Hi

I was wondering how people who work full time make it work owning a dog.

A friend has a retired greyhound and shes a nurse who does 12hr shifts 3x a week.

Anyone here ever worked full time and made it work with a dog?

Luckily i work from home but this interests me

I don’t work full time but I would assume it would be a combination of doggy day care and dog walkers, maybe a family member looking after whilst they are at work. It tends to be the answer to the question when I put it to people who are interested in puppies.

I work two shifts live alone and work full time.

Luckily for me two doors away is a lady who was a good friend of my mother's and I have known her all my life, she knows my shifts and comes and let's my dogs out for me.

I walk them either before or after work depending on my shifts

Over the years different arrangements were made .
First dog i worked 8am to 4pm coming home at lunch time for an hour .my other half did 10am  to when ever because I was home and with the dog
Later it was a mixture of day care and dog walkers .
As pups we took our annual holidays when they first arrived and as I would in a school tried to combine puppy arrival with summer holidays but that's more specific to my situation.
Sadly imo I know people who leave their dogs all day when they work . They dont love them any less but insist the dog is fine. Not something I could do especially as I get stressed if something happens and I am away for more than 4 hour's on rare occasions

I wouldn't recommend getting a puppy and working full time. I can't see a way that a puppy in those conditions wouldn't lose out a lot on what they need, unless you have a lot of help from family members outside the house.

Anecdotal story: When we've bred, we don't home puppies to homes where a dog walker will be used or required and we turned down a home on that basis for a litter we bred. A pup from that litter bounced back to us at 12wks and the home we turned down re-approached us to ask again and to promise they most definitely wouldn't use a dog walker and had set up an arrangement with their sister in law who worked from home to have the pup during the day. I wanted to give them a chance as it seemed they had taken on feedback and made changes to what they were offering. So placed the pup with them...

Fast forwards about a year or so and... guess what.... I witness with my own eyes this dog jump out the back of a dog walker's van with a bunch of other dogs. They weren't travelling separately in the van and the walker was holding a reactive spaniel, muzzled on leash, which was barking reactively at every dog that leapt out. I managed to hold my tongue and say nothing to the home about this for the sake of preserving some kind of contact. But when I then got an email from them saying he was starting to show signs of reactivity to people and 'some' dogs, well I just couldn't any longer - and had to make a connection for them between this experience I'd witnessed and his behaviour and development. They reacted by cutting me off. They also neutered him, which of course did absolutely nothing but is everyone's knee-jerk reaction to any behavioural problem whatsoever, instead of thinking about the choices they've made for their dog in its formative years.

ANYWAYS... You don't know what your dog is experiencing if they are out of your care and especially when this involves contact with other dogs, it is risky. My choice is not to allow this to happen for my dogs.

With an older dog, it is definitely possible with the right dog and the right set up in terms of dog walkers. But keep in mind that dog walkers are not appropriate or ideal for many dogs and getting a dog whose future life with you is dependent on it working out to be ok for them to go out with a dog walker, might just backfire if you're not lucky.

Greyhounds are often very laid back and lazy around the house, so I could imagine it working quite well with that breed for someone to work full time. They can also be exercised on leash without too much problem if someone wanted to employ a dog walker without risking the contact with other dogs.

So - it's very breed (and age) dependent).

Thanks everyone, my friend recused her greyhound he is  a retired racing greyhound and the rescue knew she did 12hr shifts 3x a week and it takes her 40 mins to get to work so they knew the dog would be on its on 13hrs and 20 mins , which suprised me but they found the right dog for her. She walks him before and after work and she made a safe dog run type thing for him to go in for his toiletry she has a dog flap on her back door for him that only opens for him and he goes in a secure dog run to do his toiletry and he then goes back inside. He sleeps for 9 hours a day and plays with the toys shes left out and watches through the window for the rest and he seems happy.

She spends massive amounts of time with him the other 4 days shes off

Apart from compainship a great part of not leaving a dog for hours is if theu can't go to the toilet.soinds like your friend has that sorted .
I am not sure with x racers how much time they spend alone or with other dogs for company?
Sounds like he is in a particularly good situation and is happy

I would have helped but i live 2hrs away from her and before covid i only met up with her once every 2 weeks.

She all alone all her family have passed away , both parents are gone and grandparents and shes an only child so has no one to help her so she made a secure dog run , its similar to a cat run so no one can get in but no one can get out so hes safe.

They matched her with one who does nothing but sleep hes one of there biggest couch potatos.

I must say I do like greys.

I wonder if all sighthounds are like this or if its just Greys who sleep all day

Let's see what the sighthound owners say . Ive only ever heard it said of greys and apparently being couch potatoes in the main they are good dog for older people. I am told that a couple of 20 min walks and they are happy .off lead even better  That's from greyhound rescues I have spoken too.
My problem with the breed is that I have cats and wouldn't want to risk an accident

My friends only get 2, 25 min walks when shes on shifts but gets longer the other 4 days a week

we have a whippet and I can hand on heart say she generally sleeps majority of the day. short bursts of exercise and she is happy.  suits us as I have unfortunately developed severe arthritis so not up to the walking a weimaraner would require (previous breed) she is spark out across my lap as I type this. only exercise she has had today was eating her breakfast lol   she'll get a short walk & run later then thats it

Luckily, only for one period during our life with our Bassets, have I had to work 'full time' and that didn't last.   I did go back for 3 hours after our first puppy but he wasn't happy so as this involved working in a Bank (on the tils) over the lunch period, I sorted that by taking him with me in the car and leaving him in a huge shaded carpark with other members of staff going out to be with him.  That worked.   The other time was when overseas and hitting a bad financial patch, I had to go back to working 3 days a week, Tuesday to Thursday, full time.  That left me with Mondays and Fridays + weekends at home.  At first I came home over the lunch hour but by the time I travelled there and back, it really only left me with 15 mins with them and I came to the conclusion that it disturbed them with me turning up and going again, more than leaving them from 8.30 until 5.30 when I got home.    I hated having to do that and indeed had to leave newspapers and other covers down as no way could they hold for that long.  I had no neighbour I could trust to let them out, but I did leave a contact number in case the power went out/fire.

As soon as things improved, I stopped working again but the plus was they did have the company of each other.  The downside of all that was if we ever went out during the evening, they stopped being clean indoors - becaused they didn't know when we'd be back........ after time, that stopped.

In general surely arrangements have to be made for basic care, if working full-time is unavoidable.    I'd never have a puppy and work full time - I was at home with our first for 6 months before I went back, part-time.

I refuse to sell to people who work full time.  Dogs are companion animals.

> I wonder if all sighthounds are like this or if its just Greys who sleep all day

Sighthounds definitely all love to sleep, but some are fizzier when awake. Salukis and afghans for example, afghans and salukis are also famous for non existent/flexible recalls But in general most sighthounds are happy with a quick whizz around then to sleep for 12 hours, wake, eat, get cuddles and repeat.

> My problem with the breed is that I have cats and wouldn't want to risk an accident

I know lots of people (including me) who have cats and sighthounds, a puppy brought into a house with an existing cat will have no problems, or an older dog that has known cats before.

It's harder to introduce older dogs to cats but it can be done. My niece rescued an ex working grey x saluki a few years ago, we had a litter of kittens at the time and this tough, ex working girl who was listed as definitely not to go to a home with small furries was absolutely fine. Of course I was very careful with introductions, and she was muzzled initially, but she went from a coursing home to having kittens playing with her tail

1234 I would have been fuming too. There are some very good walkers around and some very poor ones. I believe it was yourself who started up a training company where I am, still going now under a slightly different name with the current owner? We probably know the same dodgy ones out there, sadly.
I've had people from dog day care owners contact me for a puppy, I'm sorry to say that large commercial set ups like that are not a good thing and wouldn't want a pup I've bred to be spending many days in one of those either.
Sorry to hear that they cut you off, that's my worst nightmare.

Flexible recalls ,love that chamsung
Interesting to learn more about the various sighthounds

I didn't sell to people working full time either fwiw.

Thank you all for your replies very interesting.

I luckily work from home so have the time needed to look after a pup.

But this has got me thinking how long is ok to leave an adult dog ( im getting a Rottweiler) for example if im going food shopping or need to go to the hospital how long is ok to leave? I read 4-5hrs is the max

4 hours has always been my maximum. sometimes it has slipped over but I try to avoid that or have someone available to pop in.

It becomes a lifestyle .After many years its almost the first thing I think about if I have to go out and no one is going to be at home

My son got married last year so we were away all day . Shorter wedding than had been expected as you can imagine .I was worried for months before but arranged a reliable friend to come in and walk Brooke a couple of times so all was well

I think of it like, how long would you be comfortable without access to a toilet, or company.

This Covid period where people have reduced or even no Social contact hopefully will help people appreciate and understand that a dog has social needs, like ours, too.

Thanks both , im unlikely to be gone more than 2hrs at a time but you never now when somthing unexpected happens so would prefer to teach him to be on his own for the maximum time just incase i thought 4hrs.

Up to 4 hours is my limit-and not that length often. 
mine is expected to behave herself and settle down for 2 hours alone frequently as I do have other things to do.

Thansfully I work full time from home so my puppy is never bored

Hi
could have an insulated cabin and large dog run in secured back garden to assist? We had older dogs and just have to get up early for the AM walk and run (dont forget the mental exercise, so go to different locations, don't just walk but zigzag) and then pm walk when you get in. Also weekends you can spend more time out with he dogs, again different locations and get the mind of the dog working. Don't forget Christmas day and Birthdays !

The main issues with keeping a dog outdoors ( or free access to outside) especially without companionship,  is security and noise nuisance.

A lonely/bored dog will bark, often for prolonged periods.

A pair of dogs maybe less so, but the risk of being stolen or harmed is still there, and dogs can be noisy when they play.

Haven't you got exactly the same problem if they are inside? No matter where the dog is , if its bored (as you said) then it will bark, inside or outside.

Indoors there are fewer stimuli to encourage this.

When I left my dogs they would be in a room without access to a window onto the street, radio left on to mute external noises, and of course company, and not left longer than a few hours without someone coming in to let them out for comfort break and some human interaction to break up the time.

Surely if left indoors, any noise is way less likely to bother others.    If we lived 'attached', we made sure the doors to rooms that were attached to next door, were closed again to minimise noise.   And then there's theft - word gets round, especially in these times, when dog(s) are being left outside on their own for hours.

My lot knew their indoors place meant we might be out, but we'd be coming back, so they'd nap.   With a radio or TV on low.