My dogs are such a set back!

Hi guys, here is a little story, wondering if anyone else has a similar problem...

During college & afterwards, went to the gym for 5 years straight. I felt great.

Then, I got a puppy, no longer had my evenings & weekends to myself. I had a "baby" to raise.

A year after getting him, I finally cancelled my gym membership that I barely used anymore! :,(

Now, two & a half years later, he is finally old enough to spend that extra hour or so alone in the evenings while I spend some time on myself! So this past December, I joined a new gym, Golds, and I love it.

And I'll be damned, but about a month after I joined, my fiance got a puppy, too!

Now I am back at square one; my fiance works in the evenings, so when I get home at 5, I do a little dog duty - get them some fresh air, walk them etc.

He says that the dogs are FINE, they'll survive it while I go to the gym every evening!

But ladies, you know how those maternal instincts are, I feel so guilty and rushed while I'm there!

So, right now, I'm trying to make the best of it. I try to get some exercise in WITH the dogs; this is easier with the puppy, she has so much energy we can get a good walk going (have to walk them separately because I'm not coordinated yet to walk them together!)

And I try to get to the gym when I can.

But my older boy dog lolly-gags along so there is basically no exercise to be had while I'm walking him.

Just wondered if anyone else is in the same dilemma.

And, I can only imagine how hard it is to balance with children! I'm in for some real guilt when I become a Mom I can already tell!

When my wife and I joined our local gym it was a Golds Gym by name.  Now it's Club Fitness.   Anyway they have a childrens care area and we pay for our 3 kids to be in there.

Guilt free working out is great.  That's one thing I hated about working out at home or wanting to go for a run or something else... the guilt of my wife having to be at home with the kids... or all the time wasted while she took care of the kids so I could work out... then I took care of the kids while she worked out.   Sometimes late evening was the only time I could work out where I didn't feel so bad about it.

With dogs it's different.   I'm not sure about your living conditions... we have a fensed in back yard.   So our dog is outside.  I don't feel guilty all day I'm at work and the dog is outside (even if I know my wife took the kids out for the day to visit her parents or something else).   But we can keep our dog outside and it get's plenty of exercise.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.  Your dog is older and not needing as much of the attention.   Your BF lives with you, I take it, he may work evenings but he can surely take his own dog for a walk during the day so you don't have to feel so guilty about wanting to get your exercise time in at the gym.

So I suggest just talking to him and making sure he's taking care of his dog during the day.   That it's getting some exercise and so on.

i find if I take care of myself than I'm a better mother and wife and better mother to my dog.  tee/hee  I'm trying to tell you don't worry
about leaving for a little while. 

however, i work out at home.  I have to shut my door to the exercise room because if I don't the dog, the child, the husband are all hanging on me and talking to me.  I'm afraid the elliptical machine might hit my 4# dog so I keep the door shut.  I'm only in there 30
minutes and it's so funny how they want my attention.  Sometimes it's not funny. 

I agree with Nightc1 that your bf can let the dog out some during the day. 

My dogs are 6 years old and 2 years old (human years!). My exercise primarily involves walking them. I can get a good 2.5 mile to 3 mile per hour pace going with the 2 year old (she's a large animal--Dane mix) and a 2.5 MPH pace going with the 6 year old (she's a small critter--rat terrier mix). I take them for 60-120 minute walks and that does it for me.

Now as to your issue: puppies are not the same as human babies. Assumedly this puppy came from a breeder (at some point in time) so is weaned and able to live without its dog mama. This means that other than bathroom breaks it will not need tons of human interaction. Plus dogs are social animals so I would guess there's some interaction between the two dogs. Not that you should stick it in a corner and ignore it, but taking a few hours out of your evening to hit the gym will not stunt its social development. When you get back, feeling wonderful from your workout, pick the puppy up and give it some love, call it by name, maybe sign up for a training class on weekends so you can get some quality time with the critter and also prepare him/her to be a good canine citizen!

I once trained two of my dogs to run next to my bike. They even have special things to go on the bike to hold the leashes now. It's not for everyone, or every dog, I know, but it was fun for us. Maybe something you could consider. The dogs had backpacks and carried a picnic and we took the kids to the park every saturday. It was great. Maybe there is some other dog activity like flyball or something else you could do that your dogs would get more exercise and would be fun for you, too.

I don't mean this to sound harsh in any way, I love dogs more than anything and my husband and I have two.  But as much as I love dogs and they are truly our children, they are NOT HUMANS.  You can leave them alone for awhile, they are fine.  Maybe not as a little little puppy, but like someone else said, your bf must be at home during the day if he works nights.  Trust me, they are fine alone for a couple hours, even puppies.  They are animals, not human babies that need a lot more of their mother. 

I have a puppy and I know exactly what you mean. If you leave the dog alone all day they get destructive, they have too much energy, and they DO NEED LOTS OF HUMAN ATTENTION. Dogs are social animals, and they require a lot of care, I have friends that compare having a puppy to having a baby. Especially if you only have one dog. They rely on you for EVERYTHING.

What I am doing with my 5 month puppy is taking her for long walks, we go to the park and play, so it is exercise and stimulation for both of us. So far it works great.

Another thing we are doing is putting her into a doggie daycare for socialization 3 days a week. It tires her out and gives her a chance to interact with other dogs, which actually can help train them.

Maybe you cuold try going to the gym in the am while your BF is home, or alternate days that you go home to walk the dog after work.

and now i believe i have seen every excuse in the book.

So.. instead of going to the gym, take your puppy out for a run?

Exercise is exercise, no matter how you get it, and your puppy needs exercise just as much as you do.

just do your best to meet the dogs' needs while also meeting yours. act quickly to normalize a schedule that allows you to do both (while sharing responsibility for the puppy care with your bf). it's easy to blame the dogs, but try not to use the dogs as an excuse not to exercise. they can be left alone for periods of time, or your bf can attend to them.

i recently lost a dog to cancer & her care consumed my life for months. early on, i realized that i needed to take care of my own exercise needs too, so i made a schedule that worked to satisfy her medical requirements and my own self-preservation needs. come up with a schedule that is sustainable, so you are not always rushing around & so you are not blaming the dogs for the things you can't do.

good luck & enjoy your puppy!!! puppies are 100% trouble, but they're my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing on Earth!

My family has had smallish dogs most of my life, poodles, shih tzus, now a Welsh terrier and a border collie. They are not like 2-year-old children, it is possible to leave them home alone for several hours at at time without feeling guilty! Given enough toys and exercise, they should not start into destructive boredom behaviour in that time frame, especially not with two of them.

No more excuses, now!

I'm getting a puppy this friday.  I am SO excited and cannot wait to bring home my little baby from the breeder.  The dog I chose requires lots of human attention and I understand all his needs.  Because I don't go to the gym, and work out at home, I cant say anything will be lost with my pup.  I plan on taking him down for walks to the river with me this summer.  Aw my new little pal.

Does anyone know at what age you should start taking your dog outside for walks?  My puppy will be 8, almost 9 weeks old when he arrives.

My dog is an obsessive sniffer - as a chocolate lab, she firmly believes that the world is her oyster and that she must absolutely stop and sniff everything in sight. She brings new meaning to the phrase "stop and smell the roses" :)

I've only recently started to walk and run with her as part of my exercise routine. What I find works is if I take her to the park and throw the ball around for 5 to 10 minutes first. That totally tires her out and she's much more manageable when I'm running when she's had a chance to get some of her energy out.

Maybe for the time being, just exercise with the puppy and then take both dogs out for a walk as part of your cool down?

I don't like the gym - so I go for walks.

I have 3 dogs - so walking on leash can be difficult - I found the easiest way to walk on - leash is by using a street that isn't used much and walk in the middle of the street.  That way my one dog can't mark EVERY grassblade and mark EVERY grassblade.  I set the pace and he keeps up. 

The other solution I use - is taking the dogs to an off'leash park.  My one dog who loves to mark and sniff every grass blade can do that.  I get my exercise by walking fast and when he gets behind I walk back to go and get him and then continue walking.  He's happy because he gets to sniff and mark and I'm happy by walking back and forth!  Eventually we get around the off leash park once and I get a good workout.

Thanks for the advice!

As an update, so far this week I've been walking with the ladies at work on our lunch break (actually a really hard work out with all the hills in this city!), and I've managed to suppress my guilt enough to play with the dogs for a couple hours after work, and then leave them to do my yoga at the gym in the evenings.

It hasnt been too bad! I still feel guilty, which I probably always will because I feel guilty when I leave them to go anywhere, especially if they havent gotten enough exercise themselves that day...but I guess the best advice is to just ignore the guilt and do the best you can?

BUT, unfortunately, no my fiance is not home during the day to take care of them - he works from 11am to 11pm and comes home around 2pm for a break and lets the puppy out then (we live separately so our dogs arent together all day).

I do wish my gym had a doggie day care though! Maybe someone will start one of those one day... :o)

Thanks again for the advice!

xstar17x-

NO OUTSIDE WALKS where other dogs go until your baby has ALL HIS SHOTS.  His little immune system isn't ready for it.  You can walk him outside in non-dog areas or he can go out in your yard under careful supervision, but seriously you shouldn't even let him touch the floor in PetSmart until he has had his last round of puppy shots.

and j2e1n9? Go to the gym.  Your little guy should be getting crate-trained anyway- this is a good opportunity to give him some "quiet time" in his crate for just a couple hours.  it's not mean- it's like a little cave.

That said, one of my dogs LOVES his crate and I practically can't get him out of it (he criesif he's out and I close the door so he can't get back in) and the other one can't stand it, wants notihing to do iwth it.  But the dog that can't stand the crate is super good when she's left loose all day, and the other one I'm not ready to trust yet (I got him a week and a half ago) so it all works out. 

Anyway, once both dogs realize "this is the schedule, mom takes off in the evenings" they'll be fine.  it will take a day or 2 to settle into the routine, but really they won't mind.  Leave a radio playing so they don't get lonely.  (I used to feel super guilty about leaving my dogs too, I hope this didn't sound mean!)

star- saroful is right! no neighborhood walks till he has all 3 sets of shots. That way he won't pick anything up to make him sick. You can get him used to the leash in the house, it's safer & can work just fine there!!! Won't be long though!!! exciting!

No, that's actually a really good point that I hadnt thought about yet; eventually they'll be accustomed to this new schedule and it wont always be so hard, it probably just seems so hard right now because I just got started.

Just like when I had to leave my puppy to go to work; at first it was excruciatingly painful to watch him be so sad, but eventually he got used to it and now he knows the drill and jumps up onto the couch to nap as soon as I grab my purse!

Thanks!

If you bf is never home why did he get a dog in the 1st place?  Maybe thats rude but its equally rude to rely on others to care for your animals.

LOL! No its not rude, its a good question.

Well we are engaged, so we will be living together eventually. And we decided based on our contrasting schedules, between he and I one of us would be home with her at most times.

He's there until 11am, I check on her mid day during my break around 12 or 1, he checks on her during his lunch break around 2, and I get out of work at 5. I chill with her (and my little dog) until 11 pm when he gets off, then we go out and grab a drink before bed until like midnight or 1am.

It is kind of a confusing schedule for most people probably, I guess I am just used to it! Cant believe I'm marrying a chef - they have crazy hours! :o)

OMGosh - your dog gets out WAY more than our 3 ever did - she will be totally fine while you go to the gym.  My dogs are in their crates for much longer stretches than that, and were so when they were younger too. 

Go, workout, enjoy.  You can even go right from work and let her out after and have no problem.  They can handle more than 3 hours, trust me - and if you don't get her used to holding it now - you will regret it.  We made that mistake with our first one.