Our little Rolo (not so little anymore) will be 12 weeks this Sunday and has started a new behaviour at meal times. There is a baby gate between the living room where he spends most of his time (When not in the garden supervised), and the kitchen/dinning area. He usually sits by the gate about 2 hours before meal times, then goes to sleep an hour before his meal. He is up like clockwork with 30 minutes to go. So far it's ok. However in the last week when I go into the utility to get his food prepared (which I have been doing all this while), he starts barking and whimpering at the gate. I'm not sure what to do to stop this before it becomes properly established. My partner things Rolo will grow out of it, but I'm not so sure. The sound of the cupboard opening, the bowl, the food being measured, the tap running to wet the kibble any of these things prompt the behaviour. Have you come across anything like this and if so, how can it be avoided? The second query was around COVID-19 and Working from Home. My partner and I have been doing so since March. My partner is back at the office from this week, but I am likely to be here at least till the end of July, WFH, possibly October. This is great but how do we train him now (even before neither of us is at home full time), so that we can have him used to being home alone? He is ok in his crate and in his playpen and there are times neither of us are in the room and he is ok, but not sure how to progress this so that it becomes more regular and up to an hour or two at a time.....Any experience or insight into this welcome! Thanks!
Hi Samantha. You could be describing our experiences with our puppy! He is now 4 months old. Ours has not outgrown the barking before meals but has got worse. I saw an article Pippa Mattinson wrote suggesting prepare in advance in secret so you can bring the meal out as a surprise so they don’t have so long to bark beforehand. I find this has made a big difference. We feed kibble so I weigh out whilst he is either training in the garden or on a walk with my partner. That means he only needs to stay calm for about 15 seconds whilst I pour it into his bowl behind a closed door. I don’t open the door until he is quiet. He can manage this but used to get in a total overexcited panting state if he has to wait longer. So I’d recommend giving that a try. We also feed 5 mins after his walk so he is more likely to be calm and lying down before I start getting the meal ready. Aiming to gradually increase from 5 mins but he is prone to start barking as soon as he comes in cause he is so excited about his meal. But now I time the 5 mins he has started lying down and snoozing whilst he waits. For the separation anxiety, we have same thing and expect to go back to work in October. I have been getting him used to being in his crate whilst we are both quiet in garden and he can’t see us. Started at 1 min and now up to 50 mins. Had to start again at one point. Then my plan is to start going for a drive and coming back after a certain time and systematically working my way up to the 4 hours he will need to be left in October. Although in one of Pippa’s books she says the crucial thing is to get up to one hour. Then you can easily increase by 15 minutes then 30 minute intervals up to 4 hours. There was a study which showed if young puppies could tolerate being alone for 1 hour then they didn’t get separation anxiety. And apparently the first 15 minutes are the most difficult for a dog. Hope that helps! Good luck!
It’s not quite the same but our puppy would constantly jump up the kitchen cupboards and us when we were doing her food. When she did it we would just step away and stop until she was sat calmly. She now knows if she sits still then dinner gets made quicker!
Thanks for the tips! The barking has calmed down a lot, we get one or two every now and again. We now distract him, mainly outdoors in the garden, and also by taking longer, if he does get a bit angsty. By and large it’s good minimal to no barking or whining. However, he tends to kangaroo jump around the place and jump in a circle, so the next thing is to sort that ou! It’ll happen twice or thrice only, never the less.... The seperation anxiety is going ok. Up to 1.05 hours, and now thinking of supplementing longer time periods with a couple of 5 -10 minute stints with us out of the house ,rather than out if site in other parts of the house or garden. Cheers!
Thanks! I’ve been interspersing delays if the barking, whining starts. Now to move onto the kangaroo jumping and 360 jumping Cheers!
