Qs-Prospective great dane owner

DeadlyByDesign

Hi all

The wheels have been in motion now both research wise and housewise to accomadate a great dane into the household. In that time we have gotten 2 beautiful (if a bit mischevious cats). Can the more knowledgeable here (dane owner or nay) answer the following, as it will help whether we get the dog or not.

(1) Can a Dane pup be settled ok with 2 3 year old cats?
(2) We have a 3 bedroom house with a decent size backgarden. We plan to let the Dane have freedom of the house- is this adviseable?
(3) Myself and my wife work eight hours a day, but we are home on the button at 5.30 everyday. For the working pet owners here, is it fair/adviseable to leave the dog at home alone for this length of time?

Thanks in advance guys, any extra info please don’t be afraid to add it.

sionnaic

I'm not a cat or Great Dane owner so can't help you on points (1) or (2) but on pont (3) as a dog owner who also works 8 hours a day I can tell you it's a really bad idea to get a young puppy and then leave it alone for that long every day. A good yardstick is that no (decent) shelter would give you a puppy if they knew that was to be the case. You'd like to think breeders would also be this rigorous but sadly it's rarely the case.
8 hours is, for the majority of cases, too long for any dog to be left on it's own, and for a puppy it's just disasterous - the puppy is very likely to develop emotional and behavioural problems out of boredom and loneliness. And I think with a dog the size of a Great Dane it adds another dimesion to the difficulties that are very likely to arise from such problems. 4 hours is usually the max length they say a dog should be left on it's own.

A young puppy would have to be left inside and because of the frequency that they have to go to toilet at that age they would make an awful mess and it makes it very difficult to house train them, as they have no choice to go inside during the day - it's confusing for them (understandably). Also it's distressing for the dog to have to go in their living space and then put up with the smell and mess for such a long time - most dogs like to be clean in that regard as they get older - I mean would you like to be locked in a room with a floor covered in pee and poo for 8 hours?

Now because myself and my OH really wanted a dog, and obviously we have to work for a living, what we did was follow the advice we received from the various different shelters and rescues we visited. And that was:
- no young puppies (less than 4 months old), go for an older dog, or if you're set on a puppy then there are plenty of young dogs and older puppies (less than a year old) in shelters looking for a good home. As they're older it's also possible then to leave them outside - during the day (ours always sleep inside at night) - albeit in a secure run or garden enclosure of a suitable size and with adequate shelter - a good kennel or insulated shed with lots of comfy bedding and toys.
Also,
- get two dogs so that they'll be company for each other.
and then finally,
- try and change your work schedules to minimise the time the dog is left alone.

So what we ended up doing was rescuing a 4 month old puppy from a shelter and also taking on another 4 month old puppy whose owners (friends of my mother) couldn't keep him for various reasons. They hit it off immediately and get on really well and love to play and race each other. We also changed our working hours so that my OH leaves early and comes home early and I leave late and come home late, meaning the puppies are only on their own for 6 or 7 hours rather than the full 8-9 hours. I also try to work from home as much as I can.
It's not ideal and there are probably a lot of people on this forum who would like to lynch me for having dogs in such circumstances but needs must and very few people have the luxury of being at home all day every day. Our dogs seem very happy and contented and it's certainly better than life in the shelter. We prioritise the dogs while we're at home with lots of attention, play and morning & evening walks, and to be honest I think once they're done with their kongs and snacky-balls they tend to just sleep until we get home. Certainly if I work from home or even on the weekend they generally conk out from about 10:30am to 4pm.

Anyway sorry for the long post - I find it hard to stop when I get going! - I just really would advise against a single young puppy on it's own all day, it's just setting yourself up for hardship and it's not fair on the puppy.

DeadlyByDesign

Thank you very much for the insightful advice. I think you are right on all points. I think what we may do for the sake of the animal is hold off getting it for about 2 years, as I hope to be working from home by then. Then and only then I think it is fair to accomadate the pup. Just really want a Great Dane. But I am not going to bring it in to a household where it may be under stress.

DeadlyByDesign

Just giving this a sly bump guys to see if anyone else has more advice?

peasant

I could only emphasise what was said above and add the following:

In order to settle a dog with two cats, you need
a) a young dog that can still be formed into a cat lover, or
b) an older dog that is 100% proven to get along with cats
c) and in either case a lot of time to supervise the coming together of cats and dog

So even if you got an older dog that theoretically could be left alone for most of the day, that could not be done with cats around the house ...not without initial supervision for a few weeks (otherwise you might come home to a dead cat or a dog without eyes one day)