Introduction and HELP!!!!

[scottnkelly2000]

Hello,

My name is Kelly, from Arkansas. I've joined this forum with the hopes of getting some help for myself and my dog. I got Wrigley on Memorial day weekend, 2 weeks ago. He is 13.5 weeks old. He is a Whippet and before living with me and my family, he was with his breeder along with his brothers.
I am at my wits end. He has developed separation anxiety, pretty bad. He cannot stand to be left alone in a room without me, even if he can see me. The breeder told me that she had not encountered this problem with him as he was with brothers. Makes sense to me.
I put him in his crate a few times during the day when I'm at home for him to rest and then when I leave. The last 3 or 4 times I have gone to the market, I put him in his crate with a chewy treat and have come home every time to him having defecated on his bedding. He barks and whines at being left without me.
Now at night, his crate is in my room, he gets the word "in" which he does and I give him a liver treat. He may whine or bark a few times, but after a few words of "no" from me, he will stop and lay down to sleep.
Can anyone give me some advice on what I am doing wrong!

[Mattie]

I am having something similar at the moment with 3 of my 4 dogs after a bad experience when I was out, even my very confident girl was affected. They are all coming through it now and are a lot better, my new dog was like this before this incident after being abandoned, in the pound for a week, rehomed then returned to the pound 2 weeks later. She was in the pound 3 days before coming to me.

How I deal with it is to let them follow me but ignore them completely unless I need to move, 1, 2 or all 3, I became very boring to be with but they had the security of being able to follow me.

Bonnie and Tilly are fine now but Dolly is still working through it, she has now started to go off on her own, I can hear her scattering the items on the counters looking for food which isn't there.

You have a young baby who has left everything he knows and is living with a strange person in a strange house with strange house rules, he needs time to settle and work everything out. If you have a read of viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1981 it will give you and idea of what stages he is in at his age. Also the clicker training instructions are good, clicker training a pup as young as he is will stop problems developing viewtopic.php?f=20&t=513

Keep remembering he is a baby who has to learn how to understand our language, try and set him up to do what you want, stay with us and ask as many questions as you want, we will try and give you as much help as we can.

Piccies of your pup please, we love puppy piccies.

[Noobs]

Ooh, a Whippet puppy! Pics please indeed!

Have a read here as well - a great resource for new puppy owners. I've been linking this site all week but it is a really great resource and is affiliated with some of the best positive trainers in the world including Ian Dunbar.

http://dogstardaily.com/training/raising-puppy