Leaving Dog Home Alone

mgrey · 05-20-2009, 01:02 PM

Do any of you have success with leaving your dog home alone (outside of a crate)? I would love to be able to leave our 1 1/2 year old boxer out by herself but am a little wary (as we have leather couches- she's trained not to get on them, but who knows what she'll do when we're gone)

I hate to have to leave her in our crate when we are at work. She is completely house trained and she gets a 2 mile walk in the morning, also she is submissive to my husband and myself (I know that sometimes when the dog thinks they are the pack leader and you leave htey can have separation anxiety problems)

Any ideas? Last time I left her out (she was about 11 months) she didn't potty but she did chew up my glasses, and jump on the couch...

purplelori · 05-20-2009, 01:19 PM

Well, Wally is 6 months old, and has the run of the house and a doggie door with his old-lady dog friend Carli. We've learned to: 1. make sure the bedroom and bathroom doors are shut, limiting his access. 2. Put all 'interesting' objects up--these include TV Remotes, Car keys/Car Remotes, paperback books, etc.

I also have several toys that I stuff with kibble or some sort of yummy treat, and we leave them around the house for him to 'find' during the day.

We give him lots of praise when we come home and the only thing we find shredded is the junk mail (this weekend our new mailbox is getting installed--the current mail slot is just too inviting--thankfully, he seems to take great delight in shredding only the catalogs and junk mail!)

Lori & Wally

maggiemae · 05-20-2009, 01:45 PM

Maggie is 10 months now, I leave her out of her crate if I'm gone no more than 2 hours. She is housebrokern, but I think until she is older, I don't want to leave her more than that. I am out Monday thru Friday at work for 6 hours, I think now it would be to long. I close off the door to the bedrooms and bathrooms, she has the run of the kitchen, living room, dining room, and her crate. She never chews anything she shouldn't , but who knows if she gets bored enough.

She is walked at least three times a day for around l/2 hour each walk, once before I leave for work, when I get back and before bed.

daisy'smom · 05-20-2009, 02:05 PM

I would cover the leather couches with sheets while you are away just in case. The only thing you can do is try it and see what happens.

Bellas Mommy · 05-27-2009, 11:25 AM

Ok..so Bella is 4 months old and almost completely potty trained. So we have a crate for her and when we would leave she would be crated. Well than when we came home she would have puked in her crate and all over the floor. So this now leads to my new problem with her...we decide we will leave her out of her crate to see how she does while we are gone...so I took my son to a doc appt and left her uncrated..well on my way home I get a call from the local police station...my neighbor called the cops on me cause she was barking and whining. We went out and bought one of those house barking trainers...well it dont do crap for Bella. She has full run of downstairs which is just the kitchen, dining room and the living room. Also has the company of the other 2 dogs. she has all kinds of toys all over.So we decide we will set the video camera up to see just what she is doing...she is barking but not constant...(as the neighbor implied to the cops)..but she is doing stuff that she has never tried while we are home...like chewing on my curtains....is she just suffering from seperation anxiety? I am a stay at home mom and we are home with her a majority of the time! What other things should I try with her to stop her barking while we are not home? The neighbor that called on me for her barking is not going to reason with me about her barking..he is just misarable. The guy at the pet store suggested a collar that u put on the dog when u dont want her to bark and it sprays a lemon scent in the front of the dogs face that the dog dont like but I wanted to try the ultrasonic device first...what do u guys suggest?

mgrey · 05-27-2009, 01:16 PM

Bellas Mommy,

I do feel bad for you- I had a boxer who did this same thing. After watching Cesar I did learn that many times this type of anxiety is caused by the dog thinking he/she is the pack leader because the pack leader is allowed to leave but the others are not- and this is where the anxiety begins...

For our dog we did use a citronella collar and it did seem to help the problem although it didn't completely stop the problem (and we had a nice smelling home to come back to... )

Bellas Mommy · 05-27-2009, 02:13 PM

Yeah the pet store recommended the collar also to us...Im noticing the other dogs are not very fond of the ultrasonic device at all....as they are older and dont have the problem. Maybe I will take the ultrasonic device back and try the collar on her...any ideas on how I can get her to learn she isnt the boss I am?

boxerlover955 · 05-27-2009, 02:54 PM

We have our boy Bo in a crate when we leave up until recently. We tried him on Monday by himself and left but where out longer than we were goin got be and came back to a perfectly undestroyed house. You just have to make sure to take up any temptations. We closed all the doors took up everything we thought he would go after left and hoped he would do good. We were only going to leave him out for half an hour but were out for more than 3 hours on accident. And nothing was wrecked. What I would suggest is leave her home for a short amount of time each day then gradually build up and eventually you will be able to completely trust her. We still don't trust Bo completely but atleast we know he can be home alone for a bit

daisy'smom · 05-27-2009, 02:54 PM

Please, please, please rethink the use of any negative type training collar. My trainer said they do much more harm than good. I had an terrible experience with the first trainer i had using a shock collar. It did so much harm even though it was only done once. I took lots of positive reinforcement training to get Daisy over the mental damage done. I like the show on the Animal Planet channel " Victoria Stillwell is against using any of these collars including the citronella collars.

Please check out Maureen Hall's website. Maybe you could email her for advice. She is the trainer that in one session helped me more with Daisy than I can tell you. She is an animal behaviorist and I know she does email consults. http://www.animalcoaching.com/index.php

Boxerdad · 05-27-2009, 06:10 PM

When we leave the house for a few hours our boy is crated. he is also crated at night. My wife is at home so he has the run of the house almost all day. He goes out frequently to the back yard and we take him for a walk when i get home.

I have a feeling he will do fine being alone since he goes to the crate to sleep even when we are home.

Fortunatly he is not alone that much.

But yeah i would say do what the rest are suggesting, secure the house and close off where u dont want him. I have leather couches as well but he already owns those...lol.

Bellas Mommy yeah I would suggest not using special collars, Boxers don't respond well to that. Daicysmom was right on the money.