I’m just back from a weekend away. The dogs came too. They come with me whenever possible. Without blinking we went to dinner in the hotel and left the dogs alone (OK I left The Voice on the TV for them) without incident or bother, stress or concern.
Being alone is actively taught from the day puppy arrives at my home. It’s done sensitively, progressively and consistently. I DO NOT advocate leaving puppy to ‘cry it out’. Apart from breaking my heart, I know there is plenty of research on the potential damage this can do to the brain, to learning, to trust and social skills. I monitor vocalisation carefully for peaks then reduction. As puppy is learning to settle I’d expect some noise. I sit with puppy, in the pen if needed or outside the crate, reassuring verbally, fingers through the bars. If puppy is really struggling to settle, I often take puppy out to settle them on my knee before putting them back in again. However if I know it’s time for a nap, what I won’t do is change the schedule to time for a play. And nap time takes place in a crate or pen. We will persevere and make progress that way.
Shoving puppy into a crate and switching out all the lights because it’s bed time, having lavished second by second attention on him since his arrival is bound to cause upset. Here’s Jellybean exploring his pen within seconds of arriving at our house-I was pottering in and out unloading the van. There are so many things to entertain him, he’s hardly noticed there is a physical barrier between us. First exposure is positive, fun and something we can build on. Before bed that first night in his new home, he’d been in his pen and crate at least 10 times for varying periods, always with company and tasty food projects to concentrate on. Until we’ve worked through alone time during the day, my puppies sleep crated next to me, by the side of my bed.
https://www.facebook.com/muttamorphosisDogTrainingandBehaviour/videos/1150011075050362/
Choosing crate time when it’s likely puppy is ready for a sleep helps maximise chances of success. I sit beside the pen or crate for company and reassurance. This will also teach him first and foremost that the crate is only a physical barrier to start with not a social one. He can still have my company! Only when puppy is totally happy with this idea of settling behind a physical barrier (crate, pen, dog gate) with me staying around, would I start to leave the area for short, then longer periods of time. Now the crate/pen becomes a social barrier also. But puppy is asleep and settled, or busy playing with enrichment projects so he doesn’t care.
There are so many crate games you can play to build positive links to crates and pens that no puppy should ever struggle with the idea of alone time. Here’s a series of videos I created showing the real time process of getting voluntary in/out and even stay behaviour around the crate with a 10 week old puppy. The entire process took approx. 4 mins to train and we will continue to play these games in & around the crate for the first 6 months or so, even when puppy is happy to settle in a closed crate. Closing the door will be taught in a later session.
https://www.facebook.com/muttamorphosisDogTrainingandBehaviour/videos/2070465246579871/
https://www.facebook.com/muttamorphosisDogTrainingandBehaviour/videos/435825020511593/
https://www.facebook.com/muttamorphosisDogTrainingandBehaviour/videos/308515783150898/
When clients tell me quite proudly ‘he’s never left alone’ it concerns me. Being taught to be independent and ok about being on your own is a life skill which every puppy needs to learn. I need this to be possible so that my dogs can come more places with me and adapt to typical absences in my day to day human routine. But more importantly, they need it for their own mental health, to have a stress free time when left so that being without their humans isn’t a big deal at all. After all, we teach out kids to cope without us. Our dogs deserve the same at the very least.
