We got our 1-year old Leo home last week.
She was living with my parents in a similar set up to what we have here with no problems.
Yesterday we were told by our neighbours that she whines when she is left on her own.
Our neighbours have been very nice about it all and were more worried on her being left alone and feeling sad than the noise (doggy people :) ).
They even wondered if they could maybe have her during the day but they are very old so we decided Sasha might be little bit too strong and quick for them and if she does get exited she can jump up.

It has only been 4 days she has been left as my other half works shifts so is not working every day.
I know it is early days and she is probably still unsettled and a bit unsure of her surroundings.

She has bones, treat ball, Kong, toys etc to keep her entertained and she only gets these when she is left alone.
She is not very food oriented and doesn't seem to play with the treat toys while she is left, she does chew the bones.
She seems relaxed and usually lays down before I leave so she has not been looking stressed about it or anything.
She has however gone nuts when I return, bit over the top happiness so I can see she has maybe got worried while I was gone.

Our day routine for the days we both work is:
An hour of exercise in the morning (Off lead, playing with other dogs if we see any, sniffing around etc)
We then get home and she has approx 45 minutes rest and then has her breakfast and I go to work.
My other half leaves to work 30 minutes later (9.30).
Sasha is then on her own until approx 12.45 when I come home to take her out again.
We have started going out cycling so she gets nice bit of exercise for about 30 minutes.
I do about 10 minutes of training with her and go back to work.
I return home at 5.30.

She does not start crying when we leave the house but starts little bit later and has not been crying when we return so we had no clue she was even crying!
At my parents she was left home for similar lenghts of time and was perfectly happy to be left (my parents kept checking especially after we lost our old girl and the neighbours have said they never hear anything).

Should we go back to basics with Sasha and do the leaving for little bit and coming back, then leaving for little bit and coming back?
Could somebody go through how we do it as it has been a while I have trained a puppy to be left alone!
This week today is the last day she will spend on her own so we have minimum of 4 days to work on her before next week.

I know it is probably time that we need but any tips on how to make her more comfortable staying at home alone would be great!

Cant really help you sorry, but i had a springer that used to howl when we went out and it was only the neighbours that told us. He also used to climb on the sofa and sleep which he never did if we were there (found that out as it was warm when we got in and sat down!). The thing is they get to know your car noise coming up the road and your footsteps  way before you put the key in the door so he would always be silent and be sleeping on the floor - pretending he had been there all the time!

This is probably the reason why you dont hear her.

Have you tried leaving the radio on? loud enough to have the company of voices, mine love radio 2.

Lorripop- my girl does that too! She never sleeps on 'her' sofa when we are home and we never see her on there... but when I get home from work she is waiting by the door.... but there is a distinct warm patch on her sofa. So cute.. especially seeing as though she could sleep on the human sofa but chooses not to! She also cries when we leave her (or leave the room) and my neighbours call her the reverse burglar alarm (tells everyone when we are out). She is getting better though and I think she knows we would never leave her for long.

To the OP- I would give her a bit more time to settle in before worrying too much. I think it is a really lovely offer from your neighbours (those of us with 'doggy' nice neighbours know they are like gold dust) and I would try not to put them off too much as you may well need them. Maybe spend some time showing them how to handle your girl so that if they do ever have her for you they will know the score.

Best of luck!

> then has her breakfast and I go to work.
> My other half leaves to work 30 minutes later (9.30).

Do you know what her usual toilet cycle is?  Mine need to go about 1hr to 1.5hrs after food.  Might she be waking up needing to go outside and then just not going back to sleep?

The other thing I wonder about are your greeting behaviours.  If you only have a limited time at home for lunch you presumably need to get straight on with her 'fun' time - do you think she is anticipating this and getting excited about your return?  She may be mistaking other outside noises as you coming home.  It is always helpful if you can ignore her for a while when you get in so that she thinks coming and going is nothing unusual but I know that's difficult in your case.  Has she also become used to big greetings from you whilst she was with your parents? :)

It is still early days and your house probably sounds very different to your parents house.  I expect that the postman, binmen etc will all come at different times and make different noises perhaps than she is used to.  You could go back to basics with short times, but I would think she might just be a bit edgy til she gets used to her new surroundings.  You could try leaving the radio on?  You must be delighted to have her home so good luck :)

I don't think it is a toilet issue as when I come back at lunch she doesn't rush to toilet.

She doesn't toilet that often at all, maybe 4 pees and 2 poops a day.
When we were on a ferry picking her up she did not toilet for 25 hours!
Lot of walking the decks was done and I was getting desperate for her to pee but no, 25 hours she kept it in!

I do hope it is just an time/slightly different routine issue and once she settles to ours she will start sleeping through most of the time.
I just do not like thinking she is at home crying while I'm at work.
The neighbours said it definately sounds like a sad whine, not an excited one so in my head I see her walking around in circles and whining :(.

It is really weird she cries after us as she seems quite content being left and does not start straight away.
Today she did not even follow me to the door when I left.
I stood outside for 10 minutes after I closed the door and not a sound :).

It could be that she hears people walking past and then whines when it wasn't us.
That is one reason why I wasn't sure the going back to basis and doing the coming and going would be good idea as this might make her think we could come home any minute and make her listen to the passer bys.
I rather she learns I'll be home at 12.30 as I don't think she is a kind of dog that will get overly excited waiting for that.
Her inner clock is very good though and is set to get us up at 6.30, so far it has maximum of +-10 minutes to that every morning.

It could be our parrot that wakes her up too, that is one thing they did not have at my parents...
We also have the TV on for the parrot to watch so there is background noise going on already.

My old boy has just started howling when left. he has the radio on he has never done this before. infact he has started becoming more and more vocal. any ideas why a quiet dog has turned into the hound of the bascivilles

How old is he? Elderly dogs can get a form of canine senile dementia, when they get agitated and unsettled, and start howling or barking randomly. This can often be treated by either medication or not leaving the dog alone. Discuss it with your vet.

hi little jayne, could it be that there is a bitch in season nearby?or depending on his age he may just not be feeling well as has already been posted.

The Leo is 1 year old

Noora,

Firstly you will have to teach your young dog to be comfortable in it's own company whilst you are at home.
Start with exersising the dog until relaxed and comfortable  - remove to a secure part of the house with bones, kong etc and leave.
Praise the 'absence of noise' by sneaking up and catching dog when quiet and say softly 'good shhh' - then no eye contact and leave again.
Only contact the dog during silence and ideally wake dog up and take back into your company.Work on this until dog is used to being alone with you in the same house.
Dont make the mistake of going to dog whilst making noise or you will be training the dog to call for you.
Try to catch the dog whilst it is alone and quiet then praise.
You are effectively teaching the dog to 'switch off' and relax whilst you're not there.

Thanks everybody.
My neighbours are glad to report she has been quiet since I started this threat :)
So it seem all Sasha needed was more time to get used to her surroundings(and little harder exersise).
Next week my other half only works one day shift so she will have even more time to start feeling secure and comfortable while she will only be left for maximum an hour or so (if he needs to pop to the shops etc).