Life is increasingly confusing for Ella. The 12-year-old dog belonged to an elderly couple, and she was never left alone. At an advanced age, she now has to learn to be alone for the first time. Her master has died and, although her mistress is still there, she sometimes has to go shopping or to the doctor.
And Ella then stays home alone. That’s a tragedy for the dog and stressful for her owner. Whenever possible, she sneaks out of the house while the dog is sleeping, hoping it won’t wake up before she returns.
“Being alone is simply not in a dog’s nature, ” says dog trainer Kristina Ziemer-Falke. They are pack animals and depend on a partner. If you want to have a dog but are away from home all day, you have to find an alternative place for the dog to spend the day – for example with dog sitters.
Most dogs have to spend at least some time on their own. But even animals that can be cared for around the clock should learn to be alone – after all, those conditions could change at some point.
The good news: A well-trained dog can survive being left alone for hours without any problems, says Katrin Umlauf from the German Animal Welfare Association. However, the animal should have got some exercise and emptied its bladder and bowels beforehand.
“Only in exceptional cases should an adult dog be left alone for much longer than four hours, the maximum time is six hours, ” says Umlauf.
The expert advises video recordings – preferably together with a dog trainer – to draw conclusions about the animal’s state of mind from its behaviour when it is alone at home. This also involves the question of whether the animal is afraid or is upset because it can no longer check on its human. Dogs that are regularly left alone for too long can destroy furniture or other objects; they bark or soil the apartment.
According to dog trainer Steffi Krauss, however, there are also dogs that suffer silently. A dog upset by being alone can follow its owner at every turn after his return home. As soon as he is sure that his master or mistress will stay, he falls into a deep sleep. That’s because he is completely exhausted after the hours of restless loneliness.
To prevent this from happening, training should already begin when the dog is a puppy. However, puppies should not really be left alone yet. Training is done by leaving the room, closing the door – and opening it again immediately. The puppy should be ignored when leaving and coming back, explains Krauss. After all, the young dog should not learn that it is a special occasion if their own leaves.
It is important to keep the time span at the beginning so short that the dog doesn’t even have time to worry – it should only be a matter of seconds. The duration should only be increased slowly. During this time, there should always be someone there to step in and take care of the dog.
The training of an adult dog that has already had bad experiences being alone often has to happen even more gradually. As with the puppies, the doors in your home can be initially closed several times a day for a very short time, so that the dog is alone in a room. The time span is then only slowly extended to a few minutes.
And because the dog has already learned that it will immediately be left alone when its owner, for example, picks up their keys or puts on their jacket, these key stimuli should be counteracted. This works with what at first glance appears to be unusual training: “You can take your handbag with you to the toilet, put on your good shoes while watching TV and take your bunch of keys with you to hang up your laundry, ” Krauss suggests. – dpa
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