Hello All

Please can you give me some advise on the best age to leave two dogs alone together. My two are 16 months and 2 years old and when I go to work one is left in a pen in the kitchen and the other is loose in the kitchen ( I am lucky that I have a big kitchen).  I go to work in the morning and come home for an hour for lunch and swap them over then a family member will come over again to let them out and swap them over again.  I would like to get rid of the pen and let them both out. But I am worried incase they hurt each other as they get over excited when playing and one always goes to far.  I am also worried that if they are in together then they will get out of there routine as they both sleep from 9-12, 1.30- 2.30, 3.00 - 5.00.

What do you think?  should I leave them alone together or are they fine as they are? Or Should I put one in the hall or one in the kitchen with a baby gate between them??

I don't know what breed you have, but there is eight months between my two dogs. Shi-tzus. I know they are only small. Mine are quite happy together, they find their own space to sleep while I am at work. Perhaps you could try  leaving them together for short times while you are not working. I would have thought it was a bit stressful shutting one away but still in full view of the other. (I am not a lover of these cage things.) I don't know what other readers think.

Just a thought if no-one is at home at some stage, how can you be sure what times they sleep. Just wondering.

I took advice from my breeder on this matter. She has a few dogs and said that she never leaves them alone together, just in case. My pup is in the pen and my 11 year old does his own thing and has the rest of the house. Saying that though, I never had a problem leaving my previous dog alone with our staffie, but they were both over the age of 10 years old so would sleep most of the day.

You know your dogs better than anyone else and would know if there were going to be any potential problems of fighting etc.

All four of my dogs are together in the kitchen whilst I'm at work, they are 1 nearly 12 years, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 2 year old, they love being together!

My 2 year old I didn't want him to go in too early but he decide decided at 12 weeks that he wanted to be with the rest of them.

We initially tried to separate my pup from my older dog while we were at work but even though she was in a pen and could see my other dog she got horribly distressed, cried, paced and tried everything she could to get to my other dog. Even if my boy came and lay beside her pen she still would not settle but if we let her out of the pen she was fine. In the end I was so worried that she would injure herself trying to escape from the pen that we decided to leave them together. So far so good and if I can manage to creep into the house without them hearing me, I usually find them curled up together sound asleep.

It depends on the breed. My dogs have always been together from day 1.