Puppy raising
How to teach a puppy to be alone
Separation anxiety is almost entirely preventable and almost never prevented, because a new puppy is never alone until the day it has to be. Our trainers teach alone time as a skill like sit, from week one, and here is the routine.
Last reviewed September 11, 2026 · by the Best Dog University Team
Why it matters
A puppy that has never been alone has no reason to believe you come back.
A puppy arrives from a litter where it was never alone and joins a family that takes a week off to settle it in, carries it everywhere and sleeps beside its crate, and then on Monday leaves it for eight hours. The puppy has no evidence that people come back, and it panics, and the panic is rehearsed every weekday until it is separation anxiety. The alternative is to teach being alone as a skill: absences so short the puppy cannot fail, a crate that means good things, departures that are boring, and a slow growth in the time. A puppy taught this way finds absence ordinary by twelve weeks, and the return to work is a non-event. It is the single most valuable thing a family does in the first month, and the most skipped.
- Never alone in the litter, never alone in week one, then eight hours on Monday
- No evidence that people come back
- Taught as a skill, absences too short to fail
- Ordinary by twelve weeks if built on purpose
The method
Seven steps, from one minute in the next room to a morning alone.
The crate is made a good place first, with meals and naps inside it, because it is where alone time happens. A camera on the crate from the first absence shows what is actually happening rather than what you fear.
Alone while you are home: the puppy in the crate with a chew, you in another room, for one minute, then five, then twenty, several times a day from the first week
Real departures: out the door for a minute and back, then ten, then thirty, over the first two weeks, with a trip out to the spot before each
Departures without ceremony: no speeches, no long goodbyes, keys picked up a dozen times a day so they predict nothing
Returns calm: in the door, a trip out to the spot, and the greeting once the puppy is quiet and has relieved itself
A routine: the same walk, meals, training and rest at the same times, so the puppy knows when the absences come and when you are back
A midday break from a family member or a walker until the bladder can manage a morning, around five to six months
Absences grown only as fast as the camera shows the puppy settling, and a step back for a week if it stops
The mistakes
A week of constant company, the dramatic departure, too long too soon, and a dog for company.
The week of constant company is the mistake that creates the problem: a puppy carried everywhere for a week has a harder first absence than one that spent twenty minutes in the crate in the next room on day two. The dramatic departure, the speech and the cuddle and the sad face, teaches the puppy that leaving is a big event, and the return greeting that lasts five minutes teaches it that absences end in a party worth waiting anxiously for. Too long too soon, a four-hour absence at ten weeks, produces a soiled crate and a puppy that has learned absence means misery. And a second dog for company rarely helps a dog that is anxious about its people, and often produces two anxious dogs.
A puppy that whines for a few minutes and settles is learning. A puppy that cries for the whole absence, soils the crate or scrabbles at the bars is not, and the absences go back to seconds.
- Alone time from day two, not day ten
- Boring departures, calm returns
- Never too long too soon
- A second dog is not the fix
- Whining then settling is learning; the whole absence is not
Proofing around Houston
Long commutes, summer puppies indoors, and families that have been home since 2020.
Houston commutes turn a workday into a ten-hour absence, which no puppy manages and few adult dogs should, so the midday break is a fixture of a Houston puppy's plan for months and often for life. Summer puppies spend their days indoors in the air conditioning, which makes the crate the coolest and safest place in the house and the alone-time sessions easy to run in the hot hours. A lot of Houston families have worked from home since 2020 and their puppies have never been alone, which produces the anxious adolescent when the office returns; the work-from-home guide on this site covers building alone time while you are in the house. Our trainers set up the first sessions in the puppy bundle.
- A midday break for months, and often for life
- The crate in the air conditioning in summer
- Work-from-home puppies that were never alone
- The first sessions set up in the puppy bundle
When to call
A puppy that panics rather than protests, or a family that has already gone back to work.
A puppy that screams, drools, soils the crate and scrabbles at the bars through every absence is panicking rather than protesting, and it needs the separation plan, absences back to seconds with a camera, and a veterinary conversation if it is hurting itself; the separation anxiety page describes both the program and the weekday plan. A family that has already gone back to work with a puppy that was never alone needs the plan and a midday walker this week. The Puppy Development Bundle at $550 or $750 in-home sets up alone time in the first session, and a Platinum stay at $3,750 builds the foundation for a puppy or adolescent that already panics, with unlimited lessons afterwards to run the plan at home.
The programs
Programs that build alone time.
The puppy bundle for the gradual version from week one, Platinum for the puppy that already panics, lessons at home for the weekday plan.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this.
How long can I leave a puppy alone?
About two hours in a crate at eight weeks, an hour more each month, and a full morning around five to six months, if alone time has been built on purpose from the first week. A puppy left for eight hours at ten weeks has a soiled crate and the start of separation anxiety.
Should I leave my new puppy alone in the first week?
Yes, in minutes: the puppy in the crate with a chew in another room while you are home, then out the door for a minute and back. A puppy carried everywhere for a week has a much harder first real absence than one that practiced from day two.
My puppy cries when I leave the room. Is that separation anxiety?
At eight weeks it is a puppy that has never been alone, not anxiety, and a few minutes of crying that settles is learning. Build the absences in minutes, give it a chew, and make departures boring. A puppy that screams and soils the crate through every absence needs the separation plan now.
Should I get a second dog so my puppy is not alone?
No. A puppy anxious about being without its people is not comforted by a dog, and a second dog often learns the anxiety rather than curing it. Build alone time as a skill first; a second dog, if you want one, comes later for its own reasons.
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