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Hello Dan,
For starters, congratulations on the new pup!!
When Mike, the head dog trainer logs on, he will be able to provide more insight, but just off of my experience it sounds like what is happening here is a case of seperation anxiety. This site actually goes into speration anxiety in detail, so you may want to read this section. This can be found in the members area on the home page click on “Start self help” then click on “Anxiety” then click on “seperation anxiety”. this section may be able to assist you.
Some pointers that I can provide you with for now based off of what are telling us with the background. It sounds like the dog getting sense of comfort when he/she is with you, which is good, to a point. The problem becomes when you are not around they start paniking. Sleeping with the dog will only increase their anxiety when you are not around. Also over petting them can cause this as well. I know we all love our puppies and want to just hangout and pet them all day, but in the long run this ends up hurting the dog more than anything. The rule of thumb is not to pet them for more than 10 seconds at any given time. This doesn’t mean that you can not play a good game of fetch or something with them for more than ten seconds, but you really do not want to throw on a movie and pet the dog the whole time during the movie or something.
The best solution for barking, is unfortunlitley not the best for the owners which ignore them. Once they realize that barking does not get them what they want, they will stop attempting it. What you should do is when you leave and go out, leave the dog with something that will keep them occupied, either a toy that they like and don’t get to have all the time, or I know when Prelude was a puppy, the best thing was a “Kong” we would fill it with chicken or something that is healthy and that she really likes and then freeze it and when we would leave give it to her and it will keep her occupied for a long time and by the time she is done, maybe you are home, or she may be tired, etc.. Antoher rule of thumb, is don’t have big “Hello’s” or big “Good bye’s”. If you make it a big thing everytime you leave, they will be anticipating this and start to get anxiety when it happens.
You also can start to leave them alone for short periods of time, like walk out of the room for a couple of minutes and then go back in and keep increasing the time. This way the little one starts to realize when you leave it doesn’t mean forever and you will be coming back. In the begining I undersatnd it is difficult, but it will get better I promise.Well I hope this helps until Mike is able to answer you.
Good Luck!! and check back with updates!!Chris
