Loki loves the snow. He has a winter coat, which is bad because it just means he will stay out there longer and play in it. I had a harder time with him wanting to go outside and eat/play in the snow more than I did last summer with it being nice outside. I only remember 2-3 days last winter that we kept the blow dryer by the door, on those sleety nasty days. Oh, and we'd shovel part of the yard for him so it wasn't 6 inches of snow, but he'd go in the deep part anyway. If you act like it's no big deal, your dog will too!
Rain is no biggie, he gets wet. No wetter than you or I would get running to get in a car or get the mail. If it's cold I put a shirt/coat on him, if not I just wipe his paws. No big deal. When FIRST housetraining we had more accidents on rainy days, but I didn't give in, even if I ended up standing in the rain with him (which worked, maybe he was scared at first?) Anyway, it's not a problem now.
The hot weather is honestly the worst, because he gets hot so fast. We keep him super short too. Again he just goes outside quickly and back in.
The best thing we could have done was train him on a leash. We don't have a fence and all of our neighbors (townhouse) have dogs so I'm not about to let him off leash. When he was a baby we'd walk out there on a short leash with him. Now he's on "auto-pilot" and I hook him up to a flexi lead and he just takes off outside and runs right back when he's done. It's no-nonsense since he can't run around and play on the flexi. He rings his bells no problem. They catch on - once they figure out it makes you come to the door and let them out! Just take their paw or nose and ring the bells, then make a big deal about it and say "OK! OUTSIDE!" and open the door. For a few days I had to remind Loki to ring his bell before I opened the door (if I saw him sitting there) After that he had it. You can even tell how badly he needs to go. If bad he will swat at them like crazy until someone comes running!
Don't know about during the day, you may just have to try it. If she's not reliably going in the litter pan now she's not going to during the day. Check into some backup - I bet some friendly retired neighbor is more than willing to play with her for the cost of the gas it would take you to get home! I've had 3 people in our neighborhood offer just while out walking Loki. And our next door neighbor has a lab who can handle 7 hours just fine, but if one of them is late they call me (I get home at 4:30) and I let him out. Or if he is sick my husband lets him out during the day. We do this because we love their dog and are "dog people" and would rather run next door than let him suffer. I'd seriously ask around!
BTW I only let Loki go about 4 hours in his crate. I've honestly only done 7-8 hours once or twice and it was an emergency. But he held it. So if something like that were to happen, you might be OK. But she'll be expecting a LONG walk when you get home
