Puppy separation anxiety

[YakkaSkink]

Pup is four months old and we've had her a month, she is angelic and all is going well on most fronts but she seems to be trying to develop separation anxiety (she was the nervous one of the litter, though now doing well with doggy and human social skills). She cries and whines if I leave her at all. We're going to puppy classes and the trainer advised me to get her sleeping by herself (she was in DS's room) and to do lots of popping in and out of the room during the day so that she gets used to me coming and going. We're up to about 10mins if I leave the room, though she stands up and waits for me to come back rather than settling down or staying in her basket.

She's sleeping in a crate at night and I've moved it onto the upstairs landing and so she's sleeping by herself, as of last night . But now we have a dog crate that she's about to outgrow in a couple of weeks' time in the middle of a tiny landing - so she needs to go downstairs pretty quickly as the bigger crate won't fit at all and it's a nuisance having to squeeze round the crate to get to the bathroom. I'll give her another night or two on the landing, but then do I need to somehow prop the dog crate in the middle of the stairs? (not very safe!) - I've got a strong feeling that if I just move her downstairs overnight she'll go beserk and cry and bark all night.

I can stand a couple of nights of barking and whining (and it'll be OK if I talk to the neighbours first) but is this only going to make things worse on the anxiety front? Or is that fine?

I'm a single parent, so having a dog I can't leave at all is pretty tough as I'm having to order my shopping online and have had to cancel appiontments. Would she just get over it if I just leave her in her crate with a chewy and go out when I need to go to the shop or see the doctor, or would that make things worse?

I would say 4 months is still v little, and to try to work within her comfort zone and build up gradually rather than pushing it and potentially giving yourself worse problems. Why not resign yourself to crate on the landing for the next couple of weeks until you have to change up for a bigger one, by which time you never know, she might be perfectly happy to sleep downstairs.

I wouldn't be surprised about a pup not settling down in its bed after 10 mins either, the world is far too exciting! But if you build up on that 10 mins slowly she'll know you will always come back.

The first thing I learnt about puppies is pick somewhere for their bed and stick with it. They hate their bed being moved. For various reasons Dog1's bed was moved several times when he was a pup, and he was very upset and unsettled about it. Dog2 was less insecure, but he had to be moved once as the first place was too near the radiator and got too warm, and he didn't like it either.

If you have to move her be prepared for some upset, and make sure it is the last move!

Oh dear! I didn't mean to move her bed as DS is rather missing her being in his room and I was happy for her to be there, it was just that the trainer says that it will help her to learn to be alone during the day if she is alone at night. But I do have to get her downstairs to the kitchen where I would leave her during the day and that's going to be a Big Scary Change from her pov unless I move her down the stairs one step at a time

Don't worry if you have to move her, as seriously she is a dog, not a baby, she will cope... just do it once not continually so she doesn't have to keep adjusting. Move her bed into the kitchen now, and don't move it again. You'll have a few nights of upset, but she'll get used to it and settle.