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Can't imagine leaving a dog alone all day would be very good for it. Expert recommendations are not to leave a dog alone for more than 4hrs. We certainly try not to leave our dogs alone for any more than that. Also, as there are two of them, they always have a mate around, and they've always got the cat to torture.
With dogs being social companion animals, they spend most of their time waiting for you to be there with them. There may be differences with the breeds and the needs of an elderly dog compared to a young one, but I would question (albeit from a position of ignorance) if someone has the capacity to look after a dog if it'd spend significant stretches of time on its own. Also, with an older dog, you'd need to consider the routines its used to. Would this be fair on it?
Prepared to be contradicted by anyone more expert, but that's what I'd be thinking...
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I don't think this would be fair on the dog TBH both in terms of the amount of time you are out and also keeping it outside, especially an greyhound or similar.
If you had a working collie or spaniel that get its daily quota of proper work and live in a rural area out door kennelling works.
Also dog thefts in London are on the rise though I suspect an old greyhound wont be that big a target but still not worth the risk.
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Partner and I came to same conclusion, didn't want to commit to an entire dog lifetime and have previous had an older rescue dog.
Old dog was a border collie, picked him up when he was ten, turned out to be twelve, lived in very happy until almost 18. He was a very big border collie too, so unusual he went so long. Very happy chappy, only problem he had until the end was deafness in the last year, came on over a few days.
So started looking for the right dog, took 6 months or so and ended up with a lardy 8 year old Japanese akita / collie cross, we live in a very green part of a green city so couldn't be anything too energetic. Had over a year now, quickly got her down to the right weight and got some good training in.
Does everything very well apart from small appetite for small yapping dogs
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On the subject of new dog ownership and whippets / lurchers...
My other half wants a dog and had the idea of rehoming an old dog (a lurcher in this case) to see how we find it in reality.
The logic being if in the long term dog ownership is too difficult to balance with our lives then it won't be for +10yrs. Plus it means we give an old dog a home for it's twilight years.
I think she was thinking of greyhound varrients as they are meant to be lower energy. We can manage a daily walk before / after work, then weekends plus one day a week working from home would mean it's only alone in the day for 4 days a week. Plus we have a garden.
Any thoughts or comments?
Also thinking about access between the garden and house how realistic is an outdoor kennel (a nice one obviously)? And how do people manage security if their dog does have access to the garden when you're not in?