dog owners...

[TCPpacket]

my 4.5 month golden stays in her crate while my gf and i are at work or school. we put her in around 8am, come home to walk her at lunch, then put her in again until 5pm. she's still in the chewing phase so we always have to keep an eye on her. unfortunately, she just had surgery to remove a benign tumor on her head so she has to be watched 24-7 for the next two weeks to make sure she doesn't rip out the stitches.

 

[cHeeZeFacTory]

my dog hangs around in a gated yard all day. Most of the time he's just lying in the sun or in the dog house. I think the highlight of his day is when the mailman comes.

teddy

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: cHeeZeFacTory
my dog hangs around in a gated yard all day. Most of the time he's just lying in the sun or in the dog house. I think the highlight of his day is when the mailman comes.

teddy

Your mailman must really deliver.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I work 12am-8am and my dogs spend that time sleeping on the couch.

 

[essasin]

I ususally dont leave my smaller indoor dogs alone but they have been alone for 6+ hours and they just sit around the couches most of the time. I would like to add that leaving an older is dog alone is a lot different that leaving a puppy or a dog in their adolence age alone because they are likely to chew the random objects in your house.

 

[0roo0roo]

if you are going to make the commitment of owning a dog..you go all the way, responsibility sacrifices and all. so what if your carpet smells. thats no good reason to cage him in a bathroom hours at a time. make the dog mental. just go buy a freakin carpet shampoo machine and use it. costs what? 150 dollars? give it more baths. wash its feet after it goes out etc.

and train your dog so it can roam the hosue without destroying things. my dog stays home 8 hours at a time just fine. but its got the entire house to roam. dogs are pack animals, they consider the whole house their home. and they don't like being trapped. being trapped makes them vulnerable to predators, and i'm sure they still have that instinct. enclosed places to sleep perhaps, but ones they have the ability to leave. i can tell this with my dog. if i close a door on him and keep him in a room for a while, he'll want to leave it just to leave it

 

[rh71]

^ for 4 years, both my brother and I lived there. We weren't thinking 10-15 years down the road when we picked him up... and he definitely belongs to our mom so we're not taking him with us anyway. They care about the cleanliness of the house and while they've accepted that it will smell from time to time, it is no reason to let the dog sh!t all over the place when it needs to. He doesn't destroy things, he just likes to leave little gifts behind if we don't tend to his need at the right time... he must go when he must go. They do have a carpet steam cleaner, but they're not going to whip it out after every day or two. I'm as compassionate as the next person when it comes to dogs, but this is a situation where we have to consider both sides.

For what it's worth, I am still getting conflicting stories with these responses... dogs like to sleep... like to hang in their own corner of the house... vs. they need to roam. Oh well...

 

[MagicConch]

I think it depends on the dog's personality and the breed. Some breeds really can't handle much time alone, while others, I would think, could handle it better.

 

[0roo0roo]

your dog sh*ts everywhere? wtf? you never potty trained it?
dogs are easy to potty train. they dont like filthing up their house. their digestive system is horizontal, its not like us with all the gravity and having to keep it in. so they can control when to poo rather decently. if you didn't train it.. well everyones paying for that mistake now. esp the poor dog. if an owner fails to train a dog early on, it ends up with banishment to yard,or enclosed room. further mentally damaging the dog making its behavior worse. and it just goes on and on in a viscious cycle.

lesson for new dog owners... @#% READ A FREAKIN BOOK ON TRAINING.

 

[Anubis]

my sister has 2 dogs, they are left alone for 6 hours m-f as my sister is a lawyer and her husband is a doctor

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
your dog sh*ts everywhere? wtf? you never potty trained it?
dogs are easy to potty train. they dont like filthing up their house. their digestive system is horizontal, its not like us with all the gravity and having to keep it in. so they can control when to poo rather decently. if you didn't train it.. well everyones paying for that mistake now. esp the poor dog. if an owner fails to train a dog early on, it ends up with banishment to yard,or enclosed room. further mentally damaging the dog making its behavior worse. and it just goes on and on in a viscious cycle.

lesson for new dog owners... @#% READ A FREAKIN BOOK ON TRAINING.

alright, i'm going to try this again...

He's stuck on his own, with nobody to let him out into his "place" (the garage) for 7-8 hours in a day regardless, right ? He needs to poop. Where is he gonna go ? Do we let him do it wherever he can find, or in the bathroom where we can maintain it ?

Again, he's trained to go to the garage, when we're around... the only time he has accidents is during the middle of the night or during the day when we're gone (if you can call those accidents)...

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: shimsham
is the dog trained to do his business outside? if not, they need to train him. he will hold it and not crap and piss everywhere once he knows only to go outside.

Training-wise - he does his thing in the garage - and knows to. He knows the command and reacts and runs down there if we think it's time for him to go. He does his thing and we reward him for it.

But he's a small dog who simply can't always hold it in. He's had quite a few accidents... he sleeps at night in my parents' room and has accidents from time to time. Can't trust him to keep it clean on his own... there's a gift for us in the bathroom everyday. It's quite a long time to ask any dog to hold it in anyway. So in short, we need to keep him somewhere (indoors) that's easily clean-able.

his routine has changed and hes having a hard time coping. how long has it been since no one has been there to keep him company and let him out? if its been recently, he may just need more time and training to adjust his body.

 

[0roo0roo]

thats strangely irregular. most dogs poop on schedule. all you need to do is let them out in the morning, then at night.... you are feeding him kibble and not some human food right?

 

[TwoBills]

Originally posted by: rh71
Well it's like this... before our house was burglarized, he was kept in the kitchen because he does have to #1 & #2 during those 7-8 hours. Our kitchen has tile floors, not carpet so it's all good. Then after the burglary, we installed a motion sensor alarm system so the entire downstairs is out... we have to keep him upstairs (alarms on windows only)... and the only area without carpet upstairs is the tile bathroom which is 15' in length but narrow. Can't really keep him anywhere else. We tried to let him roam the upstairs but the carpet smells now for good reason. I guess I'll just make trips over there more often...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turn the motion detectors upside down and lower them to about 3 or 4 feet off the floor. Make sure they're not "looking" at a couch or something the dog can get on. This will give you a "pet alley" from the height of the motion detectors down to the floor.

After you've done this the dog can have the run of the house. Cut a "doggie door" into the garage entry door to allow the dog access to the garage. He doesn't like crappin' where he sleeps anymore than you would.

 

[rh71]

^ would rather not mess with the motion sensors... already have had 2 false alarms because they were faulty. I don't think the cops like us very much anymore.

 

[TwoBills]

Shouldn't have any false alarms. Call the alarm company, tell them the dog is setting them off, and you need them moved. With an animal in the house they should've been mounted the way I said to begin with.

Why not just keep the dog in the garage?

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: TwoBills
Shouldn't have any false alarms. Call the alarm company, tell them the dog is setting them off, and you need them moved. With an animal in the house they should've been mounted the way I said to begin with.

Why not just keep the dog in the garage?

that's a possibility but really it's not much different than the bathroom except for a few feet (only half the garage is unused). It's a cement floor vs. a tile floor and no view either way.