Hello! I have a 5 month old chocolate lab who is wonderful. He sleeps all night in his crate, and on work days we take him to doggie day camp. On weekends and after work, we need to crate him when were not home. He has run of the house while we are home to supervise- which is really not hard because he is usually following one of us around. Here's the problem- he HATES being left alone. We have crate trained him (positive treats when in the crate) and he sleeps there.... but he freaks when we leave. He will quietly chew on his kong when we leave, but when we return he is howling and I can tell he has panicked. It's making me feel like I can never leave! I tried putting him in the kitchen the other day when I went running (40 mins)- but he knocked the gate down and went upstairs! Thank god nothing was damaged he was just laying on a blanket. I feel like it's safest to crate him when were gone, but what can I do to alleviate the anxiety? It makes me a nervous wreck to leave! Or should i get better gates and try the kitchen again? Maybe he needs more space? Any advice would be great.
Do you exercise him before putting him in his crate? I find it best to take them for a walk before and get their energy out as they might settle since they’ll be tired ! Poppy will cry after she’s eaten her long and realised I’ve left but then she will eventually settle down and just sleep, but only if I’ve walked her before
Hi I'm having the same issue with my 7 month old lab mix puppy. Rescued her from a shelter, she behaves almost perfectly all day and night she barely even barks at strangers or other dogs. She sleeps through the night and often we find her retreating to her crate throughout the day to hang and chew on something...But when we leave she starts howling uncontrollably...I wasn't too concerned, but yesterday we left one of our phones recording to see how long she howled for. The recording maxed out on the iphone at 25mins, she was pretty much howling the whole time. Is this a phase? Something that will alleviate itself as she grows? Are there any tricks to making sure she doesn't howl for hours? Thanks for reading, first post to a dog forum ha
You need to train and teach puppies to be left alone. You can't just leave a puppy and expect everything to be fine. There needs to be a progressive and gradual approach to the puppy learning that being left alone is safe. After all, a baby animal abandoned in the wild, would die. Ensure you have followed a structured crate training protocol so that the crate is a safe place for the puppy to be left. That means: You have crated the puppy repeatedly whilst you have sat immediately outside the crate, for 45mins-1hr, and the puppy is not distressed You have crated the puppy repeatedly whilst you are in the same room but not right next to the crate - you are visible though - for 45 mins to 1 hr - and the puppy is not distressed. You have crated the puppy repeatedly and have been elsewhere in the house, where the puppy can hear you doing something (vacuuming, housework, reading a book and turning pages etc) but not see you - for 45mins to 1 hr - and the puppy is not distressed. You have crated the puppy repeatedly and been elsewhere in the house, silent - the puppy can't see or hear you - for 45mins to 1 hr - and the puppy is not distressed. You have crated the puppy repeatedly and gone out for very brief periods of a few minutes... And so on. If you just get a puppy, put them in the crate and go out for 2 hours - they are going to freak out. Follow a structured programme: https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/
