# Preparing a puppy to stay home alone



## Basil_the_Spoo (Sep 1, 2020)

Start now with short trips to the coffee shop or to the gym. You need to life stuff to do without your Velcro side kick.

Do you have a pet store close by? 

2 summers ago when Basil was that age, I would tell her, "your anxiety is not coming between me and a pint of ice cream". So, I just left for 5-15 minutes at a time. We have a pet store 30 yards away, so I would get a treat for me and a treat for her. Dad leaving soon became a good thing.

You might be surprised (or not) what they do when your gone. Basil just sleeps and 99% of the time and I come home to this "oh, your back so soon?" Look on her face. 

Part of the process is the human's anxiety too lol. Tell yourself it's going to be okay and just leave. I remember Basil was a little clingy too, but nothing it wasn't going to stop me from getting us both a treat and/or her a new toy.


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

At 4 months, your puppy can get into a lot of trouble if left alone in most people's living rooms -chewing electrical cords, paper products, wood legs on furniture, knocking down lamps, shredding pillows and cushions and peeing on carpets etc. How will you protect your puppy from items in the space, and how will you protect your space from the puppy?

I would not leave a 4 month old dog to have free rein of that kind of space. Crate or pen are ideal because you can puppy proof this small space. My older, well behaved minipoo was crated until she was 1.5 years old and I intend to crate my puppy until that age as well. By 1.5 years if they haven't developed a bad habit of destroying furniture or other items in the house, you know you can leave them safely. If you don't plan to crate, perhaps you can puppy proof a bathroom or other small space. If you want to use a crate - Susan Garrett's crate games is a good method to get a puppy used to and happy to go into a crate. I would train the crate first and use it often so your dog learns that going into a crate is routine and that they get to come back out again.

Start where your dog is .... can you go to the bathroom with the door shut? Can you go to work in another room for a short period of time? Put your dog in the puppy proof safe spot, and build up time away from your dog while inside your home. When your dog is calm with you being elsewhere inside for a while - desensitize to you being outside. Do not make any fuss about going outside - no need to say anything, just leave quietly for a few minutes, then return - without any fanfare. Continue to go outside extending the time away. The first few times you can just wait behind the closed front door, then go around your yard, next drive your car around the block and back. Finally short trips out to run errands. Train going out different doors - front door, garage door, back door - randomly.

If your dog is upset, go very slow or step back a few steps in the progression. You can train several short sessions a day in the beginning.


----------



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Freddy has only been home a few days but we are already both in love with the pen I have set up in one corner of my sitting room. It has a plastic floor, comfy bed, puppy pad, water bowl, a safe chew toy or two and that is where he is fed. Most of the time I leave the side open so he can come and go (he is too tiny for the high-set door), closing it when he is eating so the other animals don't steal his food, or if he is snoozing and I need to get on with things. Already he is choosing to go in there when he is sleepy, and after watching me in and out of the room just falls asleep.

I would try something similar, using the training techniques in Crate Games. Think of it as setting up your pup's own special bedroom - his space where he can be undisturbed. If he is still sleeping a lot the kong only really needs to occupy him for the few minutes until he falls asleep, and when he wakes up expecting you back.


----------



## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Are you planning to leave him alone all day, or just for a half day?
I agree he needs to be kept contained, so he doesn't chew things he shouldn't. My pup Ritter outgrew the crate I was using, and I couldn't fit the larger one into the space. I started confining him to the kitchen using baby gates instead.
I would start by establishing a routine. Wake him up in the morning, take him for a walk, and make him work his brain with training. This should make him tired. Then bring him inside, put him in his enclosure, and feed him breakfast. Turn on your computer, perhaps turn on the radio, and ignore him for the next two hours. He should fall asleep, because he is tired and you are boring. Repeat the routine every morning. He will get into the habit of taking a nap instead of expecting attention. Then you can start taking brief excursions outside, followed by longer excursions to go away from the house. Don't make a big deal about returning. Just sit down with your computer and be boring. Gradually work up to longer times away from the house. The idea is that his routine stays the same, napping in his enclosure for the same amount of time, while you spend more time away. You build his confidence by always returning before he expects the nap to end.


----------



## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

an unoccupied puppy can do a lot of damage in an open room, I put my little toy in the bathroom with a baby gate my toy Beatrice chewed up 9 linoleum tiles, chewed two Bea sized holes in the wall... so a pen is much better go one for the rest of my pups when they came home.


----------



## I_love_dogs (May 30, 2021)

Tomorrow I will be leaving my almost 6 month old spoo home with out other dog for an afternoon. To prepare for this, I have been making trips without him. I started with going to get the mail, then short walks, then leaving him while I picked up kids from school. Since we got him, he has been riding in the car almost every day doing really boring things like sit in drive thru at the pharmacy, sit is the carryout space at Chick-fil-A, sit in car line. Going with me in the car is most likely to be boring so getting to stay home is more fun. 
We have a gate to protect the computers. And I will dump out the toy boxes.


----------



## curlflooffan (Mar 27, 2020)

Just FYI in the nordics its not usual to leave dogs in crates for hours at a time. In fact in Sweden its illegal, I dont know the law in Norway though.


----------



## north_putt (Dec 27, 2020)

Thanks for the replies! We plan on keeping him home when we're at work, I will come home during lunch for a walk. I had a standard when I grow up, and he was at home without problems. Our 6 months now sleeps all day, and we only do a walk around lunch before he go to sleep on the floor by himself again. He is really calm at home in the daytime as long as someone is around.



curlflooffan said:


> Just FYI in the nordics its not usual to leave dogs in crates for hours at a time. In fact in Sweden its illegal, I dont know the law in Norway though.


It's legal here, but we still don't. We recently bought a crate, but we haven't shut the door yet. We have a create in the car, and he started to bark and whine in the beginning even if we're in the car. He then stopped barking unless we entered a tunnel. He soon stopped barking altogether when we're in the car, so he's all good now .. unless he know we are in the car.
The soon I leave the car and he can't see me any more, he will bark. It will continue until I come back. It will start with loud barking, then soon it will be less noisy and have a few seconds of silent periods in between but he still keeps on barking. Everyone says it will stop eventually, and he will learn that we will come back. After months of this, he will always bark. So now it seems like an habit, and I don't know how to stop it. How can I make a habit of not barking when I'm not there if I cannot be there to calm/stop the barking?

It's the same with the door. If I go outside, he will start barking. I have tried opening/shuting the door, step outside and entering within seconds, and he will stand beside the door wagging his tail. If I wait longer he will bark. I guess I have to continue this entering and leaving as people suggested? Should I give him threat when I enter if he's not barking? Should I make him lay down before entering? What if he got up by the time I got inside again? I'm not sure what I have to reinforcement with treats.
He will nap when someone is at home, and he will lay down and sleep all day. But the moment we open the door he will come.

He is alone at home when I'm in the bathrom or something, so he can be alone if he knows someone is in the house somewhere. Same as the car.


----------



## curlflooffan (Mar 27, 2020)

@north_putt yeah I don't use the crate inside either. My Evra did whine a bit in the crate in the car but she stopped. It actually happened recently that the door to the crate popped out while we were driving. I think Evra pushed her butt up against it when she was turning to make herself more comfortable. We couldn't reach it to fix it but it didn't matter, she stayed in there with the door open for the entire drive. But I don't know why my dog got used to the car crate and yours didn't. 

it might be a good idea to get a trainer? you can get general advice on the internet or from books but I find that it can be extremely helpful to have someone watch me and my dog, see how we are interacting and what is happening when the undesired behaviour happens. A trainer can give you not only the good advice on what to do but also that impartial outside view on the situation. I would definitely do it sooner than later. No matter the behaviour the more often the dog repeats it the harder it becomes to train it out. 

I am wondering though about how to find a good trainer in Norway, whether there is an organisation or something to look for, because a dog trainer is not a protected term, anyone can call themselves that. So there are a lot of bad ones out there too. We had a really bad one for our puppy years ago, it was when I was still a child and we had a border collie x labrador mix that we were struggling with. Just made things worse.


----------



## north_putt (Dec 27, 2020)

thanks for your reply, @curlflooffan !
Do you mean the barking in the car suddenly stopped when you leave the car? How long did that take?
Several people suggest just leaving to get mail or stop by the gas station, but even so it haven't worked out here yet. I recently started filming with the gopro to see what would happen in the car, and he sat up, barked, sometimes layed down, barked a little, got up, barked .. and continued for 30-40 min (I just had to try for a longer while just too see if I just gave up, he didn't).
Same at home. He will stand by the door barking (wagging his tail), even getting up on two and scratch on the door sometimes. Not even sitting down.

You mean getting a trainer to go home to us, or going to them and try staying alone there? I'm not sure where I can find a trainer where I am. I'm a bit far from a big city, but we did go to a excelent place in the beginning for puppy class (only positive reinforcement) . So maybe I should check if they can help. We need to visit them though, not the other way around.

It is a little bit hard to teach him to stay home by leaving and coming every other second, because he will usually accept me leaving as long as there is other people at home. So by doing that it means everyone have to leave for me to do that kind of training, but maybe that is what we have to do. It's the only thing I haven't tried (except contacting a trainer) for over a longer period. A few seconds works, but everyone are saying it will take a long time to extend that time, even to minutes? I'm still wondering how to work the reats when doing it


----------



## curlflooffan (Mar 27, 2020)

north_putt said:


> thanks for your reply, @curlflooffan !
> Do you mean the barking in the car suddenly stopped when you leave the car? How long did that take?
> Several people suggest just leaving to get mail or stop by the gas station, but even so it haven't worked out here yet. I recently started filming with the gopro to see what would happen in the car, and he sat up, barked, sometimes layed down, barked a little, got up, barked .. and continued for 30-40 min (I just had to try for a longer while just too see if I just gave up, he didn't).
> Same at home. He will stand by the door barking (wagging his tail), even getting up on two and scratch on the door sometimes. Not even sitting down.
> ...


We don't really leave her in the car that much, only once actually where we could see her, because she is small and there have been reports of dog thefts in belgium. She would whine whenever we were stationary, so like in the beginning before we started the car and then if we stopped. 

I would try to see if you can get a trainer to go to your house and observe the behaviour and give you advice. It could possibly work also if you are very remote, to record the behaviour, at home and in the car, and sent it to a trainer and get some advice like that. But yeah I think its time to change tactics. Its clear that the 'getting him used to it' strategy isn't working. He needs to break this anxiety mindset that he goes in when he is left alone.


----------



## 94Magna_Tom (Feb 23, 2021)

Maybe your veterinarian can refer you to a local trainer. Mine did.


----------

