[Selestiel]

Hi fellow V parents!
Coming to you for your expert advice: how to teach/get the pup to stay at home alone, in peace and quiet? We live in an apartment building and leaving ours at home honestly makes me have panic attacks on behalf of the neighbours, and his own wellbeing.

Context: Our boy Buckwheat is now 4.5 months, and I work from home so I am constantly at home; except when I have to leave for errands or appointments.

Our crate training strategies have pretty much failed with a bang as he breaks himself out of it even when having his bed in there along with frozen Kongs and toys to entertain himself, and has been walked/pottied/tired out; as a result of the breaking-out he has torn skin off his snout twice, so we no longer put him in the crate when leaving home.
The one time since he has been left alone, he had made a pee-pool out of the hallway, broken into the cleaning pantry and attacked the vacuum hose, and was screaming his head off (I'd been gone for about 2 hours for a visit to the dentist's) when I came back. Again, he had Kongs with treats supplied but has seemed to not bother with them for longer than 10mins (only a little bit had been licked through).

Besides the aforementioned which is our main and most painful issue, behaviour-wise he's a rather calm pup (compared to some of the tales I've read on here), knows his basic commands, sleeps contentedly (wherever his bed is!) or plays with his favourite squeaky lion toy whilst I work, but being left alone without me in sight - he will absolutely not have it.

Any and all advice, experience stories or strategies on how to turn this around and make him comfortable with being alone and just sleeping through my absence will be highly appreciated, I thank you all in advance!

Picture of Buckwheat for your enjoyment below:

 

[texasred]

Can he be crated with you in the same room?

 

[BellaVT]

Beautiful dog, but I am a sucker for Vizslas!

I worry that the answer might be "you can't expect to leave a 4 month old Vizsla alone for 2 hours". I mean, sometimes you can get away with it, but unless everything lines up perfectly it is likely to go the way you experienced. A more realistic goal might be to work toward having a dog that you can create eventually, and just accept that you'll need a dog sitter until the dog is a little older. For better or worse, you've got the equivalent of a 3 year old human child who can't be left alone.

Second, there are crates that a dog cannot break out of, and where they are much less likely to injure themselves if they try. You are definitely right not to leave your dog in a crate where they injure themselves, but changing crates might help. At 2 years old we do fine in any crate, but you might need one designed more like this: https://rufflandkennels.com. Also, are you covering the crate? We usually had a calmer dog when the crate was small, comfy, and completely dark.

Good luck, it will get easier as your dog gets older.

 

[TrumpetBlast]

The key is to work up to time alone. Leaving for very small increments at a time will become more secure that you will return. I'm talking twenty seconds to begin with, then coming back. Then slowly working up to a minute or two. It's so important that you don't come back in the door when he's crying or carrying on, else he will equate his behavior as productive.
I don't think vizslas ever like being alone, but they can learn to adapt. Like BellaVT mentioned, a lot of it has to do with maturity.

 

[Selestiel]

Can he be crated with you in the same room?

No, not really - he seems to just want to be out and not restricted, although I guess we can certainly start testing this option also - and building up time he is in the crate and alone.

 

[Selestiel]

Beautiful dog, but I am a sucker for Vizslas!

I worry that the answer might be "you can't expect to leave a 4 month old Vizsla alone for 2 hours". I mean, sometimes you can get away with it, but unless everything lines up perfectly it is likely to go the way you experienced. A more realistic goal might be to work toward having a dog that you can create eventually, and just accept that you'll need a dog sitter until the dog is a little older. For better or worse, you've got the equivalent of a 3 year old human child who can't be left alone.

Second, there are crates that a dog cannot break out of, and where they are much less likely to injure themselves if they try. You are definitely right not to leave your dog in a crate where they injure themselves, but changing crates might help. At 2 years old we do fine in any crate, but you might need one designed more like this: https://rufflandkennels.com. Also, are you covering the crate? We usually had a calmer dog when the crate was small, comfy, and completely dark.

Good luck, it will get easier as your dog gets older.

Hi! Yes, his crate is completely covered bar the door part Thanks for the tip on the different crate type, I will look into it for sure!

I do understand completely that Vs are super-clingy, that was one of the reasons we chose a V - however unfortunately we don't yet have dog-friendly doctors' offices so there are some times he will need to manage on his own. The best way forward from the comments seems to be to start from scratch with building alone time so that's what we will try.
Definitely appreciate that Buckwheat is still a baby and thus struggles more with frustration at being without me - in your own experience, did you feel like your V got the idea of crating/being alone when taught when they were a smaller pup? My hope is that being at a highly teachable age he will just get used to it easier or learn it easier - does that actually happen?

Thanks again for your input!

 

[lw19]

Beautiful pup! To echo what others have said, if it were my dog, I'd start back at the basics of crate training. I think that's the first thing that needs to be taught. A different crate will very likely be needed for the safety of your dog. At his current age, I would go as far as requiring all naps to be done in the crate. No furniture napping or lap napping until he is comfortable with the crate. Start with crating him in the same room as you for naps while you work. Slowly progress to moving the crate wherever you'd prefer to have the crate to permanently be. Practice leaving him alone in his crate with you out of sight every day. Even if you have no plans to leave the house.

I wouldn't even attempt to leave the house with the dog out of the crate for quite some time. My V is 1 year and 4 months old and just yesterday was the first time I let her roam the house out of her crate while no one was home. She did great! Not saying this is right or wrong, just what I've done with mine.

I think so much of the behavior is tied to age. From my experience my pup seemed to have a lot more "separation anxiety" (if you want to call it that) when she was younger. They grow out of it and adapt if you work on it with them consistently at this age. So stay optimistic and celebrate small improvements! The improvements will quickly compound over time if you stay consistent.

Again, just want to emphasize that this is what I would do if were my dog.
I'm sure there are better approaches to take

 

[johnes]

Will also echo going back to crate training. Unfortunately it will take time and not giving in to their cries and yelping. If you haven’t done already you can try playing lots while he is inside the crate. Also nap time in the crate. He needs to see his crate as his own safe place where he can be happy and have rest.

In order to leave him by himself, you really need to build up the time of him being alone. Start by stepping outside for a few seconds or minutes and build it up. He will soon know that you are coming back. We also have a word to indicate that we will be away. We say ‘see you later’ and that means he is not coming with us but we will be back. Also, it helps when he is exercised and tired before you leave him by himself.
This will take time but it’s worth it. Now at three years old, we can leave our V for hours and he will just happily nap the whole day while we are away.

P.S. we also fund it helpful having house rules like what he can or cannot touch in the house or which room he is not allowed.