Raising Puppy Working Full Time

any possibility of some remote work in the short term?

 

How many hours a day are you gone?

One option is a big dog crate with those pee pads until you can get them house trained.

 

Just throw your leather wallet on the ground and some nice leather shoes. The puppy will be fine. I had a co worker who got a puppy and she would run back to her house a couple of times a day, the dog literally chewed up all of her shoes. Good Luck with the dog are you going to name it Clutch?

 

People need to factor this in, there are a lot of dogs in shelters needing homes especially with the housing crisis and terrible economy: people are abandoning pets


If you can hire a dog walker in between to split the time you’re gonna away in half id do it


And most inportantly…please ADOPT!!!

 

No experience raising a puppy while working full-time, but if you can do some remote work at all that would be ideal.

 

This, most likely will also be potty trained and out of the phase where they bite everything.

 

@Kevooooo

Don't make immediate impulsive decisions. I would look into fostering a puppy / dog first, or dogsitting a friend's dog for a bit. It gives you a clear understanding of how your lifestyle would be if you had to take care of an animal, and if it turns out you really can't, then just give the dog back to the shelter. All while knowing you did your best.

Pros of fostering:
+ Helps the dog be acclimated to a non-shelter environment
+ Helps the shelter, because it's one less dog they have to account for
+ You get to experience what it's like, taking care of a dog with your schedule
+ It can be as short-term or as long-term as you'd like. You might even end up adopting the dog you foster!

Cons:
- You might develop an emotional bond to the dog, so if you end up having to relinquish the dog, it's a huge case of feelsbadman.

 

Eh, I don't think going the puppy route is a suitable choice if you are away from home all day. It will be bad for the dog and bad for you in the long run. Puppies are almost like newborns those first couple of weeks, they require constant attention in order to train them right and set them up in your home. We got a puppy during lockdowns and it took about 5 - 6 days of monitoring the pup to get her crate trained, potty trained, and disciplined from chewing and scratching things up. Once you get through that phase they will be set up long term, but that first week or two is absolutely crucial. The pup is going to whelp and get anxiety if you are away all day long. Even being with our pup all the time she would whelp when we put her in her crate at night, she stopped after a couple of nights, but that also took training and patience.

You have to basically play Vernon Maxwell on Jordan defense for that time, catching them immediately if they chew or scratch, taking them out every one to two hours, getting them in and out of the crate. If you don't have the availability for that, I would look into adopting an adult dog that already has some training.

 

Would your work be fine with you leaving around lunch to take your dog out or are you working remote?
As your dog gets older like a year old, they can hold it in longer and you can start to stretch 9+ hrs, but you'll need to let them out before then or risk ruining any potty training.

Taking the first week off at the beginning to work on potty training really helped my puppy.
I basically set an alarm to go off every 30min-hour to take them outside to pee for like 5 days.
I ended up sleeping on the floor next to my puppy during that time when I could.

Those are really the only two takeaways from my situation that I can provide.
Also my breed is low maintenance, so a big dog will definitely need more walking/play time to burn off energy.

 

I got a puppy when I was in college and had a part time job.

My advice:

It's a dog; not a human. He'll be fine. You'll be fine. Don't overthink it.

 

I did it with two puppies. They started off sharing a large crate. When they got bigger, I added a second large crate. Starting out, I had someone come in the morning and afternoon to let them out back to do their business and run around for 15 - 20 minutes and I came home for lunch. That went on a bit until they could be left home outside the crate and I would just come home for lunch while discontinuing the pet sitter. I did two puppies cause I felt it was cruel to do just one being isolated for long periods.

 

Quit job get 7 puppies teach them to hunt and care for you retire as an alpha.

 

Having had dogs for over 40 years, and having run an animal shelter (it's true), I will offer an opinion on the shelter dog recommendation. This is just an opinion, but hopefully an informed one.

Don't know where you live. in some areas of the country shelters still have too many dogs and end up euthanizing the ones that cannot be adopted out. This is fortunately becoming rarer and rarer as time goes on, and as shelters continue to move in the no-kill direction.

It is often the case that shelter dogs are poorly bred, and if they're older and have been returned, they may have behavioral problems. This is a tough combination for a young, inexperienced, or first-time dog owner. It is far easier to train a pup right from the very beginning, with consistent training from the very start, than it is to reinvent the wheel with an older puppy or adult dog. Not saying it can't be done, but if you don't have lots of dog training experience, it's hard.

Even with mixed breeds, if you can see the parents and form some kind of evaluation of their temperament and health, that's a good thing. That's usually not the case with shelter dogs.

With "pure" bred dogs, you have the additional ability to see or at least learn about a dog's lineage, either through a pedigree or simply contacting others who have gotten pups from a breeder that you're considering. Again, not usually available at a shelter. This can also expose you to the potentially enormous variability within even a single lineage. But that helps you find a puppy that will fit your current needs, work-wise and otherwise. In my opinion, temperament is everything.

If you narrow down your litter choices to just a couple of options, you get to know the people doing the breeding and can in part rely on their experience and judgment to help you make a decision. They will see the litter as it develops, from Day 1 through Weeks Five, Six, and Seven. If you tell the breeder you want a calm dog, they can advise; if you want the hellcat of the litter, the breeder can also help you with that. Some breeders will obviously be better at this than others.

And that's the other part of it. Does the breeder spend a lot of time socializing the pups in those first seven or eight weeks? that can make all the difference in the world in terms of having a mentally sound, well-adjusted pup that's easy to train. This is why puppy mills are so bad, virtually NO attention is given to any of that.

Anyway. There's lots to think about. It's an exciting decision, but don't be in a rush. You're doing the right thing sounding people out right now at this stage.

 

if you’re only gone from 7:30-5:30, then it’s definitely doable, especially if you’re able to come home during lunch or use a dog walker when the temps lower

the main issue is that potty training could take awhile, and some dogs have serious separation anxiety

you’ll have to walk the dog and make sure it uses the bathroom before u leave…a tired dog is a well behaved dog

then outside to potty at lunch

then the same thing right when u get home…dog will have been at home for 10+ hours, so you’re gonna have to give it some attention, play with it, walk it again, etc even if you’re tired or don’t feel like it

give it long lasting chew toys to use while you’re gone

dog needs to be on a consistent schedule to know what to expect

socializing with other dogs and people is key as a puppy…u want every interaction with a person or other dog to be a positive one

your dog will pee and poop in the house while you’re gone…if u catch them in the act, give them a stern no, take them outside, and if they finish outside, praise them…every time they pee or poop outside, give them praise or a treat and u can give them a command (my command was “business”…so now all I gotta tell my dogs is business and they know it’s time to stop sniffing around for rabbits and go poop)…if u stumble upon some pee or poop from even 3 minutes ago, just clean it up and don’t make a big deal out of it

I’d teach it some “go poop” command just because u might not have time for the dog to be taking forever to take a dump before work or during lunch

the crate should be a comforting and happy place for the dog that they enjoy being in…make it comfortable like a den of sorts for them and try to not make them associate it with negative things (don’t yell at the dog and then toss him in the crate for example or crate = punishment instead of safe space)

or u could section off a part of the house for the puppy while you’re gone so they have some place to roam if u don’t like the crate

u can definitely have a puppy…millions of people make it work

 

I tried this and failed miserably. I did the crate training but a puppy can’t hold it for that long so I had a crate with pee pads inside a dog gated area. I read you could move the pee pads closer and closer to the door until the dog finally understood outside is where you go.

Four years later and the dog still isn’t house trained. She sleeps in her crate and we have to watch her constantly if she’s just waking around the house. It’s miserable and totally my fault.

If I could go back I would just have adopted an older dog that already was more or less potty trained.

 

I'm a dog guy but vowed years ago to not get another unless I could give it a great home life with a nice yard to hang out in (frequent walks are good but large breeds seem to crave the outdoors), a good area for those frequent walks they enjoy so much, maybe a nearby park to run and play, and, yeah, the ability to spend lots of time with it and/or have family that will share the load.

There's a Netflix show called the Secret Life of Pets or Amazing Pets (something like that). I would check it out. Dogs are a huge responsibility and you might find another animal that interests you & suits your lifestyle.