Puppy- learning alone time

[Elli123]

I have a five month old cocker spaniel. So far she has never been left alone, partly due to wfh. I am conscious that this isn’t sustainable and not great for her. At the moment, she sleeps in her crate at night (in my room) but mainly naps on the couch during the day. She literally follows me everywhere (can be asleep but will follow as soon as I move).
I am planning to try to get her used to alone time but wondering if a crate in the living area or a quieter place is best or whether a slightly larger blocked area would be better? (Not easy as very open plan house and she’s already sussed how to get through play pen barrier I had at the beginning). I fear I’m too late and this is going to be torture 🤨 but it isn’t healthy to spend every second with me.
any advice greatly appreciated.

Just another one to say not too late at all. My pup (also a spaniel) was a total Velcro dog so he was with one of us 24/7 until 6 months. We did a lot of flitting games after that which helped but I think he just needed to mature and gain confidence. From about 8 months he suddenly got so much more comfortable with it and now at 14 months I can easily leave him 3 hours and he’s totally fine. If I’m in the house he does like to always be in touching distance though so that’s not changed!!!

I've always just started leaving my puppies in short burst from being 12wks old, I genuinely rarely go out apart from food shopping, hairdressers the odd lunch out. I work from home and have no kids but don't want to worry about the dog freaking out if I do need to go out.

I've currently got a 6 month old puppy, I made sure she was comfortable with her crate first then gradually started leaving her in it while I took a bath or went out onto the garden that way I could hear how she was doing. Once all that was fine I started going out to the shop while my OH was working upstairs. The puppy wouldn't know he was in and he could hear how she got on while I was out. I'd take her for a little walk first and settle her in the crate with a treat. She was always fine. When we both had to nip out I checked on her with a camera.

I've been out into town for over 2 hours today while OH WFH upstairs and she slept the whole time. She is a CKCS so a Velcro breed but I think because I made sure she was comfortable with her safe space and took things slowly she's totally ok with being left now.

It's funny because in general she will never choose to sleep in her crate (preferring to sleep on me) but as soon as I pick up her little pot of treats that's been used solely for "crate treats" she will stop whatever she's doing even if she's playing with her favourite toy/chew and will run straight into her crate and wait for her treat without me even saying a word to her. 🥰

Oh and I always leave the tv on for her when she's alone in the crate, usually on the animal channels.

Dogs know when someone is in the house though as they can smell it. My last dog used to be walked by OH before work. I’d then get up later to go to work (I did the lunch time walks). When he’d gone she’d come back upstairs and sniff under the bedroom door just to check. Then wait for me on the landing before taking herself downstairs while I showered.

Yeah but she's been left totally on her own a couple of times with nobody in the house for an 1hr-30 to 2hrs with me frequently checking the camera and shes been asleep the whole time.

We didn’t leave our spaniel for one reason or another until nearly a year and a half to be honest it worked better
we could give him a really long run so he slept when we were out and until he was over a year he still needed to pee quite frequently so we found it easier to wait but they are all different
we noticed he stopped following us when we left the room too but that wasn’t until he was older even tho we did flitting games etc when he was younger he’d still follow

Just keen to make sure you don’t feel the need to suddenly rush into leaving them (not saying you would do that)