Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Have you/would you leave your dog overnight alone?
I always hire a dog sitter to come stay overnight at my house when we go out of town.
We're going away with friends for a weekend in October, and one of the girls I'm going with told me her friend lives in my neighborhood and would probably be happy stop stop by several times a day and let the dogs out, play, feed, etc. She has a dog of her own and a couple of kids, so I don't think she'd spend the night. It would be free (or with a thank you gift, at least). Normally we pay about $50 per night for a dog sitter.
I'm not really comfortable with leaving them alone overnight, but I don't know if I have a good reason for that. They are both adults and are often left alone for 8-10 hours while we are at work. I'm not really sure what I think will happen if they are left alone, other than them being lonely. But they are lonely if we leave for 15 minutes : )
I'm leaning toward "not a good idea", but I don't really want to spend $150 just because I'm a crazy overprotective dog mom. Do normal people leave their dogs alone overnight? Or not?
Re: Have you/would you leave your dog overnight alone?
We did it last year on accident. I had to be rushed by DH to L&D about 9pm one night due to pregnancy complications and we weren't able to get anyone over to check on him until the next morning.
If I had a choice I wouldn't do it. Nothing happened I just felt bad leaving him.
I wouldn't. But I'm probably a crazy overprotective dog mom.
When we're gone for the weekend or any vacation, we take the dog to my parents' house which is 100 miles away, my mom will usually meet me halfway, and they are always thrilled to have their "granddog" stay with them. On the one occasion my parents were gone too, we paid someone to stay at our house with the dog.
Mr. Sammy Dog
Same. We have our next door neighbor's daughter take care of him when we're on weekend backpacking trips, and she just comes over to take care of him. He spends the night at home by himself. They have 3 large dogs, and introducing him into the melee at their house would create havoc. This is much easier for everyone, and being alone at night isn't that different for him than being alone during the day. He has no problem with it. We've never done it for more than 2 nights in a row though.
I know sometimes I feel guilty when I think I haven't spent enough time with my dog or 'done enough' for her or whatever, but remember those are our feelings; they don't have object permanence or know how long they've been left alone. They'll likely sleep a lot and be happy to see you when you come home.
I board my dog when we're OOT only because she hasn't earned the right/trust to stay out in the house alone for extended times. But if yours does fine alone in the house, then I think they'll likely do fine overnight, especially if you have someone come over and walk/play with them a few times a day! In your case, I don't think there'd be a problem with leaving them alone overnight.
Wow, I never really thought twice about leaving the dog at home alone overnight. I had no idea that people were really worried about this? There is a girl who lives 2 houses down who comes and checks on her last thing before she goes to bed and first thing in the morning. I don't really imagine my dog would be any happier with a stranger in the house then just being left alone.
I wouldn't. I have 2 very velcro type dogs that follow me to the bathroom and sleep on the bathroom floor when I shower. DH works from home and the longest they have ever been alone was 3.5 hours, when we went to dinner and a movie and that's pushing it. Usually, it's more like 1 hour a day, maybe 2 on rare occasions. I would certainly not leave them alone all night, since I know they would be terrified as they sleep very close to us.
We take them to their sitter's house if we are going on a day trip and will be gone for more than 4 hours and we use a sitter any time we go out of town. They're just not the types to be alone, though if you know yours are ok alone then by all means do it.
Thank God I have a cat. He gets a pile of food and a "see you Monday" for our weekend trips.
We left the farm dog on his own overnight, but we left the farm dog outside. I'm unqualified for city dog ownership.
My parents leave their dogs home alone overnight, and frequently pay the neighbor kids to come over first thing in the morning, play with them, and let them out at night. On the other hand, they have an 8 ft high chain link run attached to the garage and temperate weather, and the dogs get to stay in the garage/run, so pottying isn't an issue.
I board my dog when I'm gone overnight, at his favorite daycare facility. They charge something like $35/day, and he plays with other dogs until 7PM, sleeps, then wakes up at 7AM to play some more.
If they are balanced dogs that aren't puppies they should be able to handle a night without people. If they're anything like the dogs I know, they will wonder around the house for 15 minutes and then stretch out on your bed. Your dogs love you but they will be thrilled to have the bed to themselves. They will sleep until they hear the garage or door open. then hop off the bed if they know they're not supposed to be on it. (My dog was deaf so I spied on her a lot to see what she did when she thought I was gone).
This is how I am most of the time with mine as well. I toss them outside most days as it is. If they are cold or whatever, they know where the barn is.
Otto
My (New! Improved!) Blog
Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools
Definately not! We got a co-worker to stay over for our vaca, he stayed day & night. He's a college student, so it worked out great. We ended up paying him $150, plus a freezer full of food.
I just felt better knowing someone was there if any issue come up. Thier schedule was kept some what the same, so there wasnt any stress issues. And everyone had fun!
We have a dog door built into our wall, so they are free to go out whenever they want. We have never had any troubles or problems ever.
I am not sure how I see leaving them at night is any different then leaving them during the day. It would be the same thought as a person working nights verses days.
As a kid, all the time!
My parents and our neighbors traded off on animal duty. We'd go away for the weekend and they'd come over to feed and play with our animals, they'd go away and we'd take care of theirs.
Unless you have dogs with special needs I don't see the problem with this scenario.
I do it.
But I don't like it.
Not at all.
I use a boarding alternative service that picks them up in the early morning, takes them to a cage-free daycare until late in the evening, and then drives them home to sleep at night. They also turn on/off lights, check the mail, water plants, and make the house look lived in. If they're nice and tired (even a hard play session right before bedtime will do this), then they should be fine sleeping through the night alone.
GL!
ETA: I feel better about this than having them in some strange boarding place they don't know surrounded by other dogs and stuffed into cages. I think they're more comfortable spending the day at their favorite place and then zonking out on their own couch afterwards.
I would never, ever leave my dog like you are describing. We had to go to a dinner tonight and H made me get the dog walker to pick up the dog after his walk and take him back to her house because we weren't going to be home until 7 pm and it was "too much time alone" for the dog.
My dog is never left for more than four hours at a time without someone coming by to check on him. When we go out of town he stays with the dog walker. It costs $55/day, so it is $110 for a saturday/sunday.
Have you seen my monkey?
lol - these answers are all over the place! I'm glad to hear that people do do this, so if we did we aren't crazy.
Our dogs don't destroy things and are pretty laid back most of the time - they love a good walk or a run in the yard, and play with each other, but I'm sure if they were left overnight they'd just sleep. They are left everyday during work (althought most days DH isn't gone 8 hours, sometimes he is) and we've left them as long as 14 hours or more on holidays (and asked someone to let them out in the middle of the day).
I think the main thing I'm worried about is that they've never had 3 days straight of basically being alone. Or even 24 hours. I know someone will stop by but it isn't the same as just hanging out with their parents. I guess the only way to know if they'd be ok with this is to do it, though.
We can't board them - Buck is a rescue and rather nervous and it would break my heart to think that he thought he was back in the shelter and we weren't coming back for him. He didn't even eat the whole weekend we left him at a sitter's house. He really needs to be in HIS home. Bella is so happy go lucky she wouldn't care what we did though.
I guess we'll have to think about it more. Thanks for the input everyone!
I think the only reason my situation works so well is that it is my dog walker that watches my dog when I am gone. Corky is also a rescue and kind of freaks out when I leave, but I know that when he is with the dog walker he knows I am coming back. She walks him 2-3 days/week at lunch so he is very comfortable with her.
I would never board my dog at a kennel just because I know that it would send him into panic attack mode. But again, it depends on your individual dog. I am not opposed to kennels for all dogs, just for my dog.
I would love to have a dog that would be chill enough to be left alone for that long. And I guess if my dog was fine that would be awesome. But my dog is not so I can only go with what I know.
we used to put our family dog in the kennel, but she would come home with fleas or kennel cough and she would be scared and usualy lost weight due to her anxiety.
if we left her at home (for up to 2 weeks) and our awesome neighbour kids came to walk her twice a day - she would be perfectly happy.