Are you worried about creating separation anxiety in your new puppy? By having a plan to safely introduce “alone time” in a way that meets their needs, you can stack the deck in your puppy’s favor.

Some new puppy owners take a week or two off work when they bring their puppy home. This is a great way to bond with your puppy, take care of their early vet, grooming, and training appointments, and get on the right track. After all, you’ll enjoy this dog for the next 10-15 years – it makes sense to invest in their early experiences!

However, just because you’re not working does not mean you can’t leave the house. It’s so important to leave your puppy alone, early and often, so it becomes normal to them.

In my experience, it is worse to take a week off of work and never leave your puppy alone, than it is to just bring your puppy home on a weekend and resume your regular daily activities on Monday. The new puppy gets completely acclimated to the idea that someone is always nearby, and then suddenly, they’re alone. You’re setting your puppy up to fail by being with them 24/7 then leaving them for hours at a time while you go to work or school.

Let’s talk about how to leave your puppy alone.

Alone Time Doesn’t Always Mean Leaving

When I refer to “alone time” in this blog post, I mean both leaving your puppy in the house while you leave the house, and confining your puppy while you are still present and awake in your home. It’s important to introduce your puppy to the concept of being physically confined even while you are home and present. While less common than “forgetting” to leave the house for a week or two, this is another training gap I often encounter while coaching new puppy owners.

Confining your puppy overnight while you sleep is a fantastic start. Make sure you are also showing your puppy that sometimes they will need to hang out in a pen or behind a baby gate while you cook, clean, work, or enjoy other activities that go smoothly without a puppy underfoot.

Confinement is a fact of life for a domestic dog. Your dog will need to be confined if they are unwell, after surgery (like when they are spayed/neutered), during travel (the car is confinement!), and in emergency scenarios like evacuating from natural disasters. These scenarios are all already inherently somewhat stressful. Not teaching them to accept confinement will lead to more stress later in life.

Set Your Puppy Up for Alone Time Success

Before you leave your puppy, set them up for success by tiring them out first. A fun game of tug, followed by a 10-20 minute stroll in the neighborhood filled with sights and sounds, will tire your puppy out physically and mentally. This sets the stage for them to do exactly what we want them to do in our absence: sleep!

Make sure your puppy relieves themselves outside shortly before you leave. If your puppy has a full bladder, they’re apt to fuss during your absence or have an accident.

Set your puppy up in a crate or small pen. If you have a very young puppy, it’s safe to leave a towel, blanket, or some bedding in the crate or pen with them. If you brought home an older puppy or adult dog, do not leave them with plush materials until you are completely confident they don’t chew these items.

Place at least one safe toy in the enclosure with your puppy, too. For young puppies, I recommend their favorite stuffed animal. For older puppies who may be a bit more destructive, try a Benebone or BetterBone.

Silence is unnatural, so I always leave on music for my dogs to provide some background noise during alone time. In my opinion, anything is better than silence. Play whatever music you like or leave the TV or radio on before you go.

The most important step is to provide your puppy with a food-dispensing toy filled with something delicious. You can use a Kong, Toppl, Rumbl, Pupsicle, or lick mat. Fill the toy with a mix of something creamy, such as canned dog food or whipped cream cheese, combined with little bits of solid food like kibble or freeze-dried treats.

This toy will distract them from your sudden absence during alone time. It also helps them transition from having freedom in the house (and a higher-energy state) to being confined (which should be a low-energy state.)

(Pro tip: if you have a young puppy and you’re doing this for the first time, don’t use peanut butter in their food-dispensing toy. It’s a bit of an acquired taste, and more popular with older dogs. Try cream cheese instead!)

Routines Create Predictability

Think about bedtime routines for children. We don’t expect kids to go from sprinting around with their friends at the park, immediately to sleeping in their bed. You can probably imagine the frustration and tears if we just plunked our kid in bed, shut out the lights, and took off!

Instead, there is a “wind down” period of activities that are increasingly calming. After physical activity at the playground comes dinner (meeting physiological needs), followed by bath time (relaxing), then story time (a transition activity that takes place in the location where we want our kiddo to sleep), then lights out. Follow this same strategy for your puppy!

I start my own puppies off with alone time the very first day they come home. I start off confining them while I am present and in view. I’ll follow all the steps above and put them in a pen as I sit nearby watching TV or reading a book. They snack on their food dispensing toy. They may bumble around the pen and vocalize a little bit. I ignore this – I am confident their needs are met, and they are not alone. Then they curl up and fall asleep.

After 45 minutes or so, I wake them up, take them outside to go potty, and go on about my day. I follow this same routine at least once more during the day, and then follow the same pattern with their crate at bedtime.

The next day, I’ll start leaving the room during nap time, then start leaving the house. At first, it’s just to check the mail or get something from the car outside, but very quickly I work up to longer absences of 1-2 hours. This may seem like a lot of confinement, but remember, puppies sleep for 18-20 hours a day! By creating predictable “wind down” periods for my puppy, I’m preventing rehearsals of “overtired” behavior like excessive nipping and zoomies.

What do I do if my puppy freaks out?

If your puppy has a hard time with alone time, start by reviewing all of the steps above. Did you skip any? Can you change how you followed them – for example, could you tack on another 5-10 minutes to your walk, or put something else that your puppy enjoys more in their food-dispensing toy?

Did you start with confinement while you are present? If not, go back to that step. It’s generally easiest to get success here overnight, when your puppy needs to sleep.

If you started the alone time process with a crate and it’s not going well, try a secure pen that gives your puppy a bit more room to move around. Conversely, if you started with a pen and your pup is bouncing around and working themselves up, switch to using a crate.

Does it get better if you wait 5-10 minutes? Some puppies will protest for the first few minutes and quickly settle. This can generally be prevented in the first place by providing a food-dispensing toy stuffed with something valuable enough to distract them.

If your puppy is having a hard time with alone time or confinement, we can help. If you’re local to Providence, RI, our Puppy Day School program combines daytime care socialization with evening group classes and private coaching for you to enjoy with your puppy. If you’re too far away, our Puppy Jumpstart program can be done remotely via Zoom. Our team works with over a hundred puppies a year. Trust your puppy’s upbringing to the experts – contact us today!