Can A Havanese Be Left Alone During the Day? 4 Reasons They Should NOT

In today’s busy world, more and more dog owners are finding themselves having to leave their dogs alone for several hours at a time. For independent dogs, it’s okay for them to have a break as long as their needs are being met. However, for social dogs, alone time is not a fun experience. 

Can A Havanese Be Left Alone During the Day?

The Havanese dog should not be left alone during the day. At the most, they can be left home alone for 4 hours. Any longer, and your Havanese dog will be experiencing loneliness and frustration. 

There are several reasons why a Havanese dog shouldn’t be left alone for a long amount of time. For any dog, being alone for too long will have unwanted consequences from acting out to neglecting their needs. Havanese dogs are a little more sensitive to alone time than some other breeds.

Havanese Dogs Need Social Interaction

One of the most noticeable traits of the Havanese dog is that they are incredibly social beings. They are always up for making new friends and having conversations. If these dogs are home alone for too long, then they can’t have that social interaction that these dogs both need and crave. 

Havanese dogs need plenty of social interaction to have good mental health. They want to hang around their families and are okay with interacting with new people and dogs when out exploring. Being alone in a house is isolating to them. These dogs will get upset and frustrated from the intense loneliness that they can experience. 

With dog frustration comes behavior issues. The Havanese dog can be very mischievous when it isn’t having a good time. They might take their loneliness and frustration out on your objects, such as chewing up your shoes or causing some sort of mess. 

Havanese Dogs Experience Separation Anxiety

Due to their strong need for plenty of social interaction, these dogs can get attached to their owners and families. This can then develop into separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety will kick the impact of loneliness up to a 10. Havanese dogs will experience that loneliness and frustration a lot quicker, if not immediately, and they will get into a lot of trouble. Besides, it’s never fun to have a dog with anxiety problems. No owner wants to see their dog suffer in any form.

You can tell whether your Havanese dog is acting up from normal loneliness or separation anxiety by gauging their reactions when you are leaving. Many times, dogs that have separation anxiety will get upset the moment they notice that their owner is about to leave. You might be barked at or hear them whimpering and crying. 

Dogs with separation anxiety might also bark when you aren’t home and have more extreme behavioral problems. Even if you’re gone for a short amount of time, your dog might have an accident when you are gone due to stress and anxiety. 

Their Needs Won’t Be Taken Care Of

When your Havanese dog is home alone, there is no one there to feed them or take them outside when the need arises. In extreme cases, this can be seen as neglect towards your dog. 

The Havanese dog is a small breed with a smaller bladder. This causes them to need to go outside more often than larger dogs. Your Havanese dog will have trouble holding its bladder if you are gone for long periods of time, which is why it’s important to make sure they aren’t alone for too long. 

With food, many dogs follow a schedule for feeding times. Your Havanese dog will know if you are late to give it dinner. Not following a schedule can at best make your dog annoyed with you and more prone to act out, or at worst, cause digestive problems from sudden changes.

Many tools can help keep your Havanese dog’s needs taken care of while you are away, and we will get into those later on.

Other Behavioral Problems

Separation anxiety and acting up aren’t the only problems that you might encounter when your Havanese dog is left alone for a long time. 

A Havanese dog can develop depression if being alone becomes an often occurrence. As stated before, social interaction is necessary to keep your Havanese dog’s mental health in prime condition. Without social interaction, your Havanese dog will get upset. Over time, this can develop into depression.

If you notice that your Havanese dog is becoming more and more lethargic, eating less food, less playful, and more withdrawn, you might have a depressed dog in your house. You can help them counter their depression by spending more time with them and leaving them all alone less often. 

Without social interaction, there’s also a chance for your Havanese dog to become shy. This is a super weird occurrence with how extroverted these dogs normally are. Shyness is most likely to happen when your Havanese dog doesn’t get enough social interaction when it’s young. 

As puppies, dogs go through something called “socialization.” This is when you want to have your dog experience plenty of social interaction from both inside and outside the home. Socialization teaches dogs how to interact with both people and other animals. Without it, a dog can become shy, timid, or even develop social anxiety. 

If your Havanese dog has become super shy, slowly incorporating socialization into their routine is the best way to reverse the shyness. 

What Can I Do to Help My Lonely Havanese Dog?

We understand that people have to work and do errands. People have really busy schedules and taking care of their Havanese dog all the time isn’t always an option. Luckily, there are ways to make being away from your Havanese dog a little easier. 

Dog Sitter

If you need to spend long periods of time away from home, consider hiring a dog sitter. They will be able to take care of your Havanese dog’s needs while also giving it plenty of social interaction. 

The downside to hiring a dog sitter is that they can become really expensive over time. The average rate of a dog sitter can range anywhere from $15-$25 per hour. This price can rack up quickly if you hire a dog sitter while you’re at work.

Doggy Daycare

Taking your dog to doggy daycare is a slightly cheaper option than hiring a dog sitter. A day at a doggy daycare is about the same price as an hour of work from a dog sitter. Of course, this can still end up costing a lot over time, but not as much as a dog sitter. 

At doggy daycare, your Havanese dog will have its needs taken care of and have plenty of both people and animals to socialize with. If you find a good doggy daycare, it can be a great experience for your Havanese dog because it will get to make so many new friends. 

However, you need to make sure that there is a good doggy daycare in the area. You will also have to spend extra gas money to take your dog there and bag every daycare day. If you have a good daycare nearby, it can be a good option. 

Have 2 Dogs Instead of 1

For some animals and dog breeds, it is recommended to adopt 2 at a time if you don’t already have a dog at home. Having 2 Havanese ensures that your Havanese dog won’t get lonely while you’re away. It will already have a friend to play with for the day.

Just make sure that both of your dog’s needs are being taken care of. If just one Havanese dog can get up to a lot of mischief, it will be double the mischief when you have 2 lonely dogs at home. 

Buy Helpful Products

When talking about the needs of your Havanese dogs, there are tools that you can buy to take care of their needs while you are away.

One of these products is an automatic feeder. If you know that you are going to be gone for dinner time, an automatic feeder will make sure that your Havanese gets dinner at the right time. This prevents feeding schedules from being thrown out of order.

You can also buy a potty mat for your Havanese dog, so no accidents happen in the house. The mat will be a designated spot for your Havanese dog to use the bathroom that is easily accessible for them. 

Each product will require you to spend time teaching your Havanese dog how to use it. After that, they will be good to go.

Final Thoughts

Havanese dogs should never spend more than 4 hours alone at home if you can help it. They will experience too many issues with you gone. At least there are many solutions to help if you have to be gone all day.

Havanese dogs deserve all the love and care they can get because they provide their owners with hearts full of love.