[MicaDixie]

Originally Posted by viviansnickers

I recently went through this with my 6.5 month Snickers. I dedicated my long weekend (MLK) to resolving this issue and to my surprise it worked. He still dislikes when we leave and will bark a little bit, but huge improvement. Everyone's situation is different, but hope I can help. I had major guilt issues keeping him in a crate all day but now I am better knowing he is safe and will not mess. What we did was, we put him in his crate (crate in an area he could always see us) with his kong stuffed with PB while we were home for 1 hour intervals. 1 hour in 1 hour out. We blocked off all carpeted rooms so his crate w/ blankets was his only soft spot to go to. He needed to nap so eventually he did in the crate. When he was out of his crate we would let him venture on his own and he would play with his toys, run to his potty door etc. Another thing that REALLY helped was we desensitized him with the things that would make him anxious when we left. Such as we would put on our shoes, coat, jingle keys, and open the door to leave but then close it and go watch TV (still dressed for outdoors.) We did this about 20-25 times each day. Soon enough, Snick stopped trying to follow us out the door and if he was in his crate would not even flinch and was uneffected. We still are doing this process this week. But after that long hard weekend of training, this past week was a BREEZE!! No crazy fits, no messy crate, and a much more calm dog. I would highly suggest you leave you pup where you confine him, while you are home. Let him know that place is not just for when you are leaving....for example Snick still has crate time on the weekends now, less, but still important he goes in so he knows we are not always deserting him when he is in.

Good Luck-
-Vivian

Ps...he sleeps with us. I could not bare him in a crate for 6 hours (2 separate-3 hour intervals) during the day and all night...no way!!!

Great advice! I'm glad things are working better for you It sounds like you found something that worked!