Hi everyone! I have a 12-week-old American Lab, I need to start training him to be left alone for up to 4 hours at a time until he can go to daycare at 6 months. What are some things I can leave in his crate? How do I build up the time? He sleeps in his crate all night and goes in for naps, he doesn't go in on his own but will either be put in and bark for a moment or two and then sleep or go in with no debate and just go to sleep right away. I'm sure he won't sleep for the full 4 hours so what can I do to make him happy and begin the process of leaving him on his own? He'll be 14 weeks when we need to actually be back at work.
I would suggest taking him for a short walk first - at 14 weeks I guess he should just be having about 15 minutes exercise a day. I found leaving a small Kong worked well with our puppy. I would prepare it the night before: a layer of her food followed by a few teaspoons of natural yoghurt, like a dog lasagne until the Kong was full. I would then freeze it overnight and leave that in the crate. The food would be factored into her daily total. I would also leave 'safe' toys, ie nothing with threads or anything she could destroy. The toys would be rotated on a daily basis. As she got a bit older, stag bars (deer antlers without points) worked brilliantly. Hope this helps!
