Of course the question arises: «How long can I leave a puppy alone when I go to work?»
Where do the difficulties with being left alone in adult dogs come from? Obviously, from her puppy days.
We explain how dogs tick. In this article related to the topic, how long you can leave your puppy alone when you have to go to work.
This article contains 4 valuable tips for you how you can approach this topic with your puppy in a relaxed manner.
In a nutshell: Can I leave my puppy alone when I’m working?
No, you cannot leave your pup alone when you go to work! We are talking about a puppy younger than 18 weeks. Only from this age is it a young dog with whom you can slowly practice staying alone.
You can leave a young dog alone for less than 5 minutes at the beginning. Adult dogs should not be left alone for more than 4 hours.
Leaving puppies alone: from when and for how long?
You should never leave a puppy alone until it is 18-20 weeks old.
In the early days after he’s been separated from his siblings and his mom, he’s allowed to stick at your heels for a bit.
In order for your dog to learn to stay alone, this behavior should slowly stop by the 4th month of life.
Interesting:
The question cannot be answered in one sentence because you can’t just leave your dog alone, whether it’s a puppy, young dog or adult, if it hasn’t learned how to do it beforehand. This would overwhelm your dog, produce or intensify separation anxiety and leave you with a constant problem with your dog. So please be careful!
does your pup have this young dog stage reached, you can start without leaving the room. From “so and so long you can leave your puppy alone” so it’s not really the issue here.
Where to put the puppy at work?
Anyone who brings a puppy into the house should give enough thought to whether a baby dog fits into their life at the right time.
The first 2-3 months after the puppy moves in, it may not be used to being alone. After that, the training can be started slowly.
So if you work full-time away from home, your only option is that your puppy to the office may. If you work in gastronomy, as a nurse, teacher, laboratory technician, firefighter or … that will not be possible.
“Where to put the puppy at work?” is still a valid question.
Here are a few suggestions, suggested solutions and a request to you:
- During your research, you may find that an older dog is a better choice for you
- You can share puppy sitting with your partner
- You work in the home office
- You can reliably take your puppy to work with you
- Your grandma or mum and dad live right next door and more than agree!
Please only adopt a dog if you know it will be well cared for at all times. A helpful neighbor moved quickly and the girlfriend around the corner turns out to be not so reliable after all. Make yourself aware that it is a living being that lives at your side for at least 12 – 15 years!
4 tips: How to teach your puppy to stay alone
With these 4 tips you can teach your puppy or young dog to stay alone!
1. Leave the room without your four-legged shadow
Does that sound exciting? Please don’t let that show. It’s actually not that exciting, but she has relationship between you and your dog now reached a new level.
You have one for weeks binding built to each other. Your puppy orients itself to you, you are its reference person. And then it should suddenly be over? Yes, life is hard. But we can make sure that it doesn’t get that bad for everyone involved.
What’s cool: you both win a piece independence. It is therefore so important in small steps to proceed so that your Puppy not overwhelmed and the new situation is negatively linked.
So while the little dog is chewing on his toy, you just walk around the corner from the living room into the hallway, slowly turn on your heel and come back. Easy? Easy.
2. Repetition makes solitude masters
Without leaving your pup in the room, you can practice multiple times a day and over and over for a few days.
At best, your puppy won’t even care if you leave.
through the repetitions he understands that you always come back and that it is therefore not a problem if you disappear for a moment.
3. Slow increase – long-lasting rest
If that works well, you can briefly out the front door leave, close it behind you and come right back in.
It is important that you simply ignore your puppy. You don’t say a big goodbye to him, nor do you pay attention to him when you come back!
This may sound strange at first, but it has a major impact on your young dog’s behavior. A joyful greeting is still possible in later life!
You take out the trash without your pup. You go to the mailbox without your puppy. You walk around the house or wait 4 minutes in front of the door…
Increase to 5, 8, 10, 15 minutes. You will see how quickly you will regular training and one trusting bond reached 30 minutes!
4. Be happy about small successes!
The beginning is always the hardest. Once you open it alone for half an hour once you’ve done it, you’ve already done quite a bit.
Please just keep going!
Important to know:
Training to teach your puppy to be alone takes place over a long period of time. It can easily take 1 to 1.5 years before you can reliably and relaxed leave your puppy alone at home for 3 to 4 hours!
Puppy can’t stay alone? you can do that
Perhaps you adopted a puppy that had a rough start in life. Maybe he was separated from his siblings too early or a previous owner screwed up leaving him alone.
let me tell you: Nothing is lost here! It’ll probably take a little longer, require more finesse, and may never last more than two hours without shredding some item, but Dogs can learn new things at any age!
Just start training just as relaxed as you would with a little puppy. If you need one, you can get one experienced dog trainer to the side. Sometimes it’s easier to pick up tips when a real person is in front of you.
Conclusion: Can I leave my puppy alone during working hours?
No, you cannot leave your puppy alone until it is 18 weeks old! Not for shopping, not for a doctor’s visit, to pick up the kids or to take the garbage down three floors!
From about the 4th month of life you can slowly start training. Your young dog must first learn to be alone. It’s important that you do this carefully. What is once ruined cannot be straightened out so easily.
Please consider carefully whether a puppy fits into your life. The time required is again different than with an adult dog. It is irresponsible to leave a dog alone all day in a full-time job away from home. This applies to all age groups.
Thank you for reading and we think it’s great that you’ve informed yourself extensively.
If you have any questions about “Leaving puppies alone because of work?”, please write us a comment under this article!