Finding time for a dog
 

I've been wanting a dog for a long time now. After gradding from BCIT I now have a full time job and now make money to now be able to afford a job. Now the problem is...WORKING FULL TIME. My question is...If you worked full time where did you find the time to train and spend time with your dog. Did you drop your dog off the be trained during the day? Take time off during the first few weeks? Im totally new to this and would definitely like some insight

Thanks in advance

just got a puppy ... its a pain in the ass the first few days since they're really fussy. Gotta monitor them and make sure they don't do anything stupid, I would suggest getting a puppy when you have a lot of time off, that way you can get him/her used to your house and the environment, as well as training. It's been 11 days since I got my dog and I'm finally comfortable leaving him alone for a few hours while I go gym or out (he can go to the washroom by himself now and doesn't leave random surprises everywhere).

i took a week off work when i got a puppy.....
felt like a full time job the first few days...lol

I've wanted a dog for YEARS.. But for this exact reason I never got one :(

Having a dog is like having a child.

Prepare yourself.

Yup . About to adopt one myself. Fully prepared to spend as much time as possible with her. Like having a child^^^, but treat it like a dog.

I have 3, its not easy. Luckly I have a yard big enough for them to run around and get excersise

Here's my take: I'd say take 1-2 weeks off when you first get one, and even make sure you have enough free time in the first 2-3 months. The first few months is the most important; the time you spend with your dog during these few months will really determine how good they're trained and how they behave. Not to say that you can't train them when they're older but a dog's mind is like a sponge in the earliest stage and everthing sinks in fast. If you dont train it the way you want him/her to behave, it will be much harder for you to correct her behaviour when shes older. I've had a german shepherd for 6 months now. the first 4-5 months was a ton of work cuz she was a brat, I took her to classes every week, trained her everyday, etc. Only now do things seem to be alot easier. She's a lot calmer than she used to be, i've squashed a lot of her bad habits, and don't really need to monitor her that much anymore.

It also depends on the type of dog you're getting. if it's a small dog, this might not be much of a problem, but for big dogs it's a lot more work. I see alot of people in my neighborhood who can't control their dogs, whether they're being dragged on leashes or plain just dont listen. I feel bad for them because they simply didnt do the research or spend enough time to train them. My suggestion is going for small breed: much much easier for first timers haha. BTW I'm a first timer too and if I could go back in time I probably would have gotten a small breed instead due to the huge amount of work in the beginning. But no regrets, I love mine to death haha :D

I don't feel bad for them; I feel bad for the dog...


Small dogs are not necessarily any easier to train than big dogs....In fact, it seems to me as though it's always the small dogs that are the ones that behave so horribly, which would lead me to believe either that:

a. small dogs are actually HARDER to train...
or
b. people have this mentality that getting a small dog is going to be easier and think they don't need to do much work...

I agree about small dogs being more misbehaved than many of the breeds I've come across. My gsd has no problems being with larger breeds, but she absolutely hates to be around smaller dogs, especially the loud obnoxious ones that for some reason never seem to be leashed and like to run around and fck shit up.

What i meant was smaller breeds will probably be easier for OP as a first timer to handle. Training could be a diff story. Everything about owner a larger breed is 'bigger'. You gotta put up bigger space, bigger cage, bigger bills etc. etc. When i was considering adopting a dog half a year ago, 60-70% of the dogs at shelters were larger breeds. If you have a small dog and he/she happens to be a little shit who doesnt listen, at most you'll just have poorly trained dog. A poorly trained large dog is a whole diff story.

But like you said, it's probably why theres so many poorly trained small breeds out there.Theyre still alot of work, just not AS much work as owning a larger breed. I'm sure many would agree

Smaller dogs are cute, as such they get a lot of special treatment. They start to think they're human because owners regularly let them on the couch/let them sleep with them/let them basically do whatever the hell they want.


If a small dog bites you, you get a scratch. You don't think much of it. If a small dog bites your couch, chances are the damage won't be huge, so you don't think much of it. They constantly misbehave and because of their small size, most owners neglect the majority of their wrong doings and never correct them.

On that note, I gotta start dealing with my puppies behaviour issues now that he's used to living at our house. I try my best to take my puppy out as much as possible and to meet other dogs so he doesn't become a little shit with a superiority complex like most small dogs I run into

OP: you made no mention of your support system, so I would like to ask: is there anyone to help care for the dog while you are at work?

To add to the questions:
I work quite a bit, and so does my girlfriend, however, we work opposite shifts so in all likelihood the dog will not have to be left home for more than 2 hours at a time. I've looked into it quite a bit and it seems like it will be alright, but does anyone have experience first hand having a large dog in a small apartment? I really want something fairly large and active, but something that can calm down after the exercise as for those hours he's left alone he won't really have roaming ability.

Big active dog in a small apartment is not generally a good idea. What happens if it's raining or snowing and you can't take it outside? A big dog is definitely not gonna like being couped up.

I don't really see raining or snowing as being a reason to not take a dog outside. If its snowing all the better. My best friends dog when we lived up in whistler loved playing in the snow. There aren't really many places on earth where the weather isn't shit plenty of the time.

I do still live at home make with the parents. However I did mention the thought of getting a dog. The parents dont want to take responsibility to raising a dog. But yet both parents love dogs. If I ever got a dog I would find it unfair to dump the dog with them while I work. I really would like to raise the dog myself.

I really hope you don't have a dog....

I had the same worries when my wife and I got our first dog, as we both work during the day. We had a small one-bedroom apartment at the time, so fortunately we got a chihuahua. We bought an expandable gate that allowed us to slowly expand her environment. At first, we restricted her to just the bathroom. As she learned to behave better, we let her have the kitchen as well. Eventually, she was allowed to freely roam the whole apartment even when we were not home. I think we were really lucky in that we got a chihuahua with a fantastic temperament to begin with. She never had any separation anxiety. Whenever we go out, she just go to sleep until we come home.

When did you find time to train your dog?

In the evenings and weekends, I guess. My wife did most of the training. Our chihuahua turned out pretty well.

That was very impressive actually. Pretty rad to see a small dog so well behaved. As said before, people seem to find it so easy to neglect training on small dogs, because they fuck shit up on such a smaller scale.

Again, I've got to say that we were really lucky that our dog has such a great temperament and personality to begin with. We got her as a three month old puppy, and she was never yappy from the start. She loves all people. The only things she has ever damaged was one of my wife's shoes, a cheap ring box, and the corner of the bathroom wall. The latter, I don't blame the dog, because at that time we didn't know that dogs have the innate need to chew, and we didn't give her any chew toys, so she had to chew the wall. But after that, she is really respectful of our property. She will destroy her toys with gusto, but she never goes after our stuff. We taught her to only eat when we say it's okay, and she is really respectful with that as well.

didnt your dog take a big crap at sfu convo mall last week??

:s

!LOL u fag

:rukidding: cuz someone was running laps with her

Ok that definitely came out wrong. I'm trying to say having a big dog in a small apartment is not ideal due to lack of space. Big dogs need lots of space. They like to roam, play, etc.

FYI when I dog sit for my friend he goes out everyday rain/shine/snow as well I work from home when I do.

We're in a similar predicament as the OP but we are definitely waiting to get a larger place before we get our weimaraner.