Whats best suggestion to have dog be more indepandant when left home alone for 8hrs?
 

I work alot of hours, I am soo afraid of leaving my boy by himself..he is only 8months old now and he is soo attached he whines all the time...Now I am afraid of leaving home since I just moved in a new place from having parents being around. I take him everywhere but hwo do you guys handle a dog that is that young to be more indepandant? When he gets older I take it he will be fine left home alone? I just hate to leave him and see his sad face also bark all day.

this is the million dollar question. plz pm me when you get the answer :confused:

i work all day long tooo and i leave lexi home for 10 hours sometimes if my mom cant stop by... just make sure you leave toys, bully sticks, water, food,
and a place to sleep and your baby will be just fine... just give all the love you have when you get home. oh and a wee pad...

Dogs are great at adapting. When I had only 1 dog and I started to leave her home alone she looked so sad but after awhile she understand that is how it was going to be and adapted to it. Most of the time she sleeps but it's always nice to leave her toys, chews and other things like what Lexi Rae suggested when they are not asleep.

I also work long hours.
 

This is what i do.
Winston is 11 weeks old today. I have done allot of reading and the books i have read say to crate train our wee babies. It is a slow process with some dogs but i was blessed that Winston has adjusted very well. You start out putting the wee guy in his crate while you stay in the room. Start with 5 mins. Then when he has settled himself etc. you take him out and prasie him. Continue this increasing the time. Then you do the same thing, now leaving the room. This teaches our wee babies to settle themselves and amuze themselves. He will feel safe in his crate, and will play.
My wee guy will stay in his crate for 8 hours. No accidents, no crying or whinning. When my husband gets home (he works 8 hours i work 12 hours) Winston makes not a sound. We have to go in and see him in his room. Winston decides to come out give kisses, play with us and so on. Winston also goes to his crate when he wants to sleep. We have a nice bed for him, and a wonderful blanket for him in the house. But HE always go to his crate. From what i have read this is their den. They feel safe there and others know this is his private time, to rest or play alone. I hope this has helped some.
I am a new puppy owner, i have had cats in the past, so i had to read and reasearch llot.
Wishing you and great day.
Heather

I think they get upset because they dont' know you are coming back. Once you get him into a routine that yes you will be gone for a little bit, but you will be back he'll be fine. Logan knows our routine to a tee and has adjusted very well. He has a special toy in his playpen, and he gets a dental chew when we put him in there in the morning. He has a peepad, comfy bed and chew bones and we also leave the t.v. on for him. It doesn't seem to bother him at all. Some mornings he's not quit ready to be put in, but he doesn't make too big a fuss.

when I leave
 

When I have to leave, is the only time I give a treat and it's a favorite treat and the only time she gets a treat
all day so she looks forward to me leaving and then no treat when I come in. I am at the point in my life where
I only have to be gone a couple hrs. It would be great if you could get someone to come in the middle of the day.

Mine is 8 months as well and I leave her alone for 8 hours a day. I started out slowly; crating her and coming home at lunch. Then I let her out of the crate but gated off an area so she could walk around (she was crate trained and potty trained in no time!). Then I came home an hour later for lunch... until she was alone all day.

I always take her out for a nice walk in the morning, so she's gotten some exercise. And when I leave, I give her a kong with her favorite treat. Most of the time she's so busy getting the treat out of the toy that she doesn't even notice I'm gone. I also leave little pieces of treats all over the area she's in (kind of hide them)... and I leave a radio on.

Every day when I come home, she's sooooooooo excited to see me. The first thing I do is give her a cuddle and take her straight out the door for a walk.

Felix barks like crazy when I leave all the time, I feel bad but I guess he will have to just get use to it. I work sometimes 10hrs day I guess I have to leave him some great toys to play with and hope he will eventually stop barking. Thats a good idea to give them treats before you go so they will look forward to it kinda, I guess I am hoping when he gets older he will stop being more depandant and stop following me through everyroom as if I am going anywhere.

That when the second Yorkie comes in. to keep him company. lol

Home Alone Doggy
 

I've had a problem that when i leave my 7 month old for too long she pees on my bed as soon as i get home. I don't think I leave her alone that much... I leave at 9 in the morning, come back at 1:30 to feed her and play with her and then go back to work at 2:30. Most times I'm home by 6. And then I'm usually home. (Mm social life has been SERIOUSLY curtailed!)
Yesterday I had her in daycare all day, picked her up at 7, took her home, played with her and fed her and then went out again to a lecture. When I got home and turned around for a second she peed on my bed. I thought the daycare would tucker her out! (She goes to daycare once or twice a week.)
She started paying on the bed when she was about 5 months old and I went away for a week and a half. My brother stayed with her in my place and when I came back she started peeing on the bed when i was gone or, just after I got home. She stopped this after a bit but now she's doing it again. Any advice would be appreciated! :-)

Toys that make her think...
Kong with frozen peanut butter.
buster cube to roll around and drops breakfast on the floor.
A long walk 20 minutes before leaving and then quiet till you leave.
a Dog walker to coming during the day.
A radio playing in the back ground.
Do not when you leave or come home interact with the little one or go poor baby for 20 minutes after you get home or leave.
Make it as boring and everyday as you can.

Good section on separation anxiety in the book Outwitting dogs by Terry Ryan.

joy

I don't know but leaving a puppy in the crate for eight hours everyday seems like a really long time to me. I would rather suggest having the crate in a playpen, he can still sleep in the crate, but walk around and play in the pen. Just my two cents.

this i really great advice! Thanks for sharing.

thats what we did got a second one because I cried everytime we had to leave Chloe.

Yes! Getting two :aimeeyork :aimeeyork is a good idea and a GREAT excuse to get another one!! :D

One other thing that can help your little yorkies with the separation is to leave behind a piece of clothing that smells like you. That way, he can go to it when he misses you while you are gone. It helps with destructive behaviors and helps him to get used to you being gone. I work about 9 hours a day and this trick has helped a lot when we first got our little Teddy. Now, we don't even need to put anything behind since he knows we will be coming back at the end of the day. Hope this helps!

i leave maisy for 8 hrs. on week days but she has her crate in my bathroom with a gate up because the floor is tiled its easy to clean if she makes a mess & she has a pee pad in there + a ton of toys that she only gets to play with when shes in the bathroom & blankets & a water bowl. she barks alot but shes always asleep when i come home and her toys are moved around and stuff so i think she plays.

I used to work longer hours than I do now.

It helps that I have two dogs. This keeps them from being home alone. One is free to roam in the house and the puppy is confined to the kitchen. But, they still know the other one is there.

I always leave the radio on for them.

In the winter when it gets dark early, I always leave a light on for them.

While my dogs are puppies, I have two neighbors who feel sorry for them, and often stop by to play with them. They even take the puppy home to their house occasionally.

But - the main thing is that my dogs have no choice. Staying at home while I work is just the way it is. And, all my dogs have adapted to this.


Carol Jean

The person who said that about the dogs not knowing we're coming back until they become accustomed to a routine, really rang a bell with me. We've almost always had dogs and they've always become accustomed to our working hours. But now I work from home and I'm home most of the time. When I do go out, it's at odd times and odd durations for shopping or taking my parents to doctors. Some of those trips are lengthy because all the specialists are almost 2 hrs away. Maybe that's why Susan is having such a hard time. She gets nervous every morning. Even my husband works odd hours and odd days. She never knows who's leaving and who's staying and whether or not she's going to get to go or how long people are going to be gone. Poor little gal. It's been even worse lately because even though the weather here has been mild most days, I won't take her anywhere because I don't want to leave her alone in the car even for a few minutes. It's right before Christmas and some thief might think she'd make a great Christmas present. We had a dog stolen from our car when I was a child. It was awful!

We leave Madison alone for about 5 hours 4x/week. She is crate trained and we leave her in there with her bed, water, some toys and chews. I have thought about setting up a fenced play area for her when we are gone, but havent gotten around to it. Do any of you do that? Any suggestions on that matter?
It's really sad because when we put on our coats and shoes she walks over to her crate and just lays there with her head down...so sad :(
We feel really bad leaving her, but I think they just get used to it! Plus we make an effort to give her lots of attention when we get home.

When I have to leave Joey (6 month old) for a couple of hours, he stays in the laundry room which is actually pretty good sized. His crate & bed are in there with the door open so he can go in and sleep if he wants to. He has lots of toys & bones to occupy him. And, he gets a treat for going "to jail". That's my prompt for going to the laundry room- "go to jail!". :p He goes willingly so that he can get his treat!

When he gets older and I'm sure he won't chew destructively while I'm gone, he'll get the kitchen and the laundry room when I'm away. So far, his chewing hasn't been a problem, but knowing that it might get worse before it gets better, I don't want to give him extra space that I may have to take away later. ;)