What do you do when you have to be gone all day?

There is shade in the backyard. This is my dad's side of the family and they are so stuck up! My mom's family has welcomed us with Olive several times already and everyone loves her. My aunt just does not allow dogs in her house and i'm sure she's completely disgusted that i even asked to bring my 4 month old puppy. That probably goes against some type of rule she has too!

She is willing to let the dog stay in her crate in the backyard, but my mom said she sounded annoyed and asked if she would bark and ruin the dinner. I wouldn't bring a dog that I couldn't control to a family gathering. After all of this i don't even want to go and i'm thinking about just leaving Olive home and only stopping in at my aunt's to say hi and then leave! Olive is fine for about 4 hours alone so that is doable.

We all just need to move to the same place and we'll be set! I ended up going and bringing Olive. I put her crate in the backyard and when i was inside she went in there. I was outside quite a bit though as were other people so she wasn't in the crate the whole time. Everyone loved her. Even my aunt! She ended up letting her in the house once it got dark. She felt bad for her outside. Cockapoos win everyone over!

I have no problem leaving her for up to 4 hours and do that at least 2 times a week, but it was a 45 minute drive each way so we wouldn't have been able to visit for long if I left her home.

It was kind of funny because they have a 13 year old black lab (yes they have a dog even thought my aunt didn't want my dog in the house!). Their dog is very well trained and friendly, but has very bad hips. Well Olive wanted to play so badly with Buddy, but he wanted none of her puppy business! He was so calm with her the whole time and then finally at night he just turned around and gave her a very deep growl. She instantly rolled to her back for him and did not bother him after that!