Leaving puppy home alone question

[BoatingLakeDiva]

I know the recommendation is to be ever present in the early days but most people seem to build to 4 hours as time goes on. I always took it to mean in one lump but when I look at our day it goes like this, there is the school run, - approx 30 mins, then on the days I go to gym i am back in for about hour then out again for 1 hr - 90 mins. There will be food shopping once a week - approx 90 mins, or a trip to town for something - possibly 2.5 hours, then a school run about 30 mins again. Obvs all of these would not occur every day but school run will and i would generally be out for 1 - 2 hours at one point most days. I can tweak this but do you think that sounds OK? I can take dog to town of course and school run some days. Surely dog owners do not stay chained to their homes all day every day. If I was out accumatively for 4 hours in any one day with the bulk of the time indoors would that work for a dog?

hello.......

Will we totally fine.

Don't know when you are getting puppy, but do bear in mind that some will take time to learn being left even for a minute is okay. I have had puppies that could be left from day one no problem and I have had puppies, who would injure themselves if left for a minute and so had to be built up very very carefully so it didn't become a problem.

Will we, will be.

Of course it would be!

You will have to adjust your life around the puppy quite a lot while she's very little, but as she gets more used to being alone - and has a little more control of her bladder it will become less and less necessary.

Puppies do need teaching that alone is OK, and the most reliable way to do it is bit by bit, starting with a second out of a room, then a few more and then a couple of minutes etc. Build it up over the first few weeks.

8/9 week old pups need to pee and poo every 30mins/hour or so, so leaving them alone for much longer than that will not help speed along house training.

But it's only for a few little weeks. Very little when compared to the length of time you'll have the dog in your family. It's much like having a newborn toddler at home for a little while.

The 4 hour advice bit is relevant to leaving a dog alone for 4 hours in one chunk - not little bits of time here and there over a day.

saying that though, i just returned to find 6 m.o. Puppy has removed (!!) the carpet on the stairs up to the stairgate and chewed to bit the underlay in the ONE HOUR I go on the schoolrun. Bog sigh. The benefits of the crate......

we already have the crate! shoutymcshout!

we have the crate too. For whatever reason though, our puppy got more anxious in the crate than being left out of it. He also only ever weed in his crate, never if we left him out of it!! RIP lovely carpet.

Just build the time up gradually - start with just a minute, and then work it up so that he's confident you're coming back. Lots of people advise leaving toys for them etc to keep them amused - ours just sits and waits until we're back. Crate training is meant to be great, but didn't work for us as our dog appears to be quite claustrophobic, and eventually found his own preferred place (halfway up the stairs!) I think this also meant that toilet training was very easy as he has always seen the whole house as his home, so he has only once peed in the house and that was when he was 8 weeks old.

That sounds fine apart from the part where you said you could take the dog into town. What if you needed to go in a shop?

We bought a playpen thing for dogs. It has more room to move around in than a crate. I leave her toys, water, bed and puppy pad in there. Also leave the radio on. I leave the door open if I am in and she can go in there for a rest. Probably would only work with a smallish dog. We have a cavapoo.