# Separation anxiety in 4 month old puppy?



## HayBay (Aug 1, 2013)

My sister's dog had a litter of 1/2 Bloodhound 1/2 Basset Hound puppies and as my graduation present, I was given one. I got her at 8 weeks and 3 days, now she's 16 weeks and a day. If I leave her, for even literally 30 seconds, she will bark and whine as loud as possible, and whenever I return she is so hyper. It also gets frustrating when she refused to go outside and do her business by herself. I don't leave her alone outside for hours, maybe just 15 minutes, this has only been a few times because she is starting to chew and scratch at my backdoor causing the wood to splinter. She's fine as long as she has the ability to get to me but if I have a gate up (so she can't go tear up anything) she will just have a fit! I've tried putting toys out there and she just sits at the door and barks. I have 2 other dogs, a 5 and 12 year old Pomeranian, they refuse to play with her and constantly bark/snap at the puppy. She takes this as wanting to play and pesters them even more. What can I do? It gets very old having to take her out every 30 minutes and sit outside with her just so she'll do her business. Please help!


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

Cute puppy! 

First off, how much exercise is the dog getting? Not saying she isn't getting enough, but an under-exercised dog will often resort to all kinds of nuisance behaviors that are similar to what you are describing. The first thing I'd do is make sure the puppy is getting enough physical exercise and mental stimulation.

I don't leave my dog outside alone, even just to go potty. With dogs I have left outside alone, I haven't done it until they are adults and I'm pretty confident of how they're going to behave outside. Until she calms down, which may take a while as she matures, I would not leave her outside unsupervised so that she can't damage any property. I would also separate her from the other dogs and not allow her to jump all over them. Do you have a crate or puppy-proofed room for her to be in while you are gone? I use that as well as baby gates and/or an ex-pen to confine my dog to areas of the house that I want him to be in or I leash him to me when he's out.

As far as the separation anxiety in particular, what is your routine like? Do you work outside the home or are you home all day with her? If you're home a lot, you might try leaving the dog for short periods of time regularly so that the dog begins to learn that you leaving does not mean that you'll never come back. I leave my dog in his crate with a chewy treat. I usually crate him at least 10-20 minutes before I leave (you could use a puppy-proofed room if you don't want to use a crate) and ignore him during that time. When I come back, I also ignore him for at least 10-20 minutes unless he's about to burst and has to go potty. This way, the dog learns that you leaving really isn't a big deal.

It takes time and at 4 months, it's often the worst right before it gets better. My dog used to whine and bark if we even went into a different room, but at 4 1/2 months, we're seeing progress. You might try leaving her in her puppy room or crate for even shorter periods of time, staying in the house, and then waiting for that break in her whining and barking and tossing a treat to her when it happens. This can also help the dog learn that you want them to be quiet and settle when you are out of the room.


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## HayBay (Aug 1, 2013)

Thank you!

She is getting exercise from playing with her toys and chasing our cat around the house. She will tire herself out from her toys after pulling each and everyone out on the floor then take a 1-2 hour nap about 3 times a day. 

Whenever I'm gone she goes into her crate as well as at night time and a gate to keep her in a room with me whenever she's out playing.

Right now my routine is staying home with her almost everyday (6 days a week most of the time) besides the occasional hour or two trip to the store. But I'm waiting on classes to start so that is going to change in the next month. If I do leave her in her crate while home, even for 10 minutes the second I shut the crate door she barks and whines until she is let out, even though she has chew toys in there with her. 

With the treat suggestion, would just regular training treats be good? 

Thank you for the advice!


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## Fade (Feb 24, 2012)

Basset hounds are known for issues like this. they are velcro dogs. mine grew out of it but he still has problems outside the home if I leave him. like hand his leash to someone or leave him for grooming or at a kennel. he cries something crazy. He was much worse before I got him a dog to play with lol. not sure about bloodhounds but they are very active. it will b interesting what personality your puppy takes on


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## HayBay (Aug 1, 2013)

The funny thing is, my sister's Basset Hound doesn't do that at all, she usually just sleeps all day and doesn't really care. As for my puppy, our other two dogs the Pomeranians don't play for some reason, they never have so she doesn't have a play mate except whenever she gets to visit 2 of her litter mates once a week. Honestly I don't know how she'll be, she may play hard all day long or she may sleep most of the day.


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## packetsmom (Mar 21, 2013)

For crate treats I like things that take the dog a LOT longer to work on, like bully sticks, a frozen kong, etc. For training you want tiny treats that they can finish in a flash. For crating, you want stuff that takes them a good long while to work on.

You may want to look through the stickies on crate training and work on that. One very important thing is that you do NOT want to accidentally reinforce the whining. If you let the dog out while it is whining, it will think that whining is the way to get out. It's important to "catch" them while they are quiet and then let them out or at least reward them for the quiet.

You may want to start working with her as far as exercise and training now. Free play is great, but she still might not be getting enough mental stimulation to really wear her out well. You can find lots of training games you can play on youtube for free...just look for the kikopup videos. Now is also a great time for puppy obedience classes and bloodhounds and bassets love to go on walks and sniff everything. (Sniffing is actually good mental stimulation, too.) You can also try feeding from a treat toy that makes them work a bit to get the food out, again, wearing out that puppy brain. The more worn out she is, mentally and physically, the more calm she'll be when you work on the separation anxiety.


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## HayBay (Aug 1, 2013)

Alright I'll go and get something for her to chew on for a long while. Thank you for all your advice, I'll look into it now!


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