Puppy barking when left alone

ITgirl73

12 week old puppy, very clingy he needs to be with someone the entire time. When I leave for work the puppy barks constantly until my mother arrives 45 min later & will not let her out of his sight. I leave toys, food & water but nothing distracts him.
Neighbour is now complaining about the noise. What can I do to resolve this?

kylith

Simply: get someone to be with the puppy at all times. 12 weeks is too young to leave a pup alone. Would it be possible for you to drop the pup to your mum's house on the way to work? a 12 week puppy is the equivalent of a 4yo child, and you wouldn't expect ne of them to be ok left alone for an hour.

While you're looking for a solution spending time playing with the pup before you go out might tire them out enough to sleep until your mum gets there, but do what you can to sort it now as the noise will only get worse as the pup gets bigger.

tk123

You need to teach him how to settle and be comfortable on his own. So e.g. pop into his crate when you're there with a kong/chew, don't let him follow you from room to room etc. You have to start with seconds/minutes/whatever the pup is comfortable with and build from there. It'll only get worse and isn't something that'll magically fix itself with age - it didn't in our house anyways!

kylith

kylith wrote: »

Simply: get someone to be with the puppy at all times. 12 weeks is too young to leave a pup alone. Would it be possible for you to drop the pup to your mum's house on the way to work? a 12 week puppy is the equivalent of a 4yo child, and you wouldn't expect ne of them to be ok left alone for an hour.

While you're looking for a solution spending time playing with the pup before you go out might tire them out enough to sleep until your mum gets there, but do what you can to sort it now as the noise will only get worse as the pup gets bigger.

I don't get this molly coddling approach. Its setting up the dog to be clingy. Both my neighbour and a friend of mine have gotten puppy's over the last while and purposely started leaving it alone almost immediately so that it never got used to having constant attention and hence both are fine alone now for long periods. My friends puppy is 4 months and happily spends 8 hours alone while they are at work and my neighbours pup who is a little older was moved to living outside and sleeping in the shed once it was about 4 months and and is now happily plays with the other dog they have with little or no barking while they are away (I see him happily sleeping or playing from my window all the time) and is outside mostly when they are home too.

Of course a pup given constant attention is going to complain when its not getting it.

Bells21

Lukas Shapely Kleenex wrote:

Of course a pup given constant attention is going to complain when its not getting it.

Why get a pup if you're not willing to give it attention. They've come from having constant company with their litter mates/mother you can't expect it to adjust and be ok with being left alone for long periods of time straight away. Some pups may well do well with short periods of being left alone once they are receiving attention/training/play when their families are around. But some pups may not do well being alone straight away so it's needs to be a gradual process i.e. training them to settle in another room for a few mins and slowly extending this time and working towards them being comfortable and content if they do have to be alone for any period of time.

Knine

A 4 month old puppy left on its own for 8 hours is terrible. No way would I allow one of my puppies to go to such a home.

4 month old pups here either have human or another dog for company.

Bells21

Bells21 wrote: »

Why get a pup if you're not willing to give it attention. They've come from having constant company with their litter mates/mother you can't expect it to adjust and be ok with being left alone for long periods of time straight away. Some pups may well do well with short periods of being left alone once they are receiving attention/training/play when their families are around. But some pups may not do well being alone straight away so it's needs to be a gradual process i.e. training them to settle in another room for a few mins and slowly extending this time and working towards them being comfortable and content if they do have to be alone for any period of time.

It gets plenty of attention in the evenings, its not practical for working people to constantly spend time with pups nor is it good for them. Why get them used to constant attention and then take it away? Far better to get toughen them up from day one.

Knine wrote: »

A 4 month old puppy left on its own for 8 hours is terrible. No way would I allow one of my puppies to go to such a home.

4 month old pups here either have human or another dog for company.

Puppy is doing the finest so not much terrible about it. As for not giving one to such a home, its their own pup from a family dog that was bread.

Bells21

Lukas Shapely Kleenex wrote:

It gets plenty of attention in the evenings, its not practical for working people to constantly spend time with pups nor is it good for them. Why get them used to constant attention and then take it away? Far better to get toughen them up from day one.

Dogs are social animals, it is good for them. Yes people work but when we got our dogs we made sure that it was at a time when I was on holidays or my OH was around. That way we could settle them, house train them, socialise them and ensure that they were comfortable being left for short periods of time. It was a gradual process to ensure we had balanced dogs and no complaints from neighbours etc about barking and dogs that were able to be around others because they weren't left on their own for extended periods.

borderlinemeath

Ahmed Lazy Fishing wrote: »

It gets plenty of attention in the evenings, its not practical for working people to constantly spend time with pups nor is it good for them. Why get them used to constant attention and then take it away? Far better to get toughen them up from day one.

Why bother getting a dog at all? They are a companion animal, the clue is in the name. They thrive on human company, and in the absence of human company, additional canine company. Scientific evidence has shown that prolonged periods of solitary time away from their families has behavioural consequences. It won't show now, because the pup is too young to know how to act out, but given a few months and when it reaches it's teenage phase and then adulthood there will be trouble, be it digging, chewing, barking or all of the above.

Puppy is doing the finest so not much terrible about it. As for not giving one to such a home, its their own pup from a family dog that was bread.

How do you know?? Seriously how do you - as a non dog owning - all animals outside even if they're dying of hypothermia type poster - know that the puppy is doing well??

What type of dog is it by the way? Brennans crossed with McCambridges?

VonVix

I think having a puppy "cry it out" when you leave is essentially setting them up for having separation anxiety as you're allowing them to rehearse an unwanted behaviour over and over again, they bark and cry, you come back and they feel better, you leave, they bark and cry all over again, you return and they are once again relieved.

I never left my most recent pup alone for any more than an hour until he was about 6 months old, that's when it gradually got extended. Not one peep out of him when I go out and he is 2 years old now, and he is extremely close to me being a German Shepherd. He snoozes on my bed or in his crate until I'm home again.

It's worth looking into getting your puppy some more long term human company when you aren't home, be it a doggy daycare or petsitter/dog walker. Your little fella is missing out on a lot of needed interaction at such a young age, you'll have a happier and more well rounded puppy because of it.

Knine

Ahmed Lazy Fishing wrote: »

Puppy is doing the finest so not much terrible about it. As for not giving one to such a home, its their own pup from a family dog that was bread.

Ah the poor puppy is probably used to not having much attention or socialisation if they bred it & think 8 hours alone for what is essentially a baby is ok. My own puppies would not be happy about that.

Cherry Blossom

Lola Slimy Kitten if you don't stop soapboxing on every thread about your strange ideas of dog ownership you will be carded then banned. This is your last warning.

Now can we all get back to the OP and refrain from anymore off-topic posts please.

tk123

How about a slow feeder/anti gulp bowl to keep the pup occupied? Just don't make it too hard like I did for poor Lucy lol

ITgirl73

thanks for replies. He is not on his own all day there are 2 adults with him & I am in & out all day but even if any of us move for 2 minutes he goes ape. He won't stay in crate etc.
We should be able to leave him for 5 mins without him kicking off & this is the behaviour I am trying to change.

tk123

Start by feeding all his meals in the crate to get him more comfortable in it. The crate should be their den not a jail so you need to gradually build up the time in there - meals, chews etc all in the crate so he's not just associating it with being locked in. I'm about to go dowstairs and take my dog out of his crate in the sitting room (he's crated over night after an operation) and the first thing he'll do is go to the crate in the kitchen! In the evening I have to kick the other dog out of his 'bedroom' because she sleeps in it for hours lol

CeilingFly

You need to make it "normal" that you are out for a while.

Took us a while, but we can now head out for a couple of hours without any barking.

Make no fuss whatsoever when leaving and make no fuss whatsoever when returning, effectively ignore the dog for the 2 min before leaving and 2 min after returning. Start with 10-15 min a couple of times a day and build it up. Leave toys about and maybe music - we leave jazz fm on tv (sky 0202)

sillysmiles

ITgirl73 wrote: »

We should be able to leave him for 5 mins without him kicking off & this is the behaviour I am trying to change.

You are right, you should be able to, but you need to make to put in the ground work to let him be relaxed when you are gone. It will come with time.