Puppy too attached?

Chloe Louise is a sweetie at 5 months old. I have a question, though. Since she sometimes gets upset when she knows I'm leaving her, I thought she might enjoy riding in the car with me as I do errands. WELL - when I get out of the car without her, she whines, shakes, barks, and stares desperately at me out of the window as I walk away.

Now - is it a good thing to try to get her used to riding in the car with me (and this is just a passing puppy-fit phase), or should I just leave her at home?

I think it's ok for her to accompany you sometimes, because it is a great idea for them to get used riding in a car. BUT, leaving her in a car could put her at risk of being stolen... personally, I wouldn't do it. If you live near enough to places you can run errands, such as the Post office, etc. maybe you guys can walk to it and post your letter, etc. And, I bet if you brought her into the dry cleaners to do a quick pick-up of your cleaning, they wouldn't mind, how could they say no to a cute little puppy??

I agree with Desrae about the possibility of being stolen. The other concern I have, is if you lock and close the car windows, the car can heat up really fast, in a matter of minutes, and pose a real risk of Chloe overheating, especially since she is already over excited about you leaving her in the car..My personal opinion is that a dog, or child for that matter, should never be left unattended in a car. I'm not sure about Georgia, but in Calif. there is a law against leaving dogs alone in the car.

For Chloe's safety, maybe drive to your destination and then walk with her to the stores you need to go to.

You must never leave a dog in a car even if it is only for a few moments. In the winter the car acts like a refrigerator and traps freezing cold air. In the summer the temperature rises rapidly, it does not take long for a dog to overheat, they are not able to cool down in the same way we do, they rely on panting to cool down.


The RSPCA were called out to over 6,000 dogs trapped in cars in 2011!




I would never leave my dog in a car or outside a shop for fear of theft. People will steal for all sorts of reasons, it is not worth the risk.

Chloe will get used to you leaving her for short periods. Try this little and often. She will soon understand you are coming back and you will
find her a lot more relaxed about you going out.

Sydneys Mom said:

I'm not sure about Georgia, but in Calif. there is a law against leaving dogs alone in the car.

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Just to clarify, this is the specific law for California, for the benefit of our CA board members -- "Leave or confine an animal in any unattended motor vehicle under conditions that endanger the health or well-being of an animal due to heat, cold, lack of adequate ventilation, or lack of food or water, or other circumstances that could reasonably be expected to cause suffering, disability, or death to the animal."

I recently had a quick conversation with an Animal Control officer, and he said this basically means in Cali you -can- leave a dog alone in a car as long as the conditions are reasonable for it, i.e. parking in the shade, it's not hot outside, and very importantly, leaving it some water.

Getting back on topic though to answer Calandra, one thing we do for Skippy EVERY time we have to leave him alone, be it at home or in the car, is we leave him a treat he loves near him, but telling him to 'leave it' until the very last second when we step out of the house or close the car door. He still doesn't like being left alone but this 'distraction' does reduce/eliminate his whining+barking by at least 50%. Consistently doing this will teach your dog not to necessarily associate you leaving as a negative thing.

One time I left Skippy in the car with his treat to run into a Thai restaurant to pickup some take out, but it took longer than I thought.....I came back out and realized that I had totally forgotten to 'release' Skippy from his 'leave it' command and he had very obediently just waited. For a dog so crazy about treats, I was pretty darn impressed.

dandelos said:

Just to clarify, this is the specific law for California, for the benefit of our CA board members -- "Leave or confine an animal in any unattended motor vehicle under conditions that endanger the health or well-being of an animal due to heat, cold, lack of adequate ventilation, or lack of food or water, or other circumstances that could reasonably be expected to cause suffering, disability, or death to the animal."

I recently had a quick conversation with an Animal Control officer, and he said this basically means in Cali you -can- leave a dog alone in a car as long as the conditions are reasonable for it, i.e. parking in the shade, it's not hot outside, and very importantly, leaving it some water.

Getting back on topic though to answer Calandra, one thing we do for Skippy EVERY time we have to leave him alone, be it at home or in the car, is we leave him a treat he loves near him, but telling him to 'leave it' until the very last second when we step out of the house or close the car door. He still doesn't like being left alone but this 'distraction' does reduce/eliminate his whining+barking by at least 50%. Consistently doing this will teach your dog not to necessarily associate you leaving as a negative thing.

One time I left Skippy in the car with his treat to run into a Thai restaurant to pickup some take out, but it took longer than I thought.....I came back out and realized that I had totally forgotten to 'release' Skippy from his 'leave it' command and he had very obediently just waited. For a dog so crazy about treats, I was pretty darn impressed.

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That is very different from the conversation I had with Animal Control last summer. A dog was left in a car with the windows slightly open, under a tree for shade for approximately 15 mins. when Animal Control was called by the nearby vet office. The dog was in distress. It was 9am and 70 degrees outside. It took Animal Contro another 10 min. to arrive. The owner was cited. I was told that it is NEVER OK to leave an animal in a car unattended.

This is not a risk that I am EVER willing to take just for my own convenience under any circumstance. The health and well being of my dog is MORE IMPORTANT than saving myself a few minutes.

Sydneys Mom said:

That is very different from the conversation I had with Animal Control last summer. A dog was left in a car with the windows slightly open, under a tree for shade for approximately 15 mins. when Animal Control was called by the nearby vet office. The dog was in distress. It was 9am and 70 degrees outside. It took Animal Contro another 10 min. to arrive. The owner was cited. I was told that it is NEVER OK to leave an animal in a car unattended.

This is not a risk that I am EVER willing to take just for my own convenience under any circumstance. The health and well being of my dog is MORE IMPORTANT than saving myself a few minutes.

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I'm not by any means advocating that leaving a dog alone in a car (just to save a few minutes, as you put it) is okay just because the CA law says so. I was just clarifying what the law (in Cali) is. The Animal Control officer I spoke with corroborated it himself by literally admitting to me "there is no law that says you can't leave your dog alone in your car".

However, there's a very fine line -- even if your car is fully covered by shade, you have water out, the windows are fully down, and the temperature is seemingly low, at the end of the day it'll be up to the Animal Control officer to determine whether or not the dog is "in distress" (even if he truly isn't). I'm guessing something similar happened with the AC officer you encountered.

Ultimately, just be aware of the laws in each of your respective states/counties/cities/areas/etc. and use your common sense and err on the side of caution if you do decide to leave your dog alone in your cars.

This breed is one of the most stolen worldwide.

What it comes down to is: are you willing to risk losing her forever for the convenience of leaving her alone for a short time away of running errands? Or of her overheating in a car (which can happen in moments, in the shade, on a warm day as you'd have in your state, and may also be illegal).

Of course not. Leaving her in a car is -- definitely -- MORE distressing than being left alone at home where she knows her surroundings and feels safe.

Set against that -- short trips are an ideal way to start to train your dog to be alone *at home*. Give her a Kong to keep her busy for example. I pen mine, give a treat and they settle right down as they know the treat means I am heading out but *will be back* -- if 5 minutes or 5 hours, it doesn;t matter a jot to them. This is a critical owner obligation, to train a dog to be happy on its own or the dog will spend a life of regular distress, with separation anxiety -- this becomes an absolute nightmare for owners and no caring owner can possibly want this for their dog and it's very hard to untrain when the dog is older and it is an ingrained level of distress . ANY dog can be easily trained to be left on its own if started properly as a puppy so now is exactly the age. Ian Dunbar's book -- which I know I have suggested to you before as a free download -- gives lots of direction on how to train a dog to be left home alone.

Okay - after reading the other comments, I've changed my course of action. I won't take her in the car with me for errands. Sometimes when I leave home she gets very whiny (not all the time, but sometimes), so I thought maybe she'd like to be in the car with me - so I wouldn't be leaving her. BUT like I said before she has fits every time I leave her in the car even when it's just a few minutes.

So - probably better she have a fit at home for a few minutes after I leave and then settle down to her ex pen than to ride with me in the car, and then have a fit when I go into the store - witnessed by someone who calls animal control or someone who tries to swipe her.

Before having a dog, I'd often see people riding with their dogs so I guess I had that stuck in my mind. She can just ride with me when we're going someplace that she can go to as well.

As always, thanks for the feedback everyone and helping me figure out another puppy question!