Am about to leave my pup for an hour (max)

[SmileAndNod]

We've just had lunch, a wee, a play going to give him another garden trip and leave him with this and treats scattered in his crate (with paper one end in case of accident)
Am I doing this right? He's not been left since we brought him home on Friday (except for at night in his crate)

I feel so guilty

Yes, you're doing it fine except for the guilt. No dramatic farewells, just go, and when you come back, just open the crate in a low key way, no emotional reunions, pop his lead on and out for a pee.

Low key exit and return and stop feeling guilty. My dogs are left with a stuffed Kong if we are going out for a few hours which keeps them occupied and takes away any negative associations of us leaving.

Stop feeling guilty. In modern day life they have to be left occasionally. Mine have been left from the word go for an hour or two, so I could do the school run.

Keep it low key.
Don't feel guilty!

Well I think it went ok. I couldn't hear him howling when I returned and he seemed very calm when I let him out of his crate. Just said hello then took him out for a wee. I did leave the radio on for him. The guilt though. It really is worse than having a baby isn't it?!

So far he's been out on a couple of short trips in the car to get used to it, up to outside school gates to see people and traffic and out to the pet shop today to buy some different food.

Obviously I'm carrying him everywhere but he's shaking like a leaf despite my reassurance. As soon as we're home he's fine. Am I doing that wrong? I'm trying to give him as many experiences of meeting people and things as I can but worried I may be doing it wrong?

The "tours" sound good, it's important to see a lot. He sounds very timid. Is he wanting to hide in your arms as well as trembling? ie it's not excitement? What sort of dog is he?

It's probably not necessary to reassure endlessly. People say you cannot reinforce fear but I believe you can certainly convince an animal that yes, perhaps they should be afraid if the owner is making such a big deal of this - do you know what I mean?

One great thing about a dog who is inclined to be slightly shy, is that they tend to remain "polite". They won't rush rambunctiously up to a pram and joyously slurp the face off a baby, or jump up on strangers with their muddy paws.

Re vaccinations and disease exposure, your puppy shouldn't be on the street, on the floor at the vet's, on a busy beach or in the park, but there are places where he can and should be put on the ground. Do you have a friend who has a friendly but not pushy vaccinated dog? A mellow cat? Chickens? A child or two (who would be well schooled in gentle interaction)?

He isn't trying to crawl inside my arms, he likes having a good nose around. I just generally chat to him - there's a car, this is a tree, look at the children on the scooter etc. People must think I'm mad!

So I can take him to meet a friendly vaccinated dog? He was very good with everyone he met today

We left our pup for short periods right from the start and never made a big deal of leaving or coming back. He's always been happy to be left and usually just has a snooze

And yes, definitely find a nice, friendly vaccinated dog - not too big or galumphing - my dog's often asked to 'babysit' new puppies as he's very calm and gentle but still playful

Somewhere (it may be on the Kennel Club website) there is a list of everything you need to expose your puppy to in the socialisation period - i.e. man with hat, woman with umbrella, man with beard, 5 new dogs a day once vacinated, children, cars, bikes, buses etc. Enjoy - sounds a sweet pup! (obviously we'd be better able to advise if you were to post a picture ).

Here he is...

He's lovely.
Counsel of perfection, but in a way, chatting a lot to your dog makes your voice into wallpaper. Especially if you use their name. One reason to give a dog a nickname.
For any dog, but especially for a beagle, recall is phenomenally important and this is the time to start working on it.
There are some great books - Bonding With Your Dog by Victoria Schade, The Other End Of The Leash by Patricia McConnell, The Pet Gundog (even though he isn't) by Lez Graham, Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson, Clicker Training for dogs by Karen Pryor. It's good fun. Definitely worth researching how to go about teaching your dog.

Beautiful!