Puppy distress when left alone

Our Tibetan Terrier is 8 months old, she is absolutley adorable and we love her to bits, however there are times when we need to do things on our own and can't have her with us.
When we leave her in the house, she has plenty of toys around, her water is available and she knows where she is able to go to toilet. When we close the front door, she starts to yelp, she doesn't bark but a higher pitched yelp. She jumps up and down frantically at the front door and we can hear her until we drive away.

We can only be going out for 5 minutes, or even just out to wash the car or do some maintenance in the garage and the fact she can't see us or be with us drives her mad.

I know that this is more than likely because we have over bonded with her when we first got her, but we need to try and break this bond, as its distressing the puppy and annoying the hell out of the neighbours (1 complaint so far)

When we come home, Izzy goes mad at us, we have learnt to ignore her, so that she will hopefully learn that its not a big thing and that we will always come home. We've also been told by a dog trainer to spray perfume in the hallway when we walk into the house, then after a few weeks spray it when we leave, hoping she will associate that with us coming home. So far this hasn't worked.

I'm hoping that she will grow out of it, but something tells me she won't

Your dog needs help in several areas.

1) get her into a training class and give her something to do with her mind

2) increase her daily regular exercise level

3) Crate her when you leave, with a big meaty raw knuckle bone. She should have this delicious treat ONLY when you leave. Keep it bagged in a plastic bag in your freeezer when you are not away.

Do a search on NILIF and being the good alpha figure for your dog.

She needs more mental stimulation, and firmer rules and boundaries to be a happy dog.

Not sure about the crate idea, I think its a bit cruel to crate her whilst we go out, she will still get stressed and bark. We have no problem with her chewing any furniture, or going to the toilet in none designated places, its just the high pitch yelp.

Training class's in the Uk are expensive and as I work shifts, its difficult to find flexible ones. We've done very well training her on our own and compared to other dogs we know, she's extremley well behaved.

We walk her everyday and have recently bought a ball that she has to figure out how to access the treats.

I'll look up the NILIF and see what we can do

If you feel crating is cruel, training class is much too expensive and inconvenient, and you have no issue with the dog being destructive and fouling the inside of your home, I don't think I have any experience that might help your screaming when you leave issue.

Not sure if you miss understood my reply, when I say we have no problem with her chewing furniture and gong to toilet, I meant that she doesn't chew on anything in the house apart from her chew toys. As for toilets, she always goes in the correct spot, where we have paper.

I have read through the NILIF and it makes sense and we'll start to work towards that straight away.

We've just finished watching a Dog training program on TV and there are some good tips on there, along with the book that we have, hopefully we'll find something.

Thanks for the help I shall post the hopefully good results

RedyreRottweilers, thank you so much for the advice about NILIF! I had just posted about how bewildered & frustrated we've been over our pup's behavior, when I happened upon this thread. I'd never heard of NILIF, but I just tracked down some sites, and it sounds like what we've been looking for. The idea of giving Mickie her beloved knucklebone only when she's in her crate sounds like a winner, too. As much as she adores her bones, associating them with her "puppy house" just might make her happier about spending time in the crate. She's not bad about it now; she'd just rather be with us. Typical lab!

Since we're also in a situation where training class is very inconvenient -- we live in a rural area, and the nearest class currently offered for dogs Mickey's age is over 100 miles away, which is a very real burden when you drive a handicap van that gets a whopping 9 mph and have to add the cost of gas to the class cost, plus 4 hours' travel time each session -- so I do sympathize with mrbubba. I worked odd shifts most of my life, so I understand how hard it is to find classes that fit into such a schedule, especially if you rotate shifts. It's hard to commit to something that meets at, say, 1900 on Wednesday nights when you might find yourself switched to evening shift a few weeks into the program. I've started many a class or club over the years, only to have my work schedule suddenly change so that I had to drop out of them. When you're a night shift worker, it seems the whole world is geared for day shift people. You spend a lot of days catching a few hours' sleep, then getting up for a doctor's appointment, a conference with your child's teacher, or the like, then back to bed to try to get a few more winks before work. I can understand how frustrating this must be for mrbubba!

Having discussed it some more with the Wife, we have decided to try out Crate training. I ordered a new one from the internet, its bigger than the one we previously had (she's out grown it) and will start with it as soon as it arrives.

For now we have rationed her toys, started to shut her away from us for different periods of times so that she doesn't depend on us constantly. We have also stopped letting her do as she pleases, ie Jumping on the Settee when she wants, sleeping on the bed and getting attention when she feels like it.

Hopefully it will help, plus watching "It's me or the Dog" every week on TV

MrBubba,

Once you get the crate, stop by your butcher shop and pick up several large meaty raw knuckle bones. Usually they are inexpensive.

Freeze them in separate bags.

Each time when you are about to leave, with GREAT CEREMONY and HAPPINESS, take out the bone from the freezer, and make a huge deal of it. Show it to her. Marvel at it. Let her lick her chops. Then in the crate she goes with her prize.

The minute you get back, the prize gets taken up and put away.

This can help MANY dogs learn not to stress about your leaving. It replaces the stress of your leaving with the anticipation of an ancient primal pleasure for a dog: A good long bone chew.

If you combine this with your new training techniques, you should be pleased with your progress.