Why he only does it to me?

Ok ,so Debo is now nearly 8 months. We crate trained him from the beginning,when he cried there we left him till calm,it worked perfect,he didn't even cried at the first night with us. Now ,the routine we have is, I'm taking him for a walk in the morning ,feed him,then about 11.30am go to work. My oh take him for anotherlong walk, then put him in the cage. Debo is fine with that,when I'm back,he's really happy and I try not to make a big deal of me coming back. Sometimes it's me who leave the house last and when I put Debo to his crate I can hear him barking like mad,I can hear him on the street( I live in 3rd floor). It' s only for a minute or so but he does it only for me. It happens as well when we both leaving at the same time. The other thing is ,we would love him to be left outside the crate when we out but because he always tear apart his bed when we not there,we are afraid that he will do the same with the flat.

I have never used a crate, I guess you have to be firm, can you leave a chew in there when you leave so he associates you leaving with something nice? XxX

That's what we do- we leave Kongo with peanut butter inside,so he always has something nice when we leaving.

Maybe leave him with the crate door open? If your worried you could confine him to a room using a baby gate but give him time to go in and out?

The thing is he only does it when I. Leave him,he's fine when my oh does it. And we are renting so bit worried that he'll redecorate the flat.

Are you the main person so to speak? If so share things a little more, have OH feed him and be the main keeper. I am all out of ideas otherwise! At 7months they are gonna push boundries so this is the time to be strong with them X

I do share,even when I don't want to . I do one meal ,oh second ect. Maybe he's just pushing his luck bit more with me. Plan for the next year - have to be strong ang firm.

I got Moo @ 10mnths and she has been fab, but she never knows one day to next when she is going out, but she knows she will! The only thing in concrete is that mum is home before 6 lol He'll be good, but i takes a little trust Xx

Are you exercising him right before you leave?

jstaff wrote:Are you exercising him right before you leave?

I was going to say that, Rolo is caged, but before we leave him he's always walked and left with a kong or something similar, I also leave a radio on so the house isn't suddenly quite. Good luck

If we both have to leave Rocky for a few hours he will have a good hour long walk and some playtime before we go. Then while we are out he has a good snooze on our bed, we always leave the radio on for him.

Next time you're both home & you have nothing else to do, try putting him in the crate & push the door over, but don't lock it. Then go out for 5 minutes & then come back. If he's good, then next time do it for 10 minutes etc. Once you can go out for 30 minutes without him trashing the house you can try leaving the door wide open for 30 minutes.

He probably feels closer to you - that's why he makes more fuss when you go out!

This is how his day looks like. Around 8.30 I take him out for quick walk around the blocks, 9ish long walk on/off the lead back 9.40. Then breakfast around 10.30( I do it). Then I go to work at 11.30. My oh takes over. Walk from 12 till 12.40, then Debo has a lay down but doesn't sleep. Play with my oh, walk around blocks at 2pm. Then my oh leaves him in the crate with chewy full of peanut butter. So he doesn't sleep when we at home all morning. Then I'm back in the evening ,long walk and back for supper. It's always me who takes him in the morning so today when my oh wanted to take him out,Debo looked him and came back to bed with me, I had to push him off so he would go with my oh. He's mummy boy.

Thanks Caryll, I'll try that. He learns very quicky so hope he'll get the idea. He also being fussy about his food. It's fish4dogs. We put some wet food on it and he liked it before,now he always leaves some in the bowl. So we trying to be firm,we cut any snack in between and remove uneaten food after 10-15min. He's strong minded.

Lola tears up her bed in her crate when we are out. I have started leaving the girls for short periods uncrated while I nip out to the shops. So far they have been fine. I would try leaving him for 5-10 mins and see what happens

That's how we're planning to spend our weekend - coming out and in the house.

It sounds like Debo could be suffering from mild seperation anxiety? My Schipperke had this badly - he's pretty good now, but went through two previous homes because of it - he would cry, bark, howl and destroy things when he was getting left behind. Heres a link to an article - although you are already doing some of the things it recommends, hopefully it should still help: http://www.masterpet.com/Yours-Droolly/Training-your-dog/Separation-anxiety/

I would leave the radio on so the house has some background noise to keep him distracted, and also look at getting things like a nylabone, chews, a kong toy stuffed with food/peanut butter and treat balls to keep him occupied when your out - once he gets into the routine he should be happy and quiet when you leave as he knows when you leave he gets food! I used to give my boy half of his daily food using treat balls and kongs, then he got the other half for dinner at night. Good luck, I hope I have been of some help