Puppy Home Alone Tips

Not every dog will experience true separation anxiety but most puppies and dogs do need help learning how to be safe and comfortable being home alone! We can’t guarantee that our puppies won’t develop separation anxiety (as there is a huge genetic factor involved) but we can try to give our puppies the best chance to prevent their fear of being alone! Here are some tips for teaching your puppy how to be comfortable being alone:

Prevent any scary alone time experiences – Don’t leave your puppy along for longer than they can handle. If you do, you could increase their fear of being alone, rather than reduce it. Try to avoid any experiences where they are left alone to panic!

Expand circle of friends – Expand your puppies circle of friends so they have a large group of familiar permanent people in their lives! This helps if you ever need to leave your puppy with a friend or family member in the future.

Play puppy peekaboo – Play puppy peekaboo to teach your puppy that things that disappear don’t stop existing. This is can be a fun game of hide and seek around the house!

Practice leaving your puppy – Practice gradually departures so they learn that when you leave, you will always come back!

Provide exercise and enrichment! – Give your puppy opportunities to express their natural tendencies. Give them an outlet for chewing, chasing, running, sniffing, and playing! This can greatly affect how relaxed your puppy is when being left alone.

If you are noticing extreme separation anxiety in a young puppy, your puppy might have a genetic fear to being alone. It is more uncommon, but it is not impossible. My young puppy showed extreme separation anxiety from me almost immediately after I got her at 8 weeks old.  These puppies will benefit for a more targets and systematic separation anxiety training protocol!