Whether you are already a dog owner or about to be, you probably already know that dogs hate being alone. When left alone, they often display peculiar and even harmful behavior such as urinating, defecating, destroying furniture and even self-harm on occasions. If you are a working dog owner who has little option but to leave the dog at home alone, you might want to go through these five reasons as to why the dogs behave the way they do on being left alone.
The Dog Doesn’t Know If/When You Will Come Back
Just like a small child, a dog has no idea when or if you will come back to it. As a result, your pooch feels abandoned, scared and lonely in the house, as soon as you leave and the doors are shut. They do not exactly have an acute sense of time either and that doesn’t help their separation anxiety. Of course, over the course of time and with proper methods, a dog can get used to the idea of its owner leaving and coming back, but it will take a good deal of well-directed planning and time.
They Don’t Have Anything to Do
When you are at home, you are probably reading a book, watching TV, playing games, interacting with people and so on, but a dog can’t do any of that and therefore, it has no stimulation. This has the potential to drive anyone crazy, let alone an animal as jovial, interactive and energetic as a dog. Keeping gentle music playing in the background while you leave is a good way to calm your pooch down, but that’s not all. Give your dog lots of toys to play with while you are not there and be sure to take the sad pooch out for a walk or some playtime when you get back.
Peeing and Pooping Problems
Dogs that have been toilet trained, know that it’s not right to pee or poop in the house and since they are going to be in the house for a very long time once you leave, they are faced with two options and none of them is desirable. They can either choose to do it in the house or hold it in, and while the former seems like a bad habit, the latter can seriously harm the dog’s health. It is very likely that they will try to hold it in for as long as they can and then release it when they can’t; therefore, harming themselves and getting a bad name for doing something that’s only natural. Make sure that you get your dog the necessary toilet training so that they know where to pee and poop in the house when you are not there.
Dogs are social creatures and if you must leave them alone for long hours, it’s best to make sure that you at least have two dogs so that they can keep each other company. If that’s not an option, you can still live with a pooch, but you will definitely have to put in some extra efforts to make up for the lost time. After all, life is short and dogs do not live even half as long as most of us, so it only makes sense that we make the best of the time we have with our pooches.