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Old April 29th, 2011, 02:09 AM
Borador Borador is offline
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Leaving dog home alone

Hi,



I am not here to be judged from those who strongly oppose leaving a dog at home alone for extended periods of time. But it is not possible for those of us who work for a living to spend all hours of the day with our best friend (as much as I'd love to).



I have a new addition to the family, he is a 3 month old Border Collie/Labrador Retriever mix. When he hits about 6 months, he will have to be left in his crate for up to 8 hours a day. However, prior to being placed in his crate he will have a vigorous excercise session of one hour and he will be properly fed. His washroom needs will also be catered to prior to him being placed in the crate.



Upon arrival back home I plan on giving him a mental activity session (15-30 minutes) and then before bedtime, he will go for an hour long walk. He will not be placed in his crate during bedtime.



This routine follows for up to 4-5 days a week. Two days of the week he will virtually be with a family member all day and exercised more.



I would love to leave him in the yard or an open space in the house, however the border collie in him will most likely result in destructive behavior for being left alone, despite the puppy training he is receiving right now (professional classes).



Now as for my question. To the seasoned dog owners. How realistic is this plan? Will the dog be absolutely miserable? Can this work without any significant health issues arising (mental, emotional).



I appreciated any input and opinions/advice.



Thank you in advance.
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  #2  
Old April 29th, 2011, 06:21 AM
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Melinda Melinda is offline
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being the mix he is, I'd increase his 1 hour of exercise to two.....I am at home all day with my dog a 6 yr old lab/shepherd mix and we have at least 3 hours of walks/exercise and running a day and she is still full of energy. it will take a lot to wear out a border collie, you'll probably realize yourself that your pup will need more by his actions and acting out in frustration when you return home, then again, you could end up with a nice laid back dog, no two dogs are alike. is there no neighbour or teenager you could hire to take him out for say 30 minutes at lunch?
good luck and welcome to the forum.
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Old April 29th, 2011, 08:38 AM
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Goldfields Goldfields is offline
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Borador, I'd be most concerned with him not having a toilet break for so long. Here we have all our dogs as house dogs but we also built very secure dog yards outside for the times when we had to leave them all day. Concreted, fully roofed, wall on the sides the bad weather comes from, draught proof kennels, and not expensive or fancy. Second hand material but if you could do it with new, well, that'd be nice for you. Floors were sloped to the gates so they hosed out easy, and some are 6' x 12', some 9' x 12'. Get them used to being yarded and you will never regret it. Such a relief to know they can toilet, be comfortable, and not get into mischief. LOL. Never owned a dog here that didn't like its yard btw.
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Old April 29th, 2011, 08:52 AM
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clm clm is offline
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I'm not a big fan of leaving a dog in a crate for 8 hours or more. I really think they should be able to get up and move around if they want to. Our previous dogs were fine having the run of the main floor while we were at work, they were blocked off in the kitchen with a gate until we were sure they could hold their bladders until we got home. Freddie was left while we were at work for 10 hours. Yogi about 8 hours. Baxter and Bentley have been fortunate enough to have one of us home with them all the time.

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Old April 29th, 2011, 09:01 AM
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hedgiemama hedgiemama is offline
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I would try to increase the exercise a bit more if you could, but as he is only a pup, he shouldnt be doing and hard running on pavement or any forced exercise as this can damage his joints. He should be doing any exercise like that until he is a year old when he is full grown. As im sure you know border collies are quite high energy for the most part, that being said, I have one here who loves to lay around, and will go go go when its time to run and other that he is back laying at my feet. I have found most labs to have quite a fair amount of energy also.

Regardless of the breed, your pup will become destructive if it doesnt have enough exercise. Along with the morning physical exercise try throwing in a 5 minute training sessions, or another type of mental stimulation, this will tucker out your pup in a different way than physical activity will. Try putting a kong, filled with peanut butter or yogurt and treats, frozen, in the crate with your puppy to give him some mental stimulation while you are gone it can entertain them for a while.

As goldfields suggested, would there be someone who could let the puppy out for a half hour play session and pee break at lunch, this will help to tire your puppy out again and allow him to relieve himself in an appropriate place. It will also break up his day a little bit and it wont seem so long and boring.
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Old April 29th, 2011, 10:28 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Hmmm. Lots of energy there. However, not sure what "vigorous exercise" means to you but I was cautious with our Lab to loosely follow the 5 minute rule:

5 minutes of forced exercise (anything leashed, straight line or compelled to keep up to you) allowed per month of age, twice a day on a hard surface. I would include hard fetching in this. So at six months 30 minutes twice a day.

Play off leash on soft ground, grass, unlimited as puppy can run, walk, turn, change direction and pace, lie down as she feels inclined


For the time alone I very much don't like a crate. The crate rule is one hour plus one hour per month of age but I will not crate for longer than 3 hours and that's per day, not per time. Most crates would not be big enough for most zoo regualtions. My Vet feels too long crating might be responsible for some of the neuroses (from boredom) we see in dogs these days, some urinary problems like the upsurge in UTIs and joint problems from dogs not being able to move much for hours and then let out to run wild and crazy without proper warm-up.

Another complaint I have with crates is the dog is not free to move to a cooler part of the room and the aluminum pan really builds up heat. Go on, try putting your hand on the aluminum of your window frame. Aluminum is a very good conductor of heat. Our's is Alum., don't know about plastic.

We put the crate, open door, in a pen or in our gated kitchen. Other options are doggy day care, come home during the day, have a dog walker come in, even a neighbour to let the dog out for a couple of breaks.
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Old April 29th, 2011, 10:54 AM
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Masha Masha is offline
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We have set up a camera to see wht our guy does in his enclosure during the day ( its like a play pen that takes up half the room) and all he would do is sleep in various poses. When he was younger he would also chew some toys.... So i think that your plan is reasonable - at that age though if possible i would recommend a large enough crate to move in and leave some sturdy toys in. You can always adjust the exercise needs as you see how your dog takes it - all dogs have a different energy level and you will find what works for you.
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Old April 29th, 2011, 12:20 PM
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Goldfields Goldfields is offline
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Masha, you are spot on about them sleeping a lot during the day, that's all my dogs ever do for the majority of the time, whether they are inside or outside. Back when I used to yard the cattle dogs full time, they got several toilet breaks as well as their twice daily proper exercise, but when I'm away I think it's nice that they can move around, watch what's going on, enjoy the sun's warmth or whatever nice scents drift by. Your indoor pen is like mine here , mine are 5' square. I put Dundee(the hypothyroid boy) with the two spayed girls in one as he can be a bit aggressive with his brother, the two older sheltie brothers share one at night, and my anti social cattle dog girl has to have the third. But, as I say, they're out in the yards if we can't be here. It's interesting to hear how people manage their dogs, I don't think there'd be too many dogs complaining about the arrangements made for them.
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Old April 30th, 2011, 12:15 PM
Etown_Chick Etown_Chick is offline
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Scruffy is home by himself during the day, no issues (now that his teething/destructo phase is over). Lots of offleash time at the park daily, leash walks, play at home, social time, outside time, he's fine.
He has the run of the house but to be honest, it's the 'sleep' of the house; he does his running when I get home. He seems happy.
If you're really worried, check out local doggie daycares. Even one or two days a week will provide him with lots of stimulation.
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  #10  
Old April 30th, 2011, 04:31 PM
Borador Borador is offline
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Thank you for the replies everyone.

I have opted to build a 5x5 fenced area with a cover in the backyard where he can spend his time, as on occasion he may be alone up to 10-12 hours and that would just be unacceptable for him to be in a crate for that long.

I will also put a kennel in the fenced area in case he wants to go in it to sleep or if the weather gets really bad.
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Old April 30th, 2011, 06:47 PM
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doggy lover doggy lover is offline
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Borador one word of caution Border Collies love to dig, so make sure the kennel is made so he can't dig out. The 10-12 hours is a long time, if border collies don't have someone to stimulate them and keep them busy they will find things to keep themselves busy and this can be a bad thing. When my BC was crated as a puppy for a couple of hours one time he chewed through the bars of the crate into the drywall never did figure out how he did it and a friend of mine that owned a BC it did the same thing Good luck
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Old April 30th, 2011, 08:28 PM
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Goldfields Goldfields is offline
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Doggy lover, that's exactly what my cattle dogs did before we concreted our yards, dug craters large enough to bury themselves in. LOL. It was just so nice to have yards finally that weren't like a minefield and full of dust. Then, after Shady continuously making confetti of the blankets we put in her kennel, my brother told me about better, free bedding to use. We just tear newspaper into strips - 24 papers do a kennel nicely(2 big chaff bags full) - and it gave them big cushiony beds to snuggle down into. They also each had a hammock bed so could choose where to sleep.
Oh, Iget newspapers that our newsagent fails to sell, so they are nice clean bedding.
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Old May 2nd, 2011, 12:52 AM
reanne reanne is offline
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I don't know about a puppy that young-I have only ever had dogs over 1yr, but I am in nursing which means long hours home alone for my dogs sometimes. They are active, high energy dogs, but they are lazy in the house-not sure how BCs are. Whistler has the right to be loose in the house, but Nahla is crated, and she is fine in the crate. They would NOT be happy in a yard enclosure, but again, not sure how BCs are (Ridgebacks are definitely very much house dogs LOL). If I am worried that I didn't get them out long enough (Whistler doesn't care, but Nahla is younger and also still rehabilitating) then I have a neighbour let them out. Since they are adults, I'm not that worried about pottying because they often choose to not go out for hours and hours and hours (like if I wake up in the morning and start working on papers, the dogs will just keep sleeping, and then maybe wake up and play together on my bed, and maybe not go out until lunch time or unless I kick their butts out the door haha!!

Good luck!

Another option for bedding for yard bedding is straw if allergies are not a concern.
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  #14  
Old May 2nd, 2011, 10:52 AM
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Gail P Gail P is offline
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I'm home most of the time with my dogs, but when I'm gone it could be out to town for a short time, or it could be down to a larger town/city that would mean several hours or most of the day. Some weekends in the winter I'm away all day or all weekend for training or races. Where I leave my dogs depends on the weather. Mine are all (9 dogs) 100% trustworthy to be left loose in the house (full run of it) so sometimes I leave them in and ask neighbours to let them out (and feed/water as necessary if I'm away for the weekend). Other times I leave them outside in the yard for the day. I live on a dead-end road in a rural area with good neighbours so I don't have to worry about anyone coming along and harming my dogs or letting them loose. Out in the yard they have a big shelter up on the deck, a medium plastic doghouse and two old rabbit runs that I've converted to dog shelters. One is about 4x4, the other is about 4x8 so they fit multiple dogs in each. They're roofed, partially enclosed on the sides/ends and have plastic over the mesh on the other parts to break the wind. Those "houses" have blue styrafoam insulating the bottom (under plywood so they can't get at the foam) and I fill them with lots of straw. I don't expect my dogs to live out in them all the time but it gives them shelter and a warmer/dryer place to sleep if the weather is cool. With the number of dogs I have they do keep themselves entertained, playing tag around their houses, the swingset, the playhouse etc. and they have bones and toys in the yard. Sometimes when they're out there and I'm inside the house looking out the kitchen window I will also see one or another playing all alone, tossing a toy around...flinging it, pouncing on it, then racing around with it.

btw, one of mine is a border collie/lab (my avatar picture), 5 are border collies, a collie, and ACD mix and another mix. They were all crate trained as puppies and if left in the house were left crated when younger. They graduated out of the crate once fully housetrained and past the teething stage. 6 months (when you will have to start leaving your dog) would be a bit young to leave him with free run of the house. Not just the BC in him...that age is still risky for any dog. I probably started leaving mine loose for short periods around that age and would increase the time as long as they behaved. There has been at least one (not one of the BC's) that had to revert to the crate until about 10 months because he started chewing things. The worst destruction I ever experienced was when I had two young great danes and my collie (pup then). The danes outgrew their crates so I opted to shut them into the hallway with a baby gate and close all the bedroom/bathroom doors in the hall. They crushed plastic doorknobs, stripped trim off doorways, chewed carpet and walls...I suspected one of the danes as being the worst culprit so we turned our spare room into a "dog" room, took down the bed and put in a huge custom made crate for him. Problem solved. Eventually he was ok loose in the house too but they seemed to be a slow-to-mature breed both in terms of house training and destructiveness.
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Last edited by Gail P; May 2nd, 2011 at 11:07 AM.
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  #15  
Old May 7th, 2011, 10:44 AM
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MIA MIA is offline
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While your dog is younger you may want to hire a dog walker so that your pooch can have a nice rip during the day, it will also take the pressure off you having to run him when you get home from a full day!!! I know what it's like to come home after a hard day and NOT want to run your day, although it's good for you too!!!!

I work too so my dogs are left for a full work day, bless them they are seniors now so don't require as much exercise but still they get walks in the am, after dinner and just before bed.
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