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If I go, my pup goes wild!!

B

BobbyPuppy

Member
Hello everyone!
Well I picked up my new ruby puppy, Billy, on Friday and he is an absolute star. I will work out how to put some photos on for you all to see soon.
Anyway, he is doing well, nearly toilet trained and very sweet natured :p. The only thing is, he goes crazy if I leave him.
I work just under my flat and so I see him every 2 hours but once I pop him back in the crate he goes wild, jumping up at the sides, crying.
I hate it. I've also made a little enclosed space/pen but he seems even worse if I leave him in there.
The crate is comfy with water and toys.
I can't just leave him to wander or he will chew everything.
I'vev tried to wait and told him to settle down but he gets himself in such a state as soon as I go.
Any tips please? :-|
 
Hi!

He is feeling very bewildered right now, he's just left his Momma and his siblings, and now he's on his own and he has you and it's all a bit much for a little chap to take on board all at once basically!

Right now you are the one thing he can associate with, you are his emotional rock so to speak, I would recommend sleeping in an old T-Shirt and then pop it in his box with him when you go down to your job, this will remind him of you, other things you can try are a well wrapped hot water bottle, the TV/radio switched on with the sound down low, these will comfort him, and last of all some earplugs for yourself! If you keep going back to him you are, unwittingly, rewarding the behaviour you find undesireable. He will soon get the message that you don't like this behaviour and settle down.

Also I would leave him out in the pen with the crate door open, then he won't associate the crate with being left alone.

Good Luck! (y)
 
Anxious pup

Thanks for that!
I think he must settle down once I gone, but as soon as I'm back in again he yelps till he's let out- which is within a minute of me getting in!
If I waited (it'd be hard as I worry he's getting over-excited), would the yelps subside and then I could let him out?
Is he learning that crying means I come and get him?
Hopefully he will stop getting so upset.
 
Hmm this is a tough one, as it is very important that a puppy be let out as soon as possible when you return to your home for toiletting!! I would try training him to "hush", give a reward when the excitable behaviour stops then direct him to the back door and tell him "Potty"/"Be Busy" or what ever your chosen command is, but at this early an age the emphasis has to be on the toiletting I feel, if he quiets momentarily then reward that and then let him out. This is an ongoing process with puppies, the penny will drop with him, when exactly you won't know as they develop at different ages!

Right now, I would reward any deviation in the yelping behaviour, reward the quiet moments and take it from there!!
 
Here are a whole set of links on crate training -- leaving him in a pen would fall under the same heading:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=11857

One thing to do is be very bland when you are leaving or you arrive in. You don't want to make a fuss about leaving or coming home -- do either in a matter of fact way. If you do big goodbyes ect on leaving, that is training hi mto associate your departure with lots of drama and anxiety. If you make a big deal on returning, that rewards all the hyper behaviour.

I would tend to arrive in and ignore him for a while til he settles at least a bit. They learn incredibly fast that fussing gets no reward of what they want -- interaction with you -- and calm behaviour DOES get rewarded. But to reinforce this you need to work at create training or leaving him in his pen and ignoring him when you ARE at home. There are lots of tips in the links. :)

Sometimes it helps to think what you'd do in a similar sitution with a young child. If a child whined and shouted at you the moment you came home to pay attention to him, you'd very likely ignore those demands and tell the child, 'when you sit quietly snd stop shouting at me, then we will read a book together' or whatever. You'd recognise that responding immediately to the screaming and fussing is confirming to a child that this is the best possible way to get quick results. :lol: It;s very much the same with dogs.
 
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