can,t leave harley on his own .

harley is now 1 year old and up to now we have never left harley on his own due to there always being someone around the house i have a van with the rear converded into a day time kennel as it were, with the rear doors open i have a guard across and he is quit happy to be with me at work all day , now my son is married and away and my daughter at uni , myself and the wife went out the other night to dinner so we put harley in his run that we made in our garage which has loads of room and a cosy kennel with all his toys etc . radio on and the light left on . after 2 hours we returned to here him howling barking crying and sounding very distressed , we spoke to our freinds next door they said harley was doing it all the time we were out , he had also chew part of the wooden section of the run into tiny peices . has anyone any ideas on how we can get him settled as i dont like him getting into this state . thanks folks in advance .

The only thing you can do is to gradually build up the time he's left.

Start with just closing the door & walking away - then immediately return. Build up the time in tiny stages - just a minute extra each time, and if at any time he appears distressed, go back one stage & try again.

Also, don't make any fuss when you leave him or when you come back. Just act as though it's the most normal thing in the world. It'll help him stay calm.

You might also benefit from taking him for a good walk before you leave him.

good idea thanks for that .

Let us know how you get on - it might help others in the same boat!

will do

I agree with the advice given above. It should hopefully work. You could in addition leave the television or radio on to provide some 'comfort' noise.

Agree with Caryll on this. You can also do multiple training sessions in a single day. You also have to make sure that once he is used to being on his own that you leave him a couple of times a week so he doesn't get used to having someone around all the time again. Suki was very destructive when we first got her but she is good on her own now for about 8 hours.

I'm sure this is a common problem with allot of dogs. Like already suggested the best thing is to start small and build the time up. Would love to hear how you get on and what you find works best for you

We had a similar issue with darcy, my son got a job & she'd never been left on her own, we just used the method caryll suggests and it worked perfectly, I can now go shopping & leave her up to 3 hours on her own, she'd probably be fine for longer but mummy misses her to much