I found this email in my inbox today when I was searching for something. I was so frantic he was going to have separation anxiety and was frantically trying to arrange for a trainer to come up.
My poor lad just needed some time to adjust to his new Little life - I wish I’d known then what I know now!
But it made me chuckle as I remember feeling so desperate ?
Hi,
I am looking for advice for my puppy. He's called Stanley and he's a black Labrador. We've had him 4 weeks now and he's 13 weeks old. He's a lovely puppy in most areas except that I think he might have seperation anxiety and I'm at a complete loss with what to do.
He has a crate that he seems to be ok with, he sleeps in there happily on a night and goes in through the day by himself if he's tired. If you shut the crate door he is ok, a little bit whiney but sits quietly enough (when he's awake, he's fine if you shut it when he's asleep).
We also have a baby gate on the kitchen door so he doesn't have to stay in his crate all the time and can have more room.
He's about 95% toilet trained now and we have very few accidents.
The problem is as soon as he is left alone he starts to cry and bark. I have tried clicking for quiet as some books detail and you can get up to a few minutes but then he really starts to cry. We try and ignore him but sometimes he's cried for 2 hours and we know by this point he will be likely to need the toilet. It's not just if you leave the house, it's if you go to the toilet or in the shower etc.
If we're in the living room and he's in the kitchen and he can see us through he baby gate he settles down and will play with his toys or go in his crate for a sleep, but if he can't see you he just howls. Or if he wakes up from a nap and you're not there when he wakes up he really starts to cry.
I really don't understand where we've gone wrong, we always wait for a little period of quiet before we go and attend to him.
We have a million toys which he loves until he's left alone, we've tried putting kongs in with him or chew sticks but he drops it as soon as you leave and picks it up as soon as you come back.
It's really getting us down and we're really panicking that the older it gets, the worse it will get and we want to correct it as soon as possible.
All advice seems to be to leave him to cry, but after an hour or so we're worried he'll need the toilet and go and it will undo our toilet training work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My poor lad just needed some time to adjust to his new Little life - I wish I’d known then what I know now!
But it made me chuckle as I remember feeling so desperate ?
Hi,
I am looking for advice for my puppy. He's called Stanley and he's a black Labrador. We've had him 4 weeks now and he's 13 weeks old. He's a lovely puppy in most areas except that I think he might have seperation anxiety and I'm at a complete loss with what to do.
He has a crate that he seems to be ok with, he sleeps in there happily on a night and goes in through the day by himself if he's tired. If you shut the crate door he is ok, a little bit whiney but sits quietly enough (when he's awake, he's fine if you shut it when he's asleep).
We also have a baby gate on the kitchen door so he doesn't have to stay in his crate all the time and can have more room.
He's about 95% toilet trained now and we have very few accidents.
The problem is as soon as he is left alone he starts to cry and bark. I have tried clicking for quiet as some books detail and you can get up to a few minutes but then he really starts to cry. We try and ignore him but sometimes he's cried for 2 hours and we know by this point he will be likely to need the toilet. It's not just if you leave the house, it's if you go to the toilet or in the shower etc.
If we're in the living room and he's in the kitchen and he can see us through he baby gate he settles down and will play with his toys or go in his crate for a sleep, but if he can't see you he just howls. Or if he wakes up from a nap and you're not there when he wakes up he really starts to cry.
I really don't understand where we've gone wrong, we always wait for a little period of quiet before we go and attend to him.
We have a million toys which he loves until he's left alone, we've tried putting kongs in with him or chew sticks but he drops it as soon as you leave and picks it up as soon as you come back.
It's really getting us down and we're really panicking that the older it gets, the worse it will get and we want to correct it as soon as possible.
All advice seems to be to leave him to cry, but after an hour or so we're worried he'll need the toilet and go and it will undo our toilet training work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
