Do you leave your dog inside or in the garden while you are away?

evilbaby77 · 09-10-2014 09:45AM #1

My husband and I are thinking to adopt a dog. We both work and the dog might stay alone for the all day sometimes.( 6 am-4 pm) I work 4 days per week and my husband works 4 on 4 off........... our neighbour's dog stays in the garden when they are away but he does not bark at all.........so in case we go for it ( the first 2 months we would take time off in order to bond with the dog) we don t know if to leave him outside with a nice kennel or inside. what would you suggest?
Thanks
Niamh

Nody · 09-10-2014 10:19AM

Inside; less chance of something going wrong (stolen, panicking, going after a dog in heat, freak weather etc.) assuming the dog don't choose to stay outside instead.

VonVix · 09-10-2014 10:30AM

My dogs have only been home alone once in their life so it's not a regular occurrence at all, but always inside. Would never leave a dog outside if no-one was home.

Consider a doggie daycare as well. Can't imagine leaving my dog alone regularly without doing something to break up their week and you can't rely on yourself to be motivated enough to take your dog out for a walk every morning before work!

cocker5 · 09-10-2014 11:14AM

Inside snoozing by the radiator, would never leave him alone in the garden of no one was home - lots of dog theft going on. Plus lots of fencing blowing down in this weather pets getting lost etc.

He also have full access to the downstairs of the house - so he has a great life really!

Def look into doggie day care or a reliable dog walker if you do decide to adopt a dog.

DBB · 09-10-2014 11:23AM

I wouldn't be prepared to leave a dog outside whilst I'm not home either.
But neither would I be prepared to leave a dog inside for 10 hours, without getting an opportunity for toilet breaks and social contact.
If it's 10 hours alone on a regular basis, as seems to be what you're suggesting op, then for the dog's sake, you need to be looking at daycare, a dog walker, or review the idea of getting a dog at all. The general rule of thumb is that behavioural problems are significantly more likely to occur in dogs left alone on a regular basis for more than 5-6 hours.

ABajaninCork · 09-10-2014 11:42AM

I never leave my dog outside alone. If I'm going to be out for more than three hours, then my neighbour will come over and either let him out to do his business or take him home with her until I get back. I do the same for her.

Both of us have companion breeds who HATE to be alone. Neither are destructive, thank God, but it's not nice for the dog to have no company for so long.

Gael23 · 09-10-2014 11:25PM

That length of time is too long to leave him indoors alone, you will come home to a disaster zone. Our guy is 14 years old so he's inside nearly all the time but 4 hours or so would be the limit to avoid an accident.

Missyelliot2 · 09-10-2014 11:32PM

We leave our guy inside from 8am - 3.30pm, 3 days a week. But I get up early to bring him out for a toilet run. I know that he's stretched out on the sofa for the duration, but I feel so guilty....BUT, he gets lots of walks, ball catching and attention when we get back. 10 hours is a bit long- maybe you could get a dog walker to come in on those days.

SingItOut · 10-10-2014 12:09AM

I am here most days so the dogs are in an out as they please. If we're going away in the evening for an hour or two we'll leave them inside, i think any longer inside alone would be unfair to them due to no toilet breaks. They sleep inside at night always, we have a combination lock on our gate to deter thieves, i hate them being outside and im always worrying about thieves but sometimes its just unavoidable. Whether you choose to let your dog sleep inside or outside is entirely up to you and your dogs preferance, my late Labrador used to sleep outside in a kennel my dad built especially for him, he hated sleeping indoors.

waterlepe · 10-10-2014 01:00AM

Its okay to leave your dogs inside just leave some water, and food and the dog will be happy. Also play with them for a while b4 u leave so that they will fell happy or comfortable. Hope this helps.

Mark Tapley · 10-10-2014 03:42AM

I have a dog flap so my dog can go in and out as she pleases.
She is not usually left for too long though. The garden is secure but I am a bit paranoid about dognappers after reading this thread.

DoYouEvenLift · 10-10-2014 04:01AM

Inside. She's a house pet. Redsetter by the way so she's a big dog with a lot of hair but is the most gentle and clean pet I've encountered. I'd suggest finding a place with tiles or a wooden floor to put a bed for them and basically incorporating them into the family as if they were a child for the highest reward out of having them. When ours was a puppy we were totally adament on keeping her outside and making a run and house but we weren't actually prepared so we said we'd keep her inside until the run was done. A week later we still hadn't made any movement on it so she was still staying in her bed in the corner of the kitchen. A month later still no run is when we finally talked it through and abandoned the idea of taking her out of the comfort and warmth she had clearly adjusted to pretty fast lol. Never looked back.

Almost 10 years later and we actually laugh at this now as the concept of having kept her outside and secluded from us all these years makes us think how less close we would be and probably less loving too as we'd eventually just be only going out to feed her and walk her only to basically confine her back to being outside on her own while we head back inside into the warmth. I actually feel bad, not just for the dog, when I visit other homes and see their dogs chained up and kept fenced away in the backyard or wherever but obviously you can't comment on that as it's up to the individual(s) themselves. But I feel bad for the people too as they're not getting the full loving and loyal relationship possible with their dog. It takes a bit of effort to house train them but even that is enjoyable and seeing them get more and more loyal to you is worth the hassle. Ours is kept fed and in comfort and treated with love and respect and in return you receive similar back ten fold. I think that's what having a dog, or any animal, as a pet is all about. I'll never even think about having a dog as anything but an in-house companion in my life again and you shouldn't either.

Do you leave your dog inside or in the garden while you are away?

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