Can I leave my dog home alone for 8+ hours?

The real thresholds

• Adult healthy dog with no anxiety: 8 hours occasionally is acceptable; daily 8+ hours alone with no midday break is a welfare concern over time.
• Puppies under 6 months: ~1 hour per month of age, capped at ~4 hours. An 8-week puppy alone for 8 hours is not housetrainable.
• Seniors: bladder capacity declines; consider a midday walker.
• Dogs with separation anxiety: 0 hours alone during treatment. Sustained panic deepens the disorder and breaks each training session you've put in.

How to make long days better

1. Long morning walk before you leave, a tired dog is a sleeping dog.
2. Frozen lick mat or stuffed Kong in the morning, 20+ minutes of calming engagement.
3. Midday dog walker or daycare 2–3 days a week, biggest single quality-of-life lift you can buy.
4. Decompressing evening: 30 minutes of sniffing and connection time, not high-arousal fetch.
5. Crate for safety only if the dog is positively crate-trained, never as a default punishment for being alone.