Leaving a Dog Alone During The Day

I think too alot of it has to do with what you do with the dog when you are there.  Quality not Quantity type thing.  I walk is good, but if you can do a nice hour long walk in the morning with some nice (safe) offleash time is better.  Some hard play and/or running is great in the evening.  Lots of triaining and mental stimulation.  And if you can make sure that the dog comes first before socializing, then I think you're set.  A dog would be much happier to be with you then in some shelter waiting for someone with the ideal situation to come along.  Besides, someone with the ideal situation would likely get a puppy.

Callie's first post in this thread sums it up pretty well in my opinion. And most shelters will not just hang on to the animal until the perfect situation comes along. They are far too overloaded for that.
There was another post somewhere in here that said "my dog prefers his crate to being dead". [sm=bravo.gif]! How true! (Holly especially, who came from a county animal control where they only give their dogs 10 days before euth.)
 
Both of my Aussies are rescues, and neither suffers when I am away. But then, they get walked 4 miles a day (usually evening) plus other exercise in the morning. (&/or afternoon, now that am retired.)
Holly (3) has to stay in a bedroom, because training her not to chew has been slow. Managed to accomplish this within just the one room, and feel fortunate for that. Dundee (6) has the run of the house. What do they both do during this time? Sleep. Toys remain unplayed with in the same places they started out. (Holly has been with me since 12/14/06, and Dundee since 2/2/02.)
 
Neither has an accident unless actually sick, and they both get full water bowls when I leave. BTW, they both usually refuse to drink when I'm not home, and tank up like camels upon my return.
When I'm home, both dogs are loose in the house (unless we're out walking or hiking!)
 
So I say go for it, but with one important addition:
Sure, line up care options first. But don't just go out and bring home the first cute dog that seems to suit your situation. Find several. Or many. When you literally can't sleep lest the dog will be euthanized or go to a different home, that's the one to adopt. 
When you feel the dog is really part of the family from the start, you're more likely to be committed to making it work for the dog as well as for the humans.
 
Best wishes- and Welcome to dog.com!

surely MOST dogs are left alone for 10 hours most days? you work a normal 8 hr shift add some commute time in there and you get 10 hours.
I exercise my dogs hard in the morning and they happily sleep all day-- it's easy to hold your bladder if you're passed out.  Leaving a dog in a crate for 10 hours is just outright cruelty, but if the dog isn't trustworthy in the house you can baby-gate the dog into a room.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

...but if the dog isn't trustworthy in the house you can baby-gate the dog into a room.

 
Unless you have a dog that can jump a gate.  [] 
 
Which is what happened in my case.  I felt awful about leaving Buddy home alone when I went back to work.  So, I left him in the kitchen.  About a week later he figured out how to jump the gate.  So, I put two chairs in front of the gate.  Figured out how to get over those, too.  I started leaving him out in the house.  He chewed up my rug.  So, Buddy is crated for the day.  I live in an apartment and I just can't trust him 100% yet for such a long day.  However, I do leave him out on his own when I leave the house for short periods of time - 1/1.5 hours.  We are working on it, but for now we are both comfortable with the crate.  He gets his Nylabones and a football stuffed with treats in his crate every morning.  Not the "best" solution, but it is what I have to do. 

So, Buddy is crated for the day. I live in an apartment and I just can't trust him 100% yet for such a long day. However, I do leave him out on his own when I leave the house for short periods of time - 1/1.5 hours. We are working on it, but for now we are both comfortable with the crate. He gets his Nylabones and a football stuffed with treats in his crate every morning. Not the "best" solution, but it is what I have to do.

 
No worries Sue, I am in the same situation with Teddi. He gets crated during the day, but our neighbor does come by once or twice a day to let them out and play in our fenced in yard. She is definately a god send for that, saves us money on a dogsitter! But yes, we were leaving Teddi out with Maggie when we are gone for an hour, and he chewed a part of our couch....we are working on it as well []

My largest dog GSMD and my smallest dog, Pug both are crated all day.  From 7 AM to 5 PM sometimes later, neither one minds at all.  My new dog is free all day.  If anything the free dog gets more crazy when hearing things outside and feels the need to freak out, trying to look out windows etc - when crated she dosen't do that freaking stuff.  So if I am gone to long I crate her as well for her saftey and safty of my leather couch!
 
My new dog was abused with a crate IMO - she was NEVER let out of it - only to be walked to the deck where they tied her for short periods of time and then returned her to the crate.  Needless to say, she isn't as keen on the crate now that she has a large yard, nice home and lots of freedom which she is very reliable with.[]
 
My other two love their crates, my Swissy goes in his crate on his own when he wants to sleep and stays there most of the day even when I am home.  The door is open, can come out if he wants for the most part prefers to sleep in it.  So leaving and closing the door means nothing to him.  My Pug is the same way, often I go look for her and find her sleeping in her crate.  It dosen't matter if they are loose or in their crates they always do the same thing, sleep...  There have been studies proving dogs sleep 18-20 hours out of 24 hour day.

Unless you have a dog that can jump a gate.

 
At one point we had to use three gates stacked up completely blocking the doorway. 
you can always shut the door, too, but we wanted the puppy to be able to see the other dogs.

I have set up a web cam to watch my dogs during the day and they all sleep.  In a crate, out of a crate, they all sleep.  Occasionally one will start barking and there will be a bark fest for a while, but that's about it.  One of the two bigger dogs is crated while we're at work because I just don't trust them together for that long of a time.  If it's 4 hours or less we might leave them out together.  It's usually Tasha that is crated simply because she's got a bigger crate but I do rotate who gets to be out of one.  If they get bones or kongs, then both go in crates because the two little guys won't fight over food, but Pepper might cause a ruckus about food.  If she's got a kong or bone and Shadow gets too close chasing her treat ball around, she growls, snarls and is a meany, but she's crated so no harm done.  Left loose and she'd probably get up and move away with her bone/kong but I don't want to risk it.

And a dog door would be wonderful, but I know Shadow would eventually dig out and Tasha would jump out any chance she got to follow me to work.  [8|]  She's scaled fences and deck walls to be with mom in the front yard.  Silly girl....

Oh and we leave at 7:40am and return about 5:30pm.  I do hate to leave them for that long w/o a pee break, but it can't be helped.  If I got a new dog, then I would make arrangements for a dog walker until the dog got used to the routine and such.

I have set up a web cam to watch my dogs during the day and they all sleep

 
My fiance and I have been wanting to do that!! I've been wanting to know what they do all day while I'm not home []

I did that for a little while with Marlowe. It was really boring viewing. Every now and then he'd move from the sofa to the chair, but that was about it.

coming in late on this but I concur with others in that

1. it depends on the dog - mine up to about 15-16 mos old just didn't sleep in the day and still needs LOTS of activity.  But now after his morning activity is content to basically sleep all day
2. may be its large dogs but mine rarely pees, he still hates that we wake him at night in order to pee before our bedtime.  he has been known to go extended periods without peeing because its not his normal place.  He sometimes is up for over an hour before he has his first pee of the day
3. crating is not cruel.  We had to crate until he was about a year or so and he never minded.  he still associates his crate with complete relaxation.  Each night he gets up off his bed ( after we turn off the lights an retire to bed) and goes in his crate for the night, he's now 2.

So find a placid, older dog and you will have no problems - and do adopt from someplace.  There are sooo many homeless dogs!

I use to work in an office and when I made the switch to working from home I thought the dogs would throw a small party - "Yay, Mom is here all day, great!!! What fun!"

Yeah right, they still sleep where they would have if I was at work, and the major difference is that I can take them out or play short clicker games with them at home. They had adjusted to resting all day and being "up" when we got home from work and keep that schedule now.

I do prefer a way for them to get out for toilet breaks, and we always had a dog walker when we were both at work in offices.

ORIGINAL: Sue and Buddy

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

...but if the dog isn't trustworthy in the house you can baby-gate the dog into a room.

Unless you have a dog that can jump a gate.  [] 

I've got one that can jump the gate, collapse the gate, and manipulate the gate.  He can get out at the blink of an eye.  The trick is....I feed him in a kong in the mornings.  He's not going to jump to the other side without eating first.  And since I know he's going to jump the gate, I hide treats in several places in the rest of the house.  I make him WORK if he leaves the comfort of the gated portion.

And I know why he jumps the gate...He does it so he can hang out and play with Dodo the cat, look out the window, bark at passers by and sleep on the couch. 

Just wanted to thank everyone for their comments and responses to this question. We did end up adopting a 5 month old dog from an group that rescues and fosters unwanted dogs and cats from the local shelter.

 He has been with us just under a month. He goes to a dog daycare when we work full days. Perhaps when he is a mature adult we can revisit the option of keeping him at home a couple of days a week when we work, and sending him to doggy day care the other days.

 He is a German Shepherd/black Lab mix. His foster family was very good about training him, and he is an eager learner, so he has had a good start. We also have him in obedience classes, but for the most part he is already well behaved. He has gotten along well with all ages and personalities of both people and dogs that he has met thus far.

Thanks again for the help.

 Congratulations!  What a sweetheart he looks like The doggie daycare sounds like a good alternative. I sure wish MORE people would ask the questions you did and think about it before getting a doggie.

 

Keep posting!

Paula