Good day from me and Cooper! Cooper has been with me and my SO for almost two weeks. We had scheduled with our jobs to ensure either myself or my SO be with him every day since we brought him home. Everything has been going really well! He took to his crate quickly (2-3 nights of one of us on the floor next to him), plays well with the dogs in our building (all dogs in building must be up to date on shots so we know they are safe for him), is now sleeping for 4-5 hours at a stretch during the night. HOORAY FOR MY SANITY! However, it is getting to the point where we will start scheduling a dog walker to pop by 1-2 times a day when we both have to work. This won't happen for another week and a half so there is still some time to work on things with Cooper. The issue we are having is when we leave when he is awake. He goes bonkers. Barking, whining, crying, the whole kitten kaboodle. If we leave when he is sleeping, he does not wake up and just snoozes for a handful of hours. This is ideal for the days we schedule someone to check in on him, he won't be alone for longer than 2 hours. We have set up an X-Pen in our kitchen and attached it to the front of his crate so he has room to play, fresh water and somewhere to sleep when he gets tired. What have yall done in these circumstances? I have heard to let them cry it out and eventually they will quiet down. I don't reinforce this behavior by running to him when he starts throwing a fit. I enter the room and don't pay him any mind until he calms down. Then he gets some love. Any advice will help! I know things get better with age but I am hoping this is just a puppy being a puppy and not separation anxiety. All tips and tricks are appreciated.
We acclimatized Holly in steps. Our aim was to get her accustomed to our going away, and leave her confident that we were coming back. We started by going out of sight for a few minutes. As soon as she stopped whining we would return and reward her with treats and a play. Over a few weeks we made the intervals longer until we could go for over an hour and she wouldn't worry. Nowadays she is quite relaxed about our going out. When we're out we monitor her with a webcam.
I take it slowly, leaving for a minute - then a minute thirty seconds etc. Always being sure to return when they are quiet, not when shouting. I start this at about 10 weeks old, not before - before that I take them everywhere with me if they are not asleep. By the time they are 6 months old I can leave them with a Kong and they happily snooze while I'm gone, but I never leave them for more than an hour. PS - dogs don't play when alone, they are social animals and play involves other dogs or people. So any toys in the pen need to be safe for chewing purposes, Kongs are best. .
I was only reading a study regarding leaving puppies to 'cry it out' which revealed that there was a higher incidence of seperaction distress etc in puppies that were left to cry compared to those that received reassurance. Leaving a puppy alone has to be built up slowly, starting with just a few seconds before returning, then a minute, two minutes, five minutes. It is not a quick process if you want a happy, confident pup who is relaxed when left.
I'm going through the exact same process with Merlin (12 weeks) right now. This morning I was able to leave him in the hall with Poppy while OH moved the cars out of the drive and I quickly had a shower. It has taken a couple of weeks to get to this point, before he would cry, but I do feel heartened that he will soon be able to do 10 minutes, then 15, and so on. It's easier with another dog in the house, I realize. Anyway, keep building up the time when he is alone, but very, very slowly.
I'd love to see this study, do you have a link? I believe it. That's what we do with human babies now. Now we understand they cry for a reason, even if it is they are just lonely. The first night with us Oban SHRIEKED in the middle of the night. I was told too, let him cry it out but I couldn't and went to him. Poor little guy, first night away from his Mum and siblings and he'd peed in the crate and was soaking wet and it was winter so he was probably cold. He needed a bath. I decided then, never again to ignore him when he fusses or cries, it's for real, he needs me. And we discovered when he fussed regularly twice a night at first he really did need to go outside to bathroom. In winter, in deep snow, in -35C a couple of times. Sigh.
But ... There is a puppy cry which is more 'I object' than 'I'm upset'. I have learned the difference - and the 'I object' cries soon stop, two minutes complaining then they settle .
Oh, don't I know it! Luna is a frustration barker/whiner. And for ages (months), she would wake up and immediately whine. The second she woke. She would be quite happy if I left the house (I watched on cameras), but if I was in the house but a different room, she'd whine and bark. Even now, if she's downstairs and wants to come up (which she can manage quite happily), she'll whine or bark about it before joining us. It's slowly disappearing, and she gets no attention for it, but it's part of who she is and is something I had to learn to deal with very young. You do tune in to the different tones in their "voices" after a while.
Yes I agree @snowbunny & @Boogie. Plum was the same as Luna with a 'just letting you know I'm here' murmur. Right as ninepence if I went out but if indoors and in a different room she would have a little whine. Now she's no longer a whirling dervish, she has free run downstairs when I'm working so she can choose to be with me or not. Even when she wakes in the morning she will make a little sound to let me know she's awake but now, that's it, it doesn't continue. And occasionally if she hears my son and I talking upstairs and wants to be part of the action she might emit a polite whine. We ignore her and then she may come up just to say 'hi' before going back down!
