Absolutely. In fact, he loves his crate and "goes to bed" without any struggle at all.

I appreciate your response. I have only used a forum twice in my lifetime and not had the best experience with either.

We are doing the best we can. The situation was not supposed to be like this. We sold our condo, purchased the dog, and then the condo sale fell through. We had to wait until we had another buyer and then had to wait to find a new house. We move into our new house with a large yard in 15 days. I am guessing the situation will get better once there is that level of freedom, but unfortunately this is our only other option at this point.

Again thank you for the reassurance that we aren't the most terrible dog owners out there.

I am puzzled as to how you think that most families own dogs. The average family has two adults that work a full time job to support their children and lifestyle. Our situation is no different. Unlike you, we do not have the luxury to be at home constantly.

Futhermore, I came to this forum for advice...not to be ridiculed about my choice to own a dog or the way I am raising my puppy. You must think that I enjoy leaving my dog in a crate the majority of the day when in fact, I feel terrible about it. However, this is our only option for a couple more weeks.

And finally, my dog's growth and muscle development is just fine. He has the appropriate amount of room in his crate for his current size. He is certainly not being pushed into a small crate that he does not fit in.

Well I think the word cage is a tad emotive and it also depends on how spacious the crate is, if it's big enough to move around in most dogs will just sleep. It's actually good to teach a dog to be calm, be alone and not create a fuss every time the owners disappear. My lot just doss when I go out as they know the fun stuff centres around me being around. Plenty of dogs have owners at home all day long who never walk them and have very little interaction with them. I don't understand it but it happens. As for rescues only rehoming to people who are not away from home for less than 4 hours a day just means they alienate half the population. Doesn't mean all dogs can't cope with being home alone when most clearly can and well balanced dogs adapt easily to the changes to their owners working patterns, for me the key words are quality time not quantity time.

How much playing is he doing during this time and what sort of play? He should be taken out to toilet as soon as he wakes up and after he has been fed.

What time does he go into his crate when you leave for work? As soon as you get home you should take him out to toilet and no playing until his tanks have been emptied.


Again he needs to be taken out as soon as your husband gets home to empty his tanks and no playing until they are empty, same before your husband goes to work.

Personally I am not happy with this timetable, when is he exercised? Does he get taken out for walks? When does he have training sessions and for how long? What is he fed on and when is he fed during the day, at his age he should be on 3 meals a day.

You are putting in a lot of effort to try and bring him up properly but this does need altering as it isn't meeting his needs at the moment.

I am sorry that you personally are not happy with our time table. Our dog is not neglected nor is he abandoned. Our dog is let out of his crate and taken outside as soon as we walk through the door. He plays inside for a few and then we go on a 20 minute walk. My husband has the same routine. My husband and I do not even eat lunch because we are trying to allow our puppy as much play time as possible. When we come home after work, neither of us leave at the same time so we do not have to put him in his crate. If we both have to go somewhere we take him or one of us just stays home with him.

were did I say your put was neglected or abandoned? I did say at the bottom of my post You are putting in a lot of effort to try and bring him up properly but this does need altering as it isn't meeting his needs at the moment. Maybe you didn't read down that far.

At the moment you are putting a lot of effort into your pup but you are not meeting his needs, as you haven't answered my questions I have to assume that you are not taking him for walks or doing any training. At 3.5 months old he should be getting approximately 20 minutes walk a day, these are essential so he learns what the outside world is like. He also needs very short training sessions to teach him to walk on a loose lead, sit, down etc.

Did you say the pup was three months old?
Be careful here, medium and large breed puppies inc Labradors should be getting walked 5 minutes per month of age so 15 minutes with no running up stairs, excessive jumping like on and off sofas for instance.
More than this and you risk joint damage when older and Labradors are I believe very susceptible to joint issues.

Evidently you did not read my entire post because I clearly state that we take our dog for walks on each of our lunch breaks. Not to mention the walks and time we spend at the park in the evening.

Not bothering any more, we are all volunteers and give our help free but some owners don't seem to read posts properly.