Puppy separation anxiety?

Hi everyone. More advice needed please! We are really not making progress with teaching our puppy to be alone. We've had her for nearly four weeks and if we so much as go upstairs when she is downstairs (behind the stair gate) she howls and whines piteously.

I've tried going when she's occupied with food or a toy or when she's asleep so that when I return she finds she's barely noticed my absence. I've also tried going frequently for just a few seconds at a time.

We haven't tried more as we didn't want to traumatise her during the 'fear impact period'.

She also gets really upset if she's behind the stair gate even if I'm within feet of her, but she would otherwise run up and down the stairs.

My husband is retired so she will nearly always have someone with her, but we don't want to never be able to leave her, even for a short time.

 

Hello. Thanks for replying. She sleeps in our bedroom, either in her bed or under our bed. We put her there from the first night so we haven't tried making her sleep alone. I'm torn between thinking we should just not leave her while she's so young (12 weeks old) and worrying about advice to make puppies spend time alone from the very start. We haven't done at all well with the latter because I'm a teacher currently on summer holiday and my husband is retired, so she's never had to be alone.

 

Thanks, that's reassuring!

 

Thank you!