Dear all, my husband and i both LOVE dogs. We have been brought up with them and had them all our lives at home. We have recently moved from a flat and brought our own house. We purposefully looked for one with a good garden, well enclosed and large kennel space, in a rural area with loads of places to walk; we have even brought an estate car so doggies would have loads of space. However, now it comes to the crunch. We have been to loads of dogs homes and told as we both work there is no way we can own a dog and would be cruel and selfish to even consider it, regardless what other provisions we could make, how many dogs we take, age etc. If this is true then fair enough, we wouldn't want to cause a dog any distress. We won't get a dog for the next 45 years until we retire but this will be a very long and lonely time! Any thoughts? Other people tell us to get cats, but my heart tells me it just won't be the same, and i don't think it would be fair on the cat to be a substitute?!? What can we do? This really is heartbreaking!

An adult, housetrained dog shouldn't be left unattended for more than 4 hours at a time. Puppies obviously shouldn'e be left alone for anything like that long - and hour or two maximum (they don't train themselves!). Rescue centres are aware of this (it's often the reason dogs are given up to them in the first place - the owners didn't realise how much time and effort is involved in dog ownership) so generally have blanket rules - it's done in the interest of the dogs.

I know this has come up many times on this board so you could maybe do a search to see what people have said in the past. Personally i dont think dogs should be left for long periods but thats easy for me to say as i am a Houswife.
In the real world people do have to work and most own dogs that are happy and healthy. I know of people who come home from work at lunch times or hire dog walkers to let their dogs out at times throughout the day.
I think you can do it but you have to be prepared for things to be more of a challenge than if you are at home all day. Toilet training for example will take twice as long and you might have lots of incidences of chewing etc.
I would think about the hours you work and whether you can give the dog the opportunity to get out and be stimulated throughout the day. If the answer is no then i personally wouldn't get a dog.

We work full time and have 4 dogs ..... lots of people do - if you are prepared to put the time and effort in then it can be fine.
We get up extra early and exercise our lot and then the same in the evening plus dog clubs multiple nights a week - its not a cut and dried situation - if you want to make it work it can and will IF you have the energy and inclination to have the dogs as top priority when you are around!

Rescue would not give me a dog either I am sure :(

I'm in exactly the same situation as you BusyDoggs and I'm sure that many people in my breed, if I hadn't of imported them wouldn't let me have one either if I came into the breed now :d

I have four loving, happy dogs, and I live on my own, work full time but my spare time is dedicated to my dogs.  I know that I would find it much harder though if I had an only dog and in some ways I know it wouldn't be fair on them.

Hi,

It could work for you if your prepared to commit your spare time to your dogs and make arrangements for them to be walked while your at work.

I also work fulltime and we get a dog walker in before lunch and my friend and neighbour picks up my dog everyday about 2.30pm and she walks him with her dog him and he spends the rest of the day at her place and I pick him up after work. I walk her dog first thing in the morning with my dog so it works very well and our dogs are the best of friends.

You couldn't get a puppy so an adult dog would be best, but as someone else said Rescues tend not to allow people who work fulltime have dogs. You might find one that will when you explain what you have arranged in terms of caring for the dog while you are at work.

Keeping thinking about it, I'm sure you'll make the right decision. :)

Walking the dogs evening and morning is something we have scheduled for - we've even been getting up early to practice! The idea of aranging visits with a neighbour is an excellent one, and really could be the solution. We would only get a couple of dogs anyway, so they would have each other for company as well. I will talk to a few people locally and see what they think. Perhaps there are doggy day care options? We want to spend loads of time walking the dogs at the weekends and already do this a lot without dogs, so there wouldnt be a huge change, and we don't holiday abroad so the dogs could enjoy trips to cornwall and scotland with us.

Thankyou greatly, you have given us hope that if we work hard enough there are ways. still not sure where we could actually get dogs - would a home except doggy home help? We still have a lot to consider and will look into all thoughts before making a decsision.

Lucy

There is no hard and fast rule on this one.  There are people who successfully work full time and have dogs, but it does require an incredible amount of commitment.  Can you and your husband imagine getting up at 5am on a cold, dark, rainy January morning to walk the dogs, every single day of your life?  Before a full day at work?  Then returning home at 5.30 or 6, and immediately going out with the dogs again, regardless of the weather and regardless of how hard a time you have had at work?  Possibly you would also need to either come home at lunch time or arrange for a sitter to come by and walk them then too.  It is not enough to provide a yard and a run and kennel, because dogs crave human companionship and they won't exercise themselves in an enclosed space - you need to walk them.

If you can BOTH imagine doing that, every day, then it might be possible that you could have dogs and work. 

As you can see, hardly any rescue kennels would consider you because you both work.

That means you would probably get a puppy.  There is an advantage to this, in that you can train the dog to be happy being left from a young age - rather than taking on a rescue and not knowing whether it can adjust to your lifestyle or not. 

You would need to think carefully about the breed of dog you choose, since some are happier being left than others.  Do you have any thoughts on this?  Also some breeds of dog need more exercise than others and how long you are out at 5am and 6pm is going to be influenced by this.

Also, please do not get 2 puppies together as this will be a recipe for disaster - they will be impossible to train together, since they will distract each other and bond to each other more than to you.  If you want more than one dog, get one puppy now, and wait until it is about 18 months old at least before getting another.

When you get the puppy, you would need to arrange for one or both of you to have time off work or holiday (ideally one of you, followed by the other, to maximise the time).  During this time you would need to carefully train the puppy to be left for slowly increasing amounts of time.  When you go back to work, you may need to arrange for a sitter to come in and let your puppy out a few times a day. 

Anyway - it's not impossible but you would need to be committed and dedicated - but from what you say so far, it sounds like you are.

I am by no means an expert unlike others on here but we have a 9 month old pup and both work full time.  We get up at 6am and go for a half hour walk followed by some training and breakfast.  Myself and OH leave the house 8.30am ish.  Our dog walker (Well father in law!!) comes round at 11am for half an hour for a short walk etc. then im home at 1.30pm for an hour when we have another training/play session.  OH gets home at 4.15pm ish and then its out on the field for a run and play.  We have followed the same routine since we got him and Nero seems to happily accept being left now.  We didn't have too many problems with house training etc as I meticulously followed the advice given on CD!  However something to bear in mind that we didn't perhaps appreciate is that if Nero sleeps a lot during the day then he is on the go constantly all evening which is fine for us as we're happy to devote most of our evening to spending time with him but if you have a social life in the evenings as well then I would suggest its a definite no go.  I would prefer to leave two dogs together to keep each other company and we certainly intend to find Nero a friend once he's a bit older.  Anyway, all im trying to say is that it can work and I can't imagine being without my boy now but it certainly requires a lot of commitment and effort.  Good luck!