Guidelines for dogs being left alone

[JES72]

Does anyone know where to find guidelines or laws of how long a dog should be left alone?

My parents live in a private estate in South Africa. My mother has recently taken on the task of looking into the home owners association regulations for keeping dogs. At present two dogs and two cats are permitted per home. The estate is spacious and the gardens are of a reasonable size.

The issue that has arisen is that some dogs are left all day while their owners are at work. There have been rumers that some dogs may have been left alone overnight or for a whole weekend. Hence the need to tighten up regulations.

Let’s presume the dogs are pets not guard dogs and cared for with clean water, food, bedding and shelter, are not tied up and are in a secure garden able to toilet freely.

If my mother is to propose that dogs are not left unattended without company for a determined amount of time being able to site what is considered reasonable by other laws, guidelines or recommendations would help her when presenting the proposal.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Charlie]

I'm not sure there are any laws as such in the UK on leaving dogs alone,I don't know about SA, it surely must be based on the total welfare of the dog. Personally I have a 4 hour rule leaving my dogs. No more as I don't think it's right. My neighbour has a key incase of an emergency so that Hattie & Charlie can be let out, have company and be fed. They are my total priority when I leave the house.

Having dogs left overnight or for a weekend is outragious and cruel and would be a reportable offence in my book xx

 

[FayRose]

I don't know about a law as such but the dog rescues I've dealt with all have a 4 hour maximum limit on dogs being left alone. If a prospective owner wishing to take on a dog can't confirm that rule, they are not allowed to re-home a dog.

I wish there were more laws about all sorts of things with regards the welfare of animals !

 

[M.F.]

@JES72 has your mom looked for a city bylaw? In Cape Town, for eg, there’s a bylaw for walking on heat bitches (you can’t take them to any public space). She might find a bylaw to support her case. The SPCA considers that if there is food, water, and shelter, that’s enough—which is a huge pity.

 

[JES72]

It’s tricky as cultural norms differ.

If my mums proposal is too tight it will get thrown out without discussion but also needs to take animal welfare into account.

All laws or recommendations i’ve found are still a bit vague.

4 hours would be my rule for Homer but that’s with him being alone inside.

 

[JES72]

@JES72 has your mom looked for a city bylaw? In Cape Town, for eg, there’s a bylaw for walking on heat bitches (you can’t take them to any public space). She might find a bylaw to support her case. The SPCA considers that if there is food, water, and shelter, that’s enough—which is a huge pity.

We’ll have a look at the by-laws but i’d Suspect they are vague too.
I asked the RSPCA on their website and got the same response, clean water, food, shelter etc. so asked for further clarification.

i’ve heard Sweden has tighter regulations but I can’t find anything official.

 

[snowbunny]

There's no strict rule, and no research appears to have been done into "how long is too long". The Kennel Club recomends no longer than four hours for an adult dog: Puppy environment.
I imagine in reality the length of time a dog can cope varies considerably from dog to dog. However, coping is different to thriving. I stick to the four-hour rule for myself, although in reality the dogs are very rarely left alone at all, but very occasionally it may be longer than that. When I'm in Andorra, I get a dog sitter to be with my dogs whenever I go out (even shopping), because any noise from the other residents in the apartment building causes alert barking which isn't good for the people or my dogs.

I did find this study on the effect of time left alone on dog welfare: it looks at the dogs' reactions with 30 minute, 2 hour and 4 hour periods of absence shows increased greeting behaviours in those dogs who have been left longer, which appears to demonstrate they are aware of the difference in the amount of time that has passed: The effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare

I've seen it written (but haven't looked for the law itself) that in Sweden, it is illegal to leave dogs alone for more than six hours. That might be worth investigating, to find out if it really is law or if it's just advisory.

 

[snowbunny]

i’ve heard Sweden has tighter regulations but I can’t find anything official.

Snap

 

[JES72]

Thanks, even if it’s advisory I think it will help.

 

[M.F.]

There’s a law that states that a dog may not bark for longer than 6 minutes per hour. If you capture this on video, you can lay a charge against the dog owner. Not sure if it’s just Cape Town, or SA-wide. But I’m pretty sure it has worked for many dogs because I’ve never seen so many dog walkers as are in my very dense area!

 

[Aitch]

Unfortunately suddenly saying 4 hours as a limit probably will meet with objections so she may have to set a higher limit and gradually bring it down to 4 hours over time. Sad to say but a lot of people reject the welfare of their animals over their own enjoyment.
My own dogs are rarely left alone for more than 30 mins but for someone used to leaving their animals for weekends that would seem impossible.

 

[Oberon]

Two or three days a week Obi is left alone when we go to work. About 8.5 hours. He sleeps all day (and will do the same if we happen to be at home instead of working). His other days are very active as he goes to day care all day.

I think that if your Mum tried to campaign for a four hour limit (or even six hours) she might not get a lot of traction. It’d probably be more worthwhile and defensible to focus on the issue of dogs being left alone over a full weekend or for 24 hours, which most people would think is not ok.

 

[Jacqui-S]

I agree with @Oberon
Go for the best likely achievable rather than the gold standard.
If these practices are common and accepted you need to chip away at them.
Low hanging fruit and all that.

 

[Xena Dog Princess]

Realistically? I'd say 9 hours. It allows people to work a standard day. Combine that with promoting dog walking services and awareness of dog enrichment. Although maybe if you called for 8 hours it would force people to consider a dog walker...

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Just an idea, but I wonder about something like frequency, too. For example, @Xena Dog Princess 's 9 hour idea with a 'five day a week' maximum..or other combo of max hours for max occasions per week. I don't know if that would help or hurt the adoptability of any new rule, though.

I was thinking of my own experiences. I've had to leave my dogs very rarely for what would be considered too long for a particular day, which is not optimal for them but much different than doing it every weekday on a regular basis.

The cultural thing is tough to over come...hats off to your mother for taking on a tough but very worthwhile project!

 

[Oberon]

I think the ‘number of days’ is a good thing to include in a guideline.

People are also going to need suggestions for alternatives and also available options.

To be honest, the best thing you Mum could do would be to start up a dog walking service, or even just in-home ‘pat and play’ sessions.

 

[M.F.]

I second the dog walking/visit idea @Oberon

While some people don’t want to spend the extra money when they have a secure garden, maybe an education campaign to educate on the needs of pets will convince owners to employ such a service. And, if it can be done by someone already known to the estate, this could alleviate security concerns. And perhaps there could be a “bulk buy” discount if several people employ one dog walker. Or perhaps a security guard, cleaner, or gardener at the estate is looking for extra work?

Where I live, the home security guards, house cleaners, and gardeners all congregate in the local park with the dogs from the houses they work at. Dog walking is now one of their duties. Having the opportunity to socialize during the day has improved all of their lives, I think.

 

[JES72]

Thank you all for you input. It’s all been very useful and mum is in the process of writing up her proposal and a supporting essay to go along with it.

I’ll let you know how she gets on.