Leaving Puppy Outside

[Gayle.]

Dogs get used to what they know. Mine are used to being outside in all weathers, but they have plenty of undercover areas and shade, and nice thick coats for when it's cold. On the weekends when I'm home, they prefer to be outside although if it's raining like it was yesterday, I bring them in.

But at 3am this morning, it was pissing down rain and two of them who were sleeping in my room, wanted to go out and then didn't want to come back in. Go figure. They are still out there.

[koalathebear]

My dogs love both indoors and outdoors. I suspect they'd mostly prefer to be inside with their humans but they will wander outside to run around, lie in the sun and just chill out in the grass. We puppy-proofed our yard for Elbie and by the time Hoover came it was fine for both dogs even when Hoover was a puppy. Our street is also very dog-friendly so we only give them access to the kitchen when we're not home if it's pouring with rain etc.

[~Anne~]

I have been criticised on an American forum for having my adult dog outside at all whilst not directly supervised. And this wasn't by one person, it was the general concensus! My yard is wholly enclosed with six foot fencing and I live in a good neighbourhood. Apparently this is considered negligence over there. I think the attitudes are quite culturally different in the US.

The same is found on Pug forums. They crate their dogs 24/7 if no-one is home to watch them. I find that horrifying. Crates certainly serve a purpose, but not this.

To be fair, in some states in the US they have birds and wild animals (coyotes I beleieve) that I am told will come into your yard and drag your dog off. This is moreso if they are young.

Ive had many a debate about this concept before. On one hand we are fighting to treat zoo animals better and let them out of cages, fighting to stop the caged abuse of dogs in puppy farms and on the other we tell people they are abusive and negligent owners for letting a dog be a dog and smell fresh air. How bizarre.

My own dogs would much prefer to be inside with me. However, they need sun, they need fresh air and they need to be dogs so I put them out every day when I leave home unless it is really hot, really cold or raining.

[Crisovar]

Every dog/situation is different and needs to be handled to suit, however I do believe that dogs benefit from spending a good amount of time with access to sunshine, fresh air, grass, dirt and just hanging about doing doggy stuff. Mine all sleep inside at night but spend the majority of the day outside be it hanging out with us doing outside things or just doing dog stuff on their own.

Crate training for everyone no exceptions, and crates/pens are used nightly for some.

[j]

I've just come home from a visit to the States and the people I was staying with were telling me all sorts of things about their dogs.

By far the majority of people keep their dogs as indoor dogs. But you need to remember that there is also a much higher incidence of apartment living over there. Dogs also seem to be much better received there than they are here. I saw lots of dogs in airports and train stations and being carried in shopping centres. There are water bowls at most outside cafes.

The reason for keeping them inside while nobody was home (at least in the state I was in) was largely related to weather (freezing snowy conditions) and other animals. Racoons, skunks, bobcats and lynx. Aside from the obvious prey concerns, these animals also carry rabies, which is something we don't even have to consider. They also had quite a few venomous snakes in the area I was in, which is something that we do have to consider.

Personally, my dogs have always been put outside during the day from the time they were quite young. They have access to food, water and various forms of shelter. I don't think my dogs are poorly treated.

[Gayle.]

I suppose one thing very different here to the US is the lack of natural predators and the lack of rabies. I still couldn't come at crating a dog all day, when Isaak was little we blocked off a tiled area for him, placed a crate there with the door propped open so he couldn't shut himself in or out of it, and he learnt to go in there for a snooze but he wasn't confined to it.

When Dusty stays inside, she has the whole house to herself but she's very trustworthy. The worst she ever did was sort the rubbish for us.

My husband is American though, and he says he's never heard of people crating their dogs all day, the dogs he owned or knew were treated the same as our dogs.....outside during the day, indoors of an evening.

[Rusky]

I think this has got off track, the OP was asking about leaving a 9 week old puppy outside all day with an 8 month old maltese.

My adult dogs please themselves where they want to be unless I have seen a snake around the place then I am OTT.

This is not about leaving dogs alone all day, people have to work we live in a real world, it is about the safety of your puppies.

[simmo]

It is interesting reading everyones views on this. Our pup will only be left for 2-3 hours a day outside tho not all day as i am at home most of the day. At the moment he is a very quiet gentle pup and we have no worries about leaving him with our maltese but as he gets bigger we will monitor their play and if need be we will separate them when noone is at home.

[pie]

When I got my second puppy she was in a pen inside for two weeks then once I knew the older dog would be okay with her they were both left outside during the day, secure yard with 6 foot fences and no way out, they aren't visible from the street, they had shelter and crates to sleep in and plenty of water. It was October so warm enough.

A month or two later we got a doggy door so now they have access to both but do spend a fair chunk of their day outside sunbaking and rummaging.

My dogs were the same size though - I would be hesitant to leave a large boisterous puppy with a very small dog.

[Blackdogs]

I have been criticised on an American forum for having my adult dog outside at all whilst not directly supervised. And this wasn't by one person, it was the general concensus! My yard is wholly enclosed with six foot fencing and I live in a good neighbourhood. Apparently this is considered negligence over there. I think the attitudes are quite culturally different in the US.

The same is found on Pug forums. They crate their dogs 24/7 if no-one is home to watch them. I find that horrifying. Crates certainly serve a purpose, but not this.

To be fair, in some states in the US they have birds and wild animals (coyotes I beleieve) that I am told will come into your yard and drag your dog off. This is moreso if they are young.

Ive had many a debate about this concept before. On one hand we are fighting to treat zoo animals better and let them out of cages, fighting to stop the caged abuse of dogs in puppy farms and on the other we tell people they are abusive and negligent owners for letting a dog be a dog and smell fresh air. How bizarre.

My own dogs would much prefer to be inside with me. However, they need sun, they need fresh air and they need to be dogs so I put them out every day when I leave home unless it is really hot, really cold or raining.

It's strange, isn't it. Even when I argued that perhaps the Australian environment was safer, I was still lambasted for 'negligence'. I mostly let it go after a while, until a poster one day bragged about how responsible they were for crating their two huskies 23 out of 24 hours sometimes 7 days a week, in a crate with no bedding or blankets in case they 'choked' on them. I had trouble letting that one go, but I was the only one who showed any reservation!

Several people on the forum also went to the extreme of believing that leaving a dog inside a locked house was unsafe if the dog wasn't crated because they could chew and choke on things. Apparently, even if the dog is not a chewer, it's irresponsible to take the risk. I also got the whole lecture about it being like leaving a five year old home alone, because dogs have the mentality of a five year old. I argued that I wouldn't leave a five year old in a cage all day either, but that didn't seem to make sense to them.

I think that unless there are serious behavioural issues at play that cannot be resolved otherwise, crating a dog for 8 hours a day is lazy dog ownership.

[trinabean]

It is interesting reading everyones views on this. Our pup will only be left for 2-3 hours a day outside tho not all day as i am at home most of the day. At the moment he is a very quiet gentle pup and we have no worries about leaving him with our maltese but as he gets bigger we will monitor their play and if need be we will separate them when noone is at home.

That sounds like a good plan to me Simmo.

My boxer is one that likes to play rough. He plays well with other boxers/ dogs of similar size and play style. He was not so great with my in-laws toy breed though. We had to 100% supervise and often separated them if he was too boisterous. Although he has been socialized with small dogs he hasn't grown up with one. As in Boxer05's case, there are many owners who have a combination of boxers and smaller dogs where things work fine. So your situation is different to mine,and your boxer may adjust quite well to what is and isn't ok with a smaller dog. With your guidance too of course.

As I don't have another dog, my main decision about whether to leave him inside or outside is based on the weather. Boxers don't cope well with extreme temperatures and their coat doesn't offer much insulation. At most he's only ever home alone for a few hours, there's usually someone home (similar to what your situation sounds like). If we have a 40 degree day I leave him inside the cool of the house. Ditto a freezing rainy winter day, he's happier inside. Any average sunny day though, he plays/sleeps outside while we're gone. No matter where I leave him, he seems to mostly just sleep while we are gone.

Please pop into the Boxer thread in the 'Breed subforums' at the top of the page. We'd love to see pictures of your new pup.

[Aussie Boxer]

Hi Guys,

New to the forums, Just some advice to the contrary of many, Mine are left with all types of small dogs in their yard, the latest has been a Jack Russell pup at the age of 4 weeks, she stayed for two weeks, then went back home, now at 16 weeks she is back in our car for a month, My boxers are Male and Female, female is very dominant, Male doesn't care too much about anything, We have NEVER had a problem with another dog in their yard,

The dogs work thing out in their very own (and mostly amusing) ways, the smaller dog will learn to be submissive when it needs to be and the dominant dog will learn how to gentle, You may get a few yaps or "whelps" from the smaller, a growl or three from the bigger, but that's just what they do to work it out, nothing wrong with it at all, I have never had to split them up from fighting or carrying on, any disagreements are over and done with in roughly 3 seconds, you will be surprised how quickly they adapt to smaller dogs and how much they will look after them.

Train your dog right, and keep them socialised and you won't have any problems, keep them separated for certain activities or one inside and other outside and will start to get resentment in one, that will then turn nasty...

As for inside/outside, If you have one it's easy to have them inside, once you go two its starts having a few issues (especially when u then have a skin kid like us), mine are always outside these days, although there version of living outside is having two lounges in a 7x10 metre shed to laze about on! Gets very hot here we live (40c+ in Feb) but they have always been pretty good, some decent shade, airflow, lots of cool water and they are fine, I walk them late at night when it's hot, and swim's in the arvo's on weekends.

Keeping a dog in a crate in Australia would have to border on neglect, if you keep them in a cage outside there is min requirements of the dimension's is there not?

Cheers

Chappo

Edited January 14, 2012 by Aussie Boxer

[huski]

Hi Guys,

New to the forums, Just some advice to the contrary of many, Mine are left with all types of small dogs in their yard, the latest has been a Jack Russell pup at the age of 4 weeks

Four weeks?!? What on earth was that puppy doing away from it's litter at that age

I don't leave pups alone together with adult dogs, for many reasons, but mostly because I don't want them developing too high a value for each other.

[Rebanne]

As for inside/outside, If you have one it's easy to have them inside, once you go two its starts having a few issues (especially when u then have a skin kid like us), mine are always outside these days, although there version of living outside is having two lounges in a 7x10 metre shed to laze about on! Gets very hot here we live (40c+ in Feb) but they have always been pretty good, some decent shade, airflow, lots of cool water and they are fine, I walk them late at night when it's hot, and swim's in the arvo's on weekends.

Keeping a dog in a crate in Australia would have to border on neglect, if you keep them in a cage outside there is min requirements of the dimension's is there not?

Cheers

Chappo

as if a shed's not hot, what a load of crap. Plenty of people have multiple dogs in the hosue with no issue's with ot without children. As for leaving a four week old pup alone in the yard with big dogs, you would have to have rocks in your head!

[aussielover]

I'm sure your puppy will be fine outside for a few hours :) Not sure about your garden though ;) When i first left my pup outside by herself I came back to some very interesting "landscaping" clearly influenced by the landscape on the moon, she also did some very nice pruning of some bushes and shrubs nand didn't really like the irrigation system much :laugh:

[LizT]

I think one has to bear in mind that possible accidents can happen and if leaving a young pup outside alone has to bear responsiblility for these occurances.

I have a friend who left a young pup in what appeared to be a safe yard, but the pup knocked over a terracotta pot and the pot fell on the pup, somehow hitting it's tail and breaking the tail to the point where the tail had to be amputated. Quite destressing for all concerned.

[aussielover]

Obviously but unless you leave them in a sterile room accidents can happen anytime anywhere

[LizT]

Obviously but unless you leave them in a sterile room accidents can happen anytime anywhere

Depends what sterile objects you leave in that room with the unsupervised pup.

I actually don't believe in "accidents" so much as incidents.

[indigirl]

I left my 10 week old boxer pup Fluke in the yard with my italian greyhounds while I was at work. I am able to come home for an hour for lunch everyday and check on the dogs, plus the yard is very safe and secure - has to be to contain the IGs. Some days I would bring him inside at lunchtime and leave him in the laundry for the afternoon but he really wasnt happy, he wanted to be outside. The weather was nice and cool so no chance of him overheating. He loved having the company of the other dogs and playing with them. They have plenty of shelter, toys and soft bedding to lay around on.

Fluke was a very easy going mellow pup, so I made the decision to leave him in the yard with the iggies. Had he been boisterous and rough I would not have done so. He stayed with the iggies until he was 4 months old, he then was slowly transitioned into the yard with the 2 bigger dogs over a period of about 3 weeks. My two younger iggies really enjoyed being able to play with Fluke and outrun him lol.

Whilst he was in the iggy yard I made sure that at least 3 times a day Fluke had a play session with my gentle golden retriever. This was so Fluke could be as rough as he liked and expend as much energy as he needed to. I found this worked really well.

Edited January 14, 2012 by indigirl

[LizT]

I left my 10 week old boxer pup Fluke in the yard with my italian greyhounds while I was at work. I am able to come home for an hour for lunch everyday and check on the dogs, plus the yard is very safe and secure - has to be to contain the IGs. Some days I would bring him inside at lunchtime and leave him in the laundry for the afternoon but he really wasnt happy, he wanted to be outside. The weather was nice and cool so no chance of him overheating. He loved having the company of the other dogs and playing with them. They have plenty of shelter, toys and soft bedding to lay around on.

Fluke was a very easy going mellow pup, so I made the decision to leave him in the yard with the iggies. Had he been boisterous and rough I would not have done so. He stayed with the iggies until he was 4 months old, he then was slowly transitioned into the yard with the 2 bigger dogs over a period of about 3 weeks. My two younger iggies really enjoyed being able to play with Fluke and outrun him lol.

Whilst he was in the iggy yard I made sure that at least 3 times a day Fluke had a play session with my gentle golden retriever. This was so Fluke could be as rough as he liked and expend as much energy as he needed to. I found this worked really well.

:laugh: You're lucky you had the appropriate breeds to baby sit during his various transitions. :)