Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael 61
I’ve always wanted a dog, but never had one while working, as I didn’t think it was fair to a dog to be inside, crated and alone for the majority of the day while I was at work. I always thought that once I retired, I would finally get a puppy, and invest a lot of time with training, and walking several times per day. Well, since retiring to The Villages, and with all my activities, I don’t see how I could fit having a dog into my busy lifestyle. Many of my neighbors who have dogs are not engaged in very many activities here in The Villages, as their dogs seem to take up most of their time. Often times, they have to turn down social and recreational invites, or cut them short, because they have to get back to let their dog out or care for it. Interested to hear from other posters who manage to have a dog and are still very active outside their home everyday here in The Villages. I’m thinking maybe dog ownership will have to wait until I’m older and maybe less active.
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We had a dog before moving to The Villages. She's only 2, a shih tzu pekingese mix. We still are active and do have long days on occasion where she's alone but we spread them out and reward her when we come home.
She is paper trained. Never in my life have I had a dog who was paper trained and used to be semi disgusted at the thought. However, I'm very very glad that she is. We can leave her without needing to come home to potty and during bad weather, no problem. It's never fun to try to figure out how to potty a dog in a hurricane. I've done that for years and it's awful. But doing this training would make it so you had to have a small dog.
We do not crate our dog, she hates the crate. Also a first for us, as our other dogs were crate trained. She has a bed and a carrier that she loves, so she will curl up in that sometimes. We leave music playing for her when we are away.
When we come home, we usually take her for a golf cart ride or a walk.
I hope this helps you. You definitely can have a dog and a life but you'll need to find a balance.