I do the same and Harley is usually home about 9 hours (7:30 - 4:30) by herself, and thats a minimum. Some days it's probably been up to 11 hours.
I keep her in the bathroom using a babygate connected to the master bedroom, so she doesn't feel so enclosed. I leave Animal Planet on the tv which she can see and hear from the bathroom. She has a full bowl of water and all her toys. I bought the puppy kong and stuff it with her kibble so she can have a snack during the day (and I feed her from her bowl in the morning and at night).
She has her crate to go in and sleep, which I know she does because I find her toys in there, and she has pee pads next to the tub. Sometimes they get thrown around (not chewed up or torn) because when she runs on them, they slide around, so sometimes I have to tape them to the floor.
She does fine. I know she barks and whines for about 10 minutes when I leave and she'll bark and whine when she hears the front door open when I get home. Other than that, I've had no problems with her. And she doesn't hate me.
We play in the morning and again when I get home. Then we'll do a long walk and some training. Then I let her run around the house for the rest of the night. Sometimes she wants to play with me, and sometimes she wants to stay on the floor and chew on her toys. If I am watching tv in the living room and she gets tired, she tells me she wants on the couch and she goes to sleep.
She has started this new thing, and maybe it's because I've been staying up later than usual this past week. But if I am in my bedroom doing work on the computer and she wants to go to bed, she stands either next to my bed or on my bed and barks at me until I go get in bed with her. It's not enough to just pull the covers back, I have to go lay down so she can get under the sheets next to my leg. After a couple of minutes, I can get up and do whatever it was I was doing. |