Dare I Say: So Far, So Good?

Buddy is doing pretty good, so far. His foster parents told us he had major separation anxiety and he flipped out when they tried to crate him. (Like, tore the crate up and ended up hurting himself.) They also told us he tore up a sofa when he got out of the crate. (And we still took this dog???) Because he was abandoned before they got him, he's just super insecure. Like now that we have him, he just follows me or Matt (more Matt) around 24/7 and just always wants to be near us. Matt is fortunately home all this month, but I feel bad that his 3 weeks off he's just locked in at home, so I'm trying to work from home or at least come home for an hour or so to give him a break. Which is feasible, but also means that I have to get more done AT work when I'm actually there, so I've had less time to do things like.... blog. (Erm, it's important.) And it's just been kind of crazy come back from vacation and we're starting a new group next week and our new hire started this week. Sheesh.

So Matt crated him the first day and just went outside to mow the lawn to try and practice it...and he just sat in here and barked for twenty. straight. minutes. No breaks. Lots of drooling. Yesterday we decided to leave him out in the house when we went to the store, and we put our video camera on where he usually sits. He was FINE. He didn't even bark. He just sat and stared at the door - literally stared - as if willing us to return for 60 straight minutes.

Wonder if he'll do that for hours at a time?? He doesn't make any attempts to chew anything - we haven't even seen him put his mouth on anything. So I'm not really worried about that, and he doesn't even jump on anything. He is the sweetest little guy ever. He just wants to be loved and petted and he is so happy to see us. He has really gotten attached to Matt quickly. We're both trying to practice being really consistent and firm with things we want him to do - like wait for us to walk out the door before he comes out, etc. So, so far, he's done much better than we thought he would. Hopefully we can gradually increase the amount of time he's left alone.

Ya'll who own dogs: How long do you leave yours home? We are thinking it's realistic to work up to 6-7 hours a day??? I mean, they can hold their pee that long right??