Neighbours complained about our puppy

[JellyTeddy]

I was approached last night while walking our 13 week old puppy about the noise she makes while we are out.

We put her in a crate at bedtime and when we go out. We are only ever out for an hour to go to supermarket or for dinner. Otherwise we leave her with my parents if out any longer than that.

She goes into her crate of her own accord and doesn't cry on a night so I am really surprised if she cries all the time we are out as my neighbour claims. He said he heard her barking in the garden later in the evening and was surprised she was still able to make any noise!!! We leave her a kong or treats and toys in her crate. When we get home she looks like she has been asleep, yawning and stretching. Not whimpering to get out the crate or showing any signs of distress.

I am now worried that she is upset while we are out, do we just continue as we are doing and she will settle down or do we give her more space such as make the kitchen puppy friendly and shut her in there when out.

Sounds crazy but could u leave tv on? Might just be company enough. She will get used to it don't worry. Controlled crying in puppies and kittens is pretty common I think. They need to learn u will come back if you co out. I'd make sure she's got some toys and try the tv.

Some dogs never grow out of this . My neighbours have a spaniel X who barks constantly when they go out , whether it's for 20 minutes or 8 hours! Fortunately we are detached so we only hear it if we are outside but it can be pretty annoying as if my own dog is in the garden he keeps barking back so I have to get him in. BTW they do know he does it but I think they just aren't bothered as it is not them that hear it .

Can you leave a camera on or something to see if it is actually true?
I had a neighbour complain about the noise my puppy was making even though my puppy was away in the car with us. Some people just like to moan

Recording what happens when you are out as this may help to identify if she is making a noise and what seems to trigger it.

Thanks for the replies, i will dig out the video camera to see if it is true or if there is anything that might set her off.

My pup did this for the first few weeks when he was left for short periods. He did grow out of it, and now goes and curls up in his bed when he sees us getting ready to go out.

I used to wonder about this when mine was younger, so I took to stopping the car up the road occasionally and letting the kids out to nip ahead silently to see if they could hear him barking before he knew we were back.

Never caught him.

I wouldn't leave him to 'get on with it'. It's very different to leaving a puppy at night when you're in the house and he knows you are in the house, to going out and leaving him and 13 weeks is still very young.

I agree that setting up a camera or similar would be helpful, the neighbours may be exaggerating, but it may be that he is very distressed when you are out. If you can't do that, how about driving the car down the road and then walking back quietly and listening from the street?

If he is getting seperation anxiety then you'll need to take steps to reduce and stop it now before it becomes 'habit' or his and your lives will be very difficult.

Do you have another neighbour you can speak to?

When we first got pup she cried, I asked neighbour to let me know if she was noisy.

Bless her she even peeped over garden fence as pup got older. So we then knew dog was being quiet.

I have made arrangement so the pup will not to be left until we have sorted out the video camera and can actually film what is going on. I would hate for her to have separation anxiety.

We have always taken her for a walk when we know we will be going out to get her tired and then she can sleep in her crate. We have also sneaked back to the house to "check" on her and she in never making any sound so I am not sure if neighbours are just been a bit dramatic if she has cried when first left.

Now of course I am a bit worried about this just in case she has been crying all the time she has been left. Thanks for your replies.

My neighbour reported my dog to my landlord for barking all weekend, my dog was in kennels!!

Have you tried putting her in the crate, and leaving the room, so she thinks you're out and listening to see what she does?

I agree on leaving the tv/radio on, our dog only normally barks/whines when he hears a noise outside and probably thinks it's us coming home, if we leave the tv/radio on he doesn't hear noises to set him off :)

I put her in the crate while I go in the shower and she is fine, she does cry for about 2 minutes then settles down.

I didn't know if leaving the radio or tv would upset her more as she was thinking someone was in the house without her with them.

I am going to leave my video camera on the table to see what she does and how much noise she makes. I think she probably does cry when we first leave and then if she wakes up and are still not back, but the majority of time is settled and asleep.

Jelly our dog goes in his crate and cries if you don't get out the house quickly enough. I worried that he would be barking and the neighbours may complain (they have complained about my DC playing cricket in the garden before) so I left a camera phone turned on, he barked twice when we left then was silent the whole time. They only make a noise when they think you can hear and will come back and let them out, they have a great way of making you feel guilty

A quick update.

I set up our video camera today when we left the puppy. She did cry, quite loudly, for the first 5 minutes then went quiet. We fast forwarded through the remaining 55 minutes and kept stopping periodically to see if there was anymore noise. None, not a peep all the way through.

So it could have been the neighbours heard the first 5 minutes then thought it went on for longer. I will do another recording another day to see if today was just a fluke.

I feel quite relieved that it was no where near as bad as I though it would be.