Home alone

by Mark
(Somerset)

Is it ok to leave my 9 week old puppy at home while I'm at work. I am planning to crate her while i'm out leaving her toys to play with & the radio left on. I'm up at 6.00 daily so will exercise her before I have to leave at 7.30. I will then return home at midday & spend an hour with her til 1.00, returning back after work at 5.00. I don't work weekends so it will just be Mon - Fri.

From Anna-Marie@love-springer-spaniels

Hi there
she really needs more contact during the day, if it can't be you can you get a neighbour to look in on her. You need this time for training and bonding with her

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Home alone

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Mar 22, 2011
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similar situation
by: lisak_87@yahoo.com

I am in a similar situation and am praying that it will temporarily be ok.

I have a 9 week old puppy and am currently trying to find a mid-day (or maybe twice a day) dog walker to come visit on the 3 days a week where we are not home.

This puppy is quite content alone, to be honest, but I don't want to create an antisocial pup! I'm just hoping to find someone by next week so that this Thurs/Fri are the only two days it happens.

Basically, here's what I'm doing:
I've puppy-proofed our bathroom and gated off the entrance to the toilet. There's no outlets, NOTHING to get at. I put his crate in there and his bed and toys...then I covered the rest of the floor w/ potty pads. I left him in there for 3-hour periods throughout today and my boyfriend will do the same tomorrow. He was totally fine and happy. He slept a lot and chewed on his toys. He peed on the pads and on nothing else.

My boyfriend swears it'll be ok, but I am scrambling to find a dog walker anyway. I do not at all want to be responsible for hurting my dog :(

Mar 19, 2011
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No, No, No!!!
by: Betsy Kiehl

Please whatever you do, do not leave your puppy alone while you go to work, crate or no crate. The puppy needs the interaction with you, or someone you trust. Leaving the puppy alone at this age could cause behavioral problems when the pup gets older.

Mar 19, 2011
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Puppy
by: Anonymous

My take on it is that at 9 weeks and for the next few months your puppy is at its most receptive stage of it's life, now is the time to be spending as much time as possible with the puppy, your puppy has lots of energy that needs burning off, the best way to do that is to play mind games and training, walks should be kept to a maximum of 5 minutes a day per month of life, this is calculated to protect your puppies soft growing bones from permanent damage, play in doors and an enclosed garden it's ok, in those situations puppies pace them selves, out on walks they have to keep going to keep up.

So in a nutshell, you should spend as much time as you can with puppy, and have fun to stop boredom, so spending most of it's day in a crate is boring and could lead to problems later.

I speak from experience as a springer rescue volunteer.

Mar 19, 2011
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Agree
by: Anonymous

I can't say what's bad for a puppy, but, I can say what seems to be good. We've just got a 7 week old ESS after a 10 year wait to bring a dog in to our home.

We've chosen now as we're able to be at home with him for most of the day. He's now 11 weeks and we've got such an incredible bond. We've just started leaving him and he's managed 4 hours alone in his crate without any signs of distress. We've been working up from 10 minutes and it seems to have been a success; we have a happy confident dog who relishes us coming home but understands the need for him to be by himself at times.

PS The 'captcha' string was 'rabies', it's a little bit unsuitable !

Mar 18, 2011
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Home alone puppy
by: Anonymous

Hi agree with Anna,

Although I think that dogs are fine being left alone during the day and have done so with mine for over 12 yrs now (making sure they have a place to lie, water and a way to get to the garden) I do feel that 9 wks is a bit too young.

Do you have a member of your family close or a good friend that could dog sit for you or come and visit the pup?

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