My puppy cries when he is left alone

[Charlotte1486]

Hi, my partner and I have just got a puppy (Max), he will be 12 weeks old on Friday, he is a Jack Rusell Patterdale cross.

Whenever we leave the house, or even just go upstairs he starts to cry/whine, and he sits by whichever door we left from, we have tried leaving the radio on and have tried leaving him with my partners t-shirt but that does not seem to help, will this get better if we just carry on leaving him?

We do not leave him for a long time, the longest we have been gone is an hour.

Also I have read on other websites that when you are going to leave a puppy you should just leave and not saying anything to him and that when you return you should not give him any fuss, is this right? or should we be doing something else? Any responses would be much appreciated!

Thank you!!!

[tamborine]

Train him to stay while you're out. Say 'Stay' with finger indicating where. Go out of room (closing door) and return minute later & fuss him. Repeat for longer periods till he gets the message, knowing he'll be fussed over when you return.

Ignore any whineing - and return when he's quiet.

[lankeela]

tamborine that is very conflicting advice. Charlotte you are right, you should not make a big fuss when leaving, try to ignore him and also on return, put the kettle on, look at the newspaper, anything but give the pup attention until he settles down. Important to leave him in a confined area, so he cannot do any damage or chew things (a puppy training crate is ideal or just barracade off part of the kitchen or wherever you leave him), leave him with chews, bones, toys, and make sure he has had a good play and a feed before you leave him so he will probably sleep most of the time. Leave the crate door open while you are there and he will go in of his own accord and sleep when he is tired. Try leaving him for short periods, and gradually build it up.

[madmaggot]

Can I just add an appendix to Lankeela's very sound advice? Don't leave your dog alone with hide chews as they have been known to choke on chewed pieces of these. We found that a treat ball was very good in keeping our pup occupied, especially if we added a few tiny pieces of hard cheese as well as the usual doggy treats as these smell really good.