Hi TessieToes,
I'm kinda in the same boat. Teeko is 9 weeks old and we only have her a few days - I had to come to work yesterday and she was devastated!! She made sounds I never thought I would hear from a puppy and it was very distressing to have to leave her. She was SCREAMING!! I almost didn't go to work it was just so bad.
The arrangement I have for her at the moment is that my Mother comes to pick her up each day at 12/1pm and she takes her to her house where she can play with other dogs. Then I collect her on my way home. This will be the arrangment until she's a little bit older.
Having spent some time on her own yesterday away from me for the first time, her attitude was completely different last night - for the better! She wasn't half as clingly and did not cry once all night!! Slept in her crate with the door closed and got up just once to go potty. I was so surprised.
I am certainly no expert, only got her on Saturday! But what I've learned over the past few days since I got her is that the less attention I give her, the more independent she becomes. It's difficult because all I want to do is pick her up and cuddle her all the time - but it seems the more I do that, the more she misses me when I'm gone. Kinda obvious I suppose.
So last night I didn't molly coddle her at all - just lots of playing and positive interaction. I went to work this morning and she was perfectly fine. Did not cry and I feel so much better for it today. So I suppose what I'm trying to say is, maybe over the next couple of weeks you could start to condition her to feel ok when she's on her own - that way you won't worry about her so much when you're not there because you know she'll be able to cope.
I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon coming in and out of her room, so I'd go in, ignore her, go out again etc - I kept doing this and each time slowly increased the amount of time I was gone. It seems to have really helped her. So far so good!
Another thing which I believe was a big help, was that she spent a lot of time playing with my Mothers dogs - it seems to have really helped her to destress!! The fact that your puppy will have another dog around I'm sure will certainly make life more interesting for her.
I hope some of that helps. I'm new to all of this myself so please everyone, feel free to correct me if anything I'm doing is wrong
J xxx