At night Mollie settles in her pen with no fuss and sleeps all night until 7am when she does one 'wuff' for a poo then happily plays or snoozes while I have my breakfast until I wake Tatze and they have their breakfast at 8am. But, when I leave her during the day she shouts and cries. I have tried all the usual methods but I think I may be missing something so I've come here for suggestions. I don't want to tell my supervisor and worry her unnecessarily unless it persists. I've tried slowly building up the time I'm out of the room. 'click for quiet' - I use 'good' as a click substitute but it's the same idea. She has a kong as I leave and is quiet while she eats it, then the shouts start. Her shouting seems, to me, to be more annoyed than distressed. This morning, for the first time, I tried waiting it out then returning when she was quiet. She barked/cried for fifteen minutes then was quiet. I waited for five minutes quiet - she wasn't asleep when I went in, just laying looking at the door. She's 12 weeks old. Any ideas?
I hit this problem with Bramble, I guess she was around 3 months old at the time, and my OH was planning to go back to work in the following couple of weeks, so we really needed to be able to leave her for up to an hour, moving to 2 hours when she was 16 weeks old. We found that a combination of 2 things worked. 1. Moving from the "crate in the playpen" to just the crate, and 2. Removing the click for quiet and replacing with placing a treat when quiet at the same time looking away from her, removing any verbal reinforcer. When we changed to this system, we also started right back with a minute at a time. So different from Benson as a pup though! He came already crate trained and a bit older which really helped.
Stanley used to cry as soon as you were out of sight. He wouldn't even touch the kong. That's how I found this forum actually because I was so stressed with not even being able to nip upstairs. I spoke to his training class and one of them came out. They were so sure it wasn't anxiety but attention. We did click for quiet, starting from really small intervals like 3 seconds. It did seem to work but one day it all just seemed to stop completely. He was about 17 weeks and he slept through the night without a peep and was fine through the day. I'm not sure if he just realised we'd always come back? Now we occasionally get a few whines if we're upstairs and he feels left out. But after about 15 seconds you get a hmpffffff and that's the end of it. P.s she's so gorgeous!
Hi Hi, our boy is 12 weeks old now and I can't even step over the safety gate without him going into full on Barking, whining, jumping at the gate trying to get over it. He was howling this morning, that's a first. I was in the next room. He could see me, hear me, smell me but unless he is right next to me, he acts like this. My partner and children can leave the room with no reaction. Just seems to be me that he reacts like this with. I wouldn't mind but he is only put in the kitchen to calm down when he gets to bitey or if we are cleaning and can't supervise our puppy and toddler together. I have tried the click for quiet. That worked while the treats were out but once the training session was over, he went back to his usual behaviour. We have had lots of training sessions on this but to no avail. Any ideas anyone?
I was just reminded yesterday how Snowie would cry loudly when I was in the shower with a glass door that he could see through!!!!! But he still howled. I just reassured him by voice and carried on with my shower. It was loud enough that our neighbour mentioned she had heard our puppy crying (our houses are very close tho). Snowie was never left alone for his first six months and thereafter was absolutely fine to be left alone. I am pretty sure it's an age-related developmental stage to be so needy at 12 weeks - it's very young! However to this day (he's 5 years old) he likes to be in the same room as me when I'm home. Or if the room is too hot, he's somewhere cooler but close by - like now he's lying on the landing where it's cooler. He did have opportunities to be separated from me - although not alone - before six months. Such as at doggy daycare, at my mom's, left at home with my husband or someone else. So maybe you can practice a minute or two leaving him but have someone with him as a bridging exercise until he can be left all on his own. He clearly sees you as his main guardian/mum. Could you not have a crate to pop him in so that you're all in the same room but he's separated from your toddler? I can understand why he'd be upset to be left out of the action and alone in the kitchen.
Try a remote treat dispenser. But the thing is, you can't stop training this. You have to train it all the time the puppy is alone. You can't train it sometimes, and then stop training and leave the puppy to make a noise. So you have to only leave the puppy alone while you are training him to be ok with that. The remote treat dispenser allows you to introduce distance between you and the puppy much faster because you can dispense treats as you move away.
It's a week later now and we have it sorted. Mollie's cage is in our main room, the one we are all in all the time. This is what I did - I made sure Mollie was fed and tired, popped her in her cage and let her shout and cry. But I wandered in and out of the room (totally ignoring her) getting on with housework, washing etc. Once she settled I stayed in the room and undid her cage door so that she didn't have to cry to come out. I did this for a couple of days then popped her in (fed and tired again) but this time pottered noisily upstairs so that she knew `I was in the house. This also for a couple of days. She still shouted but only for a minute. Now I am leaving the house - but not for long, slowly building up the time. When I come back in the room I ignore her and potter around again. If she settles I sit down having opened the cage while she sleeps. If she doesn't settle back down I let her out if sitting quietly. It's working Soon we will be up to an hour, I hope. ...
I've just started working on this tonight with my puppy. I have a remote treat dispenser and it's really working well. I'm currently in the kitchen, having a glass of wine while I'm training my puppy to be alone. Genius
Thank-you all for your wonderful advice. I will move his crate into the living room and try Boogies approach while I look into a treat dispenser. our house is very busy with 3 kids and their friends in and out all day so Odin almost always has company if he is in the kitchen. Thanks again.
