I work full-time and am lucky enough to have an hour for lunch and some flexibility on arrival and departure times. I go home every day, rain/snow or shine and walk Fabian at lunchtime. If I had the luxury, I might get a dog walker once or twice a week.

He stays in a Richell pen (best purchase ever!) when we're not home and overnight, as he likes to explore and gnaw things if bored and unattended. He has a pee pad in there, but almost always holds it 'til we take him outside. It's taken forever to train him, because "go outside, except when you can't hold it or we're not home or it's the middle of the night, then go on your pad" is too complex.

I strongly agree with the other posters about the importance of routines.

We just make it work. I just started a new job where I'm in an office 8-4 and it's about an 18 min drive each way, so unfortunately, they are currently alone for nearly 9 hours 3 days a week. Tues and Thurs are my slower days and I can work from home most of the day.

Dogs adapt super easily. Jackson and Lola were used to no more than 5-6 hours being left alone with my old schedule but they don't seem worse for the wear. I watch them on the camera and they just rotate between sleeping all day and looking out the window.

I always immediately rush home though. I don't ever stop anywhere etc because I know the dogs need to get out. I also don't really have much of a social life in other regards sooo all my spare time is spent with the dogs. They pretty much get every weekend and every single evening - which is spent walking, swimming, hiking, etc. They're both super active pups.

It's not ideal but people have to work. I need money to pay for all the crap I buy them LOL. I'd love a dog in the future to know how to use pads but I hate the confusion that comes along with it sometimes - and I travel with my 2 a lot and need them to be 100% potty trained and not have accidents, so that's my only hesitation with pads.

But for a younger dog, 8-9 hours is way too long, and if I had a new puppy, I'd have a dog walker. Mine wouldn't take well to randoms coming in the house and taking them out unfortunately. I can hardly get my mom and step-dad to take them out because they choose to stay in my room until I get home lol.

That is how my 2 are. Even if I encourage him to go somewhere else, he would rather hold it.

During one Hurricane years ago, he willingly chose to hold it for like 13 hours before wanting to go outside lol.

It’s probably the same hurricane I had to leash Callie up and take her potty. It was rough. Thank gosh I only had her at the time.

Working… I did the best I could with my three dogs. I kept them in the kitchen with baby gates so they would have more room to move around. We had three dog beds and pee pads. It can be done as long as there is lots of quality time when you get home.

I am using the past tense since I just retired and now can hang out more with the pups.

get 2!

I worked full time 8-9 hours but with a 20 min commute when I trained both my yorkies as puppies . I would come home at lunch to let him/her out. I tried puppy pads , the faux grass and attempted litter box training but crate training to outdoors always worked best for both Troy and Emma . I joke that Troy trained me bc I didn’t know what I was doing .

Emma is trained to go outside, yet if there’s snow and no where for her to go she will use a pad if I have some. I prefer outdoors so your floors are safe , House doesn’t start smelling “like dog” and it allows both of us to get some fresh air as I walk a bit at each potty break .

I’m fortunate now where I work from home so Emma has more human face time but it is certainly possible to have a dog and work full time .

LOL, I want to say maybe hurricane Irene?

I had no idea how I managed to go to work when I first got Scottie. I was a mess. Had to watch him on the dog camera all day at work to make sure he was okay. And then, I started brain storming on how I could find a job that pays the same that allows me to work from home (haha..no solution yet!).

Then I got Casie the trouble maker. Because there's two of them at home, I feel better. I still watched them at first on the dog camera. But I know all they do is sleep while I'm at work. They're super chill. And super bored. But they have each other, so at least I know they don't feel 'lonely'.

As for the grass turf that someone mentioned, I have one! It's called the Porch Potty. You can see Scottie and Casie use it on my balcony here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMC1txtB...ttie.and.casie

For a less expensive option, I found a really cool DIY article to make your own (I would have totally wanted to do this, but I don't have the luxury of space to make anything at home): https://imgur.com/a/KAT5F