In another post someone has 2 Labs home alone all day, outside until after dark. Neighbors are complaining they are barking. Does everyone have a right to a dog? What is the point of puppy applications unless it is to eliminate a potential home that might not work for a pup/dog. A bark collar for these dogs was suggested more than once. I have never used one. Do they ever mal-function? Is it possible that they might continue to shock a dog when they should not? Shouldn't something like only be used when an owner is present? what about *any* collar used on a dog in a kennel when no one is there for entire an entire day?
Again, does any and every one have a right to own a dog? Do we in America think we deserve or are entitled to anything we want?
I have seen quite a few of those puppy applications on different breeder's sites and none of them appear to be hoping to attract a buyer who will be gone to work all day until after dark and leaving their dog alone outside.

Ok, got your point.

Surely you did not mean to indict people's rights. Yes, even jerks have rights to own dogs, drive cars, own guns and even have children.

But, you have the right to say NO, you cannot have one of my puppies. Sorry.

I have a lab that wears a bark color every night in his crate. If he didn't, he would be dead. Works for me.

AGREE
just because they have the right does not mean they deserve the pleasure and privilege.
as a breeder all you can do is make damn sure your pups go to the best home possibles and be willing to take them back at any time in their life.

Isnt it sad that people just would not put "what is in the dogs best interest," ahead of their "wants" .

Hi,

I actually posted about the dogs that are at home alone during the week. I take a HUGE offense to what you have said, as I feel that I am an excellent home. The dogs are spoiled, sleep in my bed, go on car rides with me, go on daily walks, are fed high-quality food, have about 20 toys in their basket, are my world when I am not at work. You can think what you want, but I have seen people home all day that could give a crap about their dog. Not a part of the family and no attention when they are home. Come on. Don't be so quick to judge. I am sorry that I have a career. I can tell you one thing, I can support my dogs if, heaven forbid, they need major medical bills. They are clean, groomed, toenails trimmed weekly, ears inspected daily, and even get their teeth brushed weekly. And it is none of your business, but I am just recently single. The dogs are 2 years old and 4 years old .... DO YOU WANT THEM TO GO TO A NEW HOME JUST BECAUSE I LIVE ALONE NOW AND DON'T HAVE A PARTNER TO BE THERE WHEN I AM NOT!!!

You can do what ever you want with your puppies. My puppies are well-socialized, not left alone while young, taken to obedience classes, taken to stores that allow dogs (Bass Pro), and I don't travel unless I can take them with me. The dogs are the only family I have. I hope that the family with the stay-at-home mom that you sell your puppies to, don't just leave them outside in the yard unattended all day while she runs errands all day long. My dogs are crated for their safety and probably get more attention than most.

Teresa, don't let this a**hole get to you. A lot of us have to work and our dogs are at home. We make the necessary arrangements to take care of them or have them cared for throughout the day.

My dogs are as "happy" as can be and they are used to their routines. I am not in a position right now to quit working and stay home with my dogs. My dogs are not providing my income and if I want to keep them and give them all the best, less some weekday time with me, then I need to continue to work.

I spend all of my off hours with my dogs grooming, playing, exercising and taking them to the dog shows. I have to shake my head at how some people have all of the nerve sitting in there high places ditacting what is right for others. When most likely they don't even have a handle on their own lives. People have children and work full-time why not DOGS!?

Teresa,

Don't let these people get you down. Some people have nothing better to do in their lives than to sit high on their thrones and critisize everyone else.

Your dogs sound incredibly loved, spoiled, and doted on.

I'll bet half of the nameless, faceless loudmouths in this thread don't even have their dogs in the house, but in a kennel instead.

Don't let someone else ruin your day. Go hug your dogs and let the hateful comments roll off your back.

I also am single and work during the day, and most of the people I know who breed and show Labs work, too. In fact, most married couples both work. That is a fact of life in the modern world. The suggestion that only people who can be at home during the day are fit to have dogs would restrict dog owning to the wealthy, to the retired, or to people who make enough money from breeding and selling puppies to be able to stay home with their dogs. I hope to retire in a year or so, but I certainly would not want to have missed the 35 years in which I have worked outside my home and kept going a program of breeding, showing in obedience and conformation, and running in hunt tests!

I work too. But I work close to home and get home for lunch and the dogs are in the family room on the couch. They too get walks, obedience classes, grooming and sleep with me.
I still think a renter who leaves the dogs outside all day is not a good home.
NO WAY.

doesn't matter what i or anyone else thinks or how well you care for these dogs when you are home.

your landlord says your dogs are barking enough to be a nuisance.

your dogs are confined outdoors without supervision during the day.

you have a problem that demands a solution.

one solution is confining your dogs in crates for the same number of hours without supervision.

another solution is punishing your dogs for barking
until they reliably don't bark when confined outside without supervision.

which solution is compatible with seeing your dogs as family members?

neither solution would even be legal for a human family member.

Peggy, you said a mouth full! I was thinking the same thing. I live in the country (down a dirt road and surrounded by pasture) and own my home, but only because I WORK during the day. Because I am in a rural area, I must commute to work. In the fall, when it gets dark early, I am often getting in after dark.

A couple of my dogs have the run of my fenced back yard (about a half acre) and two others stay in the house during the day.
They are happy and loved.

By your standards, I would not be a "good home" for my dogs.

I am overwhelmed by the judgemental attitude.

Just Asking - if something happened to your job, and you had to take one that meant you could not come home for lunch, would you also not be a suitable home?

As mentioned above. There is a problem with the person with the barking dogs. A big problem is that she is a renter. The landlord can ask her to leave and he is already upset by her barking dogs. Finding a place to rent with 2 labradors is more difficult than if you have no pets. Dogs are at more of a risk if they are owned by someone who does not own their own home.

"By your standards, I would not be a "good home" for my dogs."

To Wow- I'm assuming the comment above wasn't directed at me! I am not hypocritical enough to apply standards to my puppy buyers that are so different from those I apply to my own dogs.

Concerning the barking, I left my dogs outside all day in secure runs when the weather permitted for the first ten years or so when the weather permitted but had complaints to the township police about barking. I'm also out in the country with no neighbors within several hundred yards, and I do own my own home. The officers who visited me obviously considered the complaint ridiculous, although he couldn't say so in so many words. Nevertheless, I stopped kenneling my dogs outside and now keep them inside all day. There were a few other reasons- Possum was in an outdoor kennel with a dog house when we had some violent weather -around here that means lots of lightening and thunder and possible tornados. I was at a seminar about 20 miles west of my home and headed home as soon as I realized it was going to be bad there. I was the last car over the bridge in Princeton, as I passed a cop car going to close the bridge because of the rising water. By the time I reached home the storm had passed, and Possum had developed an aversion to thunder storms that lasted until she went deaf in her old age.

So my dogs are now inside where they sleep safely in their crates all day. I am close enough to home that I can usually get home at noon if I have a dog that needs attention in the middle of the day. But the adults sleep 8 hours in their crates at night- why is it different in the daytime? They are out most of the time while I am home, including weekends, and get a walk in the field off lead when the weather permits. What do they do during most of the time they are out? They sleep on the couch!

I am looking forward to retirement and being able to spend more time with them. But we did earn a few AKC conformation points, 5 obedience and Rally titles in 2009, and Jake competed in MH tests, so I would say they get some quality time.

No Peggy, that comment was not directed at you. I was thinking the same thing you were, that if people who had to be away from home to work during the day should not have dogs, then that would be limited to independently wealthy and a few other folks!

My comment was to the original poster. Also - Others commented about the fact that another poster who talked about having barking issues was renting, but her situation could have just as easily been one in which she owned the house, and the people complaining were neighbors.

The person on the other thread was asking for suggestions to a problem, and instead got insinuations from some that she should not even have dogs because she had to work during the day!

Someone else suggested that because she had a barking issue, maybe she should not have dogs, or that it is the same as leaving human children alone.

Thank goodness we are still mostly free to live according to what our hearts dictate with our dogs (until perhaps PETA and other like minded organizations take that from us).

Everyone should have a lab.

Well, I guess that would make the world a better place. Not so with some people & their children.

Jeesh - if someone is away from home working full time they are probably gone 9 or 10 hours. Do you wake up in the middle of the night to take care of your dogs, or do you sleep? Do the dogs go 8, 9, 10 or more hours without your attention while you sleep? Horrors! If a puppy (or sick dog) needs attention and I can't be there, I arrange for someone to come in. Right now I don't work full time but when I did I was able to care quite well for my dogs - they were the last thing I did before I left for the day and the first thing I did when I got home but 9 hours was perfectly manageable for them.

In answer to the title of the post, of course not.