Hi All

I expect you all remember me from Hamish my poor westie that i lost earlier in the year, well i now have another little westie called Robbie who i got 4 weeks ago today he is 13 weeks old tomorrow, he is a lovely little dog and its lovely to have another companion around, not sure whether any of you can help me with this problem that we have got at the moment, when we go out in the mornings he barks as soon as we leave him on/off until we come home, i know its early days and he is only young but cannot remember whether Hamish did this as a pup or not, he doesn't bark at night only during the day when we leave him, he is crated when we are not in and i walk him first thing in the mornings before i go to work so its not where he isn't exercised, he seems quite content in himself and my family work nights so we need to quieten him down if possible.
He starts puppy class tommorow night and i am looking forward to starting this with him as i think it wil do him good.

Thanks again
Helen

Congratulations on your new puppy - hard work aren't they?!  I think much as women are designed to forget the pain of childbirth there is something about puppies that makes us forget what hard work they are!! :)

At his age he won't need walking as such but a good play should be enough to tire him out a bit.  I'm lucky to be at home so I was able to manage mine in short bursts and we had a routine structured around eating, peeing, playing, training and sleeping.  It's much easier to train them to be left when you are at home and can practise little and often in the early days, even 5 or 10 minutes here and there can help.  Do also remember to shut doors behind you and Robbie will soon learn that a closed door doesn't always mean you've gone for good!  Once he's in his crate try not to reward the barking by letting him out or engaging with him.  I found that if I kept coming and going through different doors my pup would soon hush.  If all else failed I'd find a few jobs to do in the utility room with him so that he could relax.  If he fell asleep in there, I'd open the door so he could come and look for me when he woke up for a pee.  If he was awake but quiet I'd let him out.  Little and often is the key

They do bark and holler at the beginning but it's completely normal and Robbie will grow out of it.  When I used to walk with my older dog and leave the pup at home he would howl like an orphan the whole time we were out (at least I think he did!).  As long as I knew he was fed, played with, and his bladder was empty then I reasoned he was simply protesting and he just grew out of it.  This phase actually passed quite quickly but I do remember one mammoth barking session of 1 .5 hours all through sunday lunch with the family!  It's also worth remembering never to say goodbye or hello, just come in and let him out for wee - as soon as he's done that then he can have lots of praise and proper greeting if you like.  The point being that you don't want Robbie to really learn the difference between 'popped next door for 10 minutes' and 'gone shopping for 2 hours'!!  Luckily dogs can't tell the time - unless it's food time :)