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Thanks for the advice!
She’s outside now – and silent! playing with her until she’s really tired seems to do wonders, she howled for about 15minutes still, so i waited till she was quiet and had moved away from the door and went outside. I didn’t make a fuss, in fact i didn’t even look at her and just sat down at our outside table, she whined a little and sat in between my feet and then lay down all quiet.
After about 2 minutes i just got up silently and went inside – so far so good while she’s asleep! But i know when she wakes up – she’ll start up again.
Am i following the right timing sequence by going outside as soon as she is quiet for a few seconds? Is this reinforcing that howling will make me come out or that being quiet will?
I think during the day when we’re here we can probably manage it as it doesn’t matter if she howls for a while and then settles down, but at night we’re stumped for ideas that won’t involved hours of howling before she settles!
The ‘over patting’ concept is probably something i should work on, she’s had a lot of attention over the last week with us being home all the time and visitors etc
Tonight she’ll be put outside so we can sleep in our own bed for a change, i figure Saturday night is the best time to test our neighbours patience…
I read the anxiety chapter and i’m certainly trying to stick to it as best as possible. i wasn’t sure if this is just normal puppy behaviour or an actual anxiety problem.
We’ve been so impressed with how resilient she’s been, doesn’t get scared by noises, fine in the car, travelled on the plane without messing the crate and she gets up once a night to go pee so we’re getting a pretty good sleep.
I’ve attached a picture of our little terror! 9 weeks old and weighing around 21lb, her paws are about 8 sizes too big for her at the moment, they’re massive!
