Hello.
My wife and I got our pup 2 weeks before lockdown (just by chance, wasn't planned with the timing).
For about 2 weeks we would leave her home alone for a few hours while we were both at work and things were okay.
But for the past 6-7 months of quarantine I have been home almost 24/7 with the dog. My job, now remote, is very demanding of my time and I'm basically on call all the time. I rarely ever leave to do anything so almost every single day for the past 6-7 months the dog has not been alone. When we do leave we bring her with us pretty often as it'll be for several hours to go visit family.
With work being lighter this month, I'm trying my best now to get her situated to being alone but it is tough due to her howling/crying, and we live in an apartment building with neighbors in the building.
I'm trying to leave for just 10 minutes at a time but it's been tough. I do NOT bring any attention to the fact that I'm about to leave but you know how smart these dogs are. As soon as she see's me put my jacket on without putting her leash on she actually starts to shake. I try to leave her a difficult to get treat in the kong but it doesn't seem to help as she follows me pretty closely. She also gets free roam of most of the apartment. Just not the bedroom or the office. She gets the entrance and living room/kitchen which makes up most of the apartment.
Sometimes she does okay if I REALLY tire her out with a half a mile intense run, but it's difficult to get enough energy out of her so that she just passes out.
Any help would be great for me and my neighbors who are very nice and haven't complained to me yet haha.