Help With Separation Anxiety

[skully]

My 5 month old English Stafford, Pebbles, cries blue murder when she's separated from us. By all accounts (we've been checking with the neighbours) she does not make too much noise during the day while we're at work, just the odd bark here and there. Its when she is actually seperate from us, when we are still present.

She sleeps on her own bed in our bedroom, but when she stays at my parents house they have her sleep in the laundry with access to the yard overnight. (It took her a few nights to get used to that arrangement but is ok with it). We are renting and dont have a doggy door, so can't give her the same set-up at our place.

Taking her to the shops and leaving her tethered on her lead outside she howls and howls. We have put in a baby gate that seperates her from us when we sit in the loungeroom and are trying to put her in there for short bursts at a time (5 mins or so) and rewarding her when she's quiet. BUt you really have to jump on that quiet time really quickly or she starts up again.

Any advice on nipping this in the bud? She has been desexed and the morning i picked her up from the vet she'd been screaming for two hours since she woke up at 6am. We did not crate train her, so she's probably not used to being in a cage at all.

She also, on occasion, does a wee inside the house if myself or my husband are are in the bathroom with the door closed and she's alone. She has access to the yard and is very well toilet trained, so i figure this is a reaction to being 'separated' as well.

Edited November 8, 2011 by skully

[Lugeanjaam]

I will leave the other questions to the more experienced puppy people (it has been a while since I had a puppy) but please dont do this...

Taking her to the shops and leaving her tethered on her lead outside she howls and howls.

It really is a recipe for disaster . So much can go wrong, she can get loose and take off, she can get harassed by children or a off lead wandering dog, I also remember quite recently seeing CCTV footage of a little dog tied up outside a pub I believe and a man just wandered up, let the dog off the lead and took the leash > Poor dog ended up getting hit by a car and killed I think, so sad.

Good luck with your puppy .

[RubyBlue]

Welcome to DOL.

There are lots of threads on here with similar questions so maybe have a look at some of the other ideas people have come up with.

Personally I would be crate training (have a look at crate games) there are a lot more mental benefits than just teaching the dog to go into a cage.

Also use distractions like toys and food - or food in toys - so she gets a reward for entertaining herself. Slowly build up the time - you want to finish her alone time when shes quietly doing something else

Good luck.

[TheCheekyMonster]

My 5 month old English Stafford, Pebbles, cries blue murder when she's separated from us. By all accounts (we've been checking with the neighbours) she does not make too much noise during the day while we're at work, just the odd bark here and there. Its when she is actually seperate from us, when we are still present.

She sleeps on her own bed in our bedroom, but when she stays at my parents house they have her sleep in the laundry with access to the yard overnight. (It took her a few nights to get used to that arrangement but is ok with it). We are renting and dont have a doggy door, so can't give her the same set-up at our place.

Taking her to the shops and leaving her tethered on her lead outside she howls and howls. We have put in a baby gate that seperates her from us when we sit in the loungeroom and are trying to put her in there for short bursts at a time (5 mins or so) and rewarding her when she's quiet. BUt you really have to jump on that quiet time really quickly or she starts up again.

Any advice on nipping this in the bud? She has been desexed and the morning i picked her up from the vet she'd been screaming for two hours since she woke up at 6am. We did not crate train her, so she's probably not used to being in a cage at all.

She also, on occasion, does a wee inside the house if myself or my husband are are in the bathroom with the door closed and she's alone. She has access to the yard and is very well toilet trained, so i figure this is a reaction to being 'separated' as well.

Ignore her... completely dont even look at her... when she carries on she does not exist.... Gus is 10 weeks and the first week when I would leave home for work he would do the exact thing this really high pitch howl the longest lasted 1.5 hours thenit calmed down after that and now his fine... but I was advised to ignore it and it worked magic