When puppy moves away from us they feel insecure and need time to get familiar with their surroundings. because everything is a new environment. like the people and any other animals which may be around. if we leave them alone at the beginning they can get stressed and panic. we need to be patient and get them familiar with being alone progressively.
Today we are going to see How to train a puppy to be alone at home. ideally, they should be accompanied for the first five to seven weeks after their arrival. after which we can gradually teach them to be alone.
how long can puppy be left alone
New puppy owners must be worried for leaving puppy alone at home. A puppy of less than four months of age shouldn't be left alone for more than two hours in total. when they are an adult they shouldn't be alone for more than six hours.
How to start?
We should start with gentle exercises for example when they are busy playing with a toy leave the room for a minute and then return.
This way they can learn that you will return even if they have been left alone for a moment. after getting them used to be alone for a minute the difficulty can be increased. At this point, we should leave the room when they are not distracted stay outside for two minutes, and then return to the room. the most important thing is you do it in a calm and relaxed way.
if the puppy cries when you're gone ignore them to reduce the length the next time you're away and praise him for being calm or the puppy manages to be alone for several minutes at a time you can start to leave the house.don't do it when they are sleeping, so they can know your behavior.it is best not to say goodbye to them so they can see it as a normal common practice.
first, go for a few minutes to take out the trash or check the mailbox. if the puppy tolerates these brief absences without problem we can increase the duration and vary the time.
How to keep calm your puppy in your absence?
Establish a routine take the puppy out every day at the same time before you go to work or leave the home. Encourage exercise to help tire them out physically and mentally. a puppy needs a minimum of 30 minutes for an exercise walk. this way they will relax when you return home and rest when home alone.
- Take into account feeding times, remember that your puppy should eat before you leave. but puppies often vomit their food.
- From the stress of being left alone feed them with enough time to spare. so their food can settle helping them to relax.
- Prepare a quiet place for them to create a safe space with toys. bedding food and water at hand it has to be somewhere safe where they cannot destroy anything.
- Don't lock them in a small room or tie them down as this can make them feel trapped. leave a dog tied up for hours. they will associate this feeling with being alone.
There's no way to do primary training when you're not actually at home with your dog .so when you are there you should focus on preventing bad habits from occurring and show your dogs how you want them to behave while on their own. especially in the beginning likely to chill out and go to sleep. so they're not likely to get into things that they shouldn't. if you do come home and your dog has destroyed something that probably means they're just not yet ready to be in that part of the house unsupervised.
so ask yourself if they're likely to be less destructive in another part of the house like your bedroom. but if you think there's a decent chance they might chew up your comforter or your mattress, then you should probably have them in a more controlled dog-proof setting at least for now.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that dogs are social creatures and they like to be near us and when we're out of sight this can cause some dogs to feel anxious and they may experience excessive barking or whining. so our goal is to minimize anxiety to the best of our ability and this can take time and effort.