog can work but it needs to be based on total trust and the knowledge that the people involved have the dogs welfare at heart. Renting simply could not offer this to the same extent, and when money is involved there are far too many issues, over rights to the dog and how it is treated.