Hey!

We've had invaluable advice from the champdog community in the lead up to our first lab pup (great ethical breeder with a really healthy pairing).

We're lucky to both work at home which has been the case pre lock downs too, but we're curious that if that changed, then is there a concensus on these devices that alert you to your dog barking / be able to talk to them/ dispense a treat all through your mobile phone.

Finally the point: academically speaking, is there a concensus on if these products are a good thing (letting you see and potentially soothe your dog acting out while you're not there, or are they a cash grab aimed at people who haven't put the time into conditioning their dog to manage without them for however long they need to?)

Really interested to hear experienced owners thoughts!

Thanks,

Lewis

I  think it would be much  better all round to train your dog to settle for a.few.hours when u arnt going to be there . In anyones life u are going to need to leave your dog alone just to.go about your daily life .if its because u are returning to a workplace away from home and its  going to be  for more.than 4 hours and regularly then i would  consider  a dog walker or decent daycare . Not one of.those devices
4 hours is my limit for.leaving my dogs and not regularly
Tbh I can't see how dropping treats here and there will calm a dog who is anxious about being alone.  Also I would be  very stressed myself watching my dog appearing upset and not being able to comfort him or let.him out for toileting. .

1 for the "snake oil", haha.

Yes I totally agree that if I need to leave our dog for an extended period then its something that needs built up to and conditioned, and a 4 hour thresh hd before getting a family membe, dog walker or a doggy daycare seems reasonable to me.

The only training pro in my layman eyes is the ability to dispense a treat when your dog is calm and alone.

Being able to talk to the dog on the whole is not useful.  Either they ignore it, or it can make them worse (I've had both experiences with mine).

I wouldn't go for treat dispensing either, because again experience tells me that using food to work on separation stuff leads to a more alert dog, waiting for their next treat, when what you want is one who can relax when you're not there.  I might use something like that to work on a specific issue, such as leaving kitchen worktops when the human is out of the room, but not for full absences.

Those issues aside, at the cheaper end the Clever Dog and Wyze cameras are good.  I used the Clever Dog and it's served me well for several years now.

I’m same with FF, 4 hours is my limit and not regularly at all. Tbh I use a ‘cctv’ camera when I leave them, not all the time partly because I don’t always remember to switch it on!, but I wouldn’t use a treat dispensing one due to what the others have said. Think it’s more likely to unsettle and alert them, especially seeing as its a lab pup you’ve got - food is everything to them! By all means get a camera to watch/keep an eye on them, but don’t use it to skip steps in them being left on their own. It’ll still need to be done gradually, otherwise you’ll see a crying puppy on the screen which would be heartbreaking and not easy for you to watch. Also it has an audio function but again I don’t use that because they’ll get up thinking I’m there or about to come in etc. The camera for me is literally used for when I’m going out with friends and I have ‘mum guilt’ for leaving them on their own - it reassures me when I see them sleep the whole time I’m out, and aren’t bothered when I leave.
Good luck with the new pup

Yep, that's exactly what I use it for.  Remote monitoring only.

I have worked through separation anxiety with some of mine twice now, and I'm this week embarking on the third (and hopefully final) attempt after a regression, and the camera is there for me to see real-time how they are doing.  During training it allows me to sit round the corner watching, and if I see any hints of Linc becoming unsettled, I can get back in before he fully reaches his anxiety threshold, thereby keeping him calmer and not giving him a bad experience of being left.

The past few days it's also allowed me to do some absences from my new pup, to see how well he copes with short absences, and with or without being tired first (important so I know how much non-tired training I'll need to do with him to cover emergencies).

But that's it - it's not interactive beyond that.  It's more about information gathering, really.  It also allowed me to check on them at the end of last year, when a delightful cowardly neighbour left an anonymous note in my mailbox about my dogs barking.  As far as I knew they were sleeping through - the camera told me otherwise (that was the beginning of training attempt #2).  Now I'll never again not use it to check in on them regularly, at least while my two older boys are with me, to make sure things aren't going south again once I'm through this next round of training.