Opal is home all day from about 8:15am to 5:40pm. She's confined to the kitchen with baby gates. She has 4 cats to chase & some toys. She's so happy to see me when I get home.

Opal was crated during the day until she was 18 months old because she'd manage to get into plenty of trouble. I still have to make sure the kitchen is puppy proofed because she goes looking for trouble if it's not.

Your boy will be just fine. He probably sleeps all day anyway.

Sue

Well I'm also at work from 8am to 6pm and Lola's dog walker comes by at around 1pm. She seems fine with this schedule. I spend as much time as possible with her in the evenings and on the weekends. I thing you need to look at it this way... even though you're not home 24/7 you're still providing a wonderful home for your dog and that's more then a lot of dogs in the world are getting.

Carolina & Lola

then he's ok, it's his safe place.
Murphy will go in there on his own sometimes too, but he mostly sleep on the kitchen tile...must feel good on his tum tum!

Emily

He's not crated at night -- sleeps in his own bedroom with a dog bed and his crate and many toys and bones. But he often ends up sleeping in his crate with the door open - he just likes it in there. Is that OK?

Seems everyone I know is just so exhausted from having to work such long hours. My neighbor's teenage daughter refers to her father as "that stranger." I had one job where almost everyone in the office came to work on Saturdays, not because there was work that had to be done, but because they were afraid not to be seen in the office by the top partners if their co-workers showed up.

It's just crazy. I try to leave work by 6:30 at the latest -- and my colleagues often stay later. It's sad. I would LOVE a 9-5 job!

Luckily I am able to stay home with our children and Daisy but my poor husband gets up at 3:30am to head into work and doesn't usually get home until 6 or 7pm.

Kim & Daisy

greed on your part. Yikes! Didn't think it would come across that way. I meant greed by the corporate world that makes people work such long hours that take them away from their families. My neighbor across the street rarely gets home before 9 pm, for example. And never gets paid for over time, nor does any other salaried person I know, none of whom work an 8 hour day.

...and if the time he is crated you do have a dog walker come...I don't think it's too bad.

Give that boy a hug and post some pics of him sometime!

Emily

Thank you for the nice words. He gets plenty of time and lovin on the weekend and is not crated at night -- he has his own little room with a dog bed and all. I'd love to have the walker come twice a day but cannot afford it right now.

That by you asking this is enough to tell that you have a deep concern for your bully...so of course you are a good mom. A lot of people work for a living and are able to have a dog too!

You do have a sitter and you wake up extra early to play with him...so that says to me that you are a good mom too.

What do you do on the weekend? I'm sure he gots lots of loving then, right? Have you tried maybe not crating him so he doesn't have to be in the crate from 11pm-6am and from 8am-6pm...17 hours is a while for a dog to be caged up, even considering that some of the hours he will be sleeping. Maybe you could give him for space by allowing a section for him in the kitchen or something...I dunno. Lastly, maybe you could have the dog walker come twice a day instead of just one time.

Best of luck with your boy, and I don't think you are a bad mom.

Emily

we've tried to leave Brody out of the crate. the problem is not house training -- but destructive chewing. he has a fondness for wood of any sort. not to mention wires. we find its safer to crate him and have the walker come.

in our case it has nothing to do with greed but simply needing to work enough to make ends meet. it's either do this now or have to work when we have kids. which neither of us wants.

while you are gone, such as closing off one room for him? I use a different kind of crate training method that gets my bulldogs both yard trained and paper trained. Thus, they can be out of the crate when I am gone for a while. I gate off the hallway leading to the bedrooms, and also gate off the kitchen. I'm lucky in that I have large windows in my family room that look out towards the back yard and the large pond behind my house. Boo and Clovis spend most of their day laying on the sofa sleeping or looking out the window.

I never did paper train my first bulldog and came to regret it. I occasionally had to go out of town and would be gone for 12 hours or so. I would anguish over poor Clovis I having to hold it so long, which I am sure is just as uncomfortable for a dog as it is for a person. Thus, I told myself I would paper train my next bulldog, which ended up being two bulldogs, Boo and Clovis Part II.

You're not being a bad mommy at all. Just my opinion, but I think it's sad that things have gotten to the point where both parents so often have to work. My father grew up in a very poor family and had to drop out of school after the second grade to work on a farm. Yet, even with his lack of education, he later earned enough were our mother did not get a job until we were ready to start college, and my father got home from work every day at 4:15 pm. Ironically, as a child, I thought it was awful that he had to work so late in the day. I can only imagine how many people today would love a job that allowed them to get home that early. Most people I know are lucky if they are home by 6 or 7 pm. As a result of the relentless greed that seems to have taken over, the 40 hour work week has become a fantasy. And children and pets are the main victims of it. None of it is your fault.

with a dog walker in the afternoon. but recently we bought an exercise pen which we have attached to the sides of his crate so he has a little "front porch" to his "house." we throw some toys and a bowl of water in there. that way he has more space, but can't get to anything to destroy!