Puppy Melting Down When I Leave Room for Even 30 Seconds.

[s_wiss13]

Hi,

I have a 9 week old Portuguese Water Dog, his name is Jumpshot.  He came home a week ago.  He has been doing really well.  He sleeps in his crate waking every couple of hours to go outside.  He is doing really well with potty training.  I have the crate next to my bed.  I am fortunate to be working from home so I have built a puppy proof play area surrounding my desk.  It is working really well.  

One thing I'm trying to learn how to handle is his complete meltdown if I step outside the play area.  Even if he can see me, he cries and cries.  I have tried to give him some treats, a lick mat, a toy that dispenses treats to keep him busy for even 1 minute.  But, as soon as I step out he ignores everything and the crying starts and he tries to climb out.  

If I talk to him he seems to settle some but I don't want to do the wrong thing and reinforce this behavior.  I've tried to wait it out but it doesn't seem to stop long enough for me to go back to him.  

Am I expecting too much at his age to be able to leave the room or even the play area without the crying?  I have read some of the other comments but I'm not sure what small steps I can take that don't put him directly over the threshold.

Thanks in advance,

Susan

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there! Welcome back, congrats on your new puppy!

Jumpshot is a cool name!

At 9 weeks pups can struggle quite a lot with us leaving them alone, even if just for seconds. Here's the thing, before your puppy has arrived into your home, he sleeping pled up with his littermates. It feels very reassuring for puppies to stick together. Young puppies are vulnerable creatures and they have a strong need for company. This is because being alone would have made them an easy target in the wild so reacting strongly to being left alone is a survival instinct at best.

The canine mother-puppy bond is an example of strong attachment, especially during the puppy's first weeks. Upon being separated from their mother puppies engage in increased activity and vocalizations which are a distress response meant to reunite with their moms. Once reunited, the distress response ceases. 

When leaving their littermates and mom and entering our homes, puppies quickly learn to depend on us as we readily become their primary attachment figure. It's not surprising for them to therefore emit distress calls when left alone as they used to when their mothers left them alone for a little while.  

An aggravating factor for new puppies is not being used to being confined. Good breeders will acclimate puppies to a crate/pen from an early age, creating positive associations with being in it. This provides young puppies a head start so they may be less fearful of being enclosed in it. Puppies not used to being confined in a crate may therefore find the whole experience of being confined and left alone frightening.

To further compound things, consider that puppies go through what are known as fear periods and one of a pup's fear periods coincidentally takes place between the age of 8 to 10 weeks of age. You can read more about this here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-periods-8-10-weeks-6-14-months/

Most puppies will invariably vocalize distress when they're separated from their owners for the first time, however, most learn to adapt to periods of social isolation in the home, when exposed gradually. However, some puppies risk becoming sensitized to social isolation later in life, or they ultimately never gain experience in being left alone as there is always some person home and the dog follows the caretaker around the home ad is always underfoot (the so-called velcro dog). 

However, we need to avoid full-intensity situations, as the  more a puppy experiences the trauma of being alone, the sooner the panic will set in next time. Also, leaving a puppy to cry in distress in a crate/play pen risks teaching the puppy to associate the crate/pen or room with being distressed and can create a confinement phobia. 

So we need to therefore tread with care as tackling this is a balancing act between not making the pup reach a panicky state, while also teaching the puppy more independence. 

Important would be differentiating between barking/whining from barrier frustration (I can see you, but I am frustrated because I can't get to you) from separation distress (OMG you're gone! Panic!). Since you mention your puppy cries and seems inconsolable and won't eat food, and since he's so young, I would stick to the latter and consider this distress crying. 

So how can we tackle this? Here are a few tips:

Avoid full intensity meltdowns. This may not be easy, but it's important preventing a puppy from getting in a panicky state. The more a puppy experiences the trauma of being alone and acts panicky, the sooner the panic will set in next time. Fortunately, most puppies become more and independent once they mature (in general, with our help, things can get better in a few weeks once they reach their flight period).https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/flight-instinct-period-4-8-months/

Invest in calming aids. These aids can help lower a puppy's threshold so to instill calmer behaviors, below are some:

Dog appeasing pheromones: Adaptil offers a variety of products meant to help new puppies adapt to their new homes. Its products are made with synthetic pheromones which mimic the pheromones mother dogs produce to sooth their puppies when they're nursing.

Calming music for dogs. "Through a dog's ear" is music specifically crafted for dogs, but you can find hours of music for dogs for free on YouTube. 

Snuggle Puppy Behavior Aid This may seem like a simple stuffed animal, but it was purposely crafted for lonely pups. It emanates warmth and also mimics a heart beat to help sooth distressed puppies. 

Calming supplements: Alpha-casepine (Zylkene), L-theanine (Anxitane) Ask your vet about these options. 

Desensitize to you leaving. Practice repeatedly things like standing up and sitting down at your desk until your puppy no longer seems to pay attention to it. Then practice walking a few feet away and then sitting down. Then, progress to getting up from your chair, leaving the room, but never at a level that produces anxiety. Work at you pup's pace, if he struggles with any parts of this exercise, go a step back to where he was more comfortable and split the exercises further. If you must leave the room for good, have a helper watch him until you have progressed to leaving him a little longer.  

Learn your pup's threshold. If your puppy won't eat when you leave the room, consider that he is likely too overwhelmed. Split the exercises above into very easy steps and start introducing foods every time you take a few steps away. If he takes it, it's a sign he's growing his tolerance level. 

Try some peek-a- boo games: I like to play this with new puppies I foster or my client’s pups who seem to be a bit too clingy. I simply have the pup behind a baby gate or large box blocking the entrance to a room and hide behind the wall separating us. Every time before I hide, I toss a treat/kibble to the pup and hide while he/she is eating it. Once I hear he/she is done, I re-appear and keep doing this.

I then progress to tossing several kibble/treats at once and therefore spend more time hiding behind the wall, always listening until the pup is done to re-appear and repeat. Afterward, I can practice the same game going out the door. You can then aim to do some fun hide and seek games and more independence exercises that are outlined here:

Exercises to prevent separation anxiety in puppies: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-to-prevent-separation-anxiety-in-puppies/

You may also want to gradually move the pen from being around your desk so he doesn't come to be overly dependent. Try just moving it off to the side and putting a used article of your with your smell so he can use that for comfort. 

Hope this helps! Slow and steady wins the race with these guys,

Let me know how it goes,

Best,

Adrienne 

[s_wiss13]

Thank you, Adrienne.  This is so much great information!  I'll continue to work with him and try to increase the time I'm away very slowly.  I have already done a bunch of the things with the calming music, Adaptil, the snuggle puppy!  He is calm when in his crate and he can see me.  I just need to work through being able to slowly increase the distance and time away.  I've tried to move him behind the gates and allow him to see me but he's already a climber and can get over them if he gets upset enough.  I'll keep working and let you know how it goes.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Awww, what a cutie pie! Sometimes a blanket over the crate can help some pups, but not all. Mixing shorter absences with the longer ones is important so they don't sense an increase in difficult. You likely will need a taller baby gate, like the Carlson extra-tall gates which work well too with larger breeds. 

Keep us posted on how things go,

Best,

Adrienne 

[FrederykBlot]

Hello,

 

that's a a nice bud ! 

 

If that may help : I don't know if you already train him, but training "wait" can help with this. 
When training "wait" with our pup, we increased the distance, and at some point, we increase the distance and change room, and I'm pretty sure that help teaching that "even if my owner out of sight sometimes, (s)he'll came back, and I'll get a nice treat if I behave"

[s_wiss13]

I brought in Harmonie's crate (Great Pyrenees) so it's bigger.  I put it in the living room and put Jumpshot in it tonight while I was doing a few things around the house.  He didn't get all upset in that one, he actually took a nap while I came in and out of the room.  I was so relieved.  I'm not sure that will always be the case, but it was nice to be able to move around for 15 minutes while he was quiet.  

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Glad to hear that you were able to move around for at least 15 minutes! If he does better in the bigger crate it could be he struggles being confined in a smaller space. We often see young pups struggling being confined when breeder's didn't acclimatize them well to a crate/pen.

It could also be just the novelty of the new place or he was a little tired. Keep it up though, creating positive associations with being in there, protecting it from becoming a place of panic (and trying to escape) and desensitizing him to you going back and forth and doing all the independence exercises. 

[s_wiss13]

I'm still working with Jumpshot and we are slowly progressing.  I've started covering his crate sometimes and playing the music a little bit louder and it helps a little.  He seems like he recovers just fine even if he does get ramped up.  I'm trying to keep him under threshold as much as possible but sometimes it's not possible due to life events!  But there has been no reluctance going back in the crate.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

That's great progress! We try to do as best as we can, life events sometimes are difficult to control. Thanks for the p-up-date! Keep us posted on how things work out for you.