Leaving the puppy somewhere new

[Catharina Hjorth]

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Hi everyone.
I have a 5 month old poodle puppy, a complete star with 99% of things.
He's great at being home alone and does fine with being crated in the night. He even handles being left in the car really well.

However; whenever we go somewhere new and I leave for just a few minutes, he screams the place down. Last week I went to a cafe with a friend and I went inside, leaving him with my friend (who he knows well) and he started whining so bad. Then yesterday I took him with me to a meeting, at a place he's been many times before, thinking I would just leave him in the cloakroom for the 10 minutes it lasted - I didn't even get to 10 seconds before he started screaming. The same thing goes for when I leave him outside a shop or something along those lines.

How do I deal with this? It's very important for me that he can be left alone when in new situations - and I thought I had prepared him for this by training him extensively at being home alone etc. and training independence.
Will he grow out of this, or how should I train it?

Thank you for your help in advance!

 

[Caro Perry]

He's still very young and obviously unhappy at being without you in a strange place. I'd worry that if you continue at the moment you risk causing real separation anxiety.

Can you avoid leaving him like that for a few more months? It's also not a good idea to leave him alone outside shops - so many dogs are stolen now. Some dogs though are never happy being left alone somewhere strange .

If you absolutely have to leave him somewhere strange I'd try leaving something of yours with him which smells of you. Harri got very attached to a soft fleecy jumper of mine that I wore a lot and when I started leaving him I left it in his bed as a comforter.

 

[Mad Murphy]

. He even handles being left in the car really well.
thinking I would just leave him in the cloakroom for the 10 minutes it lasted -The same thing goes for when I leave him outside a shop or something along those lines.

Without wishing to jump down your throat..This is 2019 not 1959 have you never heard of dog thefts bait dogs and god forbid even worse fetish thieves who go around looking for unattended dogs?

Each week there are thefts from cars gardens and even parks although lots of 'tough' dogs are stolen cute puppies come high on that list.
You should never leave your dog in a public place unattended and never in your car esp at this time of the year. At best someone will brick your window and call the police at worst they will steal your car and dog.

Start looking into crate training (although Im not a fan its safer than the car or street) dog sitters, or doggy day care.
Leaving a dog unattended is asking for problems.

 

[Catharina Hjorth]

Without wishing to jump down your throat..This is 2019 not 1959 have you never heard of dog thefts bait dogs and god forbid even worse fetish thieves who go around looking for unattended dogs? .

I have heard about these and I appreciate your concern but I live in a place where leaving your dog unattended is completely normal - most people are quite happy to leave their baby outside a shop i a pram. So though I wouldn't dream of doing it somewhere I was not familiar with, I can do it here.

But even then, my biggest concern isn't outside shops etc. it's when for example I'm at work or even just visiting a friend, I would like to be able to put him somewhere safe without him panicking. And as I mentioned in the original post, he is crate trained and handles that very well - just not outside the house.

 

[Catharina Hjorth]

He's still very young and obviously unhappy at being without you in a strange place. I'd worry that if you continue at the moment you risk causing real separation anxiety.
.

Thank you for your advice, I will try not leaving him for the next couple of months until he's a bit more confident. Or if absolutely necessary, with something of mine.

 

[JudyN]

The general advice for separation anxiety is always to work within your dog's comfort zone. So using the cloakroom example, backtrack to walking with him into the room and then take him straight out again. If he's anxious because of what happened before, then you might even backtrack to just walking up to the room. If not, you can progress to walking him into the room and asking him to settle. Work through, e.g., leaving him there and walking out but not shutting the door, and come straight back in again, then shutting the door for a moment and coming back in.... If you can leave him happily in there for 2 seconds, then you aim for 3 seconds... You can also leave him with something to chew, but bear in mind that some dogs will seem fine while they have the chew and then cry when it's all gone.

Putting aside the risks of leaving a dog outside shops, use the same approach - tie him up, untie him and go again. Repeat, stepping through the doorway and straight out again... and so on. As long as you always work within his comfort zone, it doesn't matter that he's still a puppy, because you're not challenging him with something he's not ready for.

It does seem that in a lot of the world, including Scandinavia, leaving babies outside in prams is normal. In the UK it's REALLY frowned on, though it was normal a couple of generations ago. It'd be interesting to know the comparative risk in different countries of babies/dogs being snatched. I definitely wouldn't leave my dog outside a shop, but of course we're all very influenced by our cultures.

 

[Mad Murphy]

@JudyN has a good point things do differ from country to country even city to city . I had/ have no knowledge of the place the OP lives. But as many of the people here know I live in NL in Friesland to be exact. Ask anyone and they will tell you nothing happens in Friesland its farms cows and mud....
Children as young as 3 play in the street, people leave their back door unlocked ,when you visit you walk in,and yell "folk" to announce your arrival. And yes some folk tie their dogs outside shops schools etc but the fact is criminals do travel and they target places like ours. Recently someone with pups for sale had a visit from two young women thinking of buying a pup,,, one had a coughing fit and the owner went to get her a glass of water. When she came back the women were gone and they had taken two of the pups with them.
The sad thing is we all say " it doesnt happen here" until it does but then its too late...

 

[Dogsarethebest]

My parts of the USA, leaving a dog for 30 seconds in an unattended vehicle gets a nasty note, broken windows, police and humane society called.
As for dog thefts a couple towns over, someone men were going into peoples back yards during the day mind you(acting like dog walkers) and taking dogs and pups. They got caught but it still happened. I do not live in a city. I live next to farm towns. But a 10 minute drive to a small City. I don't live in a high risk area. Just super dog friendly. So it does happen.
Best wishes.

 

[Catharina Hjorth]

I apprecia

My parts of the USA, leaving a dog for 30 seconds in an unattended vehicle gets a nasty note, broken windows, police and humane society called.
As for dog thefts a couple towns over, someone men were going into peoples back yards during the day mind you(acting like dog walkers) and taking dogs and pups. They got caught but it still happened. I do not live in a city. I live next to farm towns. But a 10 minute drive to a small City. I don't live in a high risk area. Just super dog friendly. So it does happen.
Best wishes.

Thank you, I do appreciate what you and Murphy are saying. But this is in Denmark.
It is perfectly normal in rural areas here. And don't worry, I am very careful about doing something that might put him at risk. In the end, it's not what my question is about.

My real worry is not leaving him outside a shop, it almost never happens that that would be necessary or in the car for that matter.

My worry was at work or with someone else. At work we - behind locked doors - have a dog kennel. Specifically made to put your dog safely or you can take it with you to the office or leave them in the cloakroom downstairs, all places where someone would have to walk through us to get to them.
My other worry was leaving him with a friend, for example to go to the toilet, and him crying. That’s an issue, not because he’s unattended, but because he’s still crying.

I’m not worried he’s going to get stolen. I’m worried why he gets so upset about being alone somewhere new, but it’s never an issue at home. And I was looking for advice on how I can train that in the best possible way.

But thank you for your concern about him being stolen, in case I wasnt aware it could be an issue

 

[JoanneF]

If he is fine at home but crying in unfamiliar surroundings it would suggest that it isn't the being left that upsets him, it's the unfamiliarity . So starting at work, where the surroundings will become more familiar, maybe get him used to you stepping out the door and back in BEFORE he cries (like @JudyN suggests) and in time he may develop the confidence to be alone in new places too.

I agree with the others though, I would never leave my dog outside a shop. If you wouldn't leave your purse or your phone unattended, it makes little sense to me to leave your valuable friend.

 

[Biker John]

I cant offer any suggestions, but adding my Folly is strange, I can leave her on her own and she is relaxed. But when I am out with my friend and Folly, if we go to a café say and try leaving Folly with either of us while the other goes inside she cries. But if either of us walks off with her she trots off happily leaving the other behind. So in order to go in to place an order my friend walks her away, I go inside and order or pick up what we want. Go back out and my friend is sitting down with a happy relaxed Folly.

 

[Catharina Hjorth]

Thank you for all your advices.
We have trained it a lot in the last week, using the method of slowly introducing him to being left alone new places and he's already doing so much better! Just yesterday he happily waited in a kennel at the vets while having his passport checked - not a single bark as I walked out of sight.

 

[JudyN]

Well done!