seperation anxiety

[cyan]

Does anyone here have or had a dog with seperation anxiety? if so how have you delt with it?

My last dog developed it later on in her life and i had so much to deal with everytime i came back home, messes everywhere.

New puppy is showing signs of this kind of problem, i've only had her for a week, today is the first time i let her at the house alone only for about 2 hours and when i returned she had alot of things chewed up. She then followed me closely everywhere just watching me and whining periodically for the first half hour, even when i went into the bathroom she sat outside the door and bawled. how do i correct this problem before it developes in to extreme stuff? She is still at a young age only 10-11 weeks.

Do you think i maybe creating these problems by too much babying and too much attention? I have been taking the puppy everwhere with me since i've gotten her.

Plllleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssse, i would be grateful for any adice. THANX

sandi

[Canislupess]

I'd start teaching your pup right away to learn how to cope on her own in the house for a little while.

For now, just a minute or two will do and as she gets a little older, start to increase it. When she grows up, she'll need to be able to spend time alone sometimes because you'll not be able to take her everywhere so you need to work on this now so that no problem has chance to develop in the first place. Sorting out existing seperation anxiety is much harder than preventing it in the first place.

Practice by leaving her at home and walking down the garden and back say, then increase it to walking round the block or to the local shops or something.
Don't allow her to follow you all over the house when you are at home. She might become too over attached. For example, if you need to nip upstairs for something or into another room, train her to stay somewhere else like at the bottom of the stairs or something while you go get it then fuss her when you get back. This will help as it is the same thing starting right at home. after a while, she'll not be so eager to follow you around from room to room.

hope this helps

[rsbunny]

I don't think you have to worry about your dog having seperation anxiety because it chewed a lot of stuff up. Any puppy will do that when it gets bored until it gets trained not to. You should ignore your dog when it is whining for attention and then give it attention when it stops whining. You can still greet your dog when you get home but if it starts whining stop fussing over your dog. If it was the first time it was alone it was probably confused as to what was going on but your puppy will get used to you coming and going all the time. I agree with Canislupess and not letting your dog follow you all over the house. Get your dog a bed or something for inside and teach your dog to lie in the bed when it is in the house. I still take my dog with me wherever I can take him but he is fine when I'm not around (unless he sees me walk off, then he wants to come, I'm working on this) so you don't have to stop taking your dog everywhere with you. Leave your pup at home if your only going to be gone five minutes...it will teach the pup to be on it's own.