working and owning dogs

hi just wondered how many if any of you own dogs and work?

please can u put your breed of dog and whether you work full or part time or none and how your dogs cope with it or whther you have a dog sitter or someone that comes round?

thanx for any replies!

As i have two siberian huskies and they are my babies and at the mo i only work 5-10hrs a week (lucky me) but on friday i have an interview for a job of my dreams working at port lympe zoo as a primate keeper. Never thought id get an interview so was shocked when they rung.!

anyway now i am panicing as i dont wanna leave my boys or have to get rid of them as they are my world.
the job would be 5 out of 7 days and 8 hrs a day. i know this is way too long to leave sibes. so my bro said he wud look after them when he gets in from work at 2pm and mum said shed come round for her lunch about 12. so i will take them out early morning before i leave and when i get back and every other day or so i will work them (run them on a rig (3wheeled sled)) so they will still get the exercise.

we are also poss exchangeing to live in a bigger house that has 4 floors so the bottom floor we are going to convert and have it as the dogs and the garden as a massive run for them with 6ft fencing plus enclosed wire fencing. with a dog kennel outside and their crates inside and leave them the run of the ground floor and outside.

so my question as well as the above is do you think they would be ok or should i not go for the interview as i wud never give my babies up so if not ill not go for the job.

if any of this makes any sense and u can answer the above questions that would be great.

thanx

Hi
I have a SBT and work 4 full days and 1 half day, I go home at lunch time. my Oh work funny hours sometome and can be home by 3pm...and my MIL & FIL pop round......but she sleep on my bed and even when we are in and if we are doing other stuff ie house work of cooking, you will often find her having a wee snooze on our bed...,...she has never detroyed anything or touched something she should not....she has the run of the whole house.......so I have no worries....

I have a Bullmastiff and a Yorkshire Terrier.
I work 20 1/2 hours a week (when i'm not doing overtime).
Kingsley is fine being left alone all day (the Yorkie), Teagan has been left up to 8 hours once when I had no choice, but she was fine.

Normally the most i'm away is 5 1/2 hours.
If I have to do over time, my mum will come to my house for an hour and let the dogs out and give them some attention.

as you already realise the hours that you are contemplating are far to long to leave dogs but you seem to have thought through the idea of dog walkers and sitters rember dogs are social animals and do require attention a lot of the dogs we see are given up for re-homing as once people start to work long hours they do not have the same time for the dog but carefully thought out there is no reason with plenty support why you cant work and still enjoy your dogs

I have 4 dogs and work full time nights. I work my sleep pattern around my dogs so they are never left for more than 4 hours at a time.

I have a boxer and me and my OH both work full time. We have him in a good routine whereby OH takes him out for a 20 min run every morning before we leave for work. He's then left from 8.30am until 12.30noon when I go home (I live 2 mins in the car from work) he then gets me for a full hour and we go out for a 30-45 min walk. Take him home and settle him down until we both get home at just after 5pm. He's then taken out at around 7pm for his last 30min run of the day.

He tends to sleep whenever we are out and even when we're on a days holiday he'll totally ignore us until its "walkies" time!!

Hi

I have one Boerboel x Labrador. 5 yrs old. My husband and I both work full day. Bruno (dog) is left inside the house while we are at work (the weather is fine in this country, but we are worried about the ppl that poison dogs to get into the house). When we are at home he is our shadow if he wants to be, sleeps in our room, is not banned from anywhere. Loves to be in the garden in the evenings (just to lie and stare out at the night). He gets taken for a walk in the evening. he is not even slighlty overweight, in fact vet says his weight is perfect! He is not destructive, although if you leave a soft toy around, he thinks it must be for him ... hence the many faceless teddies (why just the face???).
But then again, he is not a highly active breed.
But it sounds like you have everything nicley planned. They sound like they definately wont be starved for attention! Good luck with the interview!!!!
Tam

I work for 2hrs most days and a couple of evenings a week she is on her own during the day but when I work at night OH is home with her and she just sleeps until I get back.
She is a Dobermann aged 17 mths.
Mary

I live at home at the mo so the dogs (Woody the lab and Pickles a Terrier x) are very rarely left for more than a couple of hours. When I leave home I think I would have someone come and walk them during the day or leave them with my parents depending on my shift at the time! I would only be working 7.5 hours a day so I think that would be ok!
Just out of interest tho, when you're out do you let your dogs have the run of the house or do you have to crate them? I adore huskies and want to own and work some one day but don't think I would have the heart to crate them when I'm not there!!

at the moment they are crated if i do ever have to go out but it is usually only for a maximum of 2hrs but i wudnt ever dream of leaving them in there if i get the job so if the plans i have dont work out i will just stay in my part time job.
but nearly ever husky owner will tell u that u have to crate ur husky or have and enclosed run for them as 9 times out of 10 they will destroy ur house.

one of my friends who had 2 never crated and they were not too bad she was lucky only the skirting board etc were eaten but then she got a 3rd my eldests brother and he has eaten 30 pairs of shoes boots trainers and slippers, everything that is wood from table legs to the sofa legs to cupboards.

because he isnt crate trained so when she nipped to the shop something else was destroyed. i convinced her to try to train him at the start but she is only doing it now and havin loads of probs and he just howls now if left. whereas both of mine love there crates it is their sanctuary they are always in there as its there bed and as they like security.

so it is always best to crate train even if u dont intend on using it as one day u may need to. but i do have 2 crates that are for the size of great danes so they have quite abit of room in there.
but i repeat i wudnt ever leave them in there all day if i was working.