You’d love to stay home and play with your puppy all day, but you have bills to pay. That means you have to go to work.
Believe it or not, dogs get this. When we’re out, they figure we must be hunting. Actually, that’s not too far off the mark. Whether you’re hunting or working, the point is to provide for the pack!
Dogs absolutely can learn to be home without humans—and without doing the kinds of things humans don’t like, such as chewing sofa cushions. You just have to take it slowly, as with anything you try to teach.
The grade levels for leaving your dog home alone go like this:
- Preschool: Crate training, an obvious starting point. The principles that follow – of leaving your dog along – apply when the dog is in the crate or out of the crate.
- Kindergarten: Close yourself in a room in the house away from your puppy. Take a shower, work on the computer, whatever. Start with just a minute or two and gradually increase the amount of time you’re separated.
- Grade school: Go outside for a minute or two and leave your dog in. Visit the mailbox, walk the back yard, pull a dandelion. Again, gradually increase the time apart.
- Middle school: Run a quick errand, leaving the dog at home. Try half an hour the first time or two.
- High school: Go away for two or three hours.
- College: Be away all day. I strongly recommend hiring someone to walk your dog at midday. (I’ll say more about that in my next post.)
Before you leave, put temptation out of reach. Put food in the cupboard or fridge, and get the trash can into a closet. If your dog likes to chew shoelaces, don’t leave your shoes where he can get at them!
When you go away, even just to the next room in the kindergarten phase, give your dog an interesting thing to chew on or play with. Rotate different toys so the dog gets a new interesting thing each time. We have great results with a marrow bone or a chew-safe toy filled with peanut butter.
When you come back, take the interesting thing away—quietly, with no drama. What you’re doing is giving your dog a positive feeling about your absence. “Leave me alone to play with my interesting thing,” he thinks. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” This independence is good for him and convenient for you!
If you have two or more dogs, they’ll be good company for each other and their day will be more interesting. I was so happy the day I came home early from work and my two didn’t even notice I was there because they were having a full-out play-wrestle session upstairs. I smiled ear to ear, knowing they were having a blast while alone without us.
But to get to that point, you need to train each dog individually. That’s true of all training: one dog at a time. So take one dog out for a walk while the other learns to be alone at home; then switch off.
