Hi everyone!
My partner and I have been talking about adopting a miniature dachshund for several years and are now looking into shelters, breeders, etc.
I'm quite familiar with dachshunds (I grew up with two), and my partner also grew up with dogs, but we have some questions specific to raising dachshunds in New York City. We want to make sure that we've considered everything fully before we make a commitment and would really appreciate input from New Yorkers (or anyone else who lives in a high-density urban area) who have raised dachshunds.
One issue is that both my partner and I have full-time jobs. Nights and weekends won't be a problem, but we're generally out of the home for a good 8–10 hours per day during the week. Obviously, this is fairly common scenario for many New Yorkers (including dog owners), but we want to make sure that we raise a happy and well-adjusted dog.
We've heard of people leaving their dogs alone in apartments all day with pads, but that seems totally unfair—it's not something that we'd feeling comfortable doing. We know that most New Yorkers rely on dog daycare and dog walkers, so we're interested in knowing what sort of combination of those two services we should use so that our dog isn't lonely.
Our thought was that the dog should probably be in full-time daycare until he or she is about a year old. After that, we thought, dog-walking once or twice during the middle of the day would suffice.
Does that sound right? Is daycare until the dog is a year old overkill? Is it not enough? Should we do some combination of the two? Is one walk a day enough? Two?
Also, we're aware that a very young puppy requires near-constant attention. At what age would it be appropriate to adopt a dog, assuming that we'd have to put it in daycare during the week?
Thanks so much for your advice!
My partner and I have been talking about adopting a miniature dachshund for several years and are now looking into shelters, breeders, etc.
I'm quite familiar with dachshunds (I grew up with two), and my partner also grew up with dogs, but we have some questions specific to raising dachshunds in New York City. We want to make sure that we've considered everything fully before we make a commitment and would really appreciate input from New Yorkers (or anyone else who lives in a high-density urban area) who have raised dachshunds.
One issue is that both my partner and I have full-time jobs. Nights and weekends won't be a problem, but we're generally out of the home for a good 8–10 hours per day during the week. Obviously, this is fairly common scenario for many New Yorkers (including dog owners), but we want to make sure that we raise a happy and well-adjusted dog.
We've heard of people leaving their dogs alone in apartments all day with pads, but that seems totally unfair—it's not something that we'd feeling comfortable doing. We know that most New Yorkers rely on dog daycare and dog walkers, so we're interested in knowing what sort of combination of those two services we should use so that our dog isn't lonely.
Our thought was that the dog should probably be in full-time daycare until he or she is about a year old. After that, we thought, dog-walking once or twice during the middle of the day would suffice.
Does that sound right? Is daycare until the dog is a year old overkill? Is it not enough? Should we do some combination of the two? Is one walk a day enough? Two?
Also, we're aware that a very young puppy requires near-constant attention. At what age would it be appropriate to adopt a dog, assuming that we'd have to put it in daycare during the week?
Thanks so much for your advice!
