My puppy does not want to stay alone

[snickers65]

My puppy yorkie [6 months, 2.5 pounds] does not want to stay alone in the house. He has to be with someone all the time. I can't leave the house because he never stops barking. What can I do? Thanks for your advice.

[Booboo'smommy]

Welcome to YT, I hope someone can ggive you some good advice. I have never had this problem because I had two of them so they kept eachother company.

[bildio]

Try leaving a radio on. Trick is to find a station that satisfies him.

You could also try leaving him for short periods, returning, and rewarding him if he is quiet. Short - a couple of minutes in the beginning to see how long he can tolerate, and increase time accordingly.

Toys, another Yorkie, etc.

[LiloNstitch]

i had a friend that had a dog similar to yours except the dog would have anxiety attacks when they would leave the dog so what they did is they recorded there voice on a tape player so ever 15 minutes or so the player would play their voice. or sometimes they would call their answering machine just so the dog would hear their voice. i'm not recommending that just a story hehe....

i say leave the dog a bunch of toys or i saw this toy thing its called the pet sitter or somthing it plays with the dog...... it throws toys or balls or somthing.....

[Coco Pebbles]

My Pebbles does this too when she is left alone. She actually would loose her voice... uh I mean Bark...lol. But now that she is older I can leave her with my Border Collie and she doesn't bark. This probably doesn't help you, but I do feel your pain! We went through it and it's very frustrating! Maybe keep her in there with a big stuff animal that she can snuggle with and maybe a radio for sound? I will keep my fingers crossed for you! Good luck.

[Leesha]

Originally Posted by snickers65

My puppy yorkie [6 months, 2.5 pounds] does not want to stay alone in the house. He has to be with someone all the time. I can't leave the house because he never stops barking. What can I do? Thanks for your advice.

Get him a friend...try leaving him with another dog at your house and see what he does.

Mine are all fine when they are together when alone they cry and bark.

[Coco Pebbles]

Yes, it's the perfect excuse to get yourself another furbaby!!!

[jc212]

Mine is attached to my hip as well. Whenever I leave, I put some of his kibble into a Kong and seal it in there with fat free cream cheese (or you can use any sort of treat that he has to work to get). He doesn't even notice that I'm leaving. I also usually leave the radio or TV on as well.

[Coco Pebbles]

Originally Posted by jc212

Mine is attached to my hip as well. Whenever I leave, I put some of his kibble into a Kong and seal it in there with fat free cream cheese (or you can use any sort of treat that he has to work to get). He doesn't even notice that I'm leaving. I also usually leave the radio or TV on as well.

This is a fabulous idea! I used the Kong for my larger dog... but it was used to keep him from chewing anything that I didn't want him to so I never thought about it to stop barking. It's hard to bark when your using you mouth for something else! Thank you for sharing!

[zenzele]

Originally Posted by snickers65

My puppy yorkie [6 months, 2.5 pounds] does not want to stay alone in the house. He has to be with someone all the time. I can't leave the house because he never stops barking. What can I do? Thanks for your advice.

He's suffering from separation anxiety, get some books on that and also ask your Vet about it. Before and After Getting Your Puppy by Ian Dunbar talks about using the stuffed kongs and separation anxiety. If I could get only one book about living with and training dogs, this would be it!! I Highly Recommend it.

[YorkieMother]

What you may be dealing with is call sepration anxiety.

Getting a new dog may or may not help.. you may end up with two dogs in trouble not one. It may not stop the first dog from wanting you and it may not want a new dog. It maybe it just wants you only.
Radio is sometimes helpful if you tune it to a station you usually listen to or a classical station. you want normal and calm. Bad thing about radio is that dogs sometimes need quiet and sometimes they have those loud sounds that makes things worse so a CD with calm sounds like Through a dogs ear on a timer maybe more helpful.
For sepration anxiety building the dogs confidence is a must and working with it on training and being able to follow your requests and learning great tricks help. Dog needs to learn he can cope without you it not easy but it can be done.
As well as teaching settle.
Great little article on what it is and what to do to help.
Separation Anxiety | The Humane Society of the United States

In cases of very bad sepration anxeity drugs like cmposure or bio calm or even prozac can be given by a vet to help keep the dog calm through retraining which takes time and there is not quick fix to this.

JL

[sats4eva]

I had the same issue as you did but I think i've gotten it to work. The trick for me is to use a command that he understands and interprits as calming down and staying quiet. So in the middle of the night when he barked I would go into his room and say quiet and then leave the room. He would bark, cry, scratch you name it but he soon realized none of that will get him anywhere. So each and everytime I told him to quiet I went back in after a few min of silence and gave him a treat. I soon increased the time between me telling him quiet and the treat. I started out with 5 min...then 10...then 30 and finaly an hr...i worked him upto around 3 hrs of silence. He will bark again but then again they are just puppies. So you tell him quiet. Let him settle down..give him his treat for the previous 3 hrs and repeat it again. Eventually they will go longer. My snickers right now is 12.5 wks. I got him at 8 wks. So it surely does take some time but with in a month my pup learned fast. The important thing is to always give him his treat after the silence. He earned it and second he will gain a sense of confience when doing it next. Hope this helps.

Sats

[Mybabyjasmine]

I have the same problem with my baby. She barks for probably 10 minutes until she realizes we really aren't coming back. Then the trouble starts. She gets mad at us for leaving her alone and wants us to see how mad she is so she destroys the house. I'll come home from work and the garbage can will be knocked over and spread out throughout the house. She will jump on tables and knock things off that she can chew up. She's gotten into bottles of pills (scared me to death but she didnt like the taste thank god), chewed up my schoolwork and books.

We also thought that getting another dog would help so she has company and someone to distract her. IT DID NOT HELP!!! It made it worse. Now they both bark and destroy the house even more. The other dog is a golden retreiver (they get along get!!!) but since he's bigger he can knock stuff off the dressers and other things that she couldn't get to previously. Now she's shown him how to destroy the house so its worse than ever.

We have to bring them to my bf's brother or parents house and i hate having to bother them all the time.

When we do leave them alone we'll come home and just stand there and stare at them so they know we are not happy. We push them off when they try to get our attention. It's starting to work slowly. lol They are starting to understand that in order to get our attention when we come home that they cant destroy the house.


hope you find something that works for you!!!

[zenzele]

Originally Posted by Mybabyjasmine

I have the same problem with my baby. She barks for probably 10 minutes until she realizes we really aren't coming back. Then the trouble starts. She gets mad at us for leaving her alone and wants us to see how mad she is so she destroys the house. I'll come home from work and the garbage can will be knocked over and spread out throughout the house. She will jump on tables and knock things off that she can chew up. She's gotten into bottles of pills (scared me to death but she didnt like the taste thank god), chewed up my schoolwork and books.

We also thought that getting another dog would help so she has company and someone to distract her. IT DID NOT HELP!!! It made it worse. Now they both bark and destroy the house even more. The other dog is a golden retreiver (they get along get!!!) but since he's bigger he can knock stuff off the dressers and other things that she couldn't get to previously. Now she's shown him how to destroy the house so its worse than ever.

We have to bring them to my bf's brother or parents house and i hate having to bother them all the time.

When we do leave them alone we'll come home and just stand there and stare at them so they know we are not happy. We push them off when they try to get our attention. It's starting to work slowly. lol They are starting to understand that in order to get our attention when we come home that they cant destroy the house.


hope you find something that works for you!!!

Why do you leave your dog with full run of the house where they can be so destructive? They can also hurt themselves with so much access. Why not leave them in one area where they can't knock things over, get into the trash and medicine etc. They're not angry they are stressed and suffering from separation anxiety. I get the sense that you think this behavior is cute. Please I am not trying to be judgmental or critical, I am really baffled by dog owners (not just you) who don't think something is wrong with this picture and that they can't control the outcome...a destroyed room or house! Would you let your children destroy your house in your absence because they are mad that you left them??? I don't think so.

[YorkieMother]

Mybabyjasmine : For your little ones start by putting them in one puppy proofed room. I also use a DAP diffuser with them and also give them lots of kongs stuffed with treats and hide around the area to give them something to do went you are not there. I also take the time to find or ask for the protocal for sepration anxiety and get to work on it for both of them.


Zenzele :
Being baffled is what I am more then not by some owners and want a be dog trainers that just do not understand what a dog is or is not.
Some are truly just learning and need guidance and support and not put downs.
Others just need a short sharp comments to make them think.
There are some that truly do not care.
There are some that think they know everything and are working on old knowledge and old ways ans you can turn blue trying to explain to them just how out they are.

It is the knowing of which is which that makes us good teachers.
We all made mistakes and we all are still learning.
I can get testy as anyone at the foolishness that comes out of both owners and trainers fingers at times.
Mostly those calling themselves trainers or behaviorists when idea they are not but we have to be careful. I say this to myself as well that we are gentle with the new ones until we know they are aware enough that the silly stuff coming out their fingers is indeed silly not just a honest request for help from a place of being a new dog owner and truly not knowing.
We all started learning dogs once upon a time and did not know as much as we do now and we learned some of what we know from this place.

JL