Hi, Very first dog, ever. New Lab puppy, 4 months old. Female. Loves exercise, play, long walks, etc. Incredibly friendly, even to meeting other neighborhood dogs for first time. Enjoys being with people very much. Very. Think we made a great choice. Question: Everyone is home now due to the virus problem, but how do we handle it when we have to leave her home, alone, for a good part of the day ? Are there any hints or suggestions, or training, or... we can consider now, beforehand ? Any hints and thoughts would be most appreciated. Thanks, Bob
Take her out just before you leave and as soon as you get back. Leave her in a puppy pen, or puppy proof room while you are gone, with water and something to entertain her. She will probably just sleep most of the time, but it is good to have something like a filled Kong to chew. Hopefully she will be fine with being left alone, but not all dogs are.
Congrats on your new puppy ! My advice would be to gradually build up the time you leave her alone - unless you're very lucky, if you go from a puppy who has never been left alone to being left alone for hours (not saying that is what you're planning), that's when you may get problems, separation anxiety, etc. Start with 15 minutes, then 30 then gradually increase - best to start that now before you have to leave her - even if you all have to hide quietly in the garden for 15 minutes to start with! Or even just leave the room she's in. We would also make sure our dog was tired before leaving her as well, whether that was taking her out for a walk, playing with her in the garden, doing some training, anything to get her ready to sleep and settle when we left her. So that's what we did with our pup, she's now just over a year old and has always been really settled when left alone - we leave her with a nice treat and the radio on as well for company, and she's fine. We also have a "puppy cam" in the area we leave her (cheap webcam that can be live viewed over the internet), so we can check she's ok. Lastly, depending on how long you'll need to leave her when you're all back to work, if it's more than a few hours, you might want to think about someone coming in to let her out, have a bit of company, etc. And using this site too - it helped me loads in the early days and still does, even if I don't post directly very often that's usually because I've found a post from someone else with a very similar problem and lots of good advice. Hope that helps
