# Anyone working full time? Asking for an advice



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

Hi everyone,

I recently got a vizsla puppy. I graduated in May and am currently looking for a job. Are there any full-time working people owning a V that could give me some tips? I am currently considering one offer, it would be 7AM/8AM to 3PM/4PM job. I could get up around 4:30AM/5AM and spend 2 hours with my V before I leave for work. Then get back right after work and again, walk her, play with her. During weekends I could train her and spend some more time with her. I think I can give her enough exercise - walking her for an hour in the morning and in the evening when she gets old enough for that much exercise. What worries me is to leave her alone for 8 hours. Would that be doable? In the future, I could possibly come to see her during lunch break or get a dog walker. As of now, I probably won’t be able to do so..


----------



## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

If you can get someone to let her out and spend time with her around lunch that would be good, potty and food/fresh water, some company. Otherwise, 8 hrs, straight in a crate (at any age) is really approaching cruel and unusual punishment, but especially for a very young puppy.

The idea of getting up in the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00am), again, is good intent, but in actual practice not very feasible, both of you should still be asleep at that hour. It sounds like exercise, play, training would occur after work.


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

A lot of people that have full-time jobs, and vizslas. I would think the puppy stage, would be the toughest. Puppies can only hold their bladder so long, when awake. I don't know any puppies that will sleep for 8 hours straight during the day. Even if they do so overnight. You would come home to a puppy, covered in its own excrements. The ones that get used to that happening. Can be very hard to potty train. Due to the long hours, and having no other choice but to use the crate as a restroom. They start to look at it as normal behavior. 
I was retired before owning my first Vizsla. And still had someone come let mine out, if occasionally away from home for hours.

Hopefully some of our members with full-time jobs, will comment. Letting you know how they handled the puppy stage, and after.


----------



## MaxB (Mar 11, 2019)

Day care. I work full time, husband semi retired, and when our Maggie was not in day care as a puppy we had a sitter come to let her out and play with her, or she came with us/me. As is evidenced by the fact that we still can't leave her alone for more than 45 minutes, I'm not sure that a Viszla can cope with so much alone time. Day care can be someone who is at home all day and is happy to sit your puppy in their home, it doesn't have to be a specialised facility. I agree with the other two responses from Gingerling and Texas Red. I think 8 hours alone in a crate with no interaction, no toilet breaks and no stimulation is tricky. Can you make friends with someone who can take your puppy during the day when you are working?


----------



## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

agreed, 8 hours way too long and not fair to your pup to be alone. look around and you will possibly find a high schooler or student for a little cash to spend some time with your pup midday. also make sure your puppy gets used to spend time in crate for several hours even when you are not working yet. we work full time, used to have daycare which then got switched to dog walker coming in twice a day. on top of that dogs get a thorough morning and evening exercise and mental stimulation.


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

gingerling said:


> If you can get someone to let her out and spend time with her around lunch that would be good, potty and food/fresh water, some company. Otherwise, 8 hrs, straight in a crate (at any age) is really approaching cruel and unusual punishment, but especially for a very young puppy.
> 
> The idea of getting up in the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00am), again, is good intent, but in actual practice not very feasible, both of you should still be asleep at that hour. It sounds like exercise, play, training would occur after work.


Thank you for the input! I was surprised when you said that waking up at 5AM is not very feasible. I already wake up at 5AM every day and was thinking that 4:30 would give me even more time to spend with my V. I plan on keeping that schedule as I am the most productive in the morning and like to be awake that early. As of now, my V is fine with it, she usually wakes up a little bit before me. Maybe that's just a matter of personal preference.


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

Thanks everyone for the comments! I actually didn't intend to leave my V in a crate for 8 hours... Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was considering leaving her in a room and have a pad for potty training... I leave her now alone for 2 hours everyday in a room with a pad.. Yesterday I got a crate and will be training her to stay in a crate, too.. So that I have options in case I won't be able to leave her in a room on her own. 
I decided to not take the job offer. It would be good for my CV if I could work there for even 6 months but we both would be miserable.. The salary would barely cover my rent so I will be looking for something that would allow me to budget for a dog walker during the midday for a start. This way I could break those 8 hours into 4 and 4. Or maybe get someone to walk her twice a day and break it into 3-3-2. 
There is no daycare for dogs in the area I plan on working but getting a dog walker shouldn't be problem and I'll budget for it


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

gingerling said:


> If you can get someone to let her out and spend time with her around lunch that would be good, potty and food/fresh water, some company. Otherwise, 8 hrs, straight in a crate (at any age) is really approaching cruel and unusual punishment, but especially for a very young puppy.
> 
> The idea of getting up in the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00am), again, is good intent, but in actual practice not very feasible, both of you should still be asleep at that hour. It sounds like exercise, play, training would occur after work.


Thank you for the input! I was surprised that you think waking up at 5AM is not feasible. I wake up around 5-5:20AM every day because I feel the most productive and prefer waking up this early, even though I don't have a job now. I thought 4:30 would be good just to spend some more time with my V. My V is waking up at 5AM, usually just a little earlier than me so I didn't think it would be a problem. Plenty people wake up this early in my country so maybe it's just a matter of preference or different cultural habits


----------



## MaxB (Mar 11, 2019)

Fair play to you getting up so early every day.....I thanked the lord the day that our Maggie slept 'in' until 7.30! She now often has to be woken up by us. (We think that's partly to do with the comfy new mattress we got her in her crate....she hops in happily every evening, and can often be found at the bottom of the stairs encouraging me to go to bed so she can hop in.). 

Good luck with the crate training. it did not go well for us, so we resorted to daycare. It's a shame about the day care not being available where you plan to work it's so great for socialisation I found, especially since we can be out so much. When we need to go away, business trips, we have a couple who are dog walkers who move into our house for the duration. This has worked out well for us, so maybe there might be someone who is happy to come to your home for a few hours here and there? Someone retired, or as gingerling says a student? 

Good luck with the job hunting, well done on the graduation. it is not easy as a graduate to get a job these days that actually pays rent and food bills. We're all supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to contribute to big company coffers!


----------



## somewhereplace (Aug 20, 2018)

I took time off work to raise my girl from when she was 7 weeks old until 21 weeks. She is 5.5 months old now and I'm heading back to work full time. I knew when she was 7 weeks that us working full time and being away from the house would be a reality, so I worked hard to make sure that a) my pup loves her crate and b) she can be left alone for periods of time without getting anxious or soiling her crate. All the training and work seems to have paid off because I can confidently leave my pup in the crate for 5 hours without accidents, granted I spend 1 full hour of training and/or physical exercise before I pop her in there. Now our schedule is 7:30am-8:30am Wake up, walk, she works for her breakfast, potty. 8:30am-1:30pm Crate. 1:30pm-2:30pm Dog walker comes for 1 hour off leash walk and feeds lunch. 2:30pm-6:30pm Crate. By 6:30pm/7pm we're home. She seems to do well on this schedule and either sleeps or chews on a toy. I have a camera as well so I can do periodic check ins. Hoping by the time she is near or over 1 years old she can be out of the crate. Good luck!


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

MaxB said:


> Fair play to you getting up so early every day.....I thanked the lord the day that our Maggie slept 'in' until 7.30! She now often has to be woken up by us. (We think that's partly to do with the comfy new mattress we got her in her crate....she hops in happily every evening, and can often be found at the bottom of the stairs encouraging me to go to bed so she can hop in.).
> 
> Good luck with the crate training. it did not go well for us, so we resorted to daycare. It's a shame about the day care not being available where you plan to work it's so great for socialisation I found, especially since we can be out so much. When we need to go away, business trips, we have a couple who are dog walkers who move into our house for the duration. This has worked out well for us, so maybe there might be someone who is happy to come to your home for a few hours here and there? Someone retired, or as gingerling says a student?
> 
> Good luck with the job hunting, well done on the graduation. it is not easy as a graduate to get a job these days that actually pays rent and food bills. We're all supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to contribute to big company coffers!


I know plenty of people can't imagine waking up at 4:30/5AM but it's really nothing to be proud of or anything. What I do is to go to bed early and wake up early. I'm no superhuman I still get about 6/7 hours of sleep and I'm good. Also, coffee helps 
Thank you for wishing me good luck! At least some advantage of not having a job yet - I can look through the forum and find plenty advices from other owners 
For the trips away or days when I am super busy, my mom can look after my V. She lives about 40mins away. And I think I'll figure out other options in the future - like others mentioned maybe I meet someone who can either look after my V or become friends with someone who like dogs and wouldn't mind looking after her from time to time. Who knows, maybe I even get a boyfriend at some point LOL. I just needed at least some plan for the beginning. I think the dog walker would be a good solution - for a start. 
And agreed on the job thing. But I'll make sure to budget for a dog walker and will cut on other expenses if I need to..


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

somewhereplace said:


> I took time off work to raise my girl from when she was 7 weeks old until 21 weeks. She is 5.5 months old now and I'm heading back to work full time. I knew when she was 7 weeks that us working full time and being away from the house would be a reality, so I worked hard to make sure that a) my pup loves her crate and b) she can be left alone for periods of time without getting anxious or soiling her crate. All the training and work seems to have paid off because I can confidently leave my pup in the crate for 5 hours without accidents, granted I spend 1 full hour of training and/or physical exercise before I pop her in there. Now our schedule is 7:30am-8:30am Wake up, walk, she works for her breakfast, potty. 8:30am-1:30pm Crate. 1:30pm-2:30pm Dog walker comes for 1 hour off leash walk and feeds lunch. 2:30pm-6:30pm Crate. By 6:30pm/7pm we're home. She seems to do well on this schedule and either sleeps or chews on a toy. I have a camera as well so I can do periodic check ins. Hoping by the time she is near or over 1 years old she can be out of the crate. Good luck!


That's amazing! Congrats that it worked out and paid off! My V is now exactly 2 months old and I got her when she was 7 weeks old. Like I mentioned, I don't have a job yet and I probably stay with her for one more month (or more) until I find something. So I guess there is an advantage of not having a job - I can be with her. 
How did you work hard to make sure that your V can be left alone without getting anxious? As I type this, my V is taking a nap in her crate. But the moment I close the crate and leave her, she gets upset and is very, very loud. I leave her everyday for 2 hours alone so that she can get used to it but I don't know what else I could do to train her in this sense..
Thanks again for the comment! It gave me hope that it can be done


----------



## somewhereplace (Aug 20, 2018)

acupofjoe said:


> That's amazing! Congrats that it worked out and paid off! My V is now exactly 2 months old and I got her when she was 7 weeks old. Like I mentioned, I don't have a job yet and I probably stay with her for one more month (or more) until I find something. So I guess there is an advantage of not having a job - I can be with her.
> How did you work hard to make sure that your V can be left alone without getting anxious? As I type this, my V is taking a nap in her crate. But the moment I close the crate and leave her, she gets upset and is very, very loud. I leave her everyday for 2 hours alone so that she can get used to it but I don't know what else I could do to train her in this sense..
> Thanks again for the comment! It gave me hope that it can be done


At 2 months old, mine was a crying mess in the crate. She would scream for hours like someone was skinning her alive. The sound was unbearable as I was home all the time. This is a completely normal stage of crate training. Keep up with putting her in there/leaving her alone and don't give in to the crying unless she has to go potty or something. It took a full 4 weeks before the screams decreased from 2-3 hours, to 1 hour, to 45 minutes. One day at around 12 weeks, it just clicked that crying got her absolutely nowhere, and she stopped. Other things I did to help speed up the crate training process include: all sleeping activities happen in the crate, feeding all meals in the crate, anything fun/yummy/of value she gets in the crate, playing lotsss of crate games. Now, her 'problem' is she likes her crate a bit TOO much, and will not settle down anywhere outside of it. To her, outside crate = fun and play while inside crate = sleep. There is no in between, haha. But I'd rather this than her be anxious about the whole thing!


----------



## edennist (Jun 23, 2019)

My husband and I both work full time too. Our puppy is now 4.5 months old and crate trained. We also get up regularly at 5:00ish. Right now, she gets up at 5-5:30, we eat, play and walk for a few hours while we shower and get ready for the day and then she goes in her crate for 3 or 4 hours til my husband gets home for lunch. Then back in her crate after an hour more of eating, playing and walking til I get home at 4:00pm. We're going to start puppy day care soon (as soon as her giardia infection clears up, ugh) twice a week for socialization and fun and hire a mid-day dog walker for the other days. It's worked so far for us.


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

somewhereplace said:


> At 2 months old, mine was a crying mess in the crate. She would scream for hours like someone was skinning her alive. The sound was unbearable as I was home all the time. This is a completely normal stage of crate training. Keep up with putting her in there/leaving her alone and don't give in to the crying unless she has to go potty or something. It took a full 4 weeks before the screams decreased from 2-3 hours, to 1 hour, to 45 minutes. One day at around 12 weeks, it just clicked that crying got her absolutely nowhere, and she stopped. Other things I did to help speed up the crate training process include: all sleeping activities happen in the crate, feeding all meals in the crate, anything fun/yummy/of value she gets in the crate, playing lotsss of crate games. Now, her 'problem' is she likes her crate a bit TOO much, and will not settle down anywhere outside of it. To her, outside crate = fun and play while inside crate = sleep. There is no in between, haha. But I'd rather this than her be anxious about the whole thing!


THank you! I hope I'll have the same "problem" in the future haha. I keep the schedule now for 2 hours crate in the morning and 1 hour crate in the afternoon but thinking of changing it to 2 hours. I give her yummy food in the crate but she usually takes it outside. When she takes naps I carry her to the crate.. And mostly she is too sleepy to bother so she just stays sleeping in there, haha.


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

edennist said:


> My husband and I both work full time too. Our puppy is now 4.5 months old and crate trained. We also get up regularly at 5:00ish. Right now, she gets up at 5-5:30, we eat, play and walk for a few hours while we shower and get ready for the day and then she goes in her crate for 3 or 4 hours til my husband gets home for lunch. Then back in her crate after an hour more of eating, playing and walking til I get home at 4:00pm. We're going to start puppy day care soon (as soon as her giardia infection clears up, ugh) twice a week for socialization and fun and hire a mid-day dog walker for the other days. It's worked so far for us.


Thank you for sharing your schedule! I'm glad someone else wakes up around 5ish, too I will either try to get back for lunch break if the job allows it or hire a dog walker. I also plan on attending training classes with her twice a week in the afternoon.. She is only a little over 2 months so we have a lot to learn


----------



## essel2019 (Mar 26, 2019)

Limiting vizsla to a crate sounds scary. Why not buy a barrier and build her/ him a little playground are inside the house. It doesn't need to be big - 6 feet by 7 should be ok.


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

If pups are receiving mental, and physical exercise, are given time to play/run, and potty. Short stretches of time in a crate will not hurt them. It also has benefits of teaching them how to settle, potty training. They have a safe place when you're busy. 
I'm not saying crate them for hours on end. But 2-3 hours at a time, does not hurt them.


----------



## Tracyml (Jul 12, 2019)

We leave our 4 month home for pretty much full run of the house minus bedrooms and bathrooms (for some reason running through the house with toilet paper in your mouth is too much of a temptation). The longest she has been alone is 7 hours but mostly it is 5 hours and there could be a puddle by the door when we get home. But at least it is by the door. There is no chewing and everything is still in its place. I like you get up and we run/walk explore early in the morning. We are up to about 2 miles. We have another session when we get home. She is actually better about the potty accidents when she is alone but I think she just gets excited and she drinks lot of water because she likes to dig in it and I usually run her a tub so she can dance around and drink water. I was thinking of not doing this on the weekdays but it has become a routine and she is so funny to watch.


----------



## acupofjoe (Aug 10, 2019)

Tracyml said:


> We leave our 4 month home for pretty much full run of the house minus bedrooms and bathrooms (for some reason running through the house with toilet paper in your mouth is too much of a temptation). The longest she has been alone is 7 hours but mostly it is 5 hours and there could be a puddle by the door when we get home. But at least it is by the door. There is no chewing and everything is still in its place. I like you get up and we run/walk explore early in the morning. We are up to about 2 miles. We have another session when we get home. She is actually better about the potty accidents when she is alone but I think she just gets excited and she drinks lot of water because she likes to dig in it and I usually run her a tub so she can dance around and drink water. I was thinking of not doing this on the weekdays but it has become a routine and she is so funny to watch.


I would love to let my puppy run around and that is definitely the goal of mine for her. We weren't using one room in the house so that became her room but she was acting crazy when left alone - there was not much things to begin with but she managed to make a disaster even with so little. I think that might be the issue in the future. So for her safety, I was recommended by the breeder to get a crate where she can feel safe and hopefully calm down more easily... So far, she likes sleeping in the crate when I am around but she starts whining when I leave the house. Apparently, that's normal at her age so I am just being consistent with it and hope she stops one day...
We do 1.2 miles in the morning (2km) and it seems like a good amount for her so far. She is 2months and 10 days old. 

Thanks for the comment! I love to read and learn about how other owners take care of their V


----------



## KatieJaneR (Jan 6, 2020)

Hello 
I am due to get Otto in March and me and my partner both do work full time. We have a rough plan in place for the days we are at work. Monday and Fridays my parents will have him. But the 3 days - I have been in touch with someone to come and let him out and walk him for 1 hour.
How have you got on?


----------



## uniquemoniker (Jul 18, 2019)

My pup is 7 months old at this point. My boyfriend and I both work but I work days and he works nights. Even with that it was a rough go when she was younger because he needed to sleep a large chunk of the day. I wake up at 5:15 every morning and take her for a 15 minute walk before work. He's usually up for a couple of hours before going to bed. When he is home sleeping she runs loose and plays in the house with my other dogs (3) and she has a dog door for outside access. She is limited on what parts of the house she can access during that time by baby gates. 

Then I take her for at least a 30 minute walk when I get home or we do a long line at the park (because of leash laws here she can't be off of it) and walk trails there. I'll then sit outside with her and my other dogs (weather permitting) while they play with each other. Additionally we do formal training at a club 1-2 days a week and informal training at home. 

My boyfriend lost a few shoes in the early days but outside of that it has gone pretty smoothly. We also kennel her when we are away from the house. I drop a kong in there with her with some peanut butter and soft treats to make it an enjoyable endeavor. That took awhile to sort out but if she's kenneled in the same room with the other dogs and gets some treats she settles into it just fine. She even naps in it with the door open sometimes now.


----------

