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Leaving Your French Bulldog: How Long Is Too Long?

Leaving Your French Bulldog: How Long Is Too Long?

Most people have very busy schedules. It has been known that a busy lifestyle can start to have a negative impact on almost everything in your life.

You might begin to unknowingly neglect your partner, your kids, your pets and even yourself after a while. While humans can usually take care of themselves, it can be a different story for your pets. 

It can be a pretty big challenge to have to leave your dog alone. It can cause guilt and even fear that something bad will happen to it, almost like a mother leaving their child unattended.

There are many things that you can do to teach your dog how to handle this and prevent really bad things like separation anxiety from happening.

Your french bulldog is a pretty tough and independent animal. Unlike some other breeds, it can handle being left alone for a certain amount of time. However, even strong breeds can't handle being left alone for too long before it begins to impact their emotions. 

What Can You Do If You Have to Leave Your Dog Alone?

None of the following tips will be super easy to do for anyone. These are just suggestions and alternatives that you can take into consideration.

They all depend on how much money you can spend, how much time you have during the day, what kind of people will be involved, and lots of other things.

1- Try to Ask Your Job to Allow Remote Work

This, of course, depends on what field you work in and what kind of job you have. If you have a job that is sort of like a desk job or a job that is mainly done on the computer, try throwing this idea at your employer. If not, you can always try to seek out remote work to replace your current job. 

Remote work is pretty easy to do even for a beginner. According to Margrethe H. Olson, people that work remotely usually have better self-discipline and responsibility than average people.

2- Try to Bring Your French Bulldog to Work

If you can't switch to a remote position, try asking your employer if you can bring your dog to work with you instead.

This can be an even better option but you still have to consider the type of work you do. You don't want to bring your french bulldog to work just so that someone else can babysit it too.

Make sure that you're also well informed on your dog's behavior in front of strangers, children, and other things.

Maybe your coworkers like to crack a lot of jokes and laugh loudly or maybe the workplace gets busy during certain hours and that causes a lot of calamities. Your dog might not like this and may even act out as a result.

3- Come Home on Your Breaks

If you work close to home and have long lunches or breaks scheduled, make the attempt to use some of that time to go check on your dog.

You can even try spending your entire breaks or lunches with your french bulldog just to reassure yourself that everything is fine.

4- Know Anyone Working Remotely? Ask Them to Watch the Dog

It is worth a try, but you probably won't be able to switch to a remote position at your current job. If not, try to ask any other people in your family that work from home or stay at home if they could babysit your french bulldog for you.

Make sure to ask them if they like dogs and if there's enough room in their home or space for him. 

5- Set up a Walk for Your French Bulldog

Ask someone that you trust if they could at least try stopping at the house when you're not there and walking your french bulldog for you.

This can be anyone from a neighbor to one of your friends or one of their kids. You can also try to offer an incentive, such as paying them a fee or doing a favor for them in exchange.

6- Consult a Professional Dog Walker

Try getting a professional to walk your french bulldog. This may be the better option anyway, as they will have lots of experience and can probably make it more comfortable.

You could also try asking them to take it to a park for a while to go on a special route so they are spending a lot of time with it while you're away. If you decide to hire one, make sure you do your research and pick a good one.

7- Go with a Dog Daycare

Even though this is the last option for you to consider, it can be a great one since most dogs enjoy being around other dogs.

This can be one of the best things you could do for the dog in general because the dog will have lots of interaction, care, and attention. Make sure that you are looking at a daycare that is well kept and professional.

How Long Is Too Long to Be Away?

No matter what methods you use to keep the distance minimal, you should never be away from your french bulldog for too long. Here is a simple guideline to follow based on the dog's age:

Puppies: Try to keep the distance or time away under 2 hours every day. Puppies are not ready to be alone for that amount of time and aren't used to being alone for that long.

They have to urinate much more than an adult dog and can easily develop separation anxiety as a result. According to AVMA Journals, dogs that are owned by a single adult human are 2.5 times more likely to develop this.

Adult Dogs: Adult dogs can be left alone for up to six hours each day. At this age in their life, they are used to being home alone and are actually used to just sleeping whenever you are not there.

Senior Dogs: Older dogs also have a maximum limit of 6 hours. This is because older dogs slowly begin to have the same problems as puppies when they get older. They have trouble with their bladder and have to urinate more, they may accidentally hurt themselves, etc.

What Could Happen If the Dog Is Left Alone?

There are many things that could happen while the dog is alone. They can develop certain behaviors like scratching or biting.

They can also start to bite on the furniture in the home and eat way more food than it knows it is supposed to, or start to eat the food of the other pets in your home. 

Just like a child, if it knows that you won't be around to discipline it when it is misbehaving, it is more likely to do something bad. Your french bulldog could also get lost in the home. 

Dealing with damage to the furniture and clothing is easy and those things can be easily replaced in no time.

However, if your dog gets lost, that turns into an opportunity for the dog to escape the house. Luckily, there are certain GPS devices that you can purchase to track it while you're away.

How to Train Your French Bulldog to Be Home Alone

Training your dog to handle being alone for hours at a time is the best thing that you can to rid yourself of the guilt and fear while you're not in its presence.

As soon as you get a new dog, you need to start practicing this right away. Start teaching your french bulldog that being home by itself is fine and that you will be back eventually.

Try these steps and keep a record of what happens:

Step 1: Prepare yourself to leave the house and go to the door. If you see that your dog is starting to act panicky or worried, just ignore this so that it becomes normal to it. Try doing this at least 3 or 4  times a day to get it in the dog's mind.

Step 2: When you get home, the first thing you should do is try not to greet your dog right away. When you do this, you are letting the dog know that your return is not something to be celebrated, it is just a normal situation that it does not need to celebrate.

Step 3: When you get back home, tell your dog to go to bed or go lay down. After it goes to lay down, then you can greet it with warm affection and possibly reward it for behaving.

You might also want to keep in mind that when you are leaving home and you try to tell your dogs goodbye, they might take this as a sign that they are supposed to come with you. Try leaving the house without saying anything and this might also help it get used to you leaving.

According to Science Direct, you could also try playing a game with your french bulldog in the first 30 minutes of you getting back home. This will decrease the risk of developing separation anxiety.

Additional Things to Do to Help the Dog Adjust

There are actually two more things that you can do before you leave the house to go to work to help your french bulldog adjust to you being away.

The first thing you can do is give your french bulldog an area where it will be comfortable. When it finally gets used to being at home by itself, it will be able to be at home without supervision.

The second thing you can do is get your dog worked out and tired before you leave the house. Start the morning with exercise for your french bulldog and learn the many benefits of walking for both of you.

Once you start walking with your dog in the morning it will probably be tired when it gets home. This will decrease the chances of it giving you trouble whenever you want to leave the house.

Tips and Tricks for Your French Bulldog

Leave toys, treats, and other things around for your dog so that it can try to occupy itself during downtime. Here are two great tips that you can take into consideration:

1- Make Food Automatically Accessible

There are machines or toys that you can buy that will release food or treats automatically, depending on certain actions that the dog does.

Most dog owners take advantage of this when they are home but busy with a project or work or anything else. This will help the dog stay distracted while you are away.

According to this study, chewy dog toys with the jerky on them can actually improve jaw strength.

2- Choose Big Toys

It will be great to leave the dog with things to do so that it won't get bored or worried. It can also prevent it from having accidents around the house.

However, you might want to invest in toys that are bigger in size. Also, choose ones that don't have lots of small parts to it. This will help prevent your dog from accidentally choking on anything.

Additional Tips for When You Return Home

If you love giving your dog affection and attention when you get home, it might be hard to just ignore it when you leave or when you get back home.

If that's the case, you can always try to play games or take your dog to other places around other animals that way it is getting the highest level of interaction possible.

Also, keep in mind that you should also let your dog stretch and get some exercise after spending so much time alone in the house. It will help your dog get rid of all of the energy that didn't go to use while it was indoors.

Also, don't give your french bulldog treats or rewards every time that you come home, or it will always expect it.

Remember That It Depends on the Dog

According to Plos One, dog behavior can vary depending on the genetic makeup of the actual dog. With that being said, since you own a french bulldog, you know that this breed of dog generally does well when it is left alone. However, that doesn't mean that you should be loose with your regimens and practices. 

Try taking a look at this video by Chewy to get a better understanding of how you can adjust to leaving your french bulldog at home alone.