What age did you leave your puppy?

[carrottopper]

We get a puppy tomorrow. He will be 14 weeks old.
I am home 3 days a week, hubby is taking him in the van 2 days a week and we are home over the weekend. What age is it ok to leave him for an hour or two? I am due to have a small op in a couple of weeks. Hubby will be at work so I will get a taxi and only be gone an hour or so. Will that be ok? I do want to start to build up to leaving him every now and again but not more than a couple of hours

Well, you can start straight away....with 10 minutes or so, and build up to it over the weeks and months, but, all dogs are different, and some will suffer from separation anxiety despite your best efforts.
Have you thought about the comfort of your puppy in a van? A lot of puppies get very car sick, it will need weeing/pooing every half hour or so as well, but until it's fully vaccinated it can't be put down on the ground where it might catch something (puppies are usually restricted to their own property until fully vaccinated).

Yes having the puppy in the van now might be quite hard, they do sleep a lot but will need to wee and poo quite regularly, eat 4 times a day, water, and playing.

But build up gradually to leaving alone. You could try crate training, (look at dog training advice and support group on Facebook, you don’t just chuck them in the crate). But most puppies if you tire them out will be fine for a couple of hours.

I don't want to spoil your plans but taking a very young puppy to work with you is not going to be easy.

DH had to take ours to work in his van when the puppy was around 14-15 weeks for a while as we had a gap between us going back to work and him starting daycare. It was really really hard and he eventually had to leave him with the office secretary as he wasn't getting any work done whatsoever lol.

It's fine for older dogs who are settled, will sleep most of the day and can hold their toileting, though.

Just be prepared that it may not be as smooth and simple as you imagine. DH really struggled and it was quite stressful for him and that was only for a week!

We left our puppy from day 1. As soon as he got sleepy he went in his pen and we shut him in the kitchen. We built it up from there.

I agree that asking the pup in the van may be tricky. What does your DH do?

Taking a young pup out in a van for two days a week is a recipe for disaster. Whatever made you think that would be ok? Does the breeder know this is the plan?

Turns out it is working well so far. Still early days. He's going out for a couple of walks and sleeps a lot. He's a really settled dog

My dog would have been ok with this too. As long as not left alone actually in the van.

Glad it's working out