How do I build my dog's alone tolerance back up after a holiday together?

An extended period of constant company, even a short one or two week holiday, is often enough to noticeably shift a dog's comfort with being left, especially if the holiday also involved a change of location or routine on top of the extra togetherness.

Ease back into the normal schedule over several days rather than immediately resuming a full workday, if your own return to work allows any flexibility, giving the dog a chance to readjust gradually rather than facing the full change all at once.

If the holiday involved a stressful event, such as a difficult car or plane trip or an unfamiliar environment, the dog's struggle with alone time afterward may be tangled up with that experience too, which is worth considering alongside the simple loss of company.

Where possible, scheduling a day or two of lighter commitments after returning from an extended trip, rather than diving straight back into a full workday the very next morning, gives both you and the dog a gentler landing. Many owners find that treating this recovery period as a normal, expected part of travel, rather than an inconvenience, makes future trips feel less disruptive to the household's overall routine over time. Building this buffer day into travel plans from the outset, rather than as an afterthought, makes it far more likely to actually happen when you get home tired yourself. Even a single quiet day at home together before returning to a normal schedule tends to noticeably ease the whole household's transition back to routine.