[georgia123]

Hi,

Me and my boyfriend are looking at getting a dog, however we want to make sure we are 100% getting the right breed for us.

We have fell in love with everything about Vizsla's, their energy (as we're both extremely active), their temperament, the way they are with other animals and people.

After extensive research, we have found the only thing we are concerned about is work. We both work in a school, so the dog will be left from 8:30 - 4pm. However, as we live on the school site, we can go home at lunch to let the dog out for an hour/ take them for a walk, but we are unsure if this would be adequate or fair on the dog?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks,
Georgia

 

[ColinJ]

Hi,

I just did the same. I brought my pup home a little more than 2 weeks ago. He goes in his crate for a morning nap around 10 and an afternoon nap around 3pm. And he also sleeps in it at night. Don't worry about duration they will let you know when they are done sleeping. He's usually good for 1.5 - 2 hours of nap time. Which is great for gym/ grocery runs etc.

-Colin

 

[rubicon]

Is it possible to time your new puppy with the summer holidays? I think having some vacation days is great for the first week or so. If you get them very young they do need you more but since you work at a school maybe you can’t just take vacation whenever you want.

my dog has never been alone for that long but wen you WFH and since I HATE the gatekeeping I sometimes see when it comes to dogs, so I will tell you this: I don’t know if other Vs can do it; mine can’t. But we never trained him to do it since we’re literally never gone. I KNOW he can nap for hours at a time. After his morning walk he will nap for HOURS, then bother us at lunch,then nap until his afternoon walk and then after that nap until dinner.

If we had not been both WFH and had trained him that way I don’t see why we couldn’t have worked away from home. The ebb and flow of his energy level seems to correlate with the morning/lunch/afternoon schedule you’re proposing. And if you can get the dog trained so that he isn’t anxious when you’re gone (so he actually NAPS! Anxious dogs will not sleep) I would give it a shot.

But to achieve that I would highly highly recommend being able to take vacation/holidays off for the first weeks just to give him a secure attachment to you. Tolerating being alone also needs to be trained and you need to be around for that. It doesn’t come automatically.

This breed if untrained can lead to separation anxiety. We got mine trained to tolerate being alone for long enough to run errands or go to dinner (2-4 hours; haven’t tried longer) so that’s at least a lower bound for consideration. And I will note he doesn’t ever bark or appear to be freaking out (CCTV!) so we could have tried longer. Hes Just a little upset and whiny, but he’s a big baby. Whines for a bit, stares at the door. He’s clearly tantruming but fine. Then he plops down in the couch a few minutes later and passes out.

 

[PhilipL]

Vizsla puppies require a lot of interaction in the first few weeks and I definitely wouldn't recommend the amount of time you are suggesting to leave that pup/dog alone even when older.

As a breed Vizslas are renowned for their extremely high energy levels and intelligence, they need lots of physical and mental exercise, with walking on a lead doing little for them it is off lead time running free that uses up enough of their energy and that needs to be a minimum of one hour per day 'off leash'. The amount of exercise they need often catches new owners out who are unprepared for it, we walk miles every day with ours and he is off lead most of the time. We once walked him as a grown dog on lead for around 10 miles, it had little to no effect on exercising him.

They are also very affectionate dogs, they crave human company hence the nickname 'velcro' dogs, but as Rubicon has already said Vizslas often suffer easily from seperation anxiety, this can lead to all sorts of bad behaviour from chewing, destroying household items, digging holes in your garden etc. There was a period of time in the first summer, when we had our Vizsla Rafa where for one day per week we had to leave him for a few hours due to our conflicting work schedule, it was not good at all for him and we were luckily able to swap days at work so one of us is here every day with him.

Realistically your proposed timetable for leaving that dog alone for 5 days out of every seven, except for school holidays, really wouldn't suit or be fair particularly for a Vizsla in my opinion.

 

[texasred]

A lot of people work, and own this breed.
They get up extra early to take their dogs on walks. Hire dog walkers, use dog daycare.

Keep in mind young puppies can not hold their bladders very long. Until a little older, someone needs to be available to take the puppy out frequently.

 

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Hello! I was first time Vizsla owner two and a half years ago. I absolutely love this dog, don't get me wrong but the I can't stress the amount of exercise they require. If you truly are dedicated to owning a Viszla your working situation would be fine but you need to realize they need to run off energy and they need MILES of exercise. People think I'm exaggerating but it is hard to believe the attention they need. I work full time plus but she is with my husband 24-7 and it's still her time when I get home! The smartest dog I've ever seen though. Can be tricky, mine opens doors and turns indoor faucets on.