Help!

[Riverkatie]

I have only had 3 dogs in my life and I have never had this problem before. Both my other dogs were fine.

Ruff is 10 and a half weeks old. I am a work from home person, so we are together all day, and Ruff comes on the school run. However I do have to leave him sometimes.

We have been working up to leaving him. He is happy in his very very large crate, big enough for bed, toilet and area to eat a Kong. He sleeps in there all night with 1 potty break. In the day if I need to do something in another room and he is asleep I put him in his crate, and he is fine, snuggles down again.

2 days ago I had to run round to help an elderly neighbour urgently. I popped him in his crate with a Kong, and he cried. I left him to it. He was still crying when I got back,(maybe 20mins) but shut up when he saw me. I made a cuppa, and then let him out. Ever since he has cried if I am out of his sight. Today was dreadful. I had to go shopping. I couldn't take him in the car as I don't have one on Thursdays, I was on my bike. I was gone maybe half an hour at the most and he was still yelling the place down when i got back. I waited outside for another 20 minutes but got cold (it is winter here) and had to go in. He quieted as soon as he saw me, and I let him out after about 5 calm minutes.

I have to go back out to post an important parcel and I am dreading it. I am also worried that he thinks he is calling me back home, yet i cannot wait outside all day until he shuts up. What if he never shuts up?

I have trained my puppy to be calm in earthquakes for goodness sake but I'm stumped by going out to the shops!! Any ideas, please help

PS We start puppy classes tonight so this is my first question for my trainer!

[lindamarie]

The older they get, the smarter. And they realize, I mean REALLY realize that you're leaving unlike a new puppy.
You have to do what you have to do, so the poor guy will just have to learn that we all have some difficulties in life, right?
It sounds like you're doing the right thing because you're making him get calm before taking him out.

I believe you may have to start doing this when you're home! Place him in the crate and go about your biz while he's in the crate.
It seems that, at least the one time, you were hurried when you had an emergency and he had no time to prepare in his little, doggy brain.
So, I think you may just have to try this making sure to say NO when he howls. Go inside and outside a few times, run the water, vacuum or anything to let him know that if you're home or not, he has to be in there periodically.

[Riverkatie]

Yesterday adult daughter and I had such a funny time. We stuffed his Kongs with chicken treats and cheese, and popped him in his crate. He howled.

We then went in and out the house, together and separately, through different doors, walking around the outside of the house, and coming in the other door, putting coats on and off, bike helmets on and off, picking up and putting down the car keys, greeting each other as we passed!

Eventually he decided we were totally mad, stopped crying and settled down to eat his Kongs. We then vanished for 5 minutes, came back, made a cuppa and let him out!

I am also going to start leaving him crated whilst I do work at the other end of the house. He has to learn that the puppy Wail of Death gets him nowhere! Poor Ruff!

[becka]

For the first few weeks that I had Sadie I kept her crated for a few hours each day while I did things in the house (cleaning the house, email, napping ). At first she whined and cried for the first 5 minutes (and sometimes off and on for longer than that) before she just fell asleep. This was an especially useful tool during the first two weeks while we were working on housebreaking.

Now I only crate her when I leave the house. She goes right into her crate on command (after I throw in a treat or a cheese-filled kong) and doesn't cry, and is always very calm when I come home--sometimes she even sleeps through the sounds of me unlocking/locking the door and is still sprawled on her back in the crate when I walk into the room.

[Jasper'sMomma]

Jasper is now to the point where Sadie is at...

we followed the same routines that you did, becka....

Ruff, sounds like he's gonna get the idea of what you want from him any minute!

Laughed Out Loud at the description "Puppy Wail of Death" that's great