Hi All,
Coco has started to bark when we leave her alone in the house. Coco has her own area in the kitchen which she sleeps in and also spends time during the day when we are in the house. During the night and the day whilst we are in the house there is no barking when she is put in this area.
When we go to leave the house we have the same routine of putting her in her normal area behind a stair gate as we do in the day when we are there and the evenings when we go to bed. When we leave the house though she seems to become distressed. She is starts panting, wining and barking. We have installed a camera to see how she is getting on whilst we are out of the house and this is how we found out about the barking.
I am not 100% sure if it is separation anxiety as she doesn't do it at night or in the day whilst we are in the house and she can't see us. We have started to regularly go through the process of putting her in the kitchen and leaving the house for a few mins and then returning. After we return we don't make a fuss of her for around 5 mins to try and normalize the coming and going process. Today I have managed to increase the time limit whilst I am sat outside in the car enjoying a cup of tea for around half an hour with no barking or crying.
Is there anything we should be doing / thinking about to make Coco feel more calm and accepting of the situation that she is not going to be around us every hour of the day. The process we are going through at the moment does seem to be working but just want to make sure we have all basis covered.
Thanks,
Coco has started to bark when we leave her alone in the house. Coco has her own area in the kitchen which she sleeps in and also spends time during the day when we are in the house. During the night and the day whilst we are in the house there is no barking when she is put in this area.
When we go to leave the house we have the same routine of putting her in her normal area behind a stair gate as we do in the day when we are there and the evenings when we go to bed. When we leave the house though she seems to become distressed. She is starts panting, wining and barking. We have installed a camera to see how she is getting on whilst we are out of the house and this is how we found out about the barking.
I am not 100% sure if it is separation anxiety as she doesn't do it at night or in the day whilst we are in the house and she can't see us. We have started to regularly go through the process of putting her in the kitchen and leaving the house for a few mins and then returning. After we return we don't make a fuss of her for around 5 mins to try and normalize the coming and going process. Today I have managed to increase the time limit whilst I am sat outside in the car enjoying a cup of tea for around half an hour with no barking or crying.
Is there anything we should be doing / thinking about to make Coco feel more calm and accepting of the situation that she is not going to be around us every hour of the day. The process we are going through at the moment does seem to be working but just want to make sure we have all basis covered.
Thanks,