We just got home from and dinner and found this....

[diane and bella]

My maltese is 4 months old. She does have a little Bechon in her. She is still in training but I cant get her to stop freaking out when I leave, she also poops everywhere even though she is litter trained but only when I leave. Its very upsetting because I worry about her when Im gone. I have been trying to ignore her when I come home and when I leave but she still whines and cries, gets all anxious and out of breath.
Any suggestions?

[tinytwo]

Poor thing! Sounds like she gets very anxious and upset when you leave.

How long have you had her? What is her daily schedule like?
When you leave, do you crate her? Do you leave toys, or a frozen, stuffed Kong for her to work on?

It would help to have a bit more info so we could give you better advice! But, it might be a start to try to alter your routine when you leave. So, for instance, if you normally put your shoes on, then grab your coat and keys, etc. then your puppy has learned that routine, and when you start that routine, she knows what's coming. So, if you put your coat on, then grab your keys, and then put your shoes on she might not put it together that you're leaving, so she might not start the whining.....

[diane and bella]

I have had her since she was 8 weeks old. Rather than a crate, we bought a play yard. But only used a portion of it which is a very large square. Plastic and completley see through. We just started leaving her out of the yard when we leave because I hate to cage her and she has been doing very good with potty training.
Toys? Our living room looks like puppy romper room, toys, chews everything a puppy could want.
I work at home so I am with her all the time, until I have to go somewhere that she cant come. If I do go out, to pick up my son at school or bank drive through, I put her in a small crate and buckle her in, she loves going out. I just dont leave her loose while I drive.
I thought about a routine change but putting shows on and grabbing my purse is kinda hard to hide. Today I took my keys, put on my shoes and went outside for 1 minute, she barked and cried to entire time. Then I came in and ignored her, she tried to jump on me but I turned away like Victoria does. Then I went out and did the same thing about 5 more times but she still cried so I have no idea what I can do. She only poops on the floor inside when we are gone...sometimes at night while we sleep as she is not aloud in any bedrooms until she masters her potty training.
Havent tried the Kong yet, heard about it but does it really work and where can you buy one?

[chay]

Toys? Our living room looks like puppy romper room, toys, chews everything a puppy could want.

this may be a silly question, but does she have dedicated play time, where you actually sit down and muck around with her? some dogs won't play with toys by themselves so even though she has all these things, she might not be interested when left to her own devices.

what is her exercise schedule like? when do you take her out for walks, for how long? perhaps try to take her for a huge walk in the morning and feed her breakfast from a kong - that way if you have to do out during the day she is more likely to be a bit tuckered out instead of sitting around fretting about where you've gone.

I thought about a routine change but putting shows on and grabbing my purse is kinda hard to hide.

you don't have to hide it necessarily, just make it as boring as possible - for example, put on your coat, grab keys...then go sit on the couch and read a book. after a little while take off coat, put keys back in bowl, go about your business like nothing happened. it may break the association that keys/coat = definitely going to be left alone now ohmygodohmygodohmygod

Today I took my keys, put on my shoes and went outside for 1 minute, she barked and cried to entire time. Then I came in and ignored her, she tried to jump on me but I turned away like Victoria does. Then I went out and did the same thing about 5 more times but she still cried so I have no idea what I can do.

this may be a silly question but you have tried it more than just that one (i.e. 5) times, right? it takes time, you'll have to do the same thing maybe HUNDREDS of times before she learns that it is ok, you WILL come back. once she can go 1 minute without crying, take it up to 2 minutes...do that a hundred times, then 5 minutes... etc etc!

She only poops on the floor inside when we are gone...sometimes at night while we sleep as she is not aloud in any bedrooms until she masters her potty training.

she is only 4 months old, that is still a baby - so going during the night is not that surprising. you don't mention what kind of potty training you've done with her but at 4 months you can probably guarantee this isn't foolproof yet! can you set an alarm to take her out during the night, say at 2am? then again first thing in the morning, going out there with her, throwing a huge party/treats for her when she goes outisde. take her out there every hour, with lots of praise/treats when she goes. more regular walks / routine will probably help her with pottying inside too.

is it possible for you to take her crate/sleeping pen in your bedroom with you at night? that way she is still contained so can't mess on your floors/bed but can still see/smell you which might be less stressful for her than sleeping on her own all night.

Havent tried the Kong yet, heard about it but does it really work and where can you buy one?

kongs are great, my little one has a puppy sized kong as all the others are too big for her! we bought ours from our local vet clinic but i'm sure you could order one online too. stuff it full of tasty treats and our dog doesn't even care that we've left

[tinytwo]

I know you might not like to hear this, BUT, if she poops when you leave her, she's doing it out of anxiety, and she should be left in the play yard.

It also sounds like she might be becoming a little too dependent on ALWAYS being with you. Puppies need to learn that it's OK to have "alone" time EVEN when you ARE home. I would STRONGLY encourage you to start getting her used to being "alone" even when you are home.

You can start with baby steps, just leaving her in the play yard with a stuffed and frozen Kong for 1-2 minutes, then coming back and letting her out. If she's whining when you come to let her out, wait for a break in the whining, no matter how brief. Try this several times a day for a few days.
Then increase the time to 4 minutes, several times a day for a few days, then up to 6, then 10, etc.

Now, keep in mind, not everyone needs to increase the time in such small increments. Some puppies take to being confined and having "alone" time really well from the beginning. BUT, for puppies that have issues with it, start small and make small, gradual increases. If your puppy learns to be ok alone for 5 minutes, and then you try 8, and she freaks out, then the increase was too large, she wasn't ready, and go back down to 6-7 min.

The thing is, she's with you when you work at home, and when you're just spending time and home, and when you do short errands in the car. BUT, when you need to go out for longer periods of time, she freaks out and is nervous and anxious because she hasn't learned to be "ok" being alone in the play yard. Like I said, some pups are fine with that from the beginning, and some need to learn to be ok with it!

[tinytwo]

Oh, and I forgot about the Kong:
You can stuff it with just about anything. Harper and Abby LOVE peanut butter, sometimes we stuff it with smaller bits of treats first, and then peanut butter over that.
You can use yogurt, PLAIN, not flavored, or cottage cheese, or bits of real cheese, or hot dogs, or broccoli, or carrots, really, just about anything your puppy LOVES!
If you use something like peanut butter or yogurt or cottage cheese, you can freeze it over night, that makes it take longer for the good stuff to come out!

Dogs just lick and nibble until they get every last bit!!!

[diane and bella]

Thanks for all the advice. I work at home so I am with Bella all the time. I did not find a Kong but I did take one of her rawhide toys and are double layered and smeared peanut butter in it. Then I found a shirt that I had worn that day and tossed in on the floor. When I began to leave I put the peanut butter toy on the floor and she was so preoccupied with getting that peanut butter, she never even looked up when I left! Not even out the french doors to watch me leave!

As far as her toys, she plays all the time. My son and I play catch with her and we have a dog walking area in our community which we just happen to have our villa next to, so she loves just laying out on the lanai watching everyone.
I would like to bring her into our bedroom but her litter box is attached to it and hubby doesnt want to smell poo or pee in the bedrooms. But lately she has been doing great. She actually let us sleep in this morning and went poo in her box. When I got up, I took her out and she went poo outside also.
So basically with a few more months of training, she can pee and poo in the litter box or outside, her cage is always open during the day so she can go in and out whenever.

[diane and bella]

After a full day of activity which included Bella, my husband, son and I went out for dinner...a quick one to boot. When we came home ( I didnt cage her, just let her free with doors closed and litter box open) we found the mini blinds broken, the air freshener pulled from its cradle, she peed outside my sons door and pooped three times in his room (he forgot to close his door). I couldnt believe it. We have left her home alone before and she never did this much, especially within 2 hours. I even left her a rawhide with peanut butter rubbed on it and one of my shirts for scent.
Im so aggravated and we have all had enough of this. I realize she is only 5 months but this training has been going on since we got her when she was 6 weeks old...when will it end? Shes a maltese, I thought they were suppose fairly smart?
I guess from now on we are going to cage her when we leave. I hate to do that but I dont see any other option. Any suggestions?

[jacksdad]

I don't have puppy experience, but rest assured help is on the way. Though one thing to keep in mind, intelligence or breed reputation for intelligence isn't the issue here. having a puppy is. might be 5 months old and maybe even has it's adult body or close to it, but it's still a puppy with all that come with that. In that way its like having a high school human child. might physically be an adult, but mentally/emotionally still not so much.

Oh, don't worry about the other poster, not a regular here. only has two posts and you were lucky enough to get them both. sorry. Moderator will be along shortly to address that account. try and ignore and remember...friends don't let friends feed the trolls

[nightsrainfall]

Generally people here will ask for a run down a typical day and what they have tried so far. That way everyone can read what's been done and being done with the dog and maybe catch something or give applicable and relevant ideas/advice.

I would say that a 6 month dog is too young to being left out in the house. I'm a big fan of crates and crate training. There's a thread on the puppy stages that's interesting. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1981 My family dog back home was not left in the whole house till 5 years old but by then he preferred his crate anyway.

I should say "smart" really doesn't have much to do with 'manners' and desired behaviors. Those need to be taught (hopefully positively ) and re-enforced (positively again). Sometimes those 'smart' dogs can be the most challenging to train because they do get it, they just don't want to play along OR my favorite they do it their own way and then expect the treat or praise, lol.

Anyway, hopefully more people with puppy experience will respond to add more advice.

[emmabeth]

Sorry about that - nasty bad troll now pushed of the bridge by the scary Mod Goat

Back to your post.

Going by the amount of toiletting I would say something has scared her whilst you were gone and shes freaked out - so maybe take a deep breath, forget about being 'aggravated' and focus on the fact something may have quite literally scared the c**p out of her.

6 months is VERY young to be left with free access to everywhere, it is on a par with leaving a 5 year old kid quite frankly and who knows WHAT sort of mess you would come home to if you did that, evne if they were just having fun, never mind if they got scared.

If she isnt used to a crate, get her used to one, slowly by ensuring it is seen as a safe, FUN place to be (dont just shove her in there and shut the door and go out for a few hours) and gradually build up the time she spends in the crate. If something HAS freaked her out (and if this is unusual behaviour I would suggest it has) then ideally you would NOT leave her alone at all for the next few days, and then gradually build up the minutes she can be left for until you can leave her long enough to actually go somewhere.

It is incredibly upsetting when you come home to find things broken and messed up and we do understand that, but you must also make sure your expectations from your dog are realistic - expecting a baby animal to cope alone when something scary happens, and to not break anything (given she cannot understand the value of any of those items!) is not realistic. As smart as any dog may be, they are never ever going to be able to understand some human concepts.

[emmabeth]

Ah I have just caught up with your other thread....

Your dog is NOT coping with being left alone, so going out for dinner and leaving her alone is not an option. She is not going to magically figure out that its ok to be left alone, because it is scary for her - plus, you go out and leave her, she freaks out and wrecks something and then you come home and in your own words, are aggravated.

I dont know whether you shouted or were just annoyed or said nothing at all ... but SHE will have known that you were mad when you came home, and the thing is, whenever you come home mad, that makes her anxiety being left WORSE, so it gets worse and worse as time goes on.

Teach her to cope being on her own, a minute at a time. Thirty seconds at a time if that is what she needs - you actually had a breakthrough on your other thread, you said you gave her some good stuff to do and you managed to walk out of the door without her freaking out. That was actually progress, but since you followed that up by leaving her long enough to freak out, its a backwards step.

Do it minute by minute - build it up slowly so that she stays calm. IF you leave it a little too long and you come home to a mess (or if you had no choice but to go out, btw, going out for dinner IS a choice!) then you calmly put her out of the way and clean up where she cannot see you, so she cannot see that you are upset.

She really isn't going to learn this by just being left, and crating her will only stop her messing up the rest of your house it wont automatically make her any happier, she will just wreck her bedding, mess in there and get it all over herself and possibly even hurt herself.

We can help you through this but it takes time and patience and commitment, take a look in our success stories area to see the work people put in, and the results they get for that work.

[ladybug1802]

I can vouch for the method suggested by Emmabeth works......it is how I got my rescue dog over his separation anxiety when I got him. He was bad....would pace, howl, cry when I left him. It does mean that you lose a bit of your social life and you need to make sure the dog has someone to be in the house with him, or you have someone you can take the dog to if you need to go out. That is very important. It took a few months with Dylan and I did it very very slowly.

As Emmabeth says, you cant just do it for a bit, then go out and hope for the best, as it will put your dog back to square one. But the time you take to put into this is well worth it. Your dog is very young, and her behaviour when you left does suggest she is VERY stressed/scared....she isnt being naughty. Peeing and pooping in the house that much indicates stress as well.

Please try not to get aggravated with her when you come home to this mess....if she senses your annoyance it will make the stress worse, and she will start to see you guys coming home as a stressful experience where she gets yelled at or whatever...so making it worse!

[ladybug1802]

You need to slowly build up the time she is left.....start by walking out the door, shutting it, then coming back in. Ignore her when you come in, wait until she has settled then call her over and giver her some fuss (stroking if she likes that, otherwise play with a toy with her). Slowly slowly build up the time you leave....move up to 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute....all the way until you can leave her for half an hour then an hour. And during this process she cannot be left home alone as it will negate all the effort you are putting in with this training. It is time consuming, and does takle a long time (it took me months with my dog) but it DOES work and will then show your poor little dog she doesnt need to be so stressed when you leave.

I honestly would suggest buying a Kong...they are brilliant. You can stuff it with peanut butter, cheese, mashed banana etc and freeze it..then whe you give it to her it will take her longer to get through it and wil occupy her longer. Peanut butter on a rawhide will be licked off in no time.

[Chance1214]

so about your problem finding the Kong i just checked for you online, and basically you can find Kong on ANY online toy distributer and should be able to at your local toy store, i like to shop online because of the great discounts, but petco.com, petsmart.com, dogtoys.com, just type it into google and for what country you live in and you are all set!! worth the buy

my dog has seperation anxiety isues so i have been following the postings!!

good luck!!!