I have a second interview either later today or tomorrow for a dialysis position that I am hoping to get. Three twelve hour day shifts, no Sundays, no major holidays, so a pretty good gig for a nurse. However, my husband also works days, and often twelve hour shifts, sometimes longer.
We have a dog (hence my name and avatar, lol) and herein lies the problem. Including drive time, she would be stuck in the house for all this time and I think 12+ hours is way too long for a dog to not go outside. We got the dog when our kids were teenagers, but they are grown now so it is two middle aged adults with this dog who needs to be let out. Most of our neighbors are gone all day too, except for one older lady with some health problems whom I cannot expect to come over and let the dog out during the day. We live in a small town so there are no services where you can pay someone to come and let your dog out, and we have no immediate family nearby. Our daughter is graduating from college next week so she may be around temporarily to take care of this, but if she finds a job elsewhere, we will still have this problem.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem? I really want this job, and I don't want to have to find a night job just because of our dog, because I am totally a morning/day person and I could never sleep past noon when I worked nights in the past and walked around feeling like a zombie all the time.
I figure there must be someone here who has the same problem.
I really hate having to leave my dog for long periods at times , I tend to let them stay at my parents as it for suitable for them working 3 12 hour shift is good and has its advantages
We have 3 large dogs. Yellow lab, husky/ shepherd and a husky. When I lived by myself I had the first 2 dogs on their own. I commuted 1 hr each way. So in total it was up to 14 hours the dogs would be on their own. They had no problem holding their pee. I would let them out in the morning for 20 min while i got ready for work. They did their business. Got a sip of water then they got kenneled when I was gone. They are fine sleeping in their crates all day. Yes its not ideal, but its possible. I made up for it on days off by long hikes, walks and runs etc. If you don't want to do that, can you get a dog run ( enclosed chain link enclosure?). For the winters can you build an insulated dog house that has a flap at the door that he can go in and out of that will take most of the chill out even in really cold days? Im sure theres plans online that you could incorporate heat somehow that would be safe too. That way he can still walk around some. Or do you have a large enough garage where you could put the enclosure in the garage in the winter, and put it outside in the summer and lay down puppy pads in the garage in the winter so he's not all cooped up in a crate?
Growing up we used to have a lot of outside cats. My dad would make an enclosure out of straw bales and a tarp around the top. This kept things pretty warm actually. So if you have the space for something like that, it would work pretty well.
It sounds like the most practical solution for you is a dog run and a doggie door.
You can get a covered dog run at most hardware or pet stores. I would also get a little dog house so the dog has somewhere to lounge safely out of the sun/wind when she wants to hang out outside.
My husband and I splurged on an automated doggie door with radio collars, but that's because we have a cat to keep in. You could probably get an inexpensive and easy-to-install flap door.
Here, I spent 20 seconds on Google and found some images for you of a 10' x 5' run with cover and a flap door. The dog run and cover cost about $260, the flap door about $80. That's about 2 weeks worth of dogwalker services.
Thanks, that would be a great solution except that we live in an area where it gets very cold in the winter and she would literally not survive outdoors all day. I'm afraid I would come home and find a little pupsicle.
I would really like it if our daughter could take the dog when she moves out, since it is technically her dog (birthday gift eight years ago) but she will likely end up renting at first and probably couldn't have a dog or would also end up working days so the problem would still exist.
I do know that I am not willing to pay for doggie day care, which I'm sure is available in the city where I will be working, although I'm not sure if I could even drop her off at 5 am. That would probably be just about as expensive as having a child in day care, which I never did either, and it would probably just stress her out.
Thanks for the good wishes with the job. :)
Doggie daycare is nowhere near as expensive as child care. A lot of dog daycares will let you drop dogs off early or alternate with drop off/pick up with your husband. Unfortunately when you want to have a dog and be a good owner (which you seem to be) it does cost money and sacrifice.
We have 3 large dogs. Yellow lab, husky/ shepherd and a husky. When I lived by myself I had the first 2 dogs on their own. I commuted 1 hr each way. So in total it was up to 14 hours the dogs would be on their own. They had no problem holding their pee. I would let them out in the morning for 20 min while i got ready for work. They did their business. Got a sip of water then they got kenneled when I was gone. They are fine sleeping in their crates all day. Yes its not ideal, but its possible. I made up for it on days off by long hikes, walks and runs etc. If you don't want to do that, can you get a dog run ( enclosed chain link enclosure?). For the winters can you build an insulated dog house that has a flap at the door that he can go in and out of that will take most of the chill out even in really cold days? Im sure theres plans online that you could incorporate heat somehow that would be safe too. That way he can still walk around some. Or do you have a large enough garage where you could put the enclosure in the garage in the winter, and put it outside in the summer and lay down puppy pads in the garage in the winter so he's not all cooped up in a crate?
Growing up we used to have a lot of outside cats. My dad would make an enclosure out of straw bales and a tarp around the top. This kept things pretty warm actually. So if you have the space for something like that, it would work pretty well.
So you didn't walk your dogs in the morning Hen kept them in crates while you were gone 14 hours ? I think it's bad enough to leave your dogs alone for 14 hours but it's even worse to leave them in crates all day with no access to water. As many people have mentioned, there are so many options these days so I cannot understand why anyone would do that to their dog. Just because it's "possible" doesn't mean that it isn't a horrible plan.
Megg1994
3 Posts
I really hate having to leave my dog for long periods at times , I tend to let them stay at my parents as it for suitable for them working 3 12 hour shift is good and has its advantages