Hi All,

Some more of your superb advice is required please?

We can currently leave out pup (9 weeks old) over night and she doesn't mind, she's even stopped making a fuss when she hears us get up in the morning adn just waits for us to come down and play!  During the day my mother in law has offered to have her.  My question is, do you think it would be sensible at first to reduce the number of hours she is with my MIL during the day in order to get her used to being on her own?  I'm just wondering if it will cause us a problem when we need to leave her on her own for 5/6 hours if we are going anywhere where we can't take her in the future?  Or will she just adapt to this sort of situation as she gets older?  You see I'm happy for her to be at MIL's during the day for as long as she wants to have her as long as it isn't storing up problems for us in the future.  I was a bit worried that Kiera would just be confused about where she lives, but she seems to be taking it all in her stride and is her normal self at home - I don't want to force her to be on her own for 4/5 hours just beacuse I'm worried that she might not be able to cope with the odd occassion in the future if I don't need to?

Thanks for your help
Nicky x

Good question , does your MIL come over or do you drop kiera off at her place? I would recommend leaving him on his own for the time being , have your MIL over at lunch to let the dog out to pee and toss a ball for 30min-1hr then back in his crate or room until your back.

I don't think I would recommend ANY dog play ball for 30 mins to an hour let alone a 9 week old pup???????????????

This link may be helpful

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/sa.htm

Well , not play ball but toss a ball and spend time with him for 30 minutes is what i ment.

That is not true , "ANY" dog shouldn't play ball for 30 minutes? All my older goldens can play ball and frisbee for hours!!

I currently drop her off in the morning and pick her up at night, but I'm goign to suggest she starts bringing Kiera home at 4 pm for a few days, then 3pm , then 2pm and so on and then I'm going to stop taking her over there adn just let MIL pick her up for a coupld of hours if she wants to or just come and take her for a short walk.  I can leave her for a couple of hours with no problem at the moment, I don't want to undo my hard work last week by just leaving her all day with MIL and then her not want to be on her own....

Thanks for the article, I don't think she is suffering from SA - she seems pretty well adjusted as long as she isn't penned in......

Nx

Realistically she could stay on her own for those many hours, but to continue housetraining having someone over at lunch really helps build a good schedule. Good luck!

Your mother doesn't have to supervise her , just take her out to potty whenever needed.

Am I right in thinking you want to know if giving your pup constant company will make her suffer from SA in the future when you do need to leave her ?

I have the same concern because I can give my pup constant company but am concerned that if he doesn't learn to cope on his own now as a puppy he will not be able to cope when left when he is older.

Yes, that's my concern.  My mother in law is going to start taking her home a bit earlier each day from today, I want Kiera to be able to be left for a whole day on rare occassions - just so she's comfortable with it inthe event of an emergency, rather than having company all the time.  Once she's calmed down a bit I'll be abel to leave the door to the utility open adn she'll have the cats for company then as well!

Good luck with your puppy Caz.

Hi Nickyxh :)  When I got my first pup I took two weeks off work then so did my partner so in total we had one month with her.  During this time we would spend short periods in seperate rooms.  My girl soon learnt that it was ok to be seperated from me because we would meet up soon.  She was rewarded.  I then strated to leave the house and go into the garden for say a couple of minutes and returned to lana - again rewarding for no distruction or barking etc.  I basically popped off at different times of the day.  Soemtimes a couple of minutes, sometimes quarter of an hour, sometimes 45 minutes.  In the end Lana learnt that she didn't need to panic when I wasn't there - and although she didn't know when, she did know that I would be back!!  We have never had any problems.  Lana is alone from 9 - 1 my partner comes home for lunch 1 - 2 and then she is alone 2 - 5:30.  its funny because on weekends she sleeps 9-1 and 2-5!!  They get into a routine ;)
Good Luck
Sarah

hiya nx,

when we got our oldest dog (coming up 2), i took the first two weeks off to, but started leaving her from day one-just building the length of lone time up.

i work mornings, so i'm out for about 5 / 5.5 hours a day. She always seemed fine to be honest, although could be a tad (*cough*) destructive. By tad i mean completely chewed a piano to death, gnawed holes in the walls....can't blame her though-despite the box of toys and chews, treatballs and kongs, plasterboards and wood tasted nicer :D ! Come 8 months, she was a gem, and just slept the morning away.

touch wood, our 12 wk old pup is just as good. He's been a little destructive, but probably because he wants to be with his big sister (he has the spare room with a baby gate, she has the run of the upstairs. How mean am i??). I don't have anyone come in to let them out-i never have, with either dog.

i think they adjust to their routine, and to be honest, i'd prefer for them to have the routine they have. If for some reason i'm off, well thats a bonus for them! Even if i'm home, they're very sedate in the morning and bonkers all afternoon! I guess they're creatures of habit!

nic

Hi Nic,

That's very reassuring, I figure it's just a case of getting her used to it, I reckon eventually Sue will come in adn pick her up for an hour or two to go for a walk adn that will be it - that's my preference to be honest and if we have to deal with a little destruction along the way - well so be it!

Cheers
Nicky