Our 5 month old has just started barking if we upstairs, leaving him down. (He's not allowed upstairs). He's fine when we leave the house completely, but if he knows someone is in, and he's not included, all hell breaks loose! He's also fine when its bed time (crate trained).

We're not returning to him when he does this, until he settles. This weekend, my wife's away for a couple of days, so I don't want him doing this everytime I have a shower, go to the loo etc. Anything else we could be doing to address this?

I saw Victoria Stilwell resolve this problem & she started of by the owners going out the room for say 30 seconds(shorter if you need to) then return, reward dog (if quiet) & gradually lengthen the time...it's to reasure the dog that you will return. Not sure how long it took to work but it did.

Try giving him a stuffed kong as you leave for30 seconds then remove it on your return, provided safe to do so. So hopefully he'll be more interested in the kong and almost see your return as a nuisance. Gradually increase the time daily.

Lexy and HHG - good advice thanks - we'll start on that asap.

I thought I'd bump this - he's 6 months old now, and no improvement.

The main problem is when he's on his own downstairs and we're upstairs - he starts whining immediately at the stairgate, escalating into howling and barking. This doesn't happen when we leave the house completly (I've stood outside listening, and the neighbours say there's no problems).
We've tried the above over the last month - not returning to him when he's whining, rewarding when quiet, leaving toys and kongs etc, but as I say no improvement - if anything its got worse! Its definately worse in the mornings too.

Any other tips, or websites/literature you can point us to?

I don't have any practical advice just some sympathy in that you're not alone, my OH's rescue dog used to bark his head off when we were out in the garden but he had to stay in the house (he was 9months and is about 12months now), like yours he was quiet if we actually left the property. We didn't have the barking when going to other rooms and in our case it has mostly gone now, it did involve having to wait outside for quite a long time before going back in waiting for a quiet moment so as he didn't think his barking was bringing us back.

My OH also had a problem with him barking when he left him behind the counter in his shop (he takes his dog to work with him), we managed to sort that by spending a few mornings playing a peekaboo type game where my other half would throw treats over the counter before quickly ducking out of the way (we had worked out his dog was getting upset when he couldn't see him), eventually progressing to ducking then tossing the treat and in the end ducking waiting then treating.

We always made sure to treat by throwing the treat over the counter for this rather than giving it by hand so as he didn't misunderstand what he was being rewarded for (quiet on his own) as he is the sort of dog who would have easily gotten the wrong end of the stick and gotten more anxious if the reward had come with the reappearance of his person, he would have still been anticipating the return of my OH for company AND reward rather than realising being on his own is ok, hope you get where I'm coming from there, it's quite waffly!

Does it only happen when you go upstairs?  Can you shut him behind doors downstairs with no problems?

If it only happens at the foot of the stairs you need to think about how you leave him and what happens when you come back downstairs.  Some dogs don't like you walking away from them so teaching a sit/stay or wait might help.  However you'll need to go back to baby steps when teaching these and set your dog up to succeed - train this away from the stairs.  The other option is to send him to bed whilst you go upstairs, either in his crate or a different 'house-bed' if you have one and put a door or two between you.  Does he have to watch you leave?

When you go upstairs - what is it for, how long are you gone, and what happens when you get back?  If I, or my OH, go upstairs in the morning after breakfast our dogs have learnt that this is a likely prelude to a walk as we go up to change into walking clothes.  The dogs start quietly whistling as soon as we open the baby gate and as we reappear on the top step looking fit for a walk they get ridiculously over excited.  Now I could change this by getting dressed first thing, putting them in another room whilst I go upstairs, or gradually re-training them but I find it doesn't bother me over much.  They only do it in the morning before a walk and for the rest of the day we can go up and down as much as we like without them caring!!

For general training advice I'd recommend Patricia McConnell - her Puppy Primer book is excellent and don't be put off by the name it's perfect for older puppies too.  It's a great 'common sense' read with practical examples for training exercises  :)

Sympathy for you aside, some are velcro dogs and being with you or keeping an eye on you is part of the deal in certain breeds. I have three and only one is perfectly happy to spend time on his own in another room, one literally wants to sit on my feet whenever he can and the other is somewhere in between. They are a bit more reluctant to come into the bathroom because of the risk of getting a bath :-).

How calm are you when all hell breaks loose? With training my dogs as youngsters I need to be able to walk away, leave them, ignore the noise and let them keep seeing me on the landing so even if they can't reach me they are still able to see me. I keep talking to myself so that they hear a voice, come back down in a minute, walk past them without acknowledging the noise, let them follow me into the kitchen, rummage for a treat and then when they are ready, sitting and quiet I can praise them as much as I can. It's slow going, and it is very repetitive as you'd expect, but worth it.

One of mine used to be like this, despite living with his real mum it was me he wanted to be with, I found just letting him come with me fixed the problem, once he realised I was just going the loo/kitchen/bedroom, he decided himself those were boring and stopped the barking.

Could be whats called an extinction burst, where behaviours get worse before they get better.

Could you crate him before you go upstairsif he'sok in the crate during the day?

I also have to question exactly how his behaviour is getting rewarded as it obviously is otherwise he'd have stopped. So whilst you have not been returning whilst he's "singing" is your return all the reward he needs? Could be that simple. Are you maybe making too much fuss when he's quiet thereby mistakenly increasing your presence? Tough call without seeing or hearing his "singing".

Maybe carry on with the kongs but make absolutely no fuss of him when you come downstairs for a few minutes and confuse him by sometimes coming down and then going back up immediately and then returning for an hour but then upstairs again. I would also be lookingat a DAP plug in now to help him out, as whilst it sounds pure attention seeking at 6 months they start entering fear phases and possibly Sep Anx is starting now.

But my bottom line is somehow his behaviour is being rewarded so take a good look at how you're dealing with it,possibly you've gone a little OTT with rewarding his calm quiet behaviour when he has been quiet and he got a huge fuss that that is what he's aiming for again. Hard to say without seeing/hearing it but that's my guess. Maybe try a local trainer though if it's too persistent as you don't want this going on too long as setting up a really bad behaviour pattern that escalates into full blown Sep Anx. 

Thanks for the replies all. Yes, I think we may have confused him and inadvertantly rewarded this too.

When we leave the house, he's shut in the kithchen diner, as I said, seemingly with no problems. When we're in, he's in the hallway too, with a stairgate blocking access up the stairs.

We did try shutting him in the kitchen area when upstairs, but this didn't make any difference - it appears to be knowing we're elsewhere in the house.

We did try rewarding/praising when quiet, so yes, maybe more of neutral response would help.

I meant to say, he's crated at night, and theres no problem when he's put in there for bed (crate in kitchen), even when we stay up watching TV in the room next door.

It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have a bath/sneak back to bed for an hour at weekends/put the laundry away without it starting! We'll think carefully about what we're doing and percevere. 

We did try rewarding/praising when quiet

That shouldn't be a problem unless he is getting attention (adverse though it may be) when he is barking or howling. I have more difficulty training my son not to shout at the dogs for barking than I do training the dogs :-)--he seems to think the dogs understand "angry voice=don't do it" whereas for them it's more "hey he's finally noticed us!"

> It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice to have a bath/sneak back to bed for an hour at weekends/put the laundry away without it starting! We'll think carefully about what we're doing and percevere.

It might just be a question of managing your timings too.   There's not much point expecting a young puppy to willingly go back to sleep when it suits you - it's never quite that easy or convenient!!  I always put mine to bed after a walk (as adults) and I'd schedule snooze time too for a puppy (after a play session/training etc).  There's no reason why he can't go back in his crate as long as all his needs have been met and at his age you should be able to get an hour back for yourself.

Do continue to practise leaving him behind doors too - lots of out and back, in and out and he'll soon get bored of greeting you each time you return or acknowledging your departure

> I have more difficulty training my son not to shout at the dogs for barking than I do training the dogs :-)--he seems to think the dogs understand "angry voice=don't do it" whereas for them it's more "hey he's finally noticed us!"

I still have this on going problem with OH. Door bell rings, dogs charge down the hall sounding like the 'hound of the baskervilles', I answer the door closing the porch doors behind me and the dogs retreat.  OH arrives on the scene with a raised voice asking what is going on and it all begins again, 'hey Dads turned up and he's joining in'. After all these years he can not take on board that if he raises his voice, so do the dogs.

You have to teach your dog how to cope with frustration and that he cannot always have what he wants.

Some great suggestions here, my vet has suggested using a standard desensitisation programme with Calmex. The Calmex is an acute anxiolytic (get me!) so the dog is much more receptive to the desensitisation programme.

Seems to be working well so far!

never heard of it is there a website you can read about it.