Hi, I'm hoping to get help from the experience of others. I mentioned this as a reply on an earlier post but I'm now getting rather more concerned. My fifteen week old flatcoat is doing really well in all sorts of things: housetraining, sleeping through night, and basic obedience. However, he is a disaster about being left home alone. I have been trying to put him into his crate for short periods through the day when I am doing things in the house and this has been successful up to a point. When I go out, even for a short period, he starts yelping and crying and I'm fairly sure that he keeps this up all the time I'm away. As soon as he hears me come back he stops. I don't let him out of his crate immediately I get in but will busy myself with tidying the kitchen or putting the shopping away or whatever. He will be quiet whilst I do this so by the time he's let out he will have been quiet for five or ten minutes.

I have started to feed him in his crate so that he will associate it with pleasant experiences and I've also tried leaving him with a treat. He's quiet whilst he eats the treat but starts yelping when he's finished it. At night he settles happily in the crate and usually sleeps through until the morning. I've also tried making sure that he's really tired when I put him into the crate during the day but this hasn't made any appreciable difference. We live in a terraced house and I am very conscious of the neighbours being disturbed by the noise he makes.

I feel that I'm making little progress and am getting rather worried about this apparent separation anxiety. It is not helped by talking to other dog owners when we're out and finding that their puppies are fine about being left for a couple of hours!

As far as your routine goes I think you are doing everything I would advise to my new puppy owners . Do you cover the crate on three sides so that its like a den and cosy .Do you leave a radio on ? as long as he is toileted and exercised before crating I think its just time he will settle once he realises this is his routine.

Have a chat with your neighbours explain to them what your doing with the puppy ask them if they can persevere for a while ...for all you know he may stop after 10 mins once your've gone if he can go all night!!

Roni

Thanks for your reply. Sadly, I'm almost certain he doesn't stop and I do leave the radio on! I've also got a loudly ticking clock above his crate and he has an old t-shirt of mine in there with him as well as his special cuddly toy. The crate is in a corner under the stairs and has some covering over it as well. Perhaps I need to increase the cover but I don't want to make it too hot for him.

I've never used a crate, but it sounds like everything you are doing is good for crate-training (positive association with crate), but is doing nothing for seperation anxiety.

He needs to know thet you will be coming back, so being on his own is then no big deal, for this to work, you have to start of gradually. It sounds as if he is already fine with you leaving him in one room while you are in another, so you now need to focus on getting him used to you going out of the house. You could start by walking out of the front door (while pup can see you doing this), and returning right away. Graduly increase the time you are outside, making sure you return BEFORE he gets upset. Every time you leave him for long enough for him to get upset, it will only make him worse.

Hopefully somebody can give you some better advice on treating this, but it sounds like it has nothing to do with the crate atall, it's about him not feeling happy on his own in the house.

>It is not helped by talking to other dog owners when we're out and finding that their puppies are fine about being left for a couple of hours!

My dog, now 2yrs old can be left for several hours with no problems, but I wouldn't dream of leaving him as a 15 wk old puppy, for more than 30 mins (just enough time to get the kids from school), any longer than that and I would get a dog-sitter in (my dad/mum/sister :) ).

Hi, my pup is 17 weeks old and when i first left him just to go turn my horse out i'd come home to a terrible racket, as he's on the raw diet i find him lovely massive raw meaty bones, nothing small for him to choke on, he now knows that in the morning he will get his bone and as i start to lock doors he runs into his crate ready for his bone, i can now go to the horses and not worry as i come home and he's still in bliss land chomping on his bone and doesn't want to come out even with the door open as he's not ready to see me lol

I do feel for you--I went through similar stuff with our then puppy and it brought back for me all the old trauma of having a dog that used to eat his way through doors and bay like a bloodhound when left alone (now guess why I ended up with him...). Luckily, Diesel became much better when we got another dog, apart from one small thing. They don't howl, but they do love to surprise me occasionally with a carefully chewed household totem or item of clothing. We've been ok for a few weeks, but although I put my boots up on the table today the phone got the treatment instead. :-\

I wonder if they aren't picking up on a human anxiety and just obliging me in a "make it be so" kind of way.