How can I get my pup to stay in the garden alone?

[lepetitchienbrun]

My puppy is 15 weeks and is a little clingy.
Mild separation anxiety in that when I leave the room he barks unless he is very sleepy.

I really want him to start going out in the garden alone but whenever he wants to go out he makes it obvious I have to go too - he will stand at the door until I go out or come back in if I don't. I've tried standing at the door where he can see me and waiting until he is busy with something and then pulling it to but then he just runs back over and waits on the back door mat, often barking to be let back in.

I will only send him out when I know he has done a poop fairly recently so he still gets praised for that and I am certain he knows he should do wees outside and if there are any accidents with that now it's because he can't get out in time/ didn't hold it in/ we didn't take him out recently.

Any ideas to tempt him out alone? Filled Kong out there maybe?

Why do you want your puppy to be in the garden on his own?

He's very young, and needs you around for security.

Neither of my two dogs will go in the garden alone even now (18 months and 6 months), but as they are older, and have each other, I sometime just ignore them if I want to mop floors etc and they settle down to sleep. Usually they follow me round the house.

I would work on getting him used to being alone in the house first perhaps? Does he have a crate?

If you join this Facebook group, there's lots of great advice and files on there

www.facebook.com/groups/374160792599484/

I would make the most of his clinginess and use it to your advantage by doing lots of short training sessions on walking to heel and recall - their natural desire to be with us when this young can help to lay down fantastic foundations for future success with these exercises.

As needa said, start in the house, give him something tasty, like a kong or chew and when he's busy with that, step out the room for 30 seconds, gradually building up the time you're gone for. The more you do it, the faster you will be able to build up the amount of time he's happy for. When you come back in, don't make a fuss, just quietly remove the kong and then get on with something else (make a cuppa or something) so he learns that you going in and out without him is no big deal.

You could do similar outside on dry days, probably starting off by giving him the treat/kong and busying yourself somewhere else in the garden for a minute or two and working up from there to going out of sight and then back into the house. Build up the time very slowly though - just a couple of seconds to begin with.

Having had a pup with zero natural inclination to cling to me I would agree with moose. A dog that wants to be with you is a dog that will be easy to train. As long as you work on building up alone time to avoid serious separation anxiety, don't be in a hurry for them to do their own thing.

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to not be sympathetic, I am sneaking online while at work

It can be wearing having dogs that follow you everywhere, I do understand, my two watch me all the time too, which DH can ignore and I am less good at.

On the plus, we rarely (not never, ddog1 is a bugger in the long grass and rape fields sometimes) have recall issues as the both 'check back' a lot, and training is easy.

I find raw meaty bones bought online from Natural Instinct will keep mine occupied outside alone.

Mine is almost 6 and doesn't really want to be outside alone..I'll leave the back door open for her and often she'll reappear behind my knees in the kitchen moments later. She's like a big solid shadow I periodically trip over

Yes it's about being able to get on with work or whatever. If he is in the house he follows me when I'm doing jobs which is fine but if I am sat at the laptop trying to work (a realistic amount) he starts getting up to mischief if he isn't either asleep or entertained every minute (how it feels anyway). I figured if he pottered in the garden he could have fun out there with more to do.

Got kongs, chews etc. but they don't keep his interest long. Doing a longish for his age walk every morning and one or two others a day.

I think some dogs are just like that, more people orientated maybe.
My two (lab 3 yrs and GSD 15 months) won't stay in the garden if no one's there. If I'm washing the floors I make them go outside and they stand by the back door waiting to come back in.