Three Dog Training Techniques to prepare your dog for being home alone:
Here are three easy ways to help your dog cope with another change and have less anxiety when you do go to work.
1. Set aside some alone time each day for your dog when you are in the house, by placing them in a crate or a separate room.
- Day one starts with 1-5 minutes (depending on your dog).
- Day two add 3-5 minutes, twice a day.
- Increase time slowly until you reach 30 minutes of alone time. Make this a pleasant time as some dogs may need to go slower.
- Introduce long-lasting chew toy options (Kong, etc.).
2. Leave the house a couple of times each day without your dog.
- Place your dog wherever you would normally have them stay when you leave home.
- Follow the same time duration as stated above in item one.
- Starting with 5 minutes, only in this activity progress up to a couple of hours (like when you go grocery shopping, to the pharmacy, Laundromat).
3. Run through a partial work routine each day. Practice your “getting ready for work routine” and actually leave the house (run an errand, fill the car with gas, etc).
This will help proactively circumvent separation anxiety in your dog. Stay well and let me know how these work for you.
– Dan, doghearttraining.com
