Worried puppy has separation anxiety

[PoppysMam]

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HI,

I really really need some advice.
We have had our puppy coming up a week and we have gone through the acclimatising process with getting Poppy used to the crate and she doesnt seem to have a problem with the crate, as she sleeps in there no problem when we are around, we can close and latch the door also when we are around, the problem is if we leave.
We had to go back to work today but I managed to start a couple of hours late as Im so conscious that shes not adjusting to us leaving her, however I have to leave her from 7am until 5 from now on. We have a dog sitter who is coming in on a lunchtime to feed her and exercise her for (while a puppy and will move onto dog walks once shes old enough), and we have acquired the help of friends around these times, but she is completely stressed out if we leave her for more than 2 minutes and the noises are unbearable. If I leave the room it takes her about 10 minutes to settle down and go to sleep, but if she wakes and we aren't there the screaming and howling begins again. If this is what she's like when we are in the house, then it will be a constant cycle through the day when we aren't around and Im concerned this is going to cause lasting damage and she will forever be an anxious dog.

This also happens through the night as we decided not to have her in our bedroom right from the beginning as we didn't want to fall victims to her crying and give in and let her on the bed. However we have just bought a little pet carrier and are thinking of using this in our bedroom for a few weeks to see if we can begin to combat the night time terrors.

I know all of these problems will be solved once we can solve the anxiety as a whole, but I just dont know where to begin.
Do we abandon the crate during the day for the time being and see if she will settle if she has more room to play, or will this just cause her even more distress. I dont want her to damage herself or anything in the house through her panicking.

Do we abandon locking her in the crate and allow her the freedom of a puppy proofed room, or do we persevere and she grows out of this?

Please please help!

 

[BarrettBabies]

Have you tried leaving a t-shirt of yours in the crate with your smell on it? Or buy a doggy blanket and sleep with it and then try that in crate?

A DAP plug inhelps some puppies.

 

[PoppysMam]

I have all of the above, and I came home to the blanket and t-shirt covered in poo. The dog walker said she seemed happy when she arrived and was a bit noisy when she was leaving but had quieted down as she was locking up, however when I walked in she was screaming. We plugged the DAP plug in yesterday and she is also wearing the collar but it doesn't seem to have dampened down the anxiety.

 

[BarrettBabies]

Oh dear hope someone else can help. None of my pups or foster dogs have solied crate so not sure what to suggest. How old is your puppy?

 

[PoppysMam]

She is 9 weeks old, I left her in the kitchen without the door locked on her crate and she pooed on the puppy pads, and not in her bed, this is whats making me think about abandoning the crate for the time being, at least until she can hold herself a little better, then try again in a few weeks.

 

[Tigernidster]

Oh dear - she really is much too young to be left for any length of time at all. She's only a baby, recently away from her mum and siblings and needs company more than anything.

All you can do is arrange for as many people as possible to come in to her during the day. You simply cannot expect her to be happily on her own from 7 till 5 with only a break at lunch time. I don't ever leave my (adult) dogs for more than 4 hours, even though they probably would be able to cope now.

I'm sorry to be so negative but if I had been your pup's breeder I wouldn't have been able to sell her to you.

 

[Oreo]

She is way too young to be leaving for periods of time on her own. The most I would be leaving a puppy at that age is 15-20 mins and that it tops!

The reason this is, is because she needs to be shown the right way to do things, she needs to play, she needs to explore, she needs to be a puppy. Not stuck in a crate for 4-5 hours.

An older dog generally can cope with longer hours, as with people some cope better than others. My Oreo is 6 this year and she loves her time alone. She can sleep away on the bed and probably doesn't even notice were gone. My old dog (who died at the age of 19) couldn't be alone for more than 10 minutes before he destroyed things. As I say every dog is different.

Ok, so i've said my bit so it's time to try and help, what's done is done and you need to commit to making the dog happy.

Regarding the crate, dogs see a crate as there den. In the wild dogs have dens, there own space of security. They do not like going to the toilet in there own space hence why your pup is happy to go outside on a puppy pad. A crate isn't and shouldn't be used to 'shut dogs away' but used as a dogs safe space. Oreo doesn't have one and I guess that is down to spending half her life locked up in kennel so she is happy on a sofa or a bed.

A puppy needs to feel safe so a crate needs to be fully of warm things like blankets and such to make it feel safe.

A new dog or puppy will also try and test the water and see how far it can push you. The first night sleeping downstairs they may cry, the second and third too but once they realise you cannot be bribed into letting them upstairs they will soon keep quiet. Once you give in, you are teaching them it's ok to cry.

Same goes for barking, if they bark and they get something they'll quickly learn to bark to get your attention.

In regards to leaving the pup, this needs to be built up over time. Start with something simple like placing the pup in a pen the otherside of the room while you iron or clean. Once the pup knows you come back and is settled, move on to leaving the room for a minute or two. Again, once the pup learns you always come back you can increase it.

Try not to get too much into a routine when going out the house, they quickly learn that how you leave a house. Try putting your coat on then sit down and play with the pup for a bit. Say a quick goodbye and don't make a fuss about leaving.

They are clever things and quickly pick up on body language.

Hopefully, you can get this to work. But it will take a lot of commitment on your part to get it to work.

Good luck

 

[PoppysMam]

Thanks for the advice guys, unfortunately the time we are away cant be changed so we have got the help of everyone else involved!

I am managing to leave for work a bit later and spend more time with her at home, so hopefully the longest she will ever be left will be about 2-2.5 hrs.

As for the crying in the night, we put the crate in our room and last night she had her first full nights sleep, Poppy didn't make a sound, I was up all night though checking in on her though.

We bought her a little cat carrier to act as a 'smaller den' for her until she gets a bit taller and bigger, and she's loving it. We encourage her to always sleep in either the crate or the carrier and she now chooses to sleep in there 99% of the time.

We have also discovered that the problem with leaving her in a room is if we put some sort of barrier in her way. Be that a crate or a closed door, so we are working on that bit by bit. We can now go upstairs and leave her for roughly 10 mins before she starts to whimper, we ask her to 'Quiet' and she goes silent then we enter the room. We also dont make a fuss before we leave or come home. We were advised to ignore her when we initially come home so that its not a big deal that we have returned, so we just come in and take her straight out to toilet, then we come in and have playtimes, and it seems to be working!

Our dog sitter/walker is great, she has given us loads of advice and she works with a dog behaviourist who is also giving us some advice.

Another thing that has come to our attention after her first trip to the vets, is that is she is probably 2 weeks younger than we thought! We were told she was 8 weeks on picking her up, however the vet seems to think she is only 8 weeks now, as she is small and underweight for her age group. This could be down to being the smallest in the littler etc, but the vet seems to think this will be the answer to some of our concerns about her, i.e she wasn't vaccinated (we thought she was). So, im trying to decide if there is something I can do with regards t the person who sold her to us.

We are also well on the way with toilet training, she has started to cry at the back door when she needs to go out if we havent put her out.

All in all, things seem to be improving, however we know we have a long way to go, and if we feel that the separation anxiety isn't improving over the next couple of weeks, then we will have to make some decisions as to how we progress from that point onwards. We are responsible enough to know that if we cant provide her with the home she requires then we will look everywhere for someone who can offer her everything. Im just hoping it never has to come to that, because she has a massive hold on our hearts!!!

We have also decided not to crate her while we are out for long periods of time, she has the run of the kitchen as she cant get into anything and theres plenty of space for toys. This has alleviated messing in crate and it seems like the nervous diarrhoea has stopped too.

 

[banana]

Ahhh, she sounds really sweet - welcome to Dog Forum - I am Anna and I need to see lots of pictures of Poppy!

 

[hanneroon]

there are plug in diffusers and things with pheremones, for helping to allieviate anxiety, perhaps something like that may help. I would also report the breeder, to as many folk as possible, (kennelclub, advertisers, rspca, local dog warden, mp) this will relieve some of your anxiety!

It sounds like you are doing all you can, perhaps her anxiety you can now relate to her tinyness, and things will improve as she reaches her developmental stages. Might be worth researching, the different stages of early puppyhood, see if that suggests anything to you. Must be a dreadful worry, but do try not to, chin up! good luck, photos please!