How to: Leave Your Dog Home Alone
Another year begins and that dreaded time approaches when our holidays end and we go back to school and work and have to leave our furry best friend home alone.
These are our best tips and tricks for getting your dog ready to be left alone without causing any anxieties or unwanted behaviours.
The best techniques are always anticipation and preparation. Prepare your dog for this event and practise the motions to help them stay calm and have a positive experience when you leave. Remember: every behaviour that is allowed to continue, whether “good” or “bad”, becomes a learned behaviour and therefore is much harder to modify. We want to make sure that your dog is practising the behaviours that you want them to display throughout your life together, and not the ones you don’t. The following are some great guides to encourage relaxed behaviours even when you are not home:
Crate Training. A crate is your dog’s bedroom - a calm and comfortable place for them to be alone and recharge. By providing your dog with crate-training you are helping them to relax and unwind, while also preventing them access from anxiety-causing stressors and other behaviours that we don’t want them to practise at home alone like eating your shoes or peeing on the carpet. If you don’t have a crate you could practise containing them in one room/area of the house to still limit their access to activities you don’t want them to do. Check out our crate-training blog post to learn how to best teach this skill to your dog.
Practise your workday routine with your dog. Start off by picking up your keys throughout the day but not leaving the house, showing the dog that the keys are not a negative stressor. Then progress to leaving your dog alone for short times and slowly increasing the duration. Depending on your dog’s independence levels this might be simply going to another room that they do not have access to, and returning before they get uncomfortable. Increase the distance and imitate your work routine as your dog learns that you will always come back: grab your keys and jump in the car; next time grab your keys, jump in the car and turn it on; next time go for a drive around the block. Continue to work up this skill until your dog doesn’t react to your leaving in a negative way!
Fulfil your dog’s needs before you leave. Providing your dog with mental and physical stimulation before or after you go to work is essential, not only for your dog’s health, but also for their anxiety levels while home alone. Everyone is more tired after some physical activity so it’s a great idea to physical wear your dog out a little before leaving them. But not all dogs will sleep all day after a little walk, so it’s also a great idea to leave them with some mental stimulation to give them something positive to do and learn while alone. Toys are perfect but they have to be interesting for your dog. Playing with the same old teddy who’s lost it’s squeaker will not hold your dog’s interest for very long. Creating food toys or games is a great way to provide mental stimulation and use your dog’s natural foraging instincts. A milk bottle full of kibble, a frozen Kong, or food hidden amongst the garden are all good ideas to occupy your dog’s time. A shell pool of water is a great idea for dogs outside - it gives them something to cool down in, play around and drink from and they’re much less likely to tip it over than a water bowl.
Anticipate anxious behaviours. Chewing, digging, barking, scratching, whining, escape attempts. These are all anxious behaviours that your dog has learnt over time by practising them. We need to be able to anticipate these behaviours in our dogs so that we can avoid reinforcing them by allowing them to continue. These means that if your dog chews your furniture when you leave the house, you need to prevent this behaviour by cutting off their access to any furniture. This could be with a crate or by leaving them outdoors. If your dog digs up your garden, it would be a great idea to get them their own digging pit that is always full of fun things and new smells that they can enjoy and that will redirect their attention away from your flowers. If your dog is constantly whining they might benefit from a licki-mat or snuffle toy that assists in stress-relief by allowing them to use their natural instincts. A noise distraction might keep your dog from barking at every neighbour that walks past - Dog TV, music, or just normal TV is a good way to drown out noises that might upset your dog and allow them to relax.
Puppies should not be left alone for more than 5 hours, as their bladders are not fully developed yet and they cannot be responsible for any accidents - but will also learn from that experience. You know your dog and their stressors best and if you are struggling to find an alternative or cannot anticipate their behaviours, please contact Tristen for a Private Training Session where she can evaluate your individual situation and provide a whole bunch more knowledge and ideas to suit you and your dog’s lifestyle.