To rehome or not to rehome? Help!!
 

Hello:


So I just adopted this beautiful little yorkie girl name Lexi about a month ago. My husband was thinking of retiring but has since returned to work. Therefore I have to place her in a playpen for about 8 hours per day. I have a doggie cam and it's so sad watching her in that cage alone without human interaction for that long a period. She does not have separation anxiety but I'm sure she is pretty bored and missing us throughout the day. My life is quite busy and I'm not sure if this is fair to her to leave her alone, 5 days per week just because we love her and want to keep her.


I've considered doggie day care but I cannot afford that. I've also considered getting a dog walker while at work but don't have anyone that would do that and not sure I want a complete stranger going through my home while I'm not home.


My co-worker wants to adopt her because she has the time to spend with her. My thing is it will probably be super hard hearing all the stories about how wonderfully she is doing with the dog I love.


Any suggestions would help. Please, I have to make a decision soon. I'm so sad.

Why do o you keep her confined?

I'm not sure. Do you think it would help if I don't have any playpen and just let her roam the house? Any suggestions are helpful.

My wife suggested using a child gate to keep her in a certain area if you're worried about accidents !

As a working adult I have raise 8 puppies from age of 8 weeks old, I was gone 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. My puppies were confined to a small area where they could not get hurt, paper, food, water, bed and toys were left with them. When they were 100% house broken at 7 months old they had free roam of the home. My puppies did not suffer from separation anxiety, they were happy babies that grew into happy, healthy will socialized adult babies, with beautiful personalities. If you LOVE the dog and she is not going through separation anxiety there is NO reason you have to re-home her. She will be a well adjusted dog. Besides, when left alone they sleep most of the day.

Oh ok. I understand. Thank you!

Wow. Thank you for your message. It made me feel. Enter. I was so worried about having to rehome her. May I ask if you used a doggie cam throughout the day? Also did you have a doggie door so that they could handle their business or were they pee pad trained?

I work 10 hours a day. I do have a dog walker that comes but there are times she is not able to and they do fine. I was worried like you about working full time. I actually got two yorkies to keep each other company.

I confine them to the kitchen area as one likes to get into things and chew everything. I have a nestcam set up and can view them anytime I am not home. I actually just got another one to see the rest of my apartment as when I sleep Bella likes to play. I pay for the playback feature which is great because if you see a mess I can rewind the footage to see what happened

You are fine. Most people have to work in order to afford the dog lol, so while we all would probably prefer to spend 24/7 with our pups, most of us don't have the luxury.

Most dogs adapt well. If you are taking proper care of her otherwise (when you get home, on weekends, etc) I am sure she is fairing fine. :)

I try not to leave Jackson for more than 6 hours but sometimes life happens and he does fine. I am lucky I get to bring him to work with me at a doggie daycare some days but he does fine on the days he does not go.

When I had puppies there was no such thing as doggie cams lol, no doggie door as I was a tenant living in an apartment, no dog walker either. They were not pad trained. At 7 months old my pups were trained to do their business out doors. They were walked at 7:30 AM before I left for work, I was home at 4:30 and they were walked again. They held their business until I came home. I must mention all my were not tiny dogs,my smallest weighed 9 pounds,the others ranged from 12 to 17 pounds. Dogs adjust to the way we live and how we train them.

Thank you all for your answers. I'm feeling so much better about keeping her. She is a awesome doggy and I love her so much. Thank you thank you thank you! Have a wonderful day!

I used to have a doggy cam but I had to stop watching it.:p, Funny but true story. One day I decided to login a check on my baby........she was sleeping cool. About an hour later, I checked on her again and she was still sleeping in the same position.......no problem. Then I checked on her again and she was still in the same position......so I called home hoping to see a reaction.....nothing she didn't budge. I was calling her name and she wasn't moving.

So now I am worried........all kinds of thoughts were going through my mind......she is sick or even worst she has died (yes I went there). Now I am in panicked. I make up some lame excuse to leave work early. I drive home like a bat out of hell. I open the door........and run upstairs to her expen.........and guest who was wide awake, wagging her tail look at me like "what the hell is wrong with you"........boy did I feel like and idiot.:D

Moral of the story........stop watching the doggy cam. Now I only watch it for things like if she is not feeling well and I want to monitor her behavior but I no longer watch it like I use too.

You've already gotten great advice. Many, many people (in fact, probably most...?) who have dogs work 8 hours a day, so it's doable.

But maybe to make yourself feel better - find that dog walker for a couple/few times a week. Use Rover.com to find someone in your area. I'm a Rover sitter and there are some excellent folks on there, believe me! Adn don't hesitate to mention you have cameras in your house :D!

All and all you're like me, you just hate not being with your furkid.
I'd take mine with me on the Harley but the wife gives me a don't even think about it ;)

When I was a tenant there was no media about puppy mills, one Saturday my cousin and I went on a shopping spree, we passed a pet shop, she wanted to see the puppies, so in we go, OMG, there was this mini schnauzer with a big girl hair cut and the cutest lil white toy poodle I didn't know which one I wanted so I bought them both, two 8 week old puppies. I had a very large kitchen, bought a 3 foot high baby gate and that's where the monsters were kept. They were about 6 months old, I'm at work, 11AM my landlady calls me, Joan, the dogs are running rampant through the house, I say impossible, they are gated in the kitchen, Joan, I am telling you, they are running rampant through the house. I fly out of my office repeating what the landlady said saying I gotta get home before they kill themselves. I worked 15 minutes away, I open the door and there they are in the living room with this look, ohoh now we're gonna get it lol, just to cute to scold. I couldn't believe they CLIMBED over the baby gate, lil stinkers. That night I got another baby gate, a wooden one that adjusted the the width of the doorway. NOW there is a 6 foot high gated off area lol, no more escapes lol and me flying out of my office like a lunatic lol.