Can anyone help me please, my 11 week male lab puppy, I think is suffering from separation anxiety, at night and during the day. He follows me everywhere. At night I let him out before bed and he goes in his crate and sleeps well until either he hears someone moving around upstairs going to the loo or he will start barking and howling anytime from 4.30. I have gone down to him and let him out for the loo, I don’t speak, put lights on or make a fuss., I then put him back but he won’t settle, he barks and howls and screeches. During the day I leave him with a kong stuffed with peanut butter from the freezer, he doesn’t create when I leave but is usually howling by the time I get back, which can be 20mins sometimes or an hour at most. If I leave him to go upstairs he creates too. Help thanks
Hi and welcome. Pups at this age are very dependant on us. They have been taken away from their siblings and mum so cling to us a lot more. As for following you around, my 4 year old girl still does. Personally I don't mind it at all. She's my companion. Have you tried leaving him just for minute then returning? Then slowly build up the amount of time left over a few days/weeks. Have you hit a webcam or something that you can watch him on to see what he does when you are gone? Is he howling the whole time you are gone or just when he hears you arrive back home? They have very good hearing - my girl knows when my OH pulls into our street. As for overnight I can't really advise as I never had that issue as she sleeps with us and slept through from a young age.
It can take puppies a few nights to settle into a new situation. You're doing the right thing in not making a fuss when he disturbs you at night. We slowly acclimatized Holly to being alone at night. The first night we slept with her in the kitchen on a camp bed. the next night we were in sight through a child gate, but out of reach. The following night we moved the bed out of sight but she could hear and smell us. After that we left her and have had little trouble. During the day we did short absences, just like @Naya suggests. When it came to longer absences (10 minutes+) she would sometimes 'create'. When she stopped whining we would go back and reward her with a treat and play. This way we were rewarding quiet behaviour and not rewarding whining.
No I haven’t a webcam but I understand there are those you view via your throne. Yes I understand the following around it’s more if i need to go upstairs or to the loo, he creates. Last night was better bed at 11 after toilet slept through to 4.30, started barking etc came down and let him out for a wee which he but not instantly then back to the crate and lights out. He slept then until 6. I left him to carry on until 6.30 when I got up. Let him stay in the cage until he quietened down whilst I emptied the dishwasher and loaded some washing in. When he was quiet I let him out and praised him. Had his breakfast then at 6.45. I try and make the cage a happy place like feed him some of his food in there and leave kibble in there for him to find during the day. We don’t have room in our bedroom for him to sleep there.
He's crying because he hasn't yet learned at 11 weeks old how to by himself, and stay relaxed. Being relaxed when we leave comes from the puppy's reassurance that we are going to come back. We start training by leaving the puppy for just a second and returning and rewarding for quiet, then 2 seconds building to 5 seconds, then 7 or 8 seconds, then 10, 15, 50 seconds, a minute. From a minute slowly building to 1:15, 1:30, 1:45 then 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and so on. If your puppy cries at any stage your are going to fast for him to cope so need to go back a step and gradually move forward again. Once you can leave him for 15 minutes you should be able to go to 30 minutes and then an hour quite quickly. A good book is Patricia McConnell's 'I'll be home soon - How to prevent and treat separation anxiety'
My pup is the same age as your and by the sound of it pretty similar. It sounds as though you are doing all the right things and I think it will all fall into place. Mine usually sleeps through till about 6.45, but did wake a 5.30am a couple of mornings ago for no obvious reason. He absolutely does not want to go back to sleep when he wakes too early but I follow a firm routine and eventually get him back to his crate. I am just having to kong-bribe him if I have to leave him during the day, which I have only had to do once when I went shopping (think trolleydash!) and once when I had to drop my son off to an activity. Keep us posted.
I have found that remembering that 40% of the dog’s brain is devoted to smell helps. One two occasions now, I have had separation issues solved by taking something I wore close to my skin during the previous day, and putting it either in his crate with him, or under him. Apparently my body odor is comforting to him, and it helps him remember that I am still there. I know there is more than this, but in both of the occasions it helped immediately. In regard to his crate, I still hand feed him at 10 weeks, but the last part of the food in his dish in put in his crate where he in his crate and close the door. He now is learning to expect good things when he is in the crate, and I can actually move about the room and go elsewhere without him whining or barking. Today he spent more than 90 minutes in the car by himself while both his foster mother(my wife) and I spent time in the oral surgeon working on our dental implants(the alternative was leaving him a home in his crate for 5 hours, which is not something he is ready for yet). But at the beginning of February when he is 3 months old, we have to go somewhere, where this will happen, and so we’re trying hard to build up to it.
