Any advice please - dog howling

[Saltire]

We have a 5 year old Border Collie who howls for about 30 mins whenever DH and I go out. He does this even if there are otehr people left in the house

Last week, MIl and SFIL were in the house when I went on school run with mindees, he knew they were there as he was in kitchen with MIL. But he still howled for half an hour. Then at the weekend he holwed again for half an hour after DH, MIl SFIl and I went out, evne though he was left in the living roomw ith the DSes.

We now think he's doing it a lot when we are all out. What causes him to do it and is there anything we cna do to stop it

[pigsDOfly]

Separation anxiety by the sound of it Saltire. You need to work on reassuring him.

I'm not qualified to advise you but others might eventually come along who can, just didn't want to leave you hanging without anyone responding.

As far as I understand it, one thing you can try is prepare to go out, doing everything you normally would when leaving the house: collecting bag, keys etc., putting coat on going out, shutting the front door and then coming straight back in. This needs to be repeated several times over a period of time so that he learns that you're coming back.

Also don't make too much of a fuss over him as soon as you get home. Ignore him for a few minutes and then greet him in a low key way.

Victoria Stilwell who used to do the TV programme 'It's me or the Dog' is the way to go. She's written a number of books and you'll get loads of sensible advice from her.

[Saltire]

Thanks Pigs. Will look into those books.
We don't know if he's always done it, as no one has ever mentioned it before, and there have been lots of occasions where we have left him on his own or with my parents, DH parents and the DSes and he's been fine. So it seems to be a recent thing
. In fact the longest he has been left is 4 hours.