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Separation anxiety
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Hi,
My puppy gets upset whenever we leave the room, he will yelp continuously until we come back.
I've tried taking him upstairs with me but there are far to many of mine and the kids things he can chew and far too many to put up. For instance, the other day he managed to chew a whole bottle of hair serum (we now have a slippy carpet!).
He is crate trained but I only put him in there when I go to work and he will yelp for 10 secs max then goes quiet as he knows i have left the house. It only seems to be when we are in.
If he is asleep and I get up to go in the kitchen or garden he's up like a shot!
He is just over 4 months now - will this get better??
My puppy gets upset whenever we leave the room, he will yelp continuously until we come back.
I've tried taking him upstairs with me but there are far to many of mine and the kids things he can chew and far too many to put up. For instance, the other day he managed to chew a whole bottle of hair serum (we now have a slippy carpet!).
He is crate trained but I only put him in there when I go to work and he will yelp for 10 secs max then goes quiet as he knows i have left the house. It only seems to be when we are in.
If he is asleep and I get up to go in the kitchen or garden he's up like a shot!
He is just over 4 months now - will this get better??
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If my husband takes our boy to the vets whilst im at work, and Bella is left alone - she will bark continuously and get all panicky until they get home. They will get home, and she will be exhausted and all wide eyed in the belief that she has been abandoned.
As you appreciate, your pup gets worried when you leave & wants to follow you around, partly because of natural curiousity & the inbuilt predisposition at this age to learn about the world & all the new things he will need to know, but partly because he feels insecure & vulnerable on his own.
At this age, puppies would generally start being left by their mothers for longer & longer periods, but they would still have their siblings around & probably a babysitter if they lived in a pack. For a puppy to be totally alone is a difficult thing for them to accept.
Is it only you that he follows around or other members of your family? If it is only you, can you use your children to distract the puppy when you go upstairs? If it is you in particular that the puppy is so attached to, perhaps start letting other members of the family feed him, groom him or play with him, so that the puppy starts to learn that he doesn't need to be totally dependent on you.
The gradual move to independence is called "emotional toughening" ~ this doesn't mean that you have to be tough, but that a young animal starts to become more independent, to think for itself & start problem solving on its own, to start exploring its world etc. In the context of your puppy, he needs to start being less dependent on you & to start interacting with other people & dogs. I'm sure you're doing all this already but perhaps you could start to distance yourself from him a bit, let him play with other puppies, approach other amenable people etc.
The barking when you go upstairs or leave the room when he can't follow you is normal (if annoying!) & will settle down. If you are going to training classes they should be teaching you how to do a sit-stay or down-stay. If so, can you use this to teach him to be quiet when you leave the room at home? For instance, get him to sit or down, then at first you only walk one pace backwards from him & immediately return & reward him if he hasn't moved, then progress to 2 steps, then count to 5 till you return. Gradually build up the time & distance before returning & rewarding him if he has stayed put. After a while you should be able to go out of sight for a brief second before you return & reward. If you practise this for just a few minutes a couple of times a day your puppy will get used to being left & staying where he is until you return. Plus he won't be worried knowing that whenever you do this, you always come back to him.
Never ever call him towards you when you've asked for a sit-stay or down-stay other wise you'll never get him to stay in position & wait for you. Always return to your puppy, then reward him.
I hope it goes well & good luck. Have fun teaching him & remember lots of praise & rewards foir getting it right!!
Hi,
Thanks for the advice, will try the stay training - makes sense really! He should do this pretty quick, he mastered the paw last week now everytime he sits in front of you he raises his paw!:)
If someone leaves the house he does yelp abit, we have worked out that if you pop him in front of the window to see them go off he seems to be ok after - no idea why?!
Its the last person in the room really - just doesn't like being on his own, although just after I posted this morning I went upstairs and he yelped just for a few seconds. I came down after half an hour and praised him and gave him a treat.
My friends puppy doesn't do this, he is not phased about who comes and gos hence my concern. However, Alfie does seem a lot more affectionate in comparison.
I thought it might just be that he is so young still but needed a bit of reassurance - many thanks again:)
Will let you know how I get on