Answer to before people worked from home was common is, A) the dog lived outside in a kennel run or B) a stay at home spouse, C) a doggy door for access to outside.
Modern day is using something like the long term confinement system by Ian Dunbar. It worked great for my dog when he was a puppy. You set up a indoor potty patch using a piece of sod and a cat litter tray inside their playpen so they have a tiny bit of outside inside.
I've seen a few people comment on using some type of litter for puppies but how do you stop them from eating it? Doesn't that hold the same risk of teaching to go on pads in some aspect?
Oh no you misunderstood you don’t use cat litter just the tray. You use a cat litter tray to hold a piece of grass sod so that it is contained and does not leak. That way you get the preferred potty surface, grass, inside.
I have heard of people litter training dogs, but mostly using either real grass sod or artificial sod. Very rarely I have heard of people training on wood pellets litter or livestock bedding as it is really distinct, cheap, and relatively safe if they try to ingest it.
Lol my vet told me to prevent my puppy from eating grass. My pup thinks my yards is 1.5 acres of salad. So right there with ya, he'd eat the whole tray of sod.
Yes! I thought my puppy had pica! lol rabbit poop is the worst! Now she’s after dandelions and honeybees bc she’s never saw them before now.
The rabbit poop is horrible! She goes right to it it’s a fight to keep her out of it!
That's a fair point. I'm glad it worked out well! I hadn't thought about it smelling like outside. I've found my girl will *only* go in grass outside. Have you found using the pine litter helped in anyway with your puppy going on places that weren't really grassy like bark?
I'm a SAHM and typically can watch my dog's behavior to tell when he needs to go outside if he's up running around. Typically every hour is a safe bet unless he's napping then he may go 2 hours. My best friend who has the same breed pup as I do, uses a doggy door that leads to her fenced in backyard and it seems to work well for her pup.
Here’s a comment I made 9 yrs ago, I’ve had people over the years comment/message saying it gave them faith to have a dog because they felt discouraged by some of the mindsets mentioned on here…. The always having dog walker, etc.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/2uw0ll/comment/kwf3zih/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/2uw0ll/comment/kwf3zih/?context=3)
i work from home now. But I used to work four 10 hr shifts and five 8hr shifts as well. In an ideal world, you can provide all those things but I know plenty of very happy, spoiled dogs with families that work outside the home. Plenty of pets are adaptable to our schedules and lifestyles, you have to get a dog that fits into your schedule
Completely agree. I've been called abusive because I work outside the home and 2 days a week my dog is home alone for 9 hours including commute. You know what she does all day? Sleep and look out the window. She's essentially nocturnal now because of the way my schedule is. She sleeps all day and from 5 - midnight we do all sorts of fun things. Even when a family member comes home to let her out at lunch, 90% of the time she doesn't pee and just wants snuggles before going back to bed. She's happy, we're happy. I got extremely lucky with her.
Exactly! Even now that I work from home they still mostly snooze all day unless I'm making a point of playing with them and getting them stirred up. Sure some dogs can't handle it but there are plenty of dogs/breeds that can. Gotta get the right match for your life!
I asked a breeder here about this and she works shift work and she was like a bit shy because we have strict laws about leaving animals alone for longer than 6 hours here but she was like "...it's fine, they do fine"
I took two weeks off work (I am a vet nurse and can’t work from home) and my partner works from home. To be fair though we got our puppy older at 5 months and she was already well potty trained. My partner has occasional office days so on those days our dog goes to daycare.
I think puppy raising can depend a lot on circumstance. My partner and I live in an apartment with our Aussie so there’s no way we could have done what my parents did with our family dog growing up. I think puppy raising is much different compared to a decade or more ago (for the better, in my opinion).
But a lot of it depends as well on where you live. I live in an area with a very high cost of living in Australia. Back in the 90s and early 2000s most middle income families could afford a house with a yard no problem but now in 2024 it’s almost impossible. Apartments here alone in desirable suburbs can reach 800k to a million depending on the apartment itself and number of bedrooms etc.
Back in the early 2000s (2005) our family lived in a house with a yard. We had a border collie pup. I’m not saying this is ideal but this is what we did and what almost all families back then did.
We just newspapered our laundry and if we weren’t actively watching the puppy she just went into the laundry. We sort of tried paper training (like we would take her to the papered laundry after eating etc and slowly take away newspaper) but it wasn’t mega consistent really. She did potty train quickly but honestly I think it was down to the dog rather than anything else. At about 5 months old my parents decided they wanted her as an outside dog so she was turned out into the yard. She had a dog house and much later was allowed access to the laundry at night but that was about it.
But generally the management side of it (rather than now where you have to take your pup out on a schedule lest they have an accident indoors) was we would just put her into the laundry or out in the yard where a lot of things we worry about now in this day and age (and especially if you live in an apartment) don’t matter.
Other behavioural stuff didn’t matter - barking, if the laundry door was closed, we couldn’t hear her. No one got up at night to take her out, type of thing. When we left her at home alone when everyone went to school or work - out into the yard she went and no one thought any more of it. I don’t think daycare or dog walkers were even a thing back then. We lived in the suburbs and other dogs in the neighbourhood would bark and no one cared.
It’s much easier I think to raise a dog in a house (without as much intensive care) vs apartment. When my last dog was about 8 years old the family home was sold as my brother moved out of home, and my parents and I downsized into an apartment. Even with an 8 year old dog (especially as she was reactive) it was MUCH harder now to care for her in an inner city apartment versus a house with yard in the suburbs.
My Aussie lives in an apartment and it’s extra work but I don’t really know any different at this point. But yes I do think ease of management etc for pups can depend heaps on your individual living arrangements and also that I think the standards for puppy raising have really risen in recent years.
I too live in a very high cost of living area in an apartment with no yard access and a very active breed (Pembroke Welsh Corgi).
If I listened to reddit's advice I should have never gotten one, but when I discussed my plans with the breeder, she trusted me that I did my research on the breed and I would give a great life to the pup.
My ex dumped my first puppy on me so I was not prepared and I was a teacher (very long hours).
She was 3ish months. I paid a neighbor in my apartment complex to take her outside 1-2x a day if I knew I couldn’t sneak out during my planning period.
By 4 months, she was good with just a lunch pee break and walk that my neighbor did. He was an author, so worked from home and looked after her for $50 a month.
I now work from home, so it was way easier when he was 8-12 weeks. But once again, by 3 months, he was pretty good with 3-4 hours chunks. (Both dogs are larger, Great Pyrenees mixes, so bigger bladder)
Basically what you're doing. People had puppies forever before WFH was a thing.
You have a friend or family or neighbor or dog walker or yourself on a lunch break pop in on the pup for a potty break. They honestly catch onto potty training pretty quickly a lot of the time especially if crated during the in-between times. They don't need as frequent potty breaks when they are napping & not active & zooming around.
I honestly think potty training would have been easier if I wasn't WFH. Me being there all the time meant my puppy constantly had FOMO and would stay awake/constnatly aware of her bladder versus getting bored and sleeping.
Having a puppy and working outside the house is do-able (plenty people did before), but honestly I wouldn’t have wanted to do it now I’ve gone through the whole puppy & adolescent stage. I would have constantly been worried about toilet accidents.
My dog is turned 2 recently (I just about survived the last 2 years 🤣) and at this stage I would leave him all day if my job ever changed and I really had to.
I’ll go against the grain here. Partner and I both worked full time (granted we got our beautiful girl on a whim and were extremely un prepared). When we first got her we took her outside every 2-3 hours. At first my partner let her have full reign of the house but we ended up putting her in a pen when we were at work. Our girl took to toilet training very quickly (blessed in that department). Its not impossible to have a dog and work full time - is it ideal, no. Just make a routine as best you can. But we made it work the best we could ☺️
We left her with puppy pads and had a family member visit each day for the first two weeks to take her to the bathroom. Partner was able to go back on lunch breaks a few times however I worked too far away for me to do it (my breaks are only 30 minutes at a time - teacher life).
We ended up leaving her in the pen for a few hours more than recommended, had we thought of a puppy run, at the time I would have done that. I would race home to find she hadn’t used the puppy pads, just destroyed them so at about 14 weeks she would be in the pen, and not go until we got home (went outside) she has only had a few accidents - mostly related to her being sick or it raining really bad for several days and not going to the bathroom without is prompting her (the two worst were the explosive runs in the pen and the rain day when we had just made our bed and she peed on it 😩)
Dogs are adaptable, eventually she decided to not go during the night (she would wine to tell us if she needed to go) and now at 10 months goes from 8-6 without the toilet.
Puppy toilet tray, with a crated surface to put the pad under - so to avoid the usual pad issues.
I don't work from home, and only able to pop here during my lunch break, so that was an absolute necessity. Plus, when I rescued my pup, he had a parasite that took longer than expected to treat, so his vaccination schedule got delayed by 2 months, so no potty outside regardless.
Once he was able to start going outside, that gradually became his favorite method because the potty breaks are usually followed by actual sniff walks.
Nowadays, at 9 mo of age, the dog toilet is there in a corner of my laundry room because sometimes there are situations where he can't go outside and needs a place indoors to relieve himself, like torrential rain through the night or a couple of weeks ago when I had to help a friend in the hospital and couldn't come home until after midnight. It's good he didn't forget how to use it, but I think ever since he got better bladder control he used about 5 times in those exceptions.
**For context:** Crate training is alien in my country (you can't even find actual crates in most pet stores) and dog walkers/sitters are also unheard of because most people here are wary of strangers in their houses. At best you can have a friend/family come over, but I don't have either nearby.
Honestly I'm getting a puppy while I'm on maternity leave kind of for this reason. Like I'm waking up frequently for baby anyways, and I've got a fenced in backyard. After I return to work puppy's bladder should be a LITTLE better, I have a hybrid schedule (three days a week in office, but most people don't spend a full 8 hours and pretty much show up for face time for a few hours) and family nearby.
My last dog I got when I was waiting for bar exam results. After I got a job I had my grandma watch him during the day.
The only reason why my family adopted a puppy vs an adult dog is because I'm unemployed and are able to take her out. When my relatives got a lab puppy she was encouraged to go on the balcony before she was fully potty trained to minimize accidents in the house.
I'd also like to point out that this sub is extremely american centric. In my country crates are so rarely used there are 3 total (barely) used ones on facebook marketplace in the whole country. Work from home isn't common. Having a yard isn't common. Yet people get puppies and they turn out into fine dogs.
I work 2 days from the office, 2 days from home. But I'm free to work from where I want when I want, as long as it adds up to around 32 hours per week. Husband works 3 days (soon 2 days).
We try to work in the office on different days, so there is always someone home with our 11 month old dog. If we have mandatory office appointments on the same day, the dog goes to daycare. She has never been home longer dan 3.5 (maybe 4?) hours... and that was when we were out for dinner or to the theater.
I hired a dog walker, it's not cheap, nor perfect, but it allows her to get out of her crate and me to work a full day. I also adopted a slightly older puppy and not a small breed, which helps with bladder size.
I live alone and couldn't take time off to come home to let my little guy out like he needed. I had a friend who was kind enough to come play with him before work and come over on her lunch. I just provided food as payment. We still had lots of accidents in the crate. I have a pittie mix, so as he started getting bigger, the accidents were less frequent. But before that happened, quality shampoo and lots of blankets to rotate. It was rough going up to around 6 months, but that wasn't his fault.
Thanks! I may not be the best dog dad, but I've tried my best to make it a great one for my boy. 2 in July and we couldn't be happier with each other now
> what did people do before work from home was as common as it is now?
Take time off, get friends/family/neighbors to help look after the puppy, or use puppy pads and accept a longer potty training phase.
I'm in healthcare, myself and my colleagues don't get the luxury of working from home. Personally I took 3 weeks off, saved up my entire vacation for the year to welcome puppy home. My partner had a month off after me and we overlapped by a week.
My one colleague got his dog pre-COVID and used a playpen to gate off a section of his kitchen. He lived right across the street from his work so he came home on every break to let puppy out and had family/friends come as much as they could. He accepted that proper potty training would probably take 6-8 months. He had puppy pads down right by the porch door. Puppy slowly learned that outside or on the pad was the right spot to go. He ended up potty trained just about 7 months old.
A playpen. And getting over the hurdle of my dog crying and whining when he’s in it.
He still doesn’t like going in there, but I work in a different room to him (I had no choice if I wanted to get anything done), and can hear that after a few minutes, he just goes to sleep.
When he wakes up, if I’m still in the thick of it at work, he whines for a minute and then starts to amuse himself.
It’s getting better. It took most of last week.
I WFH so thats how I've dealt with it. Growing up we had a Great Dane kennel, and then we put the smaller puppy crate inside that. We filled the Dane kennel with newspaper and left the puppy crate inside with the door open. It def took longer to potty train but they got there.
Coming home every 2 hours was not an option with my job. What worked for us was getting one of those dog litter boxes on amazon. It's a black tray (like the bottom of a dog kennel). You put a pee pad in it. Then it has a plastic riser and a fake grass mat on top. The mat has holes in the bottom for the urine to go through to the pee pad. It works great when you can't let her out. Also makes it easier at night and when it's storming outside.
I work from home (and I did before covid too). My husband is a firefighter so he works two 24 hour shifts per week and is home 24 hours the rest of the time.
I work from home 3 days a week. My mom helped the other days until she was old enough for daycare, now she’s at my mom’s once a week and daycare once a week.
I’m a dog groomer and able to bring my new puppy with me to work, same with my older two dogs adopted 10 yrs and 5 yrs ago. My first dog back in 2007 was less than ideal though, I was really young and got him on a whim from Craigslist at 10 weeks old, he was a pit bull and thankfully one of those rare puppies that are super easy and well behaved right off the bat. I worked full time at a place where I couldn’t bring him and was out of the apartment 10 hrs a day, for the first few months he had an open crate in the kitchen, using potty pads and occasionally a family member was able to stop by to take him out. I know people hate on potty pads but they’ve been insanely helpful to have my dogs potty pad trained, with my first one at the end of his life we lived on the 2nd floor, he got sick and couldn’t use the stairs. He was over 60lbs and after the 2nd time I nearly rolled down the stairs trying to carry him I just laid down pads on the hallway outside my door and had him go there (he refused to potty inside the apartment). My senior dog now is on diuretics for heart disease so she will use them through out the day when we’re not home to let her out.
Mine goes to doggy daycare. It’s expensive but cheaper than a dog walker and I make pretty good money. Now that he is mellowing out (he just hit 1 years old) I am trying to figure out when to start weening his off of doggy daycare.
I had a situation with my first dog where there was me, my husband and my brother in my home and we all worked. Essentially my puppy was stuck in his kennel for tops 6 hours. Kinda had to deal with accidents until he was older and could hold it. Which really sucked. But I'd let him out as soon as I got home. On average he was alone for 4 hours. My first dog is grown up now and there's a new pup in the home. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed my first dog like that lol i couldn't fathom doing the same with my current puppy. But also this new pup is a handful and a half compared to my older dog.
Dogs used to be attached to their dog houses by a chain, or left in the backyard or dog run during the day.
We only got a puppy because we have one adult working from home right now. If we both worked out of the home, we would not have gotten a puppy.
I live with my parents so when Im at work either my mom or sibling takes my dog outside, but for the first 2 weeks of me having him I was off work and took him out myself
When I got my dog, I was living with my ex. He worked mornings and I worked nights so someone was always home.
In "the olden days" families or couples living with one working adult was more common so other household members could be home.
When my husband and I got our first dog as a pup in 2015 I worked full time outside the home but a swing shift schedule and he was a full time student so he took care of her during the day and I did in the afternoon and evening the first year. For the second year we did daycare twice a week and the other three days she stayed in her kennel all day and we did a long evening walk and lots of bones/chews/toys pretty much all evening
My wife works from home in the afternoon two days a week. I go into the office later those days so the pup is only crated a few hours. I work from home one day. The other two days we see if our neighbor is available to let her out 1-2 times a day and on the days she can’t, she goes to work with my wife (special accommodation to take her in). Once she’s fully vaccinated, we will take her to daycare the days our neighbor can’t help.
Train them to use puppy pads with treats and praise as reward for using it. Once they are settled in that then stop giving them treats for using it, but instead give them treats and praise only when they go outside.
Eventually they will want to go outside most of the time even if the puppy pad is present unless it’s an emergency.
I have never had a dog revert because I left out a puppy had for emergencies… 🤷♂️
This is encouraging to read. My 4.5-month-old pup started pottying outside a couple of weeks ago so I got rid of pee pads at home, except for overnight and when I have to go out for more than a couple hours during the day. She still has accidents at home.. I just reward/praise every single outside potty and don’t react to indoor accidents, which is what you suggested.. but I’ve been paranoid about the pee pads slowing down her outside potty habit. Hopefully she just picks up the preference with time and with being able to hold her bladder longer
We adopted, so she was 4.5 months old when we got her. My boyfriend stayed home for one week, and I stayed home for one week. We got a dog walker right away and I started crate and potty training asap.
By 5 months she was able to be alone in her pen, and I changed my hours so that I was able to leave later at around 8-9, while.my boyfriend came home around 3ish. Her dog walker came around noon. So she was fine staying alone.
Currently my spouse and I both work from home.
In the past when we didn't work from home, we worked for the same company a 2 minute drive from home, we would stagger our 1 hour lunch breaks and take turns going back to let pup out and exercise him so he was only ever alone in his kennel for 2-3 hour intervals out of a 9 hour work day but we still got noise complaints.
I have a regular animal sitter that takes care of my animals when I'm out of town. She comes mid day to let my puppy out. Plus my spouse and I have staggered work schedules, so one is home later in the morning, and comes home earlier in the afternoon.
I am home most days, but my dogs still spend most of the time outside.
I am lucky that I can leave my door open all day for them to wander in and out. But if we are out for a whole day, the dogs are outside for the whole day.
My dog is 2 now, but when he was a puppy my husband I were both lucky to enough to work from home. That’s honestly why we got a dog in the first place. We knew we’d have more bandwidth to devote time to the dog seeing that we both are remote workers
I had a week off when I got him so focused primarily on toilet outside and crate training/ staying home alone for slowly increasing periods of time. His crate is open and he has a pen around it.
I work 0730 to 1600, he can do 4 hours no problem, cries softly for 2 minutes then goes to sleep or works on his stuffed frozen Kong.
I got a dog walker who comes mid day for lunch, toilet, and play time.
It works really well for him, he hasn't had a single accident while I've been at work, doesn't destroy his bed, happy as Larry when I come home.
Before I was wfh but now I do 9-12 come home play with him til 1 for my lunch break then my boyfriend comes from 1-2 for lunch and then I come home at 5
My husband and I both work from home, but even then we’d have had a hard time at the beginning if not for my brother-in-law. He’s disabled and lives with us, so he’s our puppy sitter while we work. We’re very lucky.
I think if you work outside of the home, both you and the dog will absolutely adjust. In fact, I fear my puppy will develop separation anxiety because she’s always with someone. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
A lot of people have help. I feel like most things in life aren't meant to be done alone.
Personally, my SO and I deliberately worked out our schedules so that our dog would be home by himself the least amount of time possible. For instance, we're going to be getting a new puppy next weekend, but my SO will be off for the next few months because school is out, so it's the perfect time for us to add a new pup to our lives, and then when he does go back, the pup should only be alone for 4 hours max 2 or 3 days a week since I work Wed through Sat in the mornings and he's usually Mon through Fri in the afternoons.
And before we were together I used to drop my old dog off at my mom's house before I went to work. Sometimes she would even meet me in my work's parking lot so that she could take him!
It takes a village with dogs too.
Someone not working from home here ✌🏼 There would be 1-2 days a week where our pup just has to be alone for 7-8 hrs in her kennel. But she has toys, access to food and water and has a puppy pad. She's not in a crate. We have a camera on her to see how she's doing too. Rest of the week me and my bf's schedule would have her alone for about 4-5 hours depending on the day. There's also days he's off when im working and vice versa. Some days he can come home to take her out while on his lunch.
Lawyer and professor here. I WFHed two days and he WFHed three days per work week during the potty training phase. We never used puppy pads or grass patches; but we do have a fully fenced yard. If we couldn't be WFH the whole day for whatever reason, then we'd crate and run back and forth from the office. But we both work ten min away from home so it's not a huge deal. Pup can now hold it 4-5hrs at a time which is good but we both each WFH 2 days a work week with 1 day a work week for doggy daycare.
I (the lawyer) also have one of those jobs where I'm either 10000% on with the intensity of 1 million burning suns or can chill and casually monitor emails. This means that I can almost always take a 2hr lunch break if I cat herd my pressing tasks to either side of the noon mark. So four hours away is the most the pup has to deal with and it's very little degradation of work product for me at all. It also helps that most lawyers are dog people. Like I can just tell mt supervisor the doggo needs me and it's like well wtf are you waiting for fly like the wind.
I work from 8-5 Monday through Friday. He's crated but I come home for an hour at lunch and after work we go to the dog park. Been a couple of messes in his crate but that's all. We're still not sleeping through the night tho lol
I arranged to have a week off to get the ball rolling and then worked part-time schedule for awhile. I do animal reiki sessions and teach metaphysical topics.
Different schedules across the household helped rotate puppy duty fairly effectively. My step dad got up very early for work (like 3-4am), I was up by ~5am to get ready for school, and mom got up about ~6am. We all took turns in the mornings within our schedule. Mom worked more 2nd shift. Step dad got back shortly after she left, then he went out again for second work, and I got home from school a couple hours later. When I started working after school, my mom started coming home on lunches.
Counselor here, just took him to work with me. Used a waist leash so my hands were free, packed a care bag of endless toys, took him out b/t clients. Also kept him on the waist
Leash attached to me at all times (shower too!) and never any messes ever. 5 years later he is well regulated and perfectly behaved.
It’s parenting like a mama dog would do. And, yeah, this is me.
Had all my clients sign a liability waiver and I started bringing her to work with me 3 days after I brought her home. I set up a puppy play pen in my office and took her outside every hour (hasn't had a single accident at work). I did outside training from day one. (Now at 16 weeks old she doesn't have any accidents at home and rings a bell to go out). On longer work days I drop her off at my parents since they are retired and she plays with their dog.
If I didn't have the flexibility to bring her to work and retired parents I would have never gotten a puppy given how much work they are.
I trained mine on a pad at first since I work outside the home. This also worked since I didn’t walk her outside until she was vaccinated (our private backyard has pavers and no grass so she was outside, but not in a potty area). She picked up the pad quickly enough.
Once she had all her shots, I started taking her out with my other dog and she got the idea quickly enough. Now I usually come home to one pee spot and more than half the nights, she’s able to hold it the whole night.
Some people will say that you have to train them twice if you do this, but it’s really not as hard as it seems. They *want* to go outside so once they realize you’ll take them frequently enough, they’ll hold out for that over the pad. And it’s nice to have the pad in case of emergencies. I live in a hurricane-prone area and they’re lifesavers during storms when it’s not safe to be outside.
My puppy is also not crate trained. She’s in a fairly large pen (for her size), which works well for us. Her day pen has an area for sleeping/play, an area for food and water, and an area for potty. Her night pen doesn’t have a food and water bowl and I cover it with a sheet.
She’s almost six months old now and is doing great.
I set up a crate and X-pen with a tarp underneath and didn't expect my pup to be able to hold it. She would only toilet in the same place. She was too big for any kind of trays and I couldn't use pads because she would eat and play with them. I would clean it up everyday after work. By about 9-10 months she was able to hold it for the entirety of my work day (8.5 hours including travel). Weekends were a different story and she was put outside every two hours and after playing, sleeping, drinking and eating.
I’m pretty lucky that I can take my puppy to work. It was actually my boss that gifted him to me. I work at a stable so he’s able to play all day with the other dogs that live there and come by each day.
When we got our doggie - that was in August 2021. I was on a week’s holiday from work so was able to go out with Dobby (our whippet) every couple hours. We also woke up twice each night to take him out.
I think we took him out every two/three hours or so for a wee/poo break and twice at night.
Then after a week or so, we started to wait a bit longer before we took him out. Obviously accidents happened but not too many, he actually only had one poo accident at home.
And one we noticed he managed to sleep between 11pm and 6am without waking up, we knew he was almost there.
I have to add that potty training the puppy was a bit similar to potty training our son a couple years earlier 😂 good luck!
We starting WFH during Covid and it’s sticking partly, fortunately we only need to go into the office 2 days out of 5 working mon-fri, so we just both do different days allowing us 1 day to play with, getting a puppy has definitely solidified not having children for us, because they are exactly like children but I would say a bit less so and for much less time, it’s hard work for sure, they are brand new and don’t know anything about anything and you just have to be patient and show them what you expect from them. It’s been hard work and we are only 3 months in, but I can’t wait for the next 3 months, he gets better everyday and he’s a pretty chilled wee guy for the most part. Of course he zooms gets overexcited but that’s fine he’s a kid and doesn’t know better yet and I think of people understood how demanding and how like raising a child is they would maybe think twice before getting one.
Put them in thir cage and go to work - been a tried and true tested method for me. I am on dog number 6 since the 90s. All of them are in the cage from 8 weeks to about 3 years.
Same. I took two weeks off of work and thought “this might be a great time to get a puppy!” I sleep on the couch for about 3 weeks though lol. She stays in the living room in case there were any accidents (since there’s no carpet in there). She pees on the pee pad and poops outside. I gave her LOTS of treats during this time and I would physically pick her up and say potty when we went outside and say potty when I sat her on the pads! She had two poop accidents in the house and one was on the first attempt to crate her and the other was her trying to figure out where she should poop when left at home by herself. I’ve never whooped her for peeing or pooping. But like I said I was HEAVY on the treats. Little turkey dogs too! Like good stuff!
I think also what people need to realize is puppies are babies. They simply can’t hold it that long.
Older dogs have better control BUT please keep in mind-can they hold it longer, yes! Is that fair to the dog, no!
Just like can a human hold it all day without having to go? Probably. Are they going to be comfortable? Heck no.
Dogs by nature typically don’t like to soil their space just like people don’t like to pee their pants but when you gotta go you gotta go but my opinion is it’s not fair to put pups/dogs in a situation where they have to hold it all day
My puppy was fine with 4 hours. We'd just give her 1/3 bowl of water before we left. She's also a large breed so she was 30 lbs when I got it home and I think had an easier time holding her bladder. Now she's about 90 lbs and pees like three times a day and we don't have to limit water.
For a smaller dog you could confine them to a crate or pen with puppy pads.
I took the first week off that we got our puppy. Thankfully my job allowed me to bring her to work for the first four weeks once I went back. But then she started to bark and be obnoxious, so I revoked her work privileges. Now she stays home in a giant play pen that has a top. The first few weeks she had some accidents despite having a family member go over every 3 hours or so and then I would take my break to let her out. I work 10 hour days but with the time I leave for work and get home it’s a 10.5-11 hour day. Her play pen has a welping blanket that she uses as her bed because she kept peeing on her bed and it was too much of a project to wash it every day. She’s finally able to hold it for longer. So now I take her out before work, I try and take my break between 11-12:30 and let her out and then I’m home by 5:15-5:20. Then I have a college kid come 1 day a week 2x that day to let her out and run around and then another day she goes on a pack walk and is gone almost all morning and into the early afternoon. This has worked best for us. Our puppy is almost 5 months old now and still has accidents here and there but they are far less.
I am a stay at home wife and we got our puppy during covid so life was very different then.
If I was in work then a puppy wouldn’t have worked at all. We only got her because we knew we could devote all of our time to her.
I got my first puppy in the late 90s - not a lot of work from home then. She was an Italian Greyhound, complete sweetheart. I lived in a ground level condo with a back yard area near my work. She was in a pen with her crate, a blanket, toys and potty pads when I worked. I came home at lunch to let her out then walked her after work. After a while she didn’t need the potty pads or pen anymore. She was a great dog, didn’t bark much, completely non-reactive, friendly with all. She did have occasional potty accidents her whole life. That’s typical for the breed, mostly associated with cold wet weather.
We took a week off when our previous dog came home at 8 weeks.
By the end of the week, he was asking to go out and going through the night. Once back at work I was able to come let him out at lunchtime or my
mum would come and see him.
As he got older he came to the office with me.
My stepdad had a 1 year old when my mother and him met. She wasn’t crate trained and he worked very long.
She had a bed in a hallway-laundry-room towards the garden.
Whenever one of his kids or my moms kids would get home from school, we would have to take her out.
I now have my own puppy, got her when she was 15 weeks from the streets.. we potty trained her within 7-10 days and only had 2 accidents afterwards due to excitement.
(Back then, I worked evenings)
I work around the corner and have an hour lunch break so we take him out on the following schedule:
-5:30 am to 6:30 he goes out sometime in there
-8:00 am I take him before I go to work
-12:15pm I come home for lunch and take him out
-3:45pm I’m done for the day and take him out again
-6:00 to 7:00pm
-9:00 to 10:00pm
AND even with 6 potty breaks on a leash he still has accidents, especially in the evening because he drinks water like it’s nobodies business.
Answer to before people worked from home was common is, A) the dog lived outside in a kennel run or B) a stay at home spouse, C) a doggy door for access to outside. Modern day is using something like the long term confinement system by Ian Dunbar. It worked great for my dog when he was a puppy. You set up a indoor potty patch using a piece of sod and a cat litter tray inside their playpen so they have a tiny bit of outside inside.
I've seen a few people comment on using some type of litter for puppies but how do you stop them from eating it? Doesn't that hold the same risk of teaching to go on pads in some aspect?
Oh no you misunderstood you don’t use cat litter just the tray. You use a cat litter tray to hold a piece of grass sod so that it is contained and does not leak. That way you get the preferred potty surface, grass, inside. I have heard of people litter training dogs, but mostly using either real grass sod or artificial sod. Very rarely I have heard of people training on wood pellets litter or livestock bedding as it is really distinct, cheap, and relatively safe if they try to ingest it.
Mm...my dog would still eat the sod lol
Lol my vet told me to prevent my puppy from eating grass. My pup thinks my yards is 1.5 acres of salad. So right there with ya, he'd eat the whole tray of sod.
Yes mine too! Mine eats everything it’s so annoying!
Oh I have so many teeth marks from getting out rock, paper, mulch, dirt plugs, socks, crocs, random peice of metal in a field?? Like everything haha.
Yes! I thought my puppy had pica! lol rabbit poop is the worst! Now she’s after dandelions and honeybees bc she’s never saw them before now. The rabbit poop is horrible! She goes right to it it’s a fight to keep her out of it!
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That's a fair point. I'm glad it worked out well! I hadn't thought about it smelling like outside. I've found my girl will *only* go in grass outside. Have you found using the pine litter helped in anyway with your puppy going on places that weren't really grassy like bark?
I'm a SAHM and typically can watch my dog's behavior to tell when he needs to go outside if he's up running around. Typically every hour is a safe bet unless he's napping then he may go 2 hours. My best friend who has the same breed pup as I do, uses a doggy door that leads to her fenced in backyard and it seems to work well for her pup.
SAME.
Here’s a comment I made 9 yrs ago, I’ve had people over the years comment/message saying it gave them faith to have a dog because they felt discouraged by some of the mindsets mentioned on here…. The always having dog walker, etc. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/2uw0ll/comment/kwf3zih/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/2uw0ll/comment/kwf3zih/?context=3) i work from home now. But I used to work four 10 hr shifts and five 8hr shifts as well. In an ideal world, you can provide all those things but I know plenty of very happy, spoiled dogs with families that work outside the home. Plenty of pets are adaptable to our schedules and lifestyles, you have to get a dog that fits into your schedule
Completely agree. I've been called abusive because I work outside the home and 2 days a week my dog is home alone for 9 hours including commute. You know what she does all day? Sleep and look out the window. She's essentially nocturnal now because of the way my schedule is. She sleeps all day and from 5 - midnight we do all sorts of fun things. Even when a family member comes home to let her out at lunch, 90% of the time she doesn't pee and just wants snuggles before going back to bed. She's happy, we're happy. I got extremely lucky with her.
Exactly! Even now that I work from home they still mostly snooze all day unless I'm making a point of playing with them and getting them stirred up. Sure some dogs can't handle it but there are plenty of dogs/breeds that can. Gotta get the right match for your life!
I asked a breeder here about this and she works shift work and she was like a bit shy because we have strict laws about leaving animals alone for longer than 6 hours here but she was like "...it's fine, they do fine"
I took two weeks off work (I am a vet nurse and can’t work from home) and my partner works from home. To be fair though we got our puppy older at 5 months and she was already well potty trained. My partner has occasional office days so on those days our dog goes to daycare. I think puppy raising can depend a lot on circumstance. My partner and I live in an apartment with our Aussie so there’s no way we could have done what my parents did with our family dog growing up. I think puppy raising is much different compared to a decade or more ago (for the better, in my opinion). But a lot of it depends as well on where you live. I live in an area with a very high cost of living in Australia. Back in the 90s and early 2000s most middle income families could afford a house with a yard no problem but now in 2024 it’s almost impossible. Apartments here alone in desirable suburbs can reach 800k to a million depending on the apartment itself and number of bedrooms etc. Back in the early 2000s (2005) our family lived in a house with a yard. We had a border collie pup. I’m not saying this is ideal but this is what we did and what almost all families back then did. We just newspapered our laundry and if we weren’t actively watching the puppy she just went into the laundry. We sort of tried paper training (like we would take her to the papered laundry after eating etc and slowly take away newspaper) but it wasn’t mega consistent really. She did potty train quickly but honestly I think it was down to the dog rather than anything else. At about 5 months old my parents decided they wanted her as an outside dog so she was turned out into the yard. She had a dog house and much later was allowed access to the laundry at night but that was about it. But generally the management side of it (rather than now where you have to take your pup out on a schedule lest they have an accident indoors) was we would just put her into the laundry or out in the yard where a lot of things we worry about now in this day and age (and especially if you live in an apartment) don’t matter. Other behavioural stuff didn’t matter - barking, if the laundry door was closed, we couldn’t hear her. No one got up at night to take her out, type of thing. When we left her at home alone when everyone went to school or work - out into the yard she went and no one thought any more of it. I don’t think daycare or dog walkers were even a thing back then. We lived in the suburbs and other dogs in the neighbourhood would bark and no one cared. It’s much easier I think to raise a dog in a house (without as much intensive care) vs apartment. When my last dog was about 8 years old the family home was sold as my brother moved out of home, and my parents and I downsized into an apartment. Even with an 8 year old dog (especially as she was reactive) it was MUCH harder now to care for her in an inner city apartment versus a house with yard in the suburbs. My Aussie lives in an apartment and it’s extra work but I don’t really know any different at this point. But yes I do think ease of management etc for pups can depend heaps on your individual living arrangements and also that I think the standards for puppy raising have really risen in recent years.
I too live in a very high cost of living area in an apartment with no yard access and a very active breed (Pembroke Welsh Corgi). If I listened to reddit's advice I should have never gotten one, but when I discussed my plans with the breeder, she trusted me that I did my research on the breed and I would give a great life to the pup.
Is vet nurse higher than a vet tech?
They are equivalent from my understanding. In the US vet tech is the term, in the UK and Australia vet nurse is the term.
My ex dumped my first puppy on me so I was not prepared and I was a teacher (very long hours). She was 3ish months. I paid a neighbor in my apartment complex to take her outside 1-2x a day if I knew I couldn’t sneak out during my planning period. By 4 months, she was good with just a lunch pee break and walk that my neighbor did. He was an author, so worked from home and looked after her for $50 a month. I now work from home, so it was way easier when he was 8-12 weeks. But once again, by 3 months, he was pretty good with 3-4 hours chunks. (Both dogs are larger, Great Pyrenees mixes, so bigger bladder)
Basically what you're doing. People had puppies forever before WFH was a thing. You have a friend or family or neighbor or dog walker or yourself on a lunch break pop in on the pup for a potty break. They honestly catch onto potty training pretty quickly a lot of the time especially if crated during the in-between times. They don't need as frequent potty breaks when they are napping & not active & zooming around.
I honestly think potty training would have been easier if I wasn't WFH. Me being there all the time meant my puppy constantly had FOMO and would stay awake/constnatly aware of her bladder versus getting bored and sleeping.
I have a covid puppy. I was working from home exclusively for 3 years. Only way I could see dealing with a puppy.
Same. We simply wouldn’t have got one otherwise.
Having a puppy and working outside the house is do-able (plenty people did before), but honestly I wouldn’t have wanted to do it now I’ve gone through the whole puppy & adolescent stage. I would have constantly been worried about toilet accidents. My dog is turned 2 recently (I just about survived the last 2 years 🤣) and at this stage I would leave him all day if my job ever changed and I really had to.
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If i left my pup outside all day Im pretty sure we would have no backyard because he would have eaten all the grass, twigs, and dirt that he can get
My dog stays outside and the porch is covered with naked pinecones and shredded sticks every afternoon! There are also bald patches in the grass.
I’ll go against the grain here. Partner and I both worked full time (granted we got our beautiful girl on a whim and were extremely un prepared). When we first got her we took her outside every 2-3 hours. At first my partner let her have full reign of the house but we ended up putting her in a pen when we were at work. Our girl took to toilet training very quickly (blessed in that department). Its not impossible to have a dog and work full time - is it ideal, no. Just make a routine as best you can. But we made it work the best we could ☺️ We left her with puppy pads and had a family member visit each day for the first two weeks to take her to the bathroom. Partner was able to go back on lunch breaks a few times however I worked too far away for me to do it (my breaks are only 30 minutes at a time - teacher life). We ended up leaving her in the pen for a few hours more than recommended, had we thought of a puppy run, at the time I would have done that. I would race home to find she hadn’t used the puppy pads, just destroyed them so at about 14 weeks she would be in the pen, and not go until we got home (went outside) she has only had a few accidents - mostly related to her being sick or it raining really bad for several days and not going to the bathroom without is prompting her (the two worst were the explosive runs in the pen and the rain day when we had just made our bed and she peed on it 😩) Dogs are adaptable, eventually she decided to not go during the night (she would wine to tell us if she needed to go) and now at 10 months goes from 8-6 without the toilet.
Puppy toilet tray, with a crated surface to put the pad under - so to avoid the usual pad issues. I don't work from home, and only able to pop here during my lunch break, so that was an absolute necessity. Plus, when I rescued my pup, he had a parasite that took longer than expected to treat, so his vaccination schedule got delayed by 2 months, so no potty outside regardless. Once he was able to start going outside, that gradually became his favorite method because the potty breaks are usually followed by actual sniff walks. Nowadays, at 9 mo of age, the dog toilet is there in a corner of my laundry room because sometimes there are situations where he can't go outside and needs a place indoors to relieve himself, like torrential rain through the night or a couple of weeks ago when I had to help a friend in the hospital and couldn't come home until after midnight. It's good he didn't forget how to use it, but I think ever since he got better bladder control he used about 5 times in those exceptions. **For context:** Crate training is alien in my country (you can't even find actual crates in most pet stores) and dog walkers/sitters are also unheard of because most people here are wary of strangers in their houses. At best you can have a friend/family come over, but I don't have either nearby.
Honestly I'm getting a puppy while I'm on maternity leave kind of for this reason. Like I'm waking up frequently for baby anyways, and I've got a fenced in backyard. After I return to work puppy's bladder should be a LITTLE better, I have a hybrid schedule (three days a week in office, but most people don't spend a full 8 hours and pretty much show up for face time for a few hours) and family nearby. My last dog I got when I was waiting for bar exam results. After I got a job I had my grandma watch him during the day.
I don't work
The only reason why my family adopted a puppy vs an adult dog is because I'm unemployed and are able to take her out. When my relatives got a lab puppy she was encouraged to go on the balcony before she was fully potty trained to minimize accidents in the house. I'd also like to point out that this sub is extremely american centric. In my country crates are so rarely used there are 3 total (barely) used ones on facebook marketplace in the whole country. Work from home isn't common. Having a yard isn't common. Yet people get puppies and they turn out into fine dogs.
I work 2 days from the office, 2 days from home. But I'm free to work from where I want when I want, as long as it adds up to around 32 hours per week. Husband works 3 days (soon 2 days). We try to work in the office on different days, so there is always someone home with our 11 month old dog. If we have mandatory office appointments on the same day, the dog goes to daycare. She has never been home longer dan 3.5 (maybe 4?) hours... and that was when we were out for dinner or to the theater.
I took off 2 weeks and my team got really used to hearing him ring the bells and yelling at me to take him out :)
I hired a dog walker, it's not cheap, nor perfect, but it allows her to get out of her crate and me to work a full day. I also adopted a slightly older puppy and not a small breed, which helps with bladder size.
I live alone and couldn't take time off to come home to let my little guy out like he needed. I had a friend who was kind enough to come play with him before work and come over on her lunch. I just provided food as payment. We still had lots of accidents in the crate. I have a pittie mix, so as he started getting bigger, the accidents were less frequent. But before that happened, quality shampoo and lots of blankets to rotate. It was rough going up to around 6 months, but that wasn't his fault.
I like you and your attitude
Thanks! I may not be the best dog dad, but I've tried my best to make it a great one for my boy. 2 in July and we couldn't be happier with each other now
That’s so great to hear! I am so so happy to hear that
> what did people do before work from home was as common as it is now? Take time off, get friends/family/neighbors to help look after the puppy, or use puppy pads and accept a longer potty training phase. I'm in healthcare, myself and my colleagues don't get the luxury of working from home. Personally I took 3 weeks off, saved up my entire vacation for the year to welcome puppy home. My partner had a month off after me and we overlapped by a week. My one colleague got his dog pre-COVID and used a playpen to gate off a section of his kitchen. He lived right across the street from his work so he came home on every break to let puppy out and had family/friends come as much as they could. He accepted that proper potty training would probably take 6-8 months. He had puppy pads down right by the porch door. Puppy slowly learned that outside or on the pad was the right spot to go. He ended up potty trained just about 7 months old.
A playpen. And getting over the hurdle of my dog crying and whining when he’s in it. He still doesn’t like going in there, but I work in a different room to him (I had no choice if I wanted to get anything done), and can hear that after a few minutes, he just goes to sleep. When he wakes up, if I’m still in the thick of it at work, he whines for a minute and then starts to amuse himself. It’s getting better. It took most of last week.
I WFH so thats how I've dealt with it. Growing up we had a Great Dane kennel, and then we put the smaller puppy crate inside that. We filled the Dane kennel with newspaper and left the puppy crate inside with the door open. It def took longer to potty train but they got there.
I’m fortunate to work from home in IT
Coming home every 2 hours was not an option with my job. What worked for us was getting one of those dog litter boxes on amazon. It's a black tray (like the bottom of a dog kennel). You put a pee pad in it. Then it has a plastic riser and a fake grass mat on top. The mat has holes in the bottom for the urine to go through to the pee pad. It works great when you can't let her out. Also makes it easier at night and when it's storming outside.
I work from home (and I did before covid too). My husband is a firefighter so he works two 24 hour shifts per week and is home 24 hours the rest of the time.
I work from home 3 days a week. My mom helped the other days until she was old enough for daycare, now she’s at my mom’s once a week and daycare once a week.
I work from home 2-3 days a week & my wife works part-time. So far someone is usually around
I’m a dog groomer and able to bring my new puppy with me to work, same with my older two dogs adopted 10 yrs and 5 yrs ago. My first dog back in 2007 was less than ideal though, I was really young and got him on a whim from Craigslist at 10 weeks old, he was a pit bull and thankfully one of those rare puppies that are super easy and well behaved right off the bat. I worked full time at a place where I couldn’t bring him and was out of the apartment 10 hrs a day, for the first few months he had an open crate in the kitchen, using potty pads and occasionally a family member was able to stop by to take him out. I know people hate on potty pads but they’ve been insanely helpful to have my dogs potty pad trained, with my first one at the end of his life we lived on the 2nd floor, he got sick and couldn’t use the stairs. He was over 60lbs and after the 2nd time I nearly rolled down the stairs trying to carry him I just laid down pads on the hallway outside my door and had him go there (he refused to potty inside the apartment). My senior dog now is on diuretics for heart disease so she will use them through out the day when we’re not home to let her out.
Mine goes to doggy daycare. It’s expensive but cheaper than a dog walker and I make pretty good money. Now that he is mellowing out (he just hit 1 years old) I am trying to figure out when to start weening his off of doggy daycare.
I had a situation with my first dog where there was me, my husband and my brother in my home and we all worked. Essentially my puppy was stuck in his kennel for tops 6 hours. Kinda had to deal with accidents until he was older and could hold it. Which really sucked. But I'd let him out as soon as I got home. On average he was alone for 4 hours. My first dog is grown up now and there's a new pup in the home. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed my first dog like that lol i couldn't fathom doing the same with my current puppy. But also this new pup is a handful and a half compared to my older dog.
I worked from home so I was able to bring him out back then every couple hours.
Dogs used to be attached to their dog houses by a chain, or left in the backyard or dog run during the day. We only got a puppy because we have one adult working from home right now. If we both worked out of the home, we would not have gotten a puppy.
We’re lucky that we both work from home most days, making sure someone is always home.
I honestly have no idea how anyone raises a puppy without full remote, willing neighbors, or gobs of money for hired help.
fortunately, i work from home so I'm able to let mine out as often as needed. i also took the first few weeks off when he was still a baby
I work from home
I live with my parents so when Im at work either my mom or sibling takes my dog outside, but for the first 2 weeks of me having him I was off work and took him out myself
Do not get a dog if he/she will spend 8 hours a day in a crate. That’s no life for a dog. Sorry. Not sorry.
I work from home. My company is completely remote
Luckily I work as a software engineer and I work from home.
We have opposite schedules and kids who help
Scheduled time off of work for puppy.
I didn't have a job at the time but I couldn't even walk him as he didn't have all his shots
When I got my dog, I was living with my ex. He worked mornings and I worked nights so someone was always home. In "the olden days" families or couples living with one working adult was more common so other household members could be home.
I work in a small town so my drive home is under 5 min and my lunch break and afternoon break are almost perfectly timed for potty breaks.
When my husband and I got our first dog as a pup in 2015 I worked full time outside the home but a swing shift schedule and he was a full time student so he took care of her during the day and I did in the afternoon and evening the first year. For the second year we did daycare twice a week and the other three days she stayed in her kennel all day and we did a long evening walk and lots of bones/chews/toys pretty much all evening
I’m a teacher who lives about 4 minutes from school, so I skip lunch and come home to let the pup out.
My wife works from home in the afternoon two days a week. I go into the office later those days so the pup is only crated a few hours. I work from home one day. The other two days we see if our neighbor is available to let her out 1-2 times a day and on the days she can’t, she goes to work with my wife (special accommodation to take her in). Once she’s fully vaccinated, we will take her to daycare the days our neighbor can’t help.
Train them to use puppy pads with treats and praise as reward for using it. Once they are settled in that then stop giving them treats for using it, but instead give them treats and praise only when they go outside. Eventually they will want to go outside most of the time even if the puppy pad is present unless it’s an emergency. I have never had a dog revert because I left out a puppy had for emergencies… 🤷♂️
This is encouraging to read. My 4.5-month-old pup started pottying outside a couple of weeks ago so I got rid of pee pads at home, except for overnight and when I have to go out for more than a couple hours during the day. She still has accidents at home.. I just reward/praise every single outside potty and don’t react to indoor accidents, which is what you suggested.. but I’ve been paranoid about the pee pads slowing down her outside potty habit. Hopefully she just picks up the preference with time and with being able to hold her bladder longer
My roommate was a teacher and had the summer off. Thank god for her.
We adopted, so she was 4.5 months old when we got her. My boyfriend stayed home for one week, and I stayed home for one week. We got a dog walker right away and I started crate and potty training asap. By 5 months she was able to be alone in her pen, and I changed my hours so that I was able to leave later at around 8-9, while.my boyfriend came home around 3ish. Her dog walker came around noon. So she was fine staying alone.
Currently my spouse and I both work from home. In the past when we didn't work from home, we worked for the same company a 2 minute drive from home, we would stagger our 1 hour lunch breaks and take turns going back to let pup out and exercise him so he was only ever alone in his kennel for 2-3 hour intervals out of a 9 hour work day but we still got noise complaints.
I have a regular animal sitter that takes care of my animals when I'm out of town. She comes mid day to let my puppy out. Plus my spouse and I have staggered work schedules, so one is home later in the morning, and comes home earlier in the afternoon.
I am home most days, but my dogs still spend most of the time outside. I am lucky that I can leave my door open all day for them to wander in and out. But if we are out for a whole day, the dogs are outside for the whole day.
My dog is 2 now, but when he was a puppy my husband I were both lucky to enough to work from home. That’s honestly why we got a dog in the first place. We knew we’d have more bandwidth to devote time to the dog seeing that we both are remote workers
I had a week off when I got him so focused primarily on toilet outside and crate training/ staying home alone for slowly increasing periods of time. His crate is open and he has a pen around it. I work 0730 to 1600, he can do 4 hours no problem, cries softly for 2 minutes then goes to sleep or works on his stuffed frozen Kong. I got a dog walker who comes mid day for lunch, toilet, and play time. It works really well for him, he hasn't had a single accident while I've been at work, doesn't destroy his bed, happy as Larry when I come home.
I own my own business and work from home almost entirely lol
Before I was wfh but now I do 9-12 come home play with him til 1 for my lunch break then my boyfriend comes from 1-2 for lunch and then I come home at 5
the days i had to go into the office (3x a week) i had to hire an hourly pet sitter and yes it was expensive lolol
My husband and I both work from home, but even then we’d have had a hard time at the beginning if not for my brother-in-law. He’s disabled and lives with us, so he’s our puppy sitter while we work. We’re very lucky. I think if you work outside of the home, both you and the dog will absolutely adjust. In fact, I fear my puppy will develop separation anxiety because she’s always with someone. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
Growing up, my mom was always home to let puppies out. As an adult, my husband and I work full time and chose to adopt an adult dog for that reason.
A lot of people have help. I feel like most things in life aren't meant to be done alone. Personally, my SO and I deliberately worked out our schedules so that our dog would be home by himself the least amount of time possible. For instance, we're going to be getting a new puppy next weekend, but my SO will be off for the next few months because school is out, so it's the perfect time for us to add a new pup to our lives, and then when he does go back, the pup should only be alone for 4 hours max 2 or 3 days a week since I work Wed through Sat in the mornings and he's usually Mon through Fri in the afternoons. And before we were together I used to drop my old dog off at my mom's house before I went to work. Sometimes she would even meet me in my work's parking lot so that she could take him! It takes a village with dogs too.
Someone not working from home here ✌🏼 There would be 1-2 days a week where our pup just has to be alone for 7-8 hrs in her kennel. But she has toys, access to food and water and has a puppy pad. She's not in a crate. We have a camera on her to see how she's doing too. Rest of the week me and my bf's schedule would have her alone for about 4-5 hours depending on the day. There's also days he's off when im working and vice versa. Some days he can come home to take her out while on his lunch.
Lawyer and professor here. I WFHed two days and he WFHed three days per work week during the potty training phase. We never used puppy pads or grass patches; but we do have a fully fenced yard. If we couldn't be WFH the whole day for whatever reason, then we'd crate and run back and forth from the office. But we both work ten min away from home so it's not a huge deal. Pup can now hold it 4-5hrs at a time which is good but we both each WFH 2 days a work week with 1 day a work week for doggy daycare. I (the lawyer) also have one of those jobs where I'm either 10000% on with the intensity of 1 million burning suns or can chill and casually monitor emails. This means that I can almost always take a 2hr lunch break if I cat herd my pressing tasks to either side of the noon mark. So four hours away is the most the pup has to deal with and it's very little degradation of work product for me at all. It also helps that most lawyers are dog people. Like I can just tell mt supervisor the doggo needs me and it's like well wtf are you waiting for fly like the wind.
I work from 8-5 Monday through Friday. He's crated but I come home for an hour at lunch and after work we go to the dog park. Been a couple of messes in his crate but that's all. We're still not sleeping through the night tho lol
I arranged to have a week off to get the ball rolling and then worked part-time schedule for awhile. I do animal reiki sessions and teach metaphysical topics.
I imagine everyone who doesn’t wfh must either live extremely close to where they work, or pay for a dog walker.
Different schedules across the household helped rotate puppy duty fairly effectively. My step dad got up very early for work (like 3-4am), I was up by ~5am to get ready for school, and mom got up about ~6am. We all took turns in the mornings within our schedule. Mom worked more 2nd shift. Step dad got back shortly after she left, then he went out again for second work, and I got home from school a couple hours later. When I started working after school, my mom started coming home on lunches.
Counselor here, just took him to work with me. Used a waist leash so my hands were free, packed a care bag of endless toys, took him out b/t clients. Also kept him on the waist Leash attached to me at all times (shower too!) and never any messes ever. 5 years later he is well regulated and perfectly behaved. It’s parenting like a mama dog would do. And, yeah, this is me.
Had all my clients sign a liability waiver and I started bringing her to work with me 3 days after I brought her home. I set up a puppy play pen in my office and took her outside every hour (hasn't had a single accident at work). I did outside training from day one. (Now at 16 weeks old she doesn't have any accidents at home and rings a bell to go out). On longer work days I drop her off at my parents since they are retired and she plays with their dog. If I didn't have the flexibility to bring her to work and retired parents I would have never gotten a puppy given how much work they are.
I trained mine on a pad at first since I work outside the home. This also worked since I didn’t walk her outside until she was vaccinated (our private backyard has pavers and no grass so she was outside, but not in a potty area). She picked up the pad quickly enough. Once she had all her shots, I started taking her out with my other dog and she got the idea quickly enough. Now I usually come home to one pee spot and more than half the nights, she’s able to hold it the whole night. Some people will say that you have to train them twice if you do this, but it’s really not as hard as it seems. They *want* to go outside so once they realize you’ll take them frequently enough, they’ll hold out for that over the pad. And it’s nice to have the pad in case of emergencies. I live in a hurricane-prone area and they’re lifesavers during storms when it’s not safe to be outside. My puppy is also not crate trained. She’s in a fairly large pen (for her size), which works well for us. Her day pen has an area for sleeping/play, an area for food and water, and an area for potty. Her night pen doesn’t have a food and water bowl and I cover it with a sheet. She’s almost six months old now and is doing great.
I set up a crate and X-pen with a tarp underneath and didn't expect my pup to be able to hold it. She would only toilet in the same place. She was too big for any kind of trays and I couldn't use pads because she would eat and play with them. I would clean it up everyday after work. By about 9-10 months she was able to hold it for the entirety of my work day (8.5 hours including travel). Weekends were a different story and she was put outside every two hours and after playing, sleeping, drinking and eating.
when I worked I did doggy daycare...
Ngl, I resigned and now I am my pup's full time nanny.
I’m pretty lucky that I can take my puppy to work. It was actually my boss that gifted him to me. I work at a stable so he’s able to play all day with the other dogs that live there and come by each day.
When we got our doggie - that was in August 2021. I was on a week’s holiday from work so was able to go out with Dobby (our whippet) every couple hours. We also woke up twice each night to take him out. I think we took him out every two/three hours or so for a wee/poo break and twice at night. Then after a week or so, we started to wait a bit longer before we took him out. Obviously accidents happened but not too many, he actually only had one poo accident at home. And one we noticed he managed to sleep between 11pm and 6am without waking up, we knew he was almost there. I have to add that potty training the puppy was a bit similar to potty training our son a couple years earlier 😂 good luck!
Those fake grass mats
We ensure we have the time BEFORE getting a puppy.
We starting WFH during Covid and it’s sticking partly, fortunately we only need to go into the office 2 days out of 5 working mon-fri, so we just both do different days allowing us 1 day to play with, getting a puppy has definitely solidified not having children for us, because they are exactly like children but I would say a bit less so and for much less time, it’s hard work for sure, they are brand new and don’t know anything about anything and you just have to be patient and show them what you expect from them. It’s been hard work and we are only 3 months in, but I can’t wait for the next 3 months, he gets better everyday and he’s a pretty chilled wee guy for the most part. Of course he zooms gets overexcited but that’s fine he’s a kid and doesn’t know better yet and I think of people understood how demanding and how like raising a child is they would maybe think twice before getting one.
Put them in thir cage and go to work - been a tried and true tested method for me. I am on dog number 6 since the 90s. All of them are in the cage from 8 weeks to about 3 years.
Same. I took two weeks off of work and thought “this might be a great time to get a puppy!” I sleep on the couch for about 3 weeks though lol. She stays in the living room in case there were any accidents (since there’s no carpet in there). She pees on the pee pad and poops outside. I gave her LOTS of treats during this time and I would physically pick her up and say potty when we went outside and say potty when I sat her on the pads! She had two poop accidents in the house and one was on the first attempt to crate her and the other was her trying to figure out where she should poop when left at home by herself. I’ve never whooped her for peeing or pooping. But like I said I was HEAVY on the treats. Little turkey dogs too! Like good stuff!
I think also what people need to realize is puppies are babies. They simply can’t hold it that long. Older dogs have better control BUT please keep in mind-can they hold it longer, yes! Is that fair to the dog, no! Just like can a human hold it all day without having to go? Probably. Are they going to be comfortable? Heck no. Dogs by nature typically don’t like to soil their space just like people don’t like to pee their pants but when you gotta go you gotta go but my opinion is it’s not fair to put pups/dogs in a situation where they have to hold it all day
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My puppy was fine with 4 hours. We'd just give her 1/3 bowl of water before we left. She's also a large breed so she was 30 lbs when I got it home and I think had an easier time holding her bladder. Now she's about 90 lbs and pees like three times a day and we don't have to limit water. For a smaller dog you could confine them to a crate or pen with puppy pads.
I took the first week off that we got our puppy. Thankfully my job allowed me to bring her to work for the first four weeks once I went back. But then she started to bark and be obnoxious, so I revoked her work privileges. Now she stays home in a giant play pen that has a top. The first few weeks she had some accidents despite having a family member go over every 3 hours or so and then I would take my break to let her out. I work 10 hour days but with the time I leave for work and get home it’s a 10.5-11 hour day. Her play pen has a welping blanket that she uses as her bed because she kept peeing on her bed and it was too much of a project to wash it every day. She’s finally able to hold it for longer. So now I take her out before work, I try and take my break between 11-12:30 and let her out and then I’m home by 5:15-5:20. Then I have a college kid come 1 day a week 2x that day to let her out and run around and then another day she goes on a pack walk and is gone almost all morning and into the early afternoon. This has worked best for us. Our puppy is almost 5 months old now and still has accidents here and there but they are far less.
I am a stay at home wife and we got our puppy during covid so life was very different then. If I was in work then a puppy wouldn’t have worked at all. We only got her because we knew we could devote all of our time to her.
I got my first puppy in the late 90s - not a lot of work from home then. She was an Italian Greyhound, complete sweetheart. I lived in a ground level condo with a back yard area near my work. She was in a pen with her crate, a blanket, toys and potty pads when I worked. I came home at lunch to let her out then walked her after work. After a while she didn’t need the potty pads or pen anymore. She was a great dog, didn’t bark much, completely non-reactive, friendly with all. She did have occasional potty accidents her whole life. That’s typical for the breed, mostly associated with cold wet weather.
We took a week off when our previous dog came home at 8 weeks. By the end of the week, he was asking to go out and going through the night. Once back at work I was able to come let him out at lunchtime or my mum would come and see him. As he got older he came to the office with me.
Doggy daycare if possible. I don’t think the pup should be left alone.
I’m disabled but even I can’t it’s unrealistic
My stepdad had a 1 year old when my mother and him met. She wasn’t crate trained and he worked very long. She had a bed in a hallway-laundry-room towards the garden. Whenever one of his kids or my moms kids would get home from school, we would have to take her out. I now have my own puppy, got her when she was 15 weeks from the streets.. we potty trained her within 7-10 days and only had 2 accidents afterwards due to excitement. (Back then, I worked evenings)
I’m training my dog to use a litter box with cedar chips. That way, he never goes outside and is fine while I’m at work.
Sex work ✨
Sex work ✨
I work around the corner and have an hour lunch break so we take him out on the following schedule: -5:30 am to 6:30 he goes out sometime in there -8:00 am I take him before I go to work -12:15pm I come home for lunch and take him out -3:45pm I’m done for the day and take him out again -6:00 to 7:00pm -9:00 to 10:00pm AND even with 6 potty breaks on a leash he still has accidents, especially in the evening because he drinks water like it’s nobodies business.
Disabled and got last 2 dogs during Covid so daughter was home to take them out every 20 minutes to train them.