Hi all,

New on here and after some advice please.

I collected my pup on Wednesday, he is a lab x viszla, 11 weeks old. I know he has been through a lot of upheaval, so I am having him sleep in my room in a bed next to me which he is doing really well with. My issue is he cannot cope when I put him in the kitchen behind the babygate- he barks non stop and howls even when I am sat just the other side of the gate - is this normal? I thought babygates were a gentle way of introducing pups to cope with being separate? I know it is very early days but I'm not sure whether to 'let him cry it out' or what to do? I can't have him with me all the time but I don't want to traumatise him by leaving him to cry it out, but equally he does need to learn to be in his own company eventually and I worry that by always having him with me in the early days it will be harder for him to be separate in a few weeks. Thoughts?

Many thanks

I would stick with it for a while.go back in amd praise him if he tales a breath and try not to go back in when he is making a fuss. I have one who was like this.i kind of mixed and matched and sometimes let her complain for a bit other times went back I to the room. She is still funny about bing shut away fro  me although now it's only of she can't see me.luckily she is fine when I go out and does suffer from separate at ion problems

Hello! We use a stair gate now still on the stairs (give our cats a peaceful space) . We used to have one on the kitchen when our boy first came to us. We built his time up with me in the kitchen with him and then popping back after 5 minutes and adding more minutes as the weeks progressed. I always praised when I returned even if I'd just gone out to the bin. We used a radio with one puppy we has as she liked hearing voices around her! Does he have a bed/cushion in the kitchen? An old t shirt worn by you for a few hours then give to him might settle him too.
We removed our kitchen gate at 7 months as our boy had got used to the cats and often took himself to his cushion in the kitchen!

Thanks for replies so far.

He has a bed with his blanket that smells of litter mates/mum (at least it did!) and he has a couple of familiar toys and a bowl of water too, the radio is always on (radio 2 currently) I always make sure he is fed/toileted and tired before I put him there but the minute I step over the babygate, even to sit on the floor next to it he barks and Howls, like he doesn't like the barrier? But I need to have a safe place to leave him when i can't be watching him. My gsd mills about nearby, she jumps over the babygate when she wants to go in the kitchen but mostly lies in the dining room, so he can see her too but still barks his head off

We had the same exact thing with our new JRT puppy, and it nearly drove us mad for a few days...! However, we were really firm with not giving her any attention if she started whining etc whenever we left her in the kitchen behind the gate. She got the hang of it after just a few days. We were only ever about 6 feet away from her, sat at the dining room table at breakfast/lunch/dinner, but she'd whimper and whine and sometimes bark. Whenever she settled down, one of us would calmly walk into the kitchen and give her a quiet fuss and come out again. We also spent several days walking in and out of the gate like a yoyo several times a day (to desensitise her to the gate). It sounds strange but I pretended to walk through the gate, and would immediately turn around and come back in straight away before she started to get upset. I'd do that several times in a row, and every now and then I would unpredictably walk a few steps into the dining room and back a few times, always coming back to the gate before she got upset. If I misjudged it, and she started getting upset I would freeze where I was and completely ignore her until she settled down.
Like I said, it took a few days of persistance, but we've had her 3 weeks now and she's not fussed about us going in and out of the kitchen anymore.
Try not to make it really exciting when you do join him back on his side as well. Keep the reunions low key, and give lots of calm praise  whenever he's doing the right thing in the kitchen.
You might find your hard work undone if your GSD gives him the attention he wants when he's being noisy though... Leading him to redouble his efforts next time...!
Good luck... It will be worth it if you can persevere! X

This stage is important in reducing separation anxiety problems in the future.
Being left for short periods with the certainty that you will return gives the puppy it's confidence for the future.
You're doing well...keep it up.