DOES YOUR PUPPY GET LONELY?

When you own a puppy you should take good care of him, considering that at this stage of life they can be very sensitive once they are taken away from the safety and warmth they had all the time when being with their mother. In case your puppy suffers from separation anxiety, then you should know what to do in order to get him in the habit of staying alone after you leave home. The sign of this anxiety is normally manifested by whining or barking each time you leave home. Apart from this, many puppies might as well manifest in a destructive way damaging many things around when being left alone.

In order to make sure that you do not confront with this situation, one thing that you can do is to wait for the puppy to wean from his mother, this happening usually at around 7 – 8 weeks of age. At this stage puppies are known to grow somehow apart from their mom, but if you reach to separate them earlier then they might develop separation anxiety issues.

The next thing that you should do after bringing your puppy home is not to manifest sadness whenever you must leave home. Begin by leaving home for short periods of time and increase this time on gradual basis. It is however harder if your puppy has already shown signs of anxiety upon separation, but if you do the same displaying not such a big deal but be consistent at the same time, you will see good results in the end.

When you plan to leave the house there is another way to train your puppy into knowing how to be alone: distract his attention to something else. After less than a half an hour they would get used to their solitude while having some toys around to chew on. If you leave them with some toys that are filled with treats such as peanut butter or cheese, then your puppy is guaranteed to stay busy for some time until he completely forgets about that specific anxiety.

If you have noticed that your puppy has tendencies of destroying things around while he is left alone and nothing of the above works, then train him for the crate. Once they are taught that this space is their safe place, they will stay in this area but only after your puppy sees it as a positive and safe environment for him. While he is in the crate get him used to be treated with things that he likes eating and playing with.

But even so, do not attempt to put your puppy in the crate before leaving home and close the door. He will start to experience a negative feeling towards that space and you risk for the crate training to be wasted in this manner. Consult also with your puppy vet about any alternative to treat puppies suffering from separation anxiety since this one can happen for other reasons as well.