Aa
leaving my dog alone
My dog Sugar is going to be 4 months old and she has had a couple of seizures it has been 3 weeks since she has had one. I never leave her alone and I think I should try to, does anyone have any suggestions on how I should go about it without stressing her out.
How does your puppy behave when you leave the house? Does she get anxious and cry, whine or bark until you come back? If you are in the habit of "advertising" your exit by giving a lot of affection, it's time to stop. Make departing a big deal and it only adds to the anxiety and tells your dog it really IS something to worry about.
Crate training can be a godsend for these kinds of situations, but it has to be done correctly. Since you're only leaving for short periods of time, that's a great way to start out. Make sure your dog can stand up and turn around comfortably in the crate, but not much more room than that. Keep it in an area your dog tends to hang out in - even if it's in the living room. Start by putting a toy and an article of your clothing that you've just worn in with it. That keeps your scent close by and helps keep her calm.
Play games with the crate like throwing toys in there. Make it a non-scary thing. Also, start feeding her in the crate. You want the crate to be the place from which all blessings flow. ;-)
Dogs are den animals, so it's natural for them to want to relax in an enclosed "safe" space. Our dogs love to just hang out in their crates when they've had enough socializing or something scary is happening like a storm or fireworks. The door is always open.
Most important, you want your dog to be tired when you leave the house. A tired dog is a good dog. If your burn off energy before crating, it will be very natural for her to just curl up and take a nap. Again, don't make a big deal out of it. So many times we humans accidentally enforce the very behavior we want to stop by giving affection at inappropriate times, so try not to fall into that habit.
Your pup is at the perfect age to begin basic obedience training. They're little sponges from about 3 to 9 months, so look into some classes. Training is actually more about teaching humans to understand dog behavior than training the dog. Once you understand how a dog's mind works, there's hardly a limit to what you can do together. Makes life with them even more fun too!
Crate training can be a godsend for these kinds of situations, but it has to be done correctly. Since you're only leaving for short periods of time, that's a great way to start out. Make sure your dog can stand up and turn around comfortably in the crate, but not much more room than that. Keep it in an area your dog tends to hang out in - even if it's in the living room. Start by putting a toy and an article of your clothing that you've just worn in with it. That keeps your scent close by and helps keep her calm.
Play games with the crate like throwing toys in there. Make it a non-scary thing. Also, start feeding her in the crate. You want the crate to be the place from which all blessings flow. ;-)
Dogs are den animals, so it's natural for them to want to relax in an enclosed "safe" space. Our dogs love to just hang out in their crates when they've had enough socializing or something scary is happening like a storm or fireworks. The door is always open.
Most important, you want your dog to be tired when you leave the house. A tired dog is a good dog. If your burn off energy before crating, it will be very natural for her to just curl up and take a nap. Again, don't make a big deal out of it. So many times we humans accidentally enforce the very behavior we want to stop by giving affection at inappropriate times, so try not to fall into that habit.
Your pup is at the perfect age to begin basic obedience training. They're little sponges from about 3 to 9 months, so look into some classes. Training is actually more about teaching humans to understand dog behavior than training the dog. Once you understand how a dog's mind works, there's hardly a limit to what you can do together. Makes life with them even more fun too!
As she is young leave some toys. My pup cannot survive without chews, one that will last a long time.
Start with small times + build up
Start with small times + build up
COMMUNITY LEADER
I can totally understand you not wanting to leave her alone for fear she might have a seizure while you're not with her. What does the vet say about the seizures? Has she been given any preventative medication? If she has, or the vet thinks it's ok now, then you might slowly be able to start spending short periods away from her?
Before you think of doing that, check out about the likelihood of any more seizures.
If it's ok, then you could start by spending 5-10 minutes away. Take her to her bed and tell her in a nice bright voice gentle and firm, "I have to go out now sweetie, you stay there. Stay. Lie down. Good girl. Back soon...." And maybe go to the garden, or the car, or fix something outside, or whatever. Or you could go to another part of the house?
When you get back she will probably make a fuss of you. There are behaviourists who think you should be aloof and not greet them, but I don't agree. I always greet my dog when I come back, and ruffle her ears and let her show she's glad I'm back. It leads to no problems as far as I've found out. It's natural, with both dog packs and wolf packs in the wild that a returning pack member gets greeted!
Then you could start extending the time away.....say to a short shopping trip about 1/2 hour? and so on, till she's quite happy for you to go out for an hour or two. But I do not like leaving a dog alone too long, say for more than 2-3 hours. Some people have to go to work 9 hours and leave their dogs. I'd hate to do that. I always give my dog a good run outside before I leave her, so she's not frustrated or needing to do anything. And take her out when I get back.
But this all depends on how her health is.
Before you think of doing that, check out about the likelihood of any more seizures.
If it's ok, then you could start by spending 5-10 minutes away. Take her to her bed and tell her in a nice bright voice gentle and firm, "I have to go out now sweetie, you stay there. Stay. Lie down. Good girl. Back soon...." And maybe go to the garden, or the car, or fix something outside, or whatever. Or you could go to another part of the house?
When you get back she will probably make a fuss of you. There are behaviourists who think you should be aloof and not greet them, but I don't agree. I always greet my dog when I come back, and ruffle her ears and let her show she's glad I'm back. It leads to no problems as far as I've found out. It's natural, with both dog packs and wolf packs in the wild that a returning pack member gets greeted!
Then you could start extending the time away.....say to a short shopping trip about 1/2 hour? and so on, till she's quite happy for you to go out for an hour or two. But I do not like leaving a dog alone too long, say for more than 2-3 hours. Some people have to go to work 9 hours and leave their dogs. I'd hate to do that. I always give my dog a good run outside before I leave her, so she's not frustrated or needing to do anything. And take her out when I get back.
But this all depends on how her health is.
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