Leaving Puppy By Himself - Sorry... quite long!

[Mrs Scooby]

Hiya

At the moment my fiance works from home so there is always someone here with Scooby.

I know that boxers need lots of attention and like being in human company. That is fine with us and we are willing to put the time and effort into making Scooby happy.

I have got one concern about the times when he is on his own for whatever reason (even when I am upstairs and he is downstairs).

The routine we have at the moment is quite easy. We leave him by himself when he sleeps in the kitchen downstairs in his box. When he wakes up one of us takes him outside and stays there until the goes to the toilet. We then play with him until he gets tired and the whole routine starts again. So he's never left by himself when he is wide awake and wanting to play.

We have left him by himself in the house once when he went shopping. We made sure he was asleep when we left and he was still sleeping when we came back (lazy dog!) so I doubt he even realised when we were gone!

I am really after some hints and tips on ways to make Scooby a bit more independent. At the moment if I leave the room he starts to whine and bark (understandably) but I don't want to rush to him straight away as I don't want him to begin to think that whining and barking gets my attention all the time. I try and leave him for as long as possible, sometimes he settles himself and others he gets quite distressed so I go and calm him and the leave him again. He usually just wants to play, but I refuse to play and put him back in is basket. This usually happens in the night.

I want to be at the stage where we could pop out for a few hours and be confident that he is not barking and getting distressed, when neither of us are there to calm him.

I've tried today to leave him downstairs awake and come upstairs for a bit, leaving him by himself. He's always shut in the kitchen at night times, so I've shut him in with some toys and left him. He has whined a bit sometimes I've had to go and others he's just stopped and when I've checked on him on my own accord, he's sleeping in his box. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to shut him in the kitchen and he'll know that he's got to amuse himself. I've not left him for long, about an hour at the most and I've always made a huge fuss of him when I've come back. Has anyone else tried anything similar to this and can offer some advice? Or anyone tried anything different and found it works for them?

Thanks very much!

Hayley

 

[VTbxrFan]

The best advice I can give is that if you to him while he is whining, he will keep doing it. Essentially you are reinforcing that behavior - he whines because he wants you and then you appear. The only way you will break this is if you do not go to him when he whines - leave him alone until he is quiet, then go to him when he is quiet. That you reward the good behavior - he gets you to come back by being quiet. I would also encourage you to start going out for several hours at a time even if he means he cries and barks while you are gone. The older he gets without being left alone, the harder it will be for him to adjust to that. Although we can love our fur babies as much as human babies, they are not the same - fur babies don't need someone with them at all times. My sister-in-law made the mistake of essentially treating her boxer puppy like a human baby in the sense that she would not leave the puppy alone for any amount of time - she would stay home all day and not go do any errands or anything until my brother was home. In the end, this caused major problems for them because their dog was never given the opportunity to learn to be by herself and ended up becoming very stressed and destructive when she got older and had to be left alone.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

You need to acclimate him to being alone, a little bit at a time.

Put him in the crate and leave the house. No fanfare, no words, no nothing. Just leave. Go outside and listen. When the dog is quiet, then return and open the crate door. Again, NO FANFARE. Make it as though it is an everyday experience, like going to the kitchen for a drink of water. The more you fuss over the dog the more anxious it is going to make him.

Don't let him out of the crate if he is crying or making a fuss. Leave him there and totally ignore him until he is quiet. THEN let him out and play with him, greet him, love on him, give him everything he wants. But ONLY when he is quiet and calm.

Do the door/listen exercise and when he is completely quiet as you leave and remains so, you can leave for short periods of time. The first time say, 3 minutes. Then work that for a few weeks. Then 5 minutes. Then 10, etc., etc.

Make sure the dog has toys and things in his crate to keep him occupied in your absence as well.

There are many, many threads on crate training which are available by use of the search engine here at BW. Please take advantage of it.

Good luck.

 

[Mrs Scooby]

Thanks for the replies so far!

I don't have a crate for him, so I am trying to teach him that the kitchen is the only place he can be when noone is around!

I've got to pop out for a few hours tomorrow and I was going to take him with me, but I think I will leave him by himself now, see how he gets on!

Cheers!