Golden doodle puppy barking when alone

[Gcsunnyside23]

Our 6mth mini golden doodle is a nightmare when on her own. She sleeps in a cage overnight no issues at all but if we put her in the cage and go out she barks continuously until we are home. The cage doesn't seem to be the issue, she barked a solid hour today until I got home and then fell asleep in the cage when I got back before I even let her out. Kind of at my wits end, I need to get able to leave her a few hours here and there. Any advice welcome

Have you done any seperation training? Loads of advice online or on Instagram

She's not ready to be left alone.

A few hours in a crate during the day, and alone, is cruel if being done regularly- if no one else will say it, I will. One hour is more than enough.

A few hours a day, plus sleep is likely half of a 24 hour period (so 12 hours a day) you're working up to her being created for?

No dog should have that done. But particularly a puppy who is still needy and clingy and from two breeds that are known to be needy.

Try leaving a radio on or record the household noise for a couple of hours and play it on a portable speaker via ipad or similar.
You may even find Alexa has ambient household noise.
Our dog moans if we leave her, and will do it if she thinks you’ve gone out but are still at home. She doesn’t moan if she can hear a TV or music or voices.

You need to go back to square one of separation training to avoid this turning into unfixable separation anxiety. You also run the risk of her associating the crate = being left alone = argh scary.

The barking is fear and anxiety, the anxiety goes away the second you're back in the home, which is why the pup relaxes again. The pup has not learned anything other than "I'm alone, I'm scared, I'm going to shout until my human comes home and everything is ok again".

There's some advice on Dogs Trust's website here:
https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/dog-advice/training/home/help-your-dog-spend-time-alone

You don’t teach a dog to be alone by leaving it on its own.

there’s a great Facebook group called dog training advice and support - id go on there and read the guides they have and then if you need help you can post and get advice from a behaviourist

We have had dogs for over 40 years and never used a crate.
The idea of one as an "indoor kennel" which the dogs uses a it's own safe space is one thing.
Using one as a sort of lockable toy box where you "put the dog away" is another thing altogether.

Try asking on the Facebook group "dog training and advice " - it's run by professional dog behaviorists and they are very helpful.

Per previous posts, it would be helpful to know what training you have already done to prepare pup for being on its own please?

She’s not ready to be alone.

Her barking isn’t bad behaviour. She’s crying out for someone to hear how distressed she is.

The best way to get a dog happy with being left is first not to leave them. Then, when they’re more confident, build up with a few minutes at a time.
My pup was 16 months before he was comfortable being left alone. So I stayed with him (or someone did) until then.

What MindHow said. That group is amazing. My older dog had awful separation anxiety. I couldn’t even leave the room to go to the toilet without her being distressed. The advice on that group has turned her into a dog that couldn’t care less about being left as long as we don’t wake her up when we come back in!!

You need to train them to be happy on their own, you can't just go out of the house one day and expect them to just accept it.

You literally need to start by leaving her for seconds, then, over time, build up the length that she's happy to be by herself - but be prepared for it to be a long journey. It can take weeks or even months before they're happy to be left for even an hour.

While some dogs are absolutely fine alone, yours clearly isn't one of them (mine wasn't either!) and you just need to work with the dog you've got, rather than the one you wish you had.

When you shut her in the crate in the day, how long is it before she barks? A few seconds? A minute? Two minutes? You need to capture that split second when she's quiet and come back in so she learns that being alone isn't something upsetting or scary. Eventually, she'll be able to be left for longer and longer, but it won't be quick.

The other issue with leaving her to bark is that (in her mind) she'll associate your return with her barking, so she'll think that she needs to bark in order for you to come back.

She's still quite young to be left so you may need to be patient for a few months yet. She is a mix of breeds that both have tendancies to suffer with being left because of their dependent bond with their human - so this isn't unusual behaviour for the mix of breeds you have there.

As others have said, start very small. The idea is to build her confidence with being left in the day. So you start with very short sessions (literally a few mins at most) and slowly build from there only when she is OK being left for the current stage. OK being left is a dog that shows no or very minimal signs of worry at being left. A dog that barks, paces, whines, pants is a dog that is struggling. You may need a camera to help you see how she's doing when left alone. You can get very cheap pet cams - literally £20.

If she gets upset then you've asked too much of her, too soon and need to take a step back again.

She’s too young to be left. Expect that to be the case until she’s gone through adolescence really.

In the mean time there are loads of games you can play to encourage independence and confidence (and all of them involve the dog making the choice to be away from you) and desensitisation you can do so when she’s older you can start building up time alone. This starts by just opening and closing the door until she’s not bothered then building up seconds at a time. It’s boring but it works.

I’ve got a 18 month old very sassy, very independent terrier. She’s only just in the last few months shown she’s ok when we leave her. That’s after lots of games and fun stuff. Were now building time really quickly as she’s both old enough and we’ve put the work in to build those foundations of us always coming back.

SA is probably the hardest problem to live with for anyone. So you really need to get it right now.

Thanks for all the advice, I will take a look into some of the suggested FB pages etc and maybe start from scratch. Spoke with a friend of a friend who gave good advice also. Just to note, everyone saying she can't be alone ever as she's too young genuinely asking how you do your shopping, do life admin where you can't bring dog etc? Also is crating terrible? Again asking genuinely as this was how others suggested I train my puppy. She goes in at night yes but during the day it's the odd day here and there for an hour roughly but unfortunately I need to get able to leave longer

My dog has bad separation anxiety, I’ve only had her a year and a half and she’s nearly 9. Her previous owners did just used to leave her alone with another dog (she’s also dog reactive), or take her to work but leave her alone in a car. She would either bark, or mess everywhere. So we never leave her alone.

I work from home most of the time, also have a dog-friendly office. DH also works from home when I’m in the office. As for shopping, we mainly do that online, and if we go out she either comes with or stays with my MIL if we go out-out (very rare!). It can be a bind sometimes but I hate to see her traumatised. She used to mess indoors with her previous owners but has never done that with us, she’s so good at asking to go outside, it must have been thoroughly stressful and upsetting for her to mess indoors.

Don’t rush your dog, separation anxiety is so easy to instil in dogs but so difficult to untangle.

Mine spaniel's a similar age and I started with just a few minutes at a time, nipping out the back door and spying on her through the side window. She's OK for about an hour now (as in, quiet when I leave and hasn't noticeably peed on the floor or eaten the furniture when I get back, though maybe she's secretly digging a tunnel under the cupboards).

Online shopping? I know that doesn't answer everything -- I'm putting off things like dental appointments till I can get a bit longer out of her at a time.

'Mine spaniel' sounds vaguely medieval! Oops.

If you need to go out then you need to get someone else to sit with her be it a family member , friend or paid dog sitter . You will be making it worse by persisting in going out and leaving her barking .

Just to note, everyone saying she can't be alone ever as she's too young genuinely asking how you do your shopping, do life admin where you can't bring dog etc?

Paid help, favours from friends and family, or adjusting the times you do your admin so that the dog isn't being left alone. It's really hard (believe me, I've been there) but if you carry on leaving her while she's distressed, you will only make her worse.

Also is crating terrible?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with crating as long as you do it properly :)

this group also gives advice on crate training just FYI crates when used properly are fine for puppies and not a "toy box".

op you need to put your pup in the crate during the day not just when you are going out maybe try and build it up that way.do join that FB they are great

Crates are brilliant but they take months and months to train properly. I’ve done it twice. It has to be somewhere the dog wants to be in because it’s amazing.

Life admin - family, friends, neighbours, online shopping and go without stuff you don’t absolutely need. Yes it’s tough. But tougher to fix SA believe me!