Hi. This is my first time posting here, so I am sorry if I am doing this wrong.
A month ago, my girlfriend and I adopted a male Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. He is now four months old, and everything is kinda doing great except alone time. **Note: I am not currently working, so I am always home with him.**
He sleeps in a crate in our bedroom, and we have a playpen now, in which we provide toys (on rotation so he doesn't always play with the same ones). We feed him in there, we make treasure hunts with hidden food, and play with him inside, so that he can associate it with fun time. Since we just can't be with him at all times, he must learn to play alone. I also have a few Kongs in which I place a combination of solid and wet food that I freeze, but he eats it all in 5-8 minutes and loses interest when there's only morsels left inside. We also know his peepee-poopoo schedule, so we're sure when he's empty or needs to go.
Here is my problem: every single time I place him in his pen when I cannot watch him, whether it is before or after exercising, playing or taking a nap, or whether if I leave some Kongs or the TV on to distract him, he just stands there and waits for me to do something. I have learned to ignore him, but if I do he just yaps until he goes on his bed to sleep, but I want him to play alone, not rest. Poor thing seems to be bored unless my girlfriend or I do something with him directly, and I feel extremely bad.
I cannot even go take a thirty minutes toilet break + shower combo because I hear him crying constantly until I come back, where he stares at me. I have places to go, and I don't go far away or leave for too long, but I just imagine he must be doing the same stuff when we are not there to witness his actions.
What am I doing wrong? I am kinda worried about when I'll have to go back to work, which is in a few weeks. I don't want his life to be miserable and I don't want him to develop separation anxiety…
Any advice is welcome.
Thank you.
submitted by /u/Bunowa
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