Leaving your dog home alone is one of the toughest parts of being a pet parent. The bond you share with your dog makes you want to smother them with the same love they give you. However, leaving your dog home alone sometimes can’t be avoided.
It’s also important for your dog to adjust to being home alone because it has an impact on their behavior and anxiety. A well-adjusted dog is less destructive, has less unwanted behavior, and has minimal separation anxiety.
If you want to know how you can teach your dog to be left home alone, here are some tips to help you keep your dog happy and entertained when they’re by themselves.
Crate Train Your Dog
The most important thing about leaving your dog is crate training. After all, you’ll be leaving them in their crate for a few hours and they need to learn how to stay in their crate safely while you’re away.
Crate training is important for potty training and for establishing a safe zone for your dog. You don’t want to come home to a mess with accidents all over the place. Proper crate training teaches your dog where they can do their business and it’s not inside the crate.
Your dog must recognize their crate as their own home. This can help them find comfort when they’re anxious or stressed. Once they have this established, they’ll be comfortable in their crate when you leave your dog home alone.
If you’re just starting with crate training, here are some of the best crates for your dog.
Exercise Your Dog Before Leaving
A tired dog is a well-behaved dog, as we always say here in MDWT. And it’s true, a tired dog won’t have the energy to bark, chew, or be anxious. That’s why one tip to help your dog adjust to being alone is to exercise your dog before leaving.
And we’re not talking about a quick walk or potty session outside. The exercise must be significant, lasting about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Dogs need physical activities anyway, so why not make it count and do it before you leave?
Take a walk or jog, let your dog play with other dogs, or play fetch. Balls are the best toys for playing fetch and here are some of the best in the market.
By letting your dog get physically and mentally exhausted, they’ll be resting most of the time and will hardly notice that you’re gone. Once you make this a routine, they’ll get used to it and will be able to adjust to your absence.
Give Your Dog a Safe Space
As mentioned above, giving your dog a safe space is key to its comfort when you’re away. Just like humans, dogs will get anxious in unfamiliar situations or places. It can be a crate, a large play fence, or both.
Whatever space you choose, you need to ensure that it’s safe and they can’t get out or have access to windows. It’s generally not a good idea to leave your dog near windows or doors where they can escape or fall and get hurt.
Some owners use a metal crate and connect a play fence to it, giving their dog a larger space to sleep, walk around, and potty. Just make sure you put the potty pad as far away from the crate as possible.
One way to give your dog a positive association to their crate or safe zone is to feed them while they’re in it. You can also spend time with them in their safe zone to bond or play. Once this safe space has been established, you need to maintain this by leaving toys inside or rewarding them whenever they go inside by themselves.
Leave Toys to Entertain Your Dog
Sometimes, long walks or tiring them out every time before you leave isn’t possible. Your dog might get bored and develop unwanted anxiety or behavior. This is where toys come in.
A bored dog can get destructive so the best way to channel that energy away from destructive behavior is through toys. By giving them chew toys and interactive toys, they can find ways to entertain themselves when you’re not around.
Chew toys can help release their desire to chew while interactive toys stimulate their minds and can also help stave off boredom. Intellectual toys like puzzle toys or hide and seek toys are highly recommended by many dog owners. Here are a few other toys that we like in MDWT.
However, make sure any toy you leave is safe for your dog. Watch out for choking hazards and sharp edges that can hurt your dog.
Play Some Music
Research has found that music is a great way to calm anxious dogs. But it’s not just any kind of music, the best genre for dogs is reggae music.
The type of music affects dogs differently, so don’t just play anything you want. Heavy metal music has a negative effect on dogs, the same with trance or dance music. Reggae music has been found to elicit the most calming effect, followed by soft rock, and classical music.
But aside from these genres, there are now dog calming playlists available that were specifically created to calm anxious dogs. So turn on the speakers and play your dog’s jam, just be sure to keep the volume at a low level so you won’t disturb the neighbors!
Use Calming Treats
For dogs with low to moderate anxiety issues, being left alone can be a trigger for their anxiety. One way to help with this is by feeding them calming treats to help them settle down whenever your absence triggers their anxiety.
We’ve got a list of great calming treats right here. However, calming treats are not a form of treatment and are ineffective for serious cases of anxiety. For such cases, a visit to the vet is needed.
Get a Dog Walker
In cases when you have to be away for most of the day, it’s recommended to hire a dog walker to entertain your dog and also allow them to go potty. Dogs can hold their pee only for so long and will eventually have to go.
Also, leaving your dog for hours on end regularly can make them feel lonely and they can develop anxiety. If you can’t hire a dog walker, leaving them in pet daycare centers is also an option.
Control Your Behaviour Before You Leave and When You Get Home
Your behavior is one of the most powerful ways to influence how your dog adjusts to being home alone. How you greet them, what you do when you leave or get back are all important behaviors that you should monitor.
As you leave, trainers have recommended many times to never say goodbye to your dog. Don’t put on a sad face or pet them. The best way is to actually just leave. Put your dog in their safe space several minutes before you have to leave. This gives them time to relax and maybe even doze off. Once you’re ready to go, just go.
When you get home, it’s advised to NOT greet your dog at all. In fact, you should ignore them for at least 5 minutes after walking in the door. As pet parents, it’s natural to be happy and excited to see your fur baby after being away, doing so does more harm than good. It can add to or develop separation anxiety.
So just go about your business and when you finally go to your dog, it’s recommended to make them sit before you greet them. This teaches them to be calm and behaved before they can get any belly rubs. Once this behavior has been established, it can carry over to how they greet new people.
Leaving your dog home alone isn’t a bad thing, it can help them behave properly and reduces separation anxiety. With the right training and tools, you can teach your dog to remain happy and healthy even when you’re not around.