Hi all, I have been on here for a vent in the past but looking for advice this time around!
My puppy (5 1/2 months) has been with us since 8 weeks and, because there are 5 of us in the house – 2 of whom work from home, she hasn’t ever spent more than 30 – 45 mins on her own. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, she had to be left alone for an hour today and when I came home she was still barking and obviously distressed. This of course is understandable as we’ve failed at introducing alone time from early on.
She had access outside and plenty of food and water so thankfully she hadn’t destroyed anything and she didn’t potty inside (which is still proving an issue at this time). Although I don’t think its relevant to this topic, it’s probably worth noting that although she has a crate as a personal space, we didn’t go down the crate training route as our previous dog of the same breed never took to it.
Are we just too late now or have any of you lovely people had experience teaching a dog to be less distressed by being left alone in the home? Are there any particular training techniques that can and should be implemented at this stage? I don’t want her to be this stressed out in future when inevitably she has to be left alone and we can’t get doggy care.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
submitted by /u/who-friggin-knows
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