Just reading through certain posts and noticed there are alot concerning people who work all day and keep dogs. What do you all actually think about this subject I personally don't mind and understand that people have to work. Some people seem to have strong opinions about this please tell.......

It very much depends on the dog and on the owner .
Some dogs will be quite able to be left alone and will happily sleep the day away until their owner come home to make a great big fuss of him and take him out to walk in his favourite places .
Others will crave human attention and need to be motivated throughout the day to stop them from destroying the house . Some dogs are too young to be left .
Similarly though there are owners who are home all day and give their dog little attention . Some dogs are left outside with nothing to do even when the owner is home .
Others may work all day and make provisions for some one to pop in throughout the day and take their dog out or to check he is ok .
A dog needs to know he is loved and to feel secure ( just like a child does) whether the owner works or not .
It very much depends on the dogs personality , its homelife , its owers and the quality time they spend together .
Lel

we work full time and have a dog walker for our lab every lunchtime

So far things are working fine although its a lot of effort in the evenings and weekends to keep her happy!!!
its worth it though

I wouldn't contemplate owning a dog and working all day if the dog had to be left on its own for long periods of time, not fair in my opinion.
Dawn.

Agree Dawn, and I would never sell a puppy to such a home, it may work for some but it will always be an experiment and then every one, the dog, the kids, the owners themselves suffer when it fails. The dog may even pay for the failure with his life if he has developed behavioural problems that no-one else will take on.

What happens if your circumstnces change though and you have to suddenly go out to work,?
Do you rehome the dog ?

Of course anything could happen, I could go under a bus tomorrow :) then obviously attempts would be made to cope with the situation and possibly it wouldn't work out but thats a lot different to knowingly stepping into such a situation.

what about families who already have a dog!!!!

if they've made it work with their first would you not consider letting them have a puppy then

You may be right Rachael, but that first dog may have eased into it i.e. Mum at home when it was a puppy, later doing a bit of part time during school hours before finally full time, that sort of thing. Also just because the first dog (by luck) had turned out to have the nature to cope with this doesnt necessary follow that the next pup will turn out to have the same, it still remains a gamble. I agree it could be argued that an unwanted dog could benefit from a chance in a home like this but on the other hand it removed his chances of getting a 'better' home from his point of view and it may cause him to develop behavioural problems that will ruin his chances in the future.

Anyway, besides all that, I want only the best for my puppies and I'm afraid for me personally these homes are not the 'best'.

I really do understand your point of view and as hypocritical as it sounds I dont imagine I'd be much different if the puppies were mine as now I realise how hard it is to have a dog when you work and can see how much easier it must seem to rehome the dog rather than make the effort BUT I cant agree with the rescus dogs missing out on BETTER homes by going to someone who works all day.

There are thousands of dogs in rescue all over the country who are desperate for homes. If those BETTER homes were out there we wouldnt have so many dogs in rescue. Who doesnt work?? the retired - ideal candidates I agree both sets of my grandparents rescue older dogs and are excellant owners. Mothers & housewifes - my mum tells me over and over that being a mother and housewife is a full time job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes they work from home but do they really have any more time to devote to a dog than me. The only other catergory I can think of is those on the dole and I wont go into my opinions of them but they are surely the last people we want to rescue dogs.

So unless we can somehow magic thousands of retired couples willing to take on dogs of every age, size and shape there are going to be a lot of dogs miserable, alone and often put to sleep when there are loving homes waiting for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a few more categories, those who work part-time content to have a lot less material things, those who work from home (increasing this one), those who have another income ie property, those that live on their investments and those that marry well ;) I fall into a couple of these categories but I'm not saying which :)

hmm yeah I forgot about part timers and people who dont have to work (god wish I was one of those, need to win the lottery)
however you look at it though there are thousands of dogs needing homes and there just arent thousands of people queuing up to take them!!!!!
I WANT A RESCUE DOG!!!!!
(please picture me throwing my toys out of my pram) :D