# 8 month old Golden alone for four hours a day? + playing rough



## Harleysmum (Aug 19, 2014)

You can start practising leaving now even if you only walk up the street and back. The most important thing is that you make absolutely no fuss about leaving or coming back - don't even acknowledge her, just straight out the door and don't look back. When you come back after 10 minutes don't acknowledge her, just walk in put your stuff away without looking at her. If she makes a fuss don't interact with her until she is calm. Once she is calm you can call her to you for a pat. You can practise this over and over for short periods. She will then accept your coming and going as of no consequence. By September she will be a pro and four hours is not too long. I suspect it will be harder for you than for her. Nonchalance is the key here.


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## Marcus (Aug 24, 2014)

Agreed with Harleysmum. Ben has been left alone for 4-5 hour blocks since we got him. 

When we come home and leave. We don't say bye or even acknowledge him when we come home until we're settled about 5 min after we get home. Then we say hi. 

Start now and slowly build up the time. They get used to it.


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## Rkaymay (May 12, 2014)

Yep. Zelda is left alone anywhere from 4-8 hours (the latter being a very rare case in which our schedules just don't match up well). We say "bye Z, be good", and she watches for us out the window fairly calmly. She will be okay. 

Regarding the playing, don't worry. It is very normal. It is a game we called "Bitey Face", that sometimes comes equipped with growls too. Dogs love it; some humans can tolerate it and others can't. I let Zelda play as she wants, but if it really bothers you, you can discourage it by redirecting when they begin to play it. It is not a warning sign for aggression, though.


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## BuddyinFrance (May 20, 2015)

Whenever it is possible I take Buddy on a nice walk before I leave him to make sure he burns off a bit of energy. I also leave him a lovely frozen kong and of course a couple of his favourite chew toys which I hide around the room ( hide them so that she finds them easily not so that she digs up the furniture to get them). I also left the radio on sometimes so he had some background noise but I stopped doing that when I saw he was fine. Agree too with the other comments here about coming in and leaving as if nothing is happening without saying hello or goodbye. Your lovely girl will be fine. She will probably sleep most of the time!


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## thorbreafortuna (Jun 9, 2013)

All pups are different but 4 hours is not a long time. We've left Thor for about that long since that age. At first he was still crated, but we soon left him gated in the kitchen and then shortly after he was given the run of the house. What we discovered with our pup is that he didn't touch anything while we were gone. Any potential mischief was saved for when we were around as an attempt to engage us. When he's alone he just sleeps.


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## Cpc1972 (Feb 23, 2015)

We are kind of in the same situation. We are home all day with Chloe. We didn't leave her at all completely alone for like a month. Then a appointment came up so we had no choice and we left her in a gated kitchen. Your pup will be fine. Chloe has stayed alone now for about four hours. She now gets the downstairs if we are going to only be gone a hour or so. We still gate her in the kitchen if it's going to be longer then that. She will be six months this week.


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