How do I fit a puppy routine around a full time job?

A young puppy cannot comfortably hold its bladder or cope with isolation for a standard 8 or 9 hour working day, so arranging a reliable midday visit, even just 20 to 30 minutes, is one of the most important pieces to plan before bringing a puppy into a working household.

A consistent morning routine of toilet, breakfast and a short walk or play session before you leave, and a similar wind down in the evening, gives a puppy predictable bookends to an otherwise long day apart.

A stuffed food toy or a slow feeder left at the start of the day gives a puppy something absorbing to work through during the first stretch alone, which tends to ease the transition better than leaving with nothing to do the moment the door closes.

If a midday visit is not realistic for the first few months, look seriously at daycare a couple of days a week or a trusted dog walker, since the cost is often worth it for the difference it makes to house training progress and a puppy's general stress levels compared to a consistently long day alone.

Once a puppy is reliably managing full working days without distress, usually somewhere past 6 months for many dogs, the arrangement can often be scaled back, but treat that as something to confirm through your puppy's actual behavior rather than assuming a fixed age makes it automatically fine.