# 10 week old puppy & separation anxiety



## Quincy's Slave (May 15, 2012)

Hello all! We have a 10 week old Great Dane pup, we've had him for 2 weeks. We are experiencing what we believe is separation anxiety. We're trying to crate train him but he absolutely loses his mind, whining, howling, throwing himself at the wire crate, diarrhea and peeing. We take him out before crating him and give him a chance to potty and play for a bit so he's tired. At first we could get him to at least go in with the door open to play or have treats but now, he's terrified of the crate. We also tried the "shove him in and let him deal" method that was suggested by one person. 

We both work from home and we took his first week home off so we'd have time to acclimate him. Now, we think we've created a monster! Even if we leave the room for a few seconds, he will run after us. If we shut the door so he can't follow, same drama. We love the little guy but having him attached to our hip for 10 years doesn't seem all that appealing. 

We're at the point where we don't know how to continue, having to always clean up his diarrhea is stressful for us and him (baths) and he is so stressed, he continues to whine for about 15 minutes after we uncrate him. 

Any suggestions to help us deal with this before it's irreversible?


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## Analogdog (Apr 3, 2012)

Its not SA, its a puppy that is alone, they don't like that. Here is a link to Ian Dunbar's Web Textbook for raising a dog from a puppy.


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## marsha=whitie (Dec 29, 2008)

Quincy's Slave said:


> Hello all! We have a 10 week old Great Dane pup, we've had him for 2 weeks. We are experiencing what we believe is separation anxiety. We're trying to crate train him but he absolutely loses his mind, whining, howling, throwing himself at the wire crate, diarrhea and peeing. We take him out before crating him and give him a chance to potty and play for a bit so he's tired. At first we could get him to at least go in with the door open to play or have treats but now, he's terrified of the crate. We also tried the "shove him in and let him deal" method that was suggested by one person.
> 
> We both work from home and we took his first week home off so we'd have time to acclimate him. Now, we think we've created a monster! Even if we leave the room for a few seconds, he will run after us. If we shut the door so he can't follow, same drama. We love the little guy but having him attached to our hip for 10 years doesn't seem all that appealing.
> 
> ...


Definitely not SA! Your puppy is acting like a puppy: just like babies, they don't like to be left alone. Try desensitizing him to his crate. The idea is to make it so that your puppy doesn't associate the crate with your departure. Feed him in there, play games (like throwing toys/treats in there), reward him when he goes in on his own. If he looks sleepy, try to get him to nap in there. Make sure the crate is somewhere where he can watch you guys, and can go in and relax on his own.

And please, don't just "shove him in and let him deal." That can and most likely has created anxiety towards the crate.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I think this is the link that Analogdog intended: http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads


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## Quincy's Slave (May 15, 2012)

marsha=whitie said:


> Definitely not SA! Your puppy is acting like a puppy: just like babies, they don't like to be left alone. Try desensitizing him to his crate. The idea is to make it so that your puppy doesn't associate the crate with your departure. Feed him in there, play games (like throwing toys/treats in there), reward him when he goes in on his own. If he looks sleepy, try to get him to nap in there. Make sure the crate is somewhere where he can watch you guys, and can go in and relax on his own.
> 
> And please, don't just "shove him in and let him deal." That can and most likely has created anxiety towards the crate.


We did do all that. He was to the point where all of his cookies and most of his meals were in the crate. His kong and favorite stuffy were always put in there with him and he was going in and out to play. The problem is as soon as we close the door, he loses it. My last dog behaved nothing like this. His behavior is pretty extreme, the diarrhea is the worst!


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

I don't know if this would work for a dane as we have a doxie mix and they are drastically different sizes -- but when we brought our puppy home at 8 wks, we had his crate open in an expen, and then over time gradually shrunk the expen until he was just in his crate, then started shutting the crate door. He was safe, he couldn't get into things, if he had an accident he didn't have to wear it. He would sleep in the crate when he was in there (that's where the cozy bed was!) so by the time we started closing him in (when he was no longer having accidents at night or when we were at work) it was no big thang. I was all worried and he just went to sleep no problem. We developed this method after we figured out he was not going to stop flipping out if we just crated him when he was really little. It isn't the conventional wisdom (a lot of stuff wasn't with Hamilton!) but it worked for us.


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## Quincy's Slave (May 15, 2012)

Hambonez said:


> I don't know if this would work for a dane as we have a doxie mix and they are drastically different sizes -- but when we brought our puppy home at 8 wks, we had his crate open in an expen, and then over time gradually shrunk the expen until he was just in his crate, then started shutting the crate door. He was safe, he couldn't get into things, if he had an accident he didn't have to wear it. He would sleep in the crate when he was in there (that's where the cozy bed was!) so by the time we started closing him in (when he was no longer having accidents at night or when we were at work) it was no big thang. I was all worried and he just went to sleep no problem. We developed this method after we figured out he was not going to stop flipping out if we just crated him when he was really little. It isn't the conventional wisdom (a lot of stuff wasn't with Hamilton!) but it worked for us.


Thank you, we started doing something similar last evening with a relatively unused bathroom. A bit bigger than an ex pen but not by much. He again had diarrhea everywhere even though he went before we put in the bathroom. Right now we are afraid to leave him because of the huge mess and super stressed puppy when we return.


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## Canyx (Jul 1, 2011)

Quincy's Slave said:


> We did do all that. He was to the point where all of his cookies and most of his meals were in the crate. His kong and favorite stuffy were always put in there with him and he was going in and out to play. The problem is as soon as we close the door, he loses it. My last dog behaved nothing like this. His behavior is pretty extreme, the diarrhea is the worst!


I really like Hambonez idea. But if he's still messing up the bathroom then the issue isn't space related.
Have you tried building up his tolerance to being shut in the crate? Turn it into a game that he can earn his meals from:
-puppy goes in, settles with the door open (which sounds like he is fine with)
-close the door and open again immediately. don't even lock it. Literally, just the motion of closing then opening. 
-reward the puppy INSIDE the crate
-repeat as much as needed
-very gradually, increase the amount of time the door stays closed. If he's getting anxious then you need to back up a few paces. 

There won't be any quick fixes to this, but the first step is teaching him that the act of closing a door on him does not result in him having to "deal with" alone time. Once he can tolerate having the crate door shut for a few seconds, you can move on to having the door closed, move away from the crate, move back, open, reward. Eventually you can go out of sight for a few seconds, come back, open door, reward. 

As a disclaimer, normally I am totally for the tough love method of letting a puppy cry it out. But if the diarrhea is a constant reaction the puppy is extremely stressed by this ordeal and it can't be good for its health either.


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## krimsoncity (Mar 27, 2015)

Our 12 weeks old puppy is going through the same thing! Seems to be whining for attention more & having diarrhea lately. It's getting more difficult for him to see me leave although my sister works at home and stays with him all day. Stops eating when he cannot see us during meal time. Crate training is hard. I did the Crate games with him yesterday and he stayed there without barking, even with the door shut. He does sleep on his own downstairs. We are moving his Crate upstairs so he is closer to us. Hopefully that'll help. We hired a trainer and she suggested to have him in the Crate and leave him there for 20-30 minute or so and ignore his cry. That way he's used to the stress. Once he gets neutered and be kept in a kennel at the Vet's office, he will be more anxious then. So this isn't SA, right? Soooo worried


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## ChelseaOliver (Nov 5, 2014)

Canyx said:


> I really like Hambonez idea. But if he's still messing up the bathroom then the issue isn't space related.
> Have you tried building up his tolerance to being shut in the crate? Turn it into a game that he can earn his meals from:
> -puppy goes in, settles with the door open (which sounds like he is fine with)
> -close the door and open again immediately. don't even lock it. Literally, just the motion of closing then opening.
> ...


Seconding this recommendation! What have you tried in terms of actual crate training? My pup took to the crate easily and quickly but I still did as Canyx recommended and built her up to when I would be leaving her- in and out, in and shut the door and open it right away, in and shut the door and open it after 10 seconds, etc. I built up slowly with the door shut and me right there (30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 5 min) and then worked on shutting the door, leaving the room and coming back right away and letting her out, to leaving the room for 5 sec, 10 sec, etc - I think you get the picture. Have you done anything like that? It sounds like he is incredibly uncomfortable being left crated and this might help. It's a very slow process. I suggest doing this for periods of no more than 5min at a time, and consistently rewarding with awesome treats when going in and being in the crate.


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