House training/ leaving dog alone

[arda6297]

Hey everyone!

My little guy is 5 months old now and is doing pretty well! He is a golden retriever/german shepherd mix, but obviously he is completely black!!

My question to everyone is how you guys worked on leaving your dogs home alone. I go to the gym about 3 times a week, and sometimes after the gym I run errands so he’s been home alone for up to 4 hours before and everything seemed fine, however, he was crated.

I want to know when you guys started letting your dogs free roam at home, and maybe if crating for up to 6 hours is too much? I would like to start working more and I lose shifts because I worry about leaving him crated for 7-9 hours. Hes only 5 months so maybe I just stay part-time until he is older, but want to know how you guys build up from that!

He hasnt has any accidents for a couple weeks but I wont call him fully trained yet since it might all go down when he starts adolescence. But he does let me know when he needs to potty when hes in and out the crate. Our home also has no baby gates so he’s kind of exposed to every open space! We close the doors to our bedroom but access to the basement, living room and kitchen is completely open! We make sure that everything is clean because he loves to counter surf

He doesn’t snt wear a house line anymore, and his recall is good I’d say (he listens, but when he wants to!)

TL;DR: When did you leave your dog home alone for long periods of time (6 hours+), was he crated or free roaming, and how did you train/start that?

Thanks!!

 

[karenmonique]

@arda6297 Sadly, I'm kind of struggling with the exact same thing. Except I can't even go to the gym without my puppy going ballistic, especially in the crate. How did you get your puppy to stay calm in the crate when you leave? Mine seems even more distressed than without it.

 

[arda6297]

@karenmonique I honestly don’t even know! I did like increments of leaving. So when I take out the trash or just go upstairs for a couple of minutes (crate is in the living room) and if he stays quiet I would treat him. Even if its for a split second.

He used to bark A LOT as well so when he was quiet even for 1 second I’d come back with a treat. It was a lot of going and coming back until eventually he learnt. Also really tire your dog out before crating him. Id make sure he ate, had a walk or played and pottied then Id leave.

 

[karenmonique]

@arda6297 Thank you for the reply! Do you have any idea how long it took you to see results? I really need to get back in shape but I also don’t want to distress my puppy by progressing too fast.

 

[arda6297]

@karenmonique I know how you feel! Ill tell you now too, his crate training is nowhere near perfect, he doesn’t like to go in there sometimes so its still hard but its progress!! Sometimes even when I crate him and I go upstairs he’s quiet, but after a little bit if he hears any noise he’ll start barking so sometimes I ignore it or check if he needs to potty but I put him right back in!

At first, I think he did well within a week or so? But he is not fully crate trained so its still a curve! But as for him being quiet when I leave, Id say maybe a week! I just randomly left one day and when I came back he was asleep (but he barks/wakes up when I walk in)

But for the interval training, without leaving too far, again, about a week of consistency! You can try to even dedicate a time for that for 10-15 minutes!

Does your dog bark in the crate when youre around as well?

 

[karenmonique]

@arda6297 I don’t think I’m going to crate train her until she’s older. She doesn’t handle the crate well at all. She’s fine as long as the crate is in the room with me, but the moment we’re in different rooms she flips out, even worse once we leave the apartment. Sadly I can’t just ignore her, since the walls are thin and my neighbours can sadly hear her quite well as I found out the other day.

We do leash her to an object though, so she can’t just roam free and destroy stuff. I’ll just try to attempt your method with her being leashed rather than crated, I hope that’ll do the trick. Also left on some relaxing music for her just now so we’ll see!

But a week sounds doable, especially with Easter around we’ll have more time to practice! Thank you for the encouragement

 

[arda6297]

@karenmonique Oh my yeah thats totally understandable

Hopefully that will do the trick!! And I do hope that crate training at an older age becomes easier.

Hope all works out for you! You’ve got this!