I totally get why your vet's advice would sound bad to you (I don't think it was put very well), but a little bit of independence in a dog is definitely a good thing. Also, Bella will feed off of your energy. So if you're upset about walking away from her, she's more likely to be upset about it too.
With Cody, we got him a wire exercise pen and put him in there for stretches of time in the evenings. He could run around, lay down, play or whatever in there and could still see us. But he had to entertain himself for a while. And honestly, it didn't hurt him (or us!) one bit. Of course we still played with him lots... just not every waking second. We don't really use the pen at all anymore, but he's perfectly happy to lay down in the living room and chew on a bone or play by himself if we're busy doing something else now.
There are lots of things we have to get our dogs used to that they don't necessarily like at first. Like having their paws and mouths handled or wearing a harness. And at first your pup may whine and pitch a fit, but you need to persist until she gets used to it. Each of these little ones has a different personality too, so what may have been okay for your other dog might not work out right with this one. |