Separation anxiety

[crw910]

I have a 4 or 5 month old lab pup who seems to whine and cry and yelp when we put him in his kennel when we leave...I put a blanket over it when we leave and when it is bed time. When we got him he was given to us from a guy who could not take care of him anymore due to a promotion at work. He was 10-11 weeks old when we got him....at first he whined and cried even when walking alongside us. But now he still maintains to whine and cry and yelp when we leave the apartment. is this something that he will grow out of or is there something we could do to make him feel more comfortable alone?

[Nor_Cal_Angler]

my brother has a "LAND SHARK" (pit bull) which i will say now...is the 2nd best family dog i have ever seen....

she, was a whiner, when he left for work...what he had done to help the situation, is he left a radio on an AM talk program, low volume just so she heard voices. the neighbors said that it worked well for them...

she is now about 3 and he does not feel she whines or barks or whimpers anymore but he continues to leave it on just for his piece of mind....

NCA

i guess i should include that he feels she doesnt have the problem anymore because, previously like you she did this at night when he wouldnt let her sleep with him...and she doesnt need it at night anymore...he does it durring the day while at work, but feels he probally doent need to.

[Snicklefritz]

crw910, welcome to the forum.

Your dog does not necessarily suffer from separation anxiety. Some dogs are just more vocal than others. I have a few questions that may help others help you:

How long is the dog left in the crate on a regular basis?

What does the dog do after you're gone?

Are there any other symptoms of anxiety?

How does the dog behave when you're home? Is he anxious, or calm and confident?

How do you respond to his vocalization?

What is the dogs overall level of confidence?

Does covering the crate help?

Have you worked on seperation, as in specifically working on shorter to longer periods of seperation?

It's not easy to offer help without more detail. On the other hand, it's not easy to offer detail when you may not know what is important

[Pete]

Its no fun having a dog that whines even when on a walk woooo!

Quite often dogs like this do well on a pet conditioning program.

My take on anxiety or seperation is that in the dogs mind you don't have the right to leave without him. Because in the doggy world leaders choose when to leave and who they will take with them.

You probably did nothing to cause this. It not that uncommon to find dogs that seem uncomfortable in their own skin.

I'm glad the whining stopped when your with the dog. That would make me tear my hair out.

The most effective way to deal with this problem is to put the dog through a stringet collar program.
Kennel the dog downstairs or somewhere no one can hear him.

treat him as if he were being trained at a kennel somewhere.

contact at feeding time,airing time,and training time Thats it.

Dont talk to him
Don't touch him unless it is during training time and you need to praise
but don't praise verbaly.
Your only with him to take care of buisiness

This normally takes 3 weeks then you can introduce him back in the family under a new set of rules
If you start feeling sorry for him and goo goo and ga ga-ing all over him he will return back to the way he was.

I know thats not very detailed. Its a general plan.
But its effective

This doesn't usually go away on its own and it can get real bad,,,destruction and deficating and all that fun stuff.

You also might get away with just putting him through a normal yard program for retrievers. I haven't seen to many trained dogs with the problem
Matter of fact I can't think of any.
Happy forcing
Pete

[crw910]

crw910, welcome to the forum.

Your dog does not necessarily suffer from separation anxiety. Some dogs are just more vocal than others. I have a few questions that may help others help you:

How long is the dog left in the crate on a regular basis?

What does the dog do after you're gone?

Are there any other symptoms of anxiety?

How does the dog behave when you're home? Is he anxious, or calm and confident?

How do you respond to his vocalization?

What is the dogs overall level of confidence?

Does covering the crate help?

Have you worked on seperation, as in specifically working on shorter to longer periods of seperation?

It's not easy to offer help without more detail. On the other hand, it's not easy to offer detail when you may not know what is important

He is usually in the kennel for about 3 to 4 hours while we are at class. Then he is in there at night when we go to bed. Unless we go out on a date or something.

He usually sits upright in the kennel or chews on the nylabone and kong that we give him while he is in there so he doesnt get bored.

What are the symptoms of anxiety?

He is very hyper sometimes...other times he is very lazy and laid back. i mean hes a great dog...very confident....confident enough to not listen when being called.

Usually when he is being loud in the kennel i tell him "Quiet" and he quiets down for a few moments and then starts up again. when he is vocal outside the kennel like barking or whining i usually dont scold him....mostly just ignore the whining at my feet while we walk....he has mostly stopped that.....hes comfortable where he is at when he is out...he only whines outside the kennel when he is first let out...

Covering the crate does help....

What do you mean by working on separation?

I appreciate your help on this

[RemsBPJasper]

Oh man, my pup would whine when she was right next to me out on walks for a long time. I didn't really do anything about it, except tire her out keeping walking lol. Keep working on that quiet command, you will need it in the future!

I've heard that with separation anxiety, you should not make a big deal out of seeing pup again when you get home. Go get him out of the kennel but don't fuss and baby talk and let him jump all over you etc.

[Paul "Happy" Gilmore]

Oh man, my pup would whine when she was right next to me out on walks for a long time. I didn't really do anything about it, except tire her out keeping walking lol. Keep working on that quiet command, you will need it in the future!

I've heard that with separation anxiety, you should not make a big deal out of seeing pup again when you get home. Go get him out of the kennel but don't fuss and baby talk and let him jump all over you etc.

Time to bold him up with some alone time in a kennel/garage. Crate in the back of pickup is good start.

[Legacy 6]

Yup. Crate Training is one of the most important things I've done!

When Natti wakes up early in the morning, and start barking... or like last night, we put her to bed and she starting barking and whining (yes, we aired her already). I just kept her in her crate, put her outside in the garage, and let her sleep out there...

I think part of it (def not the entire solution here) is that by barking, they are training YOU. By barking, they do what they want/get what they want because you'll almost do anything to get them to be quiet... You just have to know your dog, and figure out a way to show him that barking isn't going to get him out of the kennel.

"If you're going to live in MY house, you'll live by MY rules!"

Remember either hearing (or yelling) that!? HA!!