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At Work all day

James C

Member
Hi i have a nine month old charlie. I have to work all day and feel guilty about leaving hime alone. What i do is bring him for a walk in the morning and i come home at lunch time and leave him out for a run for 10min and in the evening he gets a two mile walk on the local racecourse off the lead. I have a big dog run out the back for him but am afriad to leave him in it as there have being a lot of dogs stolen in my locality in the past year. My friend had two king charles pups stolen. Any ideas on how to improve the quality of Charlies life. He is a happy dog and seems to be enjoying life but i feel guilty about him being alone for 4 hours in the morning and four hours in the evening
 
Hi James -- I would definitely only leave him inside during the day -- in general an outdoor run would not be appropriate for a cavalier anyway as they are an indoor housedog and toy breed, less a dog that is happy alone outside. Also you are right, there is a worrying rate of dog theft in Ireland and cavaliers are one of the favourite targets. Many are stolen to order and sold on to people who think they are getting a rescue dog or worse -- to puppy farmns to spend the rest of their lives in a small cage, used for breeding. :( Some are --horrificly -- used to bait and blood fighting dogs too.

If you are coming home at lunch for a walk/run you are already doing a major positive step for good care for a dog that otherwise is alone during the day. You might give him a proper short walk then and make sure he has relieved himself.

Here are some more ideas:

Can you put him in one room -- a utility room, the kitchen, a spare room -- and leave a radio on (my dogs like radio 1 or Lyric FM :) (classical music is known to be very soothing for animals). He also needs fresh water available, a bed, and anything risky he could chew on needs to be removed (eg cords or personal items like shoes).

I recommend getting him a Kong toy which you can stuff with some kibble and say, chicken paste, and freeze. You can get smalls or mediums for cavaliers -- but be sure to subtract this food from his daily ration! Then give him the kong when you leave. It will keep him busy for ages, working to get the goodies out! Also some other safe toys should be left with him too. You can also hide an item like a kong or his favourite toys, and leave him to find it while you are out. You could give a second kong when you get home at lunch, for afternoon play. Note you could used chopped bits of carrot or green pepper surrounded by the paste as well to lower the calories in a kong. Most petshops will sell kongs.

I'm sure others will have ideas as well as other things that can be put in a Kong. You can read more about kongs here: http://www.kongcompany.com/worlds_best.html

I wouldn;t worry about the time he is on his own as he is getting out for that all important midday break with you and relieving himself and getting a stretch. What you want to do now is make sure he is safe inside and has some things to keep life interesting while indoors.

Also: I need you to try and bring down the size of your avatar. There's maximum dimensions and info on how to do this in the Getting Started section. The max size -- to keep the board from getting stretched way out to the side -- is the size of my own. I can help you if you need some help getting the sizing right. :)
 
We leave our Duncan at home like you do coming home for lunch and I think he rather enjoys his time alone as long as we don't change his schedule. I say this because by the time Saturday rolls around and we have played all morning he often goes in his crate for a BIG nap as if to say. 'Enough already, you all are breaking into my nap time'

The best part of my days are seeing that wagging tail and huge cav smile during my lunch hour.
 
That's agood point -- dogs do love routines and if he has a nice routine he will be very content. :) I am at home most of the day with my dogs and can tell you them mostly just sleep with occasional spurts of activity or play but their big ambition is couch-potato status during the day. :lol:
 
Hi,

I also work full time, and feel guilty leaving Harry.
I also walk him for half an hour in the morning before heading off to work, then my neighbour lets him out for 10/15 mins about half 10, then at lunch time Harry goes for a walk with my neighbour for an hour with her dogs (inc Ebony) and then he goes back in to our house for a nap, and then he has a toilet break at 4pm, and i'm home by 6pm for another half our walk.
Harry is always happy to see us when we come in, but mind you he reacts the same when we nip out the room for a few mins :lol: :lol: and he knows the routine cos he'll go and sit on his bed once i'm ready to leave for work.
I also leave the radio on for harry as i think a quiet room would be boring for them, and he has his toys that i switch round every week, so he doesn't become bored playing with the same ones all the time.

My son has just been diagnosed with ADHD so i can now apply to work part time with my employer so i'm looking forward to spending more time with Harry!
Heather
 
Gotta tell you...this will ease your minds...I also work at home and my guys sleep pretty much all day long. They konk back out about 7:00 and are down for the majority of the day. As I am typing Jake is laying of the office floor and Shelby on the kitchen floor....both sound asleep.

As long as they are getting a break midday...a little something to break up their day...I think they are fine.
 
I used to feel guilty as Busta made such a song and dance about me leaving in the morning.

They have the garden in the morning when I am doing tea and coffee, they have a wrestle when I am in the shower, then they have a 20 minute walk, then someone goes in at lunchtime stays 30 minutes or so, then I am home normally about 5.45 (or earlier icon_whistling). They have an evening walk....... and then when no one is around they are all asleep I have sneeked back to check as soon as I am off the drive they are all on the sofa... and when you do get back home of a lunch time, they fall asleep on you.
 
im sure i read on here somewhere that someone keeps an eye on hers with a web cam and said that they do sleep and lounge about most of the time. ;)
 
I may be posting out of turn here, but just to support what others have said re routine. I'm a postgraduate student and definitely a night person, so I don't exactly get up at the crack of dawn. Holly is used to lazy mornings and even when we are at my parents' at the weekend (they're early risers) she prefers to stay in her basket and snooze as per normal. In fact,my mum complained a few weeks ago that she had to physically keep lifting Holly out of the basket when she was going to take her for an early morning walk- Holly kept going back to bed and looking at my mum as if to say, 'Walk now? You gotta be kidding..'- especially since while Holly adores retrieving her rope ring in the park, ordinary walking doesn't usually excite her terribly. Unless she can con someone into carrying her, of course... :D
 
Hi. I have a similar schedule, most days i leave home around 9 but often later because i got in the field (i dont' get up very early, don't use an alarm) and then i leave Zack until i come home for lunch some time mid day and then i come home 5-ish. But many days if i'm in the field all day, then i come home earlier, 3 or 4, and i sometimes don't take a lunch break. He is by himself for 4 to 6 hours. I love waking up in the morning and coming home from work at lunch and evening, to get those sweet kisses from zack.

The other day, something went wrong at work and i had to miss lunch, and zack was by himself for over 8 hours. He acted the same. That's about how long he's on his own during the night too. But at night, it looks like he doesn't move, he stays in one spot. During the day, i dont' know. I do see that he has played with his toys, things are moved around a bit. He must surely sleep. But i must say that on days when i am home all day, he sleeps very little. He is busy, he chews sticks, he plays vigorouslly with his favorite toy and other toys, and even when he lays down on the couch, he is awake, looking around, looking at me. He does sleep but i can't say he spends most of his time sleeping because he doesn't. He's not hyper or anxious or agitated. He's just awake.

but when i come home from work, even when it's been up to 6 hours or after an 8 hour night, Zack is never in a hurry to go outside to relieve himself. It's always my suggestion, but he acts like he'd rather cuddle and play. Sometimes he takes a toy into the backyard for that first time of the day and i have to watch to make sure he doesn't drop it right where he's about to pee.

i agree with the general consensus here, that if you come home mid day, you're doing as well as any working person can do, and if he seems happy and enjoying life, then you're giving him a good like. I definitely relate to the guilt about it, i have had plenty.

Some people hire dog wallkers and dog sitters. That's the only other thing i can think of that you might do.
 
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