When I adopted my two Shih Tzus seven years ago, I was fortunate to be working from home at the time. I had the ability to let my new puppies out frequently so they became house-trained quite quickly. I could also take breaks from work to play with them for a few minutes here and there and I could hold them in my lap during the day as I sat at the computer. It was a wonderful situation. However, the day eventually came where I found a job which required me to go to work each day and leave my puppies at home. I was grateful they were house broken at the time but was sad I would have to leave my new little buddies alone and had thoughts of sneaking them into my office and hiding them under my desk. After a couple of weeks and a few trials and errors, I soon found a routine that helped my pups and me adjust to our new situation.

Before I started my new job, I had already found a great spot in the house for the pups for when I did leave to go to the gym or run errands. My kitchen is fairly spacious and has linoleum floors, which are easier to clean than carpets in case there are any accidents, so I would close off both entrances with baby gates to limit the dogs to this area. Since my dogs are small, I did not have to worry about them trying to jump over or knock down the gates. Also, there is less furniture to chew on in the kitchen as opposed to other rooms in the house. The kitchen had already become the permanent home for the pup’s food and water bowls so it was ideal to build a home doggie day care space around this familiar environment. I set out to create an atmosphere that would keep my puppies comfortable and entertained while I was away during the day as well as give me piece of mind.

Since I still had puppies with a lot of energy, I made a morning walk part of my routine each day before work. I had already made a habit of taking the pups for a walk every day so now the only challenge was making time in the morning for a good, long walk. I found that this time out in the morning helped so there were fewer accidents and wore the pups out a bit so they were less likely to find trouble or chew on furniture while I was away. I added a good sized pet bed to the kitchen area along with a bin full of toys and rawhide bones, hopeful these would be chewed on instead of a table leg. I must confess that I did go through a few chewed up beds and toy baskets before I found items that worked best and did not get devoured. I also found out the hard way that it was best to pull up the two rugs I had in the kitchen before I left each day in case there were any accidents.

There were times where I had to work late and did not want to leave my pups at home too long trying to ‘hold it’. Since I could not find a dog walker in my area that could come by and take my puppies out, I found a teenage boy in the neighborhood who loved dogs and earning money. He became a great dog walker when I had to work late or go out of town. It gave me great peace of mind knowing my dogs were not home desperately waiting for me to let them out. Even though it was difficult to leave my dogs each day, creating a routine and an environment that kept them happy and me happy made the transition much easier. Also, being away from the pups at work made coming home to their wagging tails and slobbery kisses the best part of the day.

By Kirsten Goulet