u/ComfortableBudget564

Hi everyone!

Apologies in advance for the long post but thank you for reading! We have a now 8.5 month old whippet puppy who has been home with us since she was 3 months old. She is our first ever dog and such a sweet heart. We did do research for a while before we brought her home but honestly it has been a lot of learning as we go especially since she is our first dog.

We have been struggling with alone time / separation training. Since she is our first dog it did take us some time to get used to everything - sounds, cues, schedules, etc. and I made the mistake of not doing much dedicated alone time / separation training up until maybe she was 4.5-5 months old. And progress has been very very slow with this as well as her comfortability with day time crate time. She learned night time crate time very fast and sleeps the full night there with no issues, but day time crate time took a lot longer- we took our time and worked our way up slowly and now she is comfortable at around 2hrs per daytime crate session, but this is only when we are home or nearby. We encourage napping in her crate and crate time when we’re home so she doesn’t associate the crate with us leaving.

For alone time, we have gotten up to 1.5 hours in her crate when we were out of the house a few times before, but that was after a really big sniffy forest walk which we typically do on weekends.
More consistently, we are up to about 20-25 minutes right now which we practice during evenings since I work 9-5 and she is not left at home alone during my work day since she isn’t comfortable yet for that duration…we’ve relied heavily on doggy daycare and family support (thankfully my parents are retired and live nearby so they don’t mind our pup staying with them a few days a week while I’m at work). But I want to change this - I would like for her to become comfortable alone & in her crate for up to 4 hrs if possible. I work nearby home and can stop by for my lunch hour, so the ideal scenario would be if she could be calm / rest in her crate for 3.5-4 hrs at a time maximum. My biggest worry is when she goes into her first heat and we can’t rely on daycare during that time…I won’t be able to take vacation for the duration of her heat cycle, but won’t have much choice if she isn’t comfortable at home alone for half days yet even that time comes.

I should note we have observed that she will escalate sometimes after we leave but doesn’t whine or anything before we leave. She is more alert and will be in her crate then pop her head up if she hears our leaving cues…we have a camera and we notice that sometimes she ends up laying her head back down and relaxing or sleeping, but sometimes she will whine loudly and paw at her crate mat, then lay down and cycle through this sequence - escalating then trying to settle until we get back. Which is not ideal and distressing to see :(

Also we want to note we feed all her meals in the crate, we give her treats in the crate and have done Susan Garrett’s crate games with her.

Looking for some advice and help with getting her comfortable with longer durations of alone time and increasing crate time duration as well. Would greatly appreciate it. There is so much info online and it’s quite overwhelming so looking for advice on what has worked for you and your whippets :) thanks so much