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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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kl
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?