Leaving Puppy Alone for the First Time: Advice Appreciated!

[FragileTitanium]

We've had our little puppy for two and a half weeks now. She's aroudn 10 weeks old. My puppy has been left alone in her crate for up to 1 hour during the children's bedtime but she can hear us in the house so she knows we're home. She's quite happy with that. Otherwise she's never been left alone - we take her everywhere with us.

DD now has her swimming lesson on a week day afternoon. So I would have to leave the puppy alone from around 2.45pm till around 5.30pm when we get home.

Does anyone have experience as to what's the best way to do this? I was thinking of leaving her in the backyard, with access to her crate, bed and water. I'm reluctant to crate her for this amount of time and Gwen Bailey of the Perfect Puppy book says not to crate a puppy and leave it alone for more than 2 hours.

Any advice from experienced dog owners would be greatly appreciated!

[sooperdooper]

Start to build up the amount of time you leave her, when's the lesson? Can you plan to leave her a little longer each day between now and then? Leave the tv or radio on as background noise, leave some toys, water

If you leave her outside, what if it rains? I think she'd be better inside personally, but in one room and make sure there's nothing she can hurt herself with

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

I wouldn't leave mine outside and he is 8 months now. I couldn't risk him getting out plus too many reports of dogs being stolen from gardens here.

I had to leave mine from our first full day as I had school run to do. I just popped him in his crate and went. He slept and was fine and it is now just his routine. In fact it is just gone and he is asleep on my feet right now!

I was only gone 30 or 40 minutes though. I would try leaving him before you go that long and build up.

[FragileTitanium]

Thanks! If we were to leave her outside, I was planning to put her crate under the outside dining table and cover it with a waterproof covering so the crate, bed, water etc would be dry.

The only reason I was thinking outside is that our puppy loves to play in the backyard whether we are outside or not. She will often go outside to run around by herself and because it's quite secure, she seems to feel safe. Given the choice of being outside or inside, she seems to prefer to be outside.

I thought she'd be less lonely and more occupied outside - she seems to get bored inside with toys quite quickly - no matter how many I give her.

[FragileTitanium]

Thanks Fan. Maybe I will try and leave her in her crate inside. And build it up bit by bit over the next week. My heart breaks to think she will be lonely and crying.....

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

If she is used to being left for short periods then she should be secure enough in her knowledge that you will return not to react like that.

I 'd try and work a routine where you have a good play and she has a general rest time at that time of day.

I am always secure in the knowledge I can safely leave mine fir a couple of hours in a morning because I know he doesn"t budge, even if I'm home.

[FragileTitanium]

Fan - you are very kind to take the time to give your advice. I'm sure you can tell this is all new to me, so it is very much appreciated.

[NewlywedUpTheDuff]

What happens when you are in bed? Does she sleep alone? If so I would say that she is used to being alone and a swimming lesson won't hurt. You have to think about the rest of her life too, the sooner you start leaving her alone the easier she will adjust too as I imagine there will be plenty of times you have to leave her alone in the future. Dont worry she will be fine

[FragileTitanium]

Thanks for that! It's great to get some reassurance.

She sleeps in her crate in our room at night though hopefully, in a few months time, we will move her to the kitchen. It's a major pain to carry such a huge crate up the stairs every night!

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

I was and still am exactly the same...I have just moved on from new puppy to teenage 'whatever! Don't care what you say, I'm off over here to jump all over that lady in cream trousers who thinks dogs smell!' stage now. I think if we keep the experience sharing chain moving then we can all stay sane. It is like having a pfb again