Puppy Alone At Home: Tips On How To Behave
When adopting a dog, it is normal to give him a few days to get used to the new environment. But the fateful moment arrives of having to leave the puppy alone in the house : what to do to prevent it from destroying everything?
Here are some tips for when leaving your puppy alone in the house.
Tips for leaving a puppy alone in the house
The main concern is that a puppy alone in the house can destroy everything in its paw or pee where it shouldn’t.
We may also be worried that he will cry all day, barking or howling, and become depressed as he awaits our return.
But of course we cannot shirk our daily responsibilities and have to go to work. How, then, to avoid trauma to our puppy and a disaster in the house ?
1. Educate him on autonomy
It is true that dogs depend on us in many ways, unlike cats, but it is essential to teach them to be at home alone for a few hours a day.
If, as soon as we close the door, the puppy cries and barks, it means that he cannot stand loneliness : making him feel safe and autonomous will depend on us.
When we are at home, we have to give him his space and get him used to being as self-sufficient as possible, for example by avoiding picking him up all the time or interrupting our activities to pay attention to him.
2. Don’t scare him or scold him all the time
If, upon returning, the house is a disaster, the instinct is to get angry and scold him. But this is a reaction to be avoided, because the puppy will probably not understand the reason for the outburst.
Scolding him is only useful if we do it when the dog is doing damage, otherwise the only result we will get will be that the puppy becomes even more dependent and fearful in our presence.
3. Food and walk before leaving him alone
One of the best ways to keep a puppy alone in the house from destroying everything is to take him for a nice walk, which will help him release all his accumulated energy.
Feeding him before leaving him alone can also be an idea, because after eating it is normal for the puppy to doze off to take a rest for a few hours.
4. Leave him some toys
We cannot expect the dog to sleep all the time while we are away from home. The fact that he bites or breaks objects in the house is due to boredom, so it will be better to leave him some toys with which he can entertain.
5. Don’t make a scene at the time of separation
Even if the temptation is strong, we avoid leaving the house with excessive effusions, as if we would never see our dog again.
The animal interprets these gestures in a negative way, as a danger or a threat.
To greet him in a too theatrical way would make him unnecessarily nervous and keep him on alert all day.
In order to leave our puppy alone in the house with the certainty that he will behave properly, we must put ourselves in his shoes and understand what he needs.
Sometimes a more comfortable kennel, a bowl of water or a puppet may be enough to play. Little by little he will get used to our absence!
