I recently (three weeks ago) adopted a border collier (5 yrs old). My last dog was strickly an inside dog except to do her business (no one told her before she died that she wasn't human!). At any rate, I do have a good situation as I work from my home office and we do have 2 acres of fenced in yard. Scotty has really taken a liking to the bulldog Buster next door. Buster helps Scotty get his exercise as they run the fence line together.
In about a month, I will go going out of town and my son (that lives in a separate house on the property) will be taking care of Scotty. The problem is that my son is gone 14 hours a day. Scotty does sleep in his crate at night and when I leave the house for a couple of hours, I put him in the crate (also when I have clients over). However, it is my understanding that it wouldn't be good to leave him in the crate while my son is working and gone for 14 hours. He works too far to come home during lunchtime.
We have set up the covered back porch (screened) with a doggy door to go outside, however he would not be able to get back into the house because of the patio door. I am trying to slowly work with him everyday (today was the first) to learn to be outside for most of the day instead of my cool home. I put the water and food bowl on the porch, along with his toys and bed, and a fan that blows in the area of his bedding. I live in Central Florida so it gets really hot and humid here.
I guess my question is, with daily training outside (one hour one day, two hours the next day, and so on); will it be okay to leave him outside/on the porch for 14 hours and then bring him in to go in the crate at nighttime? I'm trying to save money and hoping it will work since he has plenty of yard, however if this is too much heat I would rather pay for the kennel when I'm gone. I look forward to reading your comments.
