So,how long are you willing to leave your dog alone for?

I was just reading the thread about "working full time whilst raising puppy" and it got me thinking about how many different ways people work out how to live and work with their dogs.
I've finally finished uni and am looking at full time work,at the moment I can stay financally comfortable whilst working full time weekends but it does not fulfill my personal carear aims so I dont plan to work there long.
At the moment I'm not comfortable leaving Coco for longer then 5hours a day,she can hold her toilet for longer but that just seems to be my limit.
What is your limit?
What is your set up for your dogs when your out?
To those that work full time do you find your days off are dog focused or do you still leave them alone?
Coco seems comfortable being alone for 5hours she displays no bad behaviour in the house and is not too crazy hypa when I return,does that mean I can up the hours I leave her alone (I have no plans/need to but would like to know)
X

I don't worry about getting home, she holds it for 24+ hours on her own when it's too cold or raining

Currently, Chloe is used to being left alone for up to eight hours a day. Typically 7:30-3:30. Mom will sometimes stop in around noon to let her out to go potty, but that depends on the day. She gets free run of the entire house. With the size of our family, normally someone is around, at least when not in school. When people are home in the evenings she just hangs out with one of us (right now she's laying by my feet) and will occasionally ask for play.

When I'm off, I don't focus on her any more than normal. LOL We stick to our routine, for the most part. But if we're going to be outside or something she tags along, which I suppose is different than being kept in the house for the better part of the day.

Mike doesn't like leaving his pooches longer than five or six hours at a time. With Cynder he would sometimes let her go for longer as she had free run of the house, but Gracie and Cooper are crated (in a HUGE crate, together...) while he's gone, so he doesn't think it is fair to them. If he's gone for a long stretch of time he takes them over to a field by his house and lets them run around for a bit when he gets home.

All four of the dogs have gone 12+ hours before without an accident...but I can't imagine that would be comfortable. LOL

I try not to leave her alone for more than 5 hours.

Once my boyfriend and I start working full time, we'll have to, though.

The longest they currently have to wait is about 9 hours. With my work schedule that is typically only one day a week, two at most. The maximum I like to leave them is 10-12 hours, in rare extenuating circumstances I have left them up to 15 hours but I don't care for that at all. On a typical day they are left no more than 5-6 hours.

No longer than 4 hours.
It's not really a potty issue for me, they can hold it for much longer.. I just feel bad leaving them cooped up in the house with no walk or playtime.

Don't know why I feel so bad about it lol honestly, when we are gone all they do is find a comfy spot and sleep.

I work nine hour days 4 days a week plus commute. It's long. I don't like having to leave them but it never seems to phase them. I leave them together in a double x-pen with beds, pee pad (never been used), toys, water.

My days off and especially weekday evenings are definitely dog focused. Before work Mia gets a workout too, which sucks since I have to get up at 5 am every day. But it's worth it.

I think dogs are more adaptable than people give them credit for, however I would definitely NOT crate that long. I'm still trying to work out the details for my next dog since it will be a bigger dog. Ideally I'd want an indoor/outdoor run but I'm not sure that will be feasible.

I'm home 95 % of the time, so mine normally are not left for more than 4-5 hrs at a time. About 1-2 yrs ago we did a transport of an aussie and I left them home, we were gone about 9 1/2 hrs, my mom came up 2x and let them out potty and they did perfect But that is not something i'd do often, but I'm happy to know that they are okay if I have to every now and again and that they don't destroy the house lol!

8-9 hours, though that's pushing it. We were gone for 9 hours the other night and came home to a poop. But a lot of it has to do with WHEN we're gone. He has a schedule, poops first thing in the morning and then in the mid to late afternoon. If you're gone for a while during one of his poop times you are likely to get an accident, if you are gone for a long time and it doesn't overlap his poop times, you're usually fine. He can hold his pee for a long time, but when it's time for #2 he has to go.

The only time I really feel bad for him is the days where he's left home while my parents work and then they go out again at night for a long time. He basically doesn't get any attention, but that doesn't happen often.

My husband and I work staggered schedules, thankfully. I am gone 7-4:30 or so, and he's gone 8:30-6:30ish. That means Lucy is only alone for 8 hours a day. I wouldn't feel right leaving her any longer than that, though we go 9 hours on occasion when I have to work late.

On days that we know both of us will be working long, or when we have somewhere to be in the evenings, she goes to day care.

My guys are usually not left longer than 5-6 hours, but can go 8 hours in a pinch. I really do not like leaving them alone too long...but that is more me than them

At the moment there's no need for them to ever be alone longer than a couple hours here or there. The max they're left alone is 12ish hours which happens very rarely. Normally on the days that I know that's going to happen, I try to bring Juno to daycare. But they are left in my bedroom and just sleep the whole time otherwise.

8 1/2 to 9 hours is my maximum. Even then I feel guilty. They've been left a little longer a few times but it is not something that happens often and I felt awful when it did. Most days they're left alone intermittently throughout the day, so altogether they're probably alone for maybe 4-5 hours in a day. I put them away when I leave for work in the mornings, then my brother lets them out at some point when he wakes up, then he puts them away before he leaves for a couple more hours and then my mom lets them out when she gets home as she gets home earlier than I do.

One day when I move out and live on my own I will probably send them to daycare a couple times a week and/or have someone come let them out in the afternoon sometime.

Oh, and a lot of my off time is spent doing doggie stuff, not so much to "make it up to them" but because... I like doing doggie stuff in my off time.

We have wonderful friends across the street who will come over and put Caleb out if we're gone for an extended amount of. There have been times we've called them from where ever we were because we were running late. We do the same for them. We'll feed each others' dogs, too.I think the longest we've left Caleb without asking our friends to put him out was 7 hours. By the time we realized how late we were going to be, they were already in bed and I didn't want to wake them up.

Frodo is left alone for, on average, about 9 hours a day.

Even when I get home he would much rather play tug or have dinner rather than go out to the bathroom right away, so I don't worry about his bladder.

For Keegan, 10 hours is my absolute max.... And even then I try to plan ahead really well so he gets a long exercise time before I leave and another long exercise time when I come home. I've only had to leave him that long a couple of times in the past two years, though, usually it's about 8-9 hours. Also he has to be crated while I'm gone, so I feel super guilty when I leave him that long.

Most days I'm able to get home for lunch so he's only left about 4-5 hours at a time.

I've left Luna alone for 15 hours before, maybe even more. I used to feel guilty about leaving her alone for a long time, until I realized one weekend that she pretty much sleeps the whole day anyway; even when I was home she didn't ask to go outside or anything for 9 hours or so. She's not crated when I leave, though, so I don't feel quite so guilty. She also doesn't seem to mind pottying in the house, though she does hold it 99% of the time, even on those 12+hour days.

Growing up we had a lab mix, we had to leave her for 24 hours once and she did just fine. We felt terribly guilty about it, but figured it would be less stressful than going to a boarding kennel (which she HATED). Also she didn't have to be crated so that made us feel better.

The most my dogs stay alone right now is 4 hours or so. Meg can and has done 8 hours or a bit more with no issue, but for Gusto that isn't feasible. I don't think it would be a potty issue for him, he's just a very active 1 year old dog who requires a lot of stimulation. Generally my mother takes care of them while I'm at work. If she leaves them for a few hours to go volunteer or run errands, they are loose in the house with any rooms containing stuff Gusto could get into trouble with closed off. If my mother is away, I either put in a few hours of vacation and work shorter days, he goes to training camp for the day, or he comes to work with me where he is crated in the warehouse and gets off-leash romps in the field next door during my 3 breaks (and often walks from other employees who want some puppy time). We are gradually working on him staying home for longer periods of time (until a couple of months ago, 2 hours would have been my answer).

Usually 8 hours but sometimes more.

Our three are basically never home alone because my parents work from home, but when they are left home alone it's usually no more than a few hours on the weekend. However if we were ever to leave them home I'm pretty sure Bo and Abby could hold it for 8+ hours, but Twister I won't leave him any longer than 2-3 hours since he's still a baby and can't hold it to long