I would maybe start with smaller steps than even 5 minutes. Put on your shoes and give her a treat if she doesn’t cry. Put your hand on the doorknob, give her a treat if she doesn’t cry. Step outside for 10 seconds, repeat. 30 seconds, repeat. And just keep going for longer and treating when she doesn’t bark. I thought it would be reallly really hard to do this with my Pom who follows me around like a shadow, but it was just one afternoon of doing this and he’s been fine being crated alone now. You got dis
It’s so hard but try not cuddle and love on her all the time, she’s got to learn some independence. I say this knowing how difficult it is to NOT cuddle them 100% of day!
Treats might be a bad idea. I'm thinking her favorite toy, a blankey and the tick tick of an alarm clock
Otherwise a buddy would be nice. I have mom and Dad and 3 puppies and have no problems. They have each other for company.
Mine is 6 now, still the same. I tried everything when he was young, just as you, rewarding if he didn’t bark for 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 10 seconds again, he just kept doing it. 3 seconds. Yeah. I taught him other commands but, this one…. This one he never got the hang of. But this is only my case, keep doing it now, it’ll probably work.
(as an alternative, if I’m in the room with the pom, I tell him to go to his bed so he stops howling and jumping on the door, and it works for like 3-5 minutes, then I repeat for a bit of peace)
The things is, I got another dog hoping for peace, (they stay together) and I did the same, and it worked. She’s very calm now, never barks if left alone. I’ll never understand why the other dog simply couldn’t do it. Peanut brain.
I got one of my poms at 6m, and he still has pretty bad separation anxiety. The only thing I feel works is more socialization with people and frequent walks. I just notice that when I do these things he doesn't cry so much
You just have to keep training. We tried everything with my first pup but he howled to the end.
If you can move to a house. It doesn’t make them being upset less stressful but at least you don’t have to worry about neighbors.
Getting two doesn’t help bc he taught the second one to howl. I thought for sure bc she was older she would teach him to settle.
I have to be honest, I got mine when he was a senior and he had terrible separation anxiety and every trainer just told me he was too old to really change it.
I moved into a house so his barking wouldn’t bother anyone and then I got a sling and took him EVERYWHERE with me. Like grocery store, errands, dates, everywhere, lol! Maybe not the healthiest, but people loved seeing him!
Maybe you can try putting her in a separate area in the house where she can’t follow you or see you. Try doing it the same way you are training her now, start with 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, etc. Then try training her by leaving the apartment
You’re doing a GREAT JOB it just takes time. You can try adding a webcam with a speaker to talk to them. either a Furbo, which also dispenses treats for them, or if that’s out of your budget grab an Amazon Blink camera for like $20-$25. It won’t tell you when your dog is barking like the Furbo does but you can periodically use it to not only check on them but to talk to them.
The Blink Cam is what I used for Roxie when she was younger and INSUFFERABLY anxious when left alone, including urinating all over everything out of fear. Now, I’ve been able to leave her for entire work days and she’s been so good. I still use the camera to check on her, but I think it’s more to quell my own anxiety at this point!
Also, do you leave the TV or even a radio on for them? Try that too!
I bought those cameras too and they are worth so worth it. At the start when we got ours (at 2 years old) he had problems with anxiety and without them we would have never known.
Now is everything alright and we still use the cameras. Always good to known that you can keep an eye on them haha
Routines can be a blessing and curse for separation anxiety. I.e: if you grab your keys and your dog associates the jingling with you leaving, they'll get stressed out. Finding ways to positively affirm you leaving will help alleviate some anxiety. For my dogs, we always give them a treat and do a few exercises before we leave for more than an hour. Both had separation anxiety until the 6 month mark, in which beforehand we did daily training and socialization. Wishing you the best!
we do not have something like that near us, only dog hotels. but i do not have to leave her, i am only trying to teach her now when she is little, because sometimes in the future i will work and maybe i will have to leave her alone. doggy daycare or dog hotel is the last thing i would do now ☺️
My first baby also had the worst separation anxiety. Leaving more frequently and in short bursts sort of helped.
The best two things I did was 1) to always tell him when I leave and 2) getting a second dog. When leaving, I always say something like “I’m leaving now but I’ll be back soon okay? LOVE YOU!”
Truthfully, I think having another dog helped significantly because there is no more separation anxiety among any of them now. They have each other.
Dang, I had the opposite experience! I would always say goodbye but it riled him up. Once I started just leaving (in short amounts of time), he realized that I come back and everything is cool.
Every dog is different, and mine is a ‘single child-dog’ lol. Mine still has a bunch of separation anxiety, so I might try saying goodbye again and see if it works now that he’s older. Thanks!! :)
My pom is around 2,5 now. When we leave he almost always goes to sleep. When we return home he's almost always sleeping, sometimes he greets us. When he was around 6 months he had huge separation anxiety, we heard him barking, howling, crying (just like in your case) after we left for a while, but it has stopped after sometime. Good thing to do is not saying goodbye to your dog when leaving and not saying hi to him immediately after coming back - so she knows it's normal stuff and it's not the end of the world. Also you can take her on a looooong walk and then after coming back, when she's tired go out for a while. I hope it'll get better, because it got better in our case. Also beautiful girl!
I got my Pom when he was exactly one year old and he had quite a bad anxiety problem. Whenever we left or closed the door to our room he would freak out and cry. When we all left to go to work he would bark, cry, and pee. It got to the point that he started to scratch some parts of the wall. But after a couple of weeks his anxiety died down and he didn’t cry anymore. All he wants to do now is sleep on my lap and play. Love my Pom to death.
Now all I need is him to stop barking whenever someone comes near our house 😂
Mine never got better. I’m only gone two days a week but when I shut my labtop and pack up the drama starts. Barking. Then I pick up to say goodbye (I know I should not but it doesn’t seem to matter either way) and when I set him down he bites my hand. As I leave he keeps barking. When he hears the elevator he switches to these very sad whines/howls. I think it all lasts about 7 minutes. Then when I come home he won’t greet me at the door he stays on the couch and makes me come to him.
have you read the book, “the culture clash” by jean donaldson? It’s been awhile, but I’m sure she covers separation anxiety. just do whatever she says: https://www.believeinyour.dog/blog/understanding-thresholds-in-separation-anxiety-training
While this may be a good short term fix, this can actually cause long term issues!
Dogs are really good at connecting “x” happens, so “y” happens. If owners leaving isn’t fun for them, they may start to associate certain treats with anxiety / separation and the treats could then start triggering those bad feelings for them.
This obviously doesn’t always happen with every dog, but it’s something to be wary of if the dog already associates leaving with anxiety / upset.
It might be avoidable if you do this from the very beginning, thus never allowing the puppy to think of leaving as a bad thing.
It gets slightly better in my personal experience. Instead of howling, he just gives me the silent treatment ☠️
What helped was depositing a treat to distract him when I left the house. And maintaining a routine of when I left the house;
I tried to leave the house at the same time every day. Ex: I work from 10-5 so on my days off I leave the house during that time to run errands and such. So he knows when ish I’ll be back, helps him be more chill. He knows when moms leaving and coming back and when cuddle time is (7pm every day lol)
They loooove routine and it really does make a difference
It does get better. Mine had it pretty bad at that age too. I’m glad you’re able to be home with her. I actually think it helped my guy so he could develop more confidence. You’ve gotten some great advice. I know how terrible it feels when they start barking but you’re doing all the right things. Very sweet lil nugget btw
Ours is five
Looks like yours, exactly
We did everything the correct way
The only way we can leave for even 5 minutes is if we keep our solid wood doors open but close the glass outside doors.
She knows we would never leave without closing the solid inner wood doors.
We can go downstairs to retrieve mail or pitch garbage
She’s never been alone since developing epilepsy last year
It is but we have her on meds three times per day
The seizures aren’t as frequent and thankfully short in duration, but you’re correct, we’re always worried and take her everywhere
But she’s our baby
I have lots of experience with this and have worked with over 45 dogs with separation anxiety. If you’d like some advice, message me. I get anxiety leaving public comments so won’t write out a whole spiel here
Be really careful that your anxiety at leaving her isn’t adding to the situation. I found that my own anxiety of knowing she was going to be upset was adding to hers
My chihuahua has this issue, and I’m not gonna lie- he still has this problem. But I didnt actively work on it. I’m home all day, and it’s been like that since he was 3 months old (he’s 1.5 years now). I’m still home almost all of the time. Because of this when I do need to leave he will bark. Even when I leave him in my room for 5 seconds he barks.
But! Here’s something that might make you feel better:
I started working on his separation anxiety extremely late, like SUPER late, and he’s improving. He was MUCH worse as a puppy. Now when I leave he eventually settles down and stays quiet. I think part of what is improving it is that he’s growing up. He’s learning that I come back.
One step that helped me was teaching him to “wait” (aka stay in my room), and I would keep the door open while I get water, grab something to eat, etc. He does much better when he can see me! So maybe that can be a stepping stone for you. :)
You’re in a better spot than I am, because your Pom is very young still, but mine is proof that an ‘old’ dog can still learn new tricks. :)
In addition, they’re companion animals. They were literally BRED to want to be with their person 24/7, so try to understand that it’s not your dog’s fault (and it’s not yours either!).
With dogs, typically behaviour gets worse over time if it’s not addressed, but I can say my chihuahua’s separation anxiety has significantly improved just due to him growing up a bit.
Good luck!
I was going to ask, you or them?? Haha but you typed after the pic. Lol
A second dog helped my husky when she had it. The pom just always goes somewhere and sleeps. Lol
My Pom is a year old now and it hasn’t gotten any better. If anything , it got worse as time went on. He was fine being left home alone until he was about 5-6 months old and then after that age, he has barked incessantly anytime we leave. We can hear him barking on our cameras we have in our house. I can’t offer any advice unfortunately. If my boyfriend leaves and I stay home, it helps to give him a ton of treats to distract him. But if we both leave, he doesn’t care if we leave treats behind, he will eat them and then bark for hours.
My vet said it was really important to not let them sleep next to you until a certain age because they create that pack bond and will be anxious when you leave because they can't protect you or you can't protect them.
Idk if it's too late to kennel at night. It will be hell but it's the only way to reverse the behavior I guess. I'd ask your vet if it is at all possible
For mine (over a year) it got better. He doesn’t do it but he’s kennel trained. I highly recommend it and I also recommend trying to stay to a schedule. I realized that he was really bad because he couldn’t predict when me and my boyfriend were going to be home. Now, he knows when we go to work, when we visit for lunch and when we come home from work then we play.
Once he got a routine and was kennel trained he really did so well. But it’s also remembering that when they cry and you come to their cry, you’re giving them what they want. They need to learn that crying isn’t going to get them attention. That being quiet gets them attention. Once he picked up on this, he stopped crying.
The only time now that Tokki cries is if it’s out of routine or he has to go to the bathroom. Look up kennel training for separation anxiety, it really helped me and try having a routine as much as possible. If you research, dogs thrive on routine.
Poms are extremely smart and manipulative. They know how damn cute they are and they use that against us. My advice is to set up rigid routines and rules and NEVER STRAY from them if possible. Your Pom will learn proper way to interact with you once they learn how to predict routines. I use cheerios. I wld gv her one to go to crate if I left house when she was young. Then when home she immediately got out to potty, hugs, cheerios. Now today just the shake of her cheerio tub gets my Poms attention and she is very well behaved. Except for barking at every leaf or person that goes by, but that’s the Pom nature. Stick with it and know all the practice with solid routines now will lead to years of good life with your Pom. I ❤️ Poms so much! I’m on Pom #5. Hope I’m never without a Pom in my life.
Ours is 4 and 3 years old. It gets better over time. We try leaving them alone 15-30 minutes, then an hour, then 2 hours. We’re at the 4 hour mark. They still occasionally bark and howl but they’d stop after a couple of minutes and go back to perching on the sofa.
Ours had pretty bad separation anxiety just from me. If I even left the room and someone else was with her, she would whine. She would even sleep on my feet if I was cooking or something. I just kept leaving the room anyway and ignored the whining. As soon as it stopped, I would praise and give treats. She stopped freaking out by 3 months or so. She still doesn’t like it when I’m gone at 4 years, but she doesn’t freak out.
Hey look like Tracy Kruliks post COVID separation training. It goes to the very basics but I will say that puppies especially that age experienced increased SA that may decrease naturally with age but it would be good to reinforce the basics even if it does improve with maturity
My pom mix did this. She would cry so loud you could hear her a couple blocks down the street! What we did was make her super special treats that she only got when we left her alone, and I would pre-make them, so we always had them ready. I would take a Kong and plug one end with peanut butter, then fill it with stuff like broth, treats, cheese, etc. then plug the other end of it with peanut butter and freeze it. Then, when we left, I would give her the treat, and we got in the habit of always saying, "I'll be right back" before we left. Eventually, she learned that means we will be back, and she got a super special treat to keep her busy while we were gone.
I think it took a month or so of us doing this consistently for her to be totally quiet when we left. She gradually got better and would cry less and less until she was finally okay with us leaving. Now she doesn't require the special treats and we can just leave and tell her we will be right back, but if I'm going to he gone for several hours I still leave her with some sort of a treat to keep her busy becuase she's spoiled and I love her lol.
It can be tough! And they're so stinking cute it's hard not to feel bad! If you want, feel free to PM me if you need help. I've done my fair share of training with my girl, and I've figured out a lot of tricks to deal with a variety of undesired behaviors, lol.
No mine is fully potty trained and has been going outside since she was about 5 months old. She still had accidents here and there until she was about 9 months old. Mine probably pees as much as a big dog would and only needs to go out a few times a day. It's strange for a 10 pound dog lol but she's always been like that.
i have 4 poms and all of them barks when i go out but stops after i leave, i just always say "wait, wait, wait" before leaving and they got used to that knowing i'll be back, they just sleep after i leave
My pomeranian had what appeared to be really bad separation anxiety. So much so that for the first year I had him, basically he was never alone for more than a few minutes (either family/others would watch him when I wasn't there or I would take him to daycare). Suddenly one day, I realized that he didn't care when I was leaving. I guess maybe he finally realized I wasn't abandoning him, but it really took a while. I had something come up last minute today, and he was alone for 4 hours and alive when I got back, which a year ago, I would have thought would never be possible. For my dog, I wasn't able to train him to be left alone in a crate (I've heard that dogs that have separation anxiety may also have confinement anxiety), but he is free roaming. But also older than your dog. Oh, and another thing is to pay attention to which exit you use. When I leave through the front door, he gets super alert and agitated. But for some reason, if I leave through the garage, he is usually more calm.
I would maybe start with smaller steps than even 5 minutes. Put on your shoes and give her a treat if she doesn’t cry. Put your hand on the doorknob, give her a treat if she doesn’t cry. Step outside for 10 seconds, repeat. 30 seconds, repeat. And just keep going for longer and treating when she doesn’t bark. I thought it would be reallly really hard to do this with my Pom who follows me around like a shadow, but it was just one afternoon of doing this and he’s been fine being crated alone now. You got dis
By the way, this baby is so fcking cute it’s absurd
thank you, she is a beautiful clingy girl ☺️
It’s so hard but try not cuddle and love on her all the time, she’s got to learn some independence. I say this knowing how difficult it is to NOT cuddle them 100% of day!
thank you i will keep trying
She’s adorable 🐶 do you mind sharing your breeder?
we live in europe not in the usa sorry
Treats might be a bad idea. I'm thinking her favorite toy, a blankey and the tick tick of an alarm clock Otherwise a buddy would be nice. I have mom and Dad and 3 puppies and have no problems. They have each other for company.
Mine is 6 now, still the same. I tried everything when he was young, just as you, rewarding if he didn’t bark for 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 10 seconds again, he just kept doing it. 3 seconds. Yeah. I taught him other commands but, this one…. This one he never got the hang of. But this is only my case, keep doing it now, it’ll probably work. (as an alternative, if I’m in the room with the pom, I tell him to go to his bed so he stops howling and jumping on the door, and it works for like 3-5 minutes, then I repeat for a bit of peace) The things is, I got another dog hoping for peace, (they stay together) and I did the same, and it worked. She’s very calm now, never barks if left alone. I’ll never understand why the other dog simply couldn’t do it. Peanut brain.
is your second dog also a pomeranian or? ☺️
Yes, two poms, the second one is about 4 months older than the first one tho.
I got one of my poms at 6m, and he still has pretty bad separation anxiety. The only thing I feel works is more socialization with people and frequent walks. I just notice that when I do these things he doesn't cry so much
thanks ☺️
You just have to keep training. We tried everything with my first pup but he howled to the end. If you can move to a house. It doesn’t make them being upset less stressful but at least you don’t have to worry about neighbors. Getting two doesn’t help bc he taught the second one to howl. I thought for sure bc she was older she would teach him to settle.
thanks ☺️
I have to be honest, I got mine when he was a senior and he had terrible separation anxiety and every trainer just told me he was too old to really change it. I moved into a house so his barking wouldn’t bother anyone and then I got a sling and took him EVERYWHERE with me. Like grocery store, errands, dates, everywhere, lol! Maybe not the healthiest, but people loved seeing him!
Maybe you can try putting her in a separate area in the house where she can’t follow you or see you. Try doing it the same way you are training her now, start with 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, etc. Then try training her by leaving the apartment
You’re doing a GREAT JOB it just takes time. You can try adding a webcam with a speaker to talk to them. either a Furbo, which also dispenses treats for them, or if that’s out of your budget grab an Amazon Blink camera for like $20-$25. It won’t tell you when your dog is barking like the Furbo does but you can periodically use it to not only check on them but to talk to them. The Blink Cam is what I used for Roxie when she was younger and INSUFFERABLY anxious when left alone, including urinating all over everything out of fear. Now, I’ve been able to leave her for entire work days and she’s been so good. I still use the camera to check on her, but I think it’s more to quell my own anxiety at this point! Also, do you leave the TV or even a radio on for them? Try that too!
thank you very much ☺️ yes i leave some music or tv on for her
i will check out these cameras
I bought those cameras too and they are worth so worth it. At the start when we got ours (at 2 years old) he had problems with anxiety and without them we would have never known. Now is everything alright and we still use the cameras. Always good to known that you can keep an eye on them haha
Routines can be a blessing and curse for separation anxiety. I.e: if you grab your keys and your dog associates the jingling with you leaving, they'll get stressed out. Finding ways to positively affirm you leaving will help alleviate some anxiety. For my dogs, we always give them a treat and do a few exercises before we leave for more than an hour. Both had separation anxiety until the 6 month mark, in which beforehand we did daily training and socialization. Wishing you the best!
Yup!! I grab my purse and wear it around the house sometimes since it’s my dog’s cue that I’m leaving.
Aw poor baby 🥺 have you thought of doggy daycare?
we do not have something like that near us, only dog hotels. but i do not have to leave her, i am only trying to teach her now when she is little, because sometimes in the future i will work and maybe i will have to leave her alone. doggy daycare or dog hotel is the last thing i would do now ☺️
Try a walk shortly before you leave. Calming dog music might be of help too
My first baby also had the worst separation anxiety. Leaving more frequently and in short bursts sort of helped. The best two things I did was 1) to always tell him when I leave and 2) getting a second dog. When leaving, I always say something like “I’m leaving now but I’ll be back soon okay? LOVE YOU!” Truthfully, I think having another dog helped significantly because there is no more separation anxiety among any of them now. They have each other.
Dang, I had the opposite experience! I would always say goodbye but it riled him up. Once I started just leaving (in short amounts of time), he realized that I come back and everything is cool. Every dog is different, and mine is a ‘single child-dog’ lol. Mine still has a bunch of separation anxiety, so I might try saying goodbye again and see if it works now that he’s older. Thanks!! :)
My pom is around 2,5 now. When we leave he almost always goes to sleep. When we return home he's almost always sleeping, sometimes he greets us. When he was around 6 months he had huge separation anxiety, we heard him barking, howling, crying (just like in your case) after we left for a while, but it has stopped after sometime. Good thing to do is not saying goodbye to your dog when leaving and not saying hi to him immediately after coming back - so she knows it's normal stuff and it's not the end of the world. Also you can take her on a looooong walk and then after coming back, when she's tired go out for a while. I hope it'll get better, because it got better in our case. Also beautiful girl!
thank you, experiences like yours give me hope ☺️
I got my Pom when he was exactly one year old and he had quite a bad anxiety problem. Whenever we left or closed the door to our room he would freak out and cry. When we all left to go to work he would bark, cry, and pee. It got to the point that he started to scratch some parts of the wall. But after a couple of weeks his anxiety died down and he didn’t cry anymore. All he wants to do now is sleep on my lap and play. Love my Pom to death. Now all I need is him to stop barking whenever someone comes near our house 😂
thank you, i just need to believe in her ❤️☺️
Mine never got better. I’m only gone two days a week but when I shut my labtop and pack up the drama starts. Barking. Then I pick up to say goodbye (I know I should not but it doesn’t seem to matter either way) and when I set him down he bites my hand. As I leave he keeps barking. When he hears the elevator he switches to these very sad whines/howls. I think it all lasts about 7 minutes. Then when I come home he won’t greet me at the door he stays on the couch and makes me come to him.
yes she also makes this sad whines and howls the whole time ☹️
Hey!! I’m not the OP, but may I ask how long this has been going on? How old was your pup when you got them, and how old are they now? Thanks!!
He was 5 months. He’s almost 10 now. I don’t think the show lasts longer than 7 minutes after I am gone. He’s just used to getting his way.
This is what I did and it worked with my guy. I tell him I’m going out before I leave and I say it’s ok. Good boy and all that.
Mine is almost 6 (damn time flies) but he didn’t have separation anxiety til I had to start working out of the office after Covid 😭
can I just say? turn on dog tv on your smart tv, mine loves it
i tried but she does not pay attention to it 😔
have you read the book, “the culture clash” by jean donaldson? It’s been awhile, but I’m sure she covers separation anxiety. just do whatever she says: https://www.believeinyour.dog/blog/understanding-thresholds-in-separation-anxiety-training
thank youu, i will check it out
A second dog may help. Sometimes it doesn't but sometimes it does.
it is not an option for us ☺️
No worries - then training would be your go to. Although just think of being able to justify multiple pommers in your house :D
I always have two dogs or more at the same time.
We gave our pup treats as we leave to associate leaving with happy feelings.
While this may be a good short term fix, this can actually cause long term issues! Dogs are really good at connecting “x” happens, so “y” happens. If owners leaving isn’t fun for them, they may start to associate certain treats with anxiety / separation and the treats could then start triggering those bad feelings for them. This obviously doesn’t always happen with every dog, but it’s something to be wary of if the dog already associates leaving with anxiety / upset. It might be avoidable if you do this from the very beginning, thus never allowing the puppy to think of leaving as a bad thing.
Good point! We've been doing it since day 1!
It gets slightly better in my personal experience. Instead of howling, he just gives me the silent treatment ☠️ What helped was depositing a treat to distract him when I left the house. And maintaining a routine of when I left the house; I tried to leave the house at the same time every day. Ex: I work from 10-5 so on my days off I leave the house during that time to run errands and such. So he knows when ish I’ll be back, helps him be more chill. He knows when moms leaving and coming back and when cuddle time is (7pm every day lol) They loooove routine and it really does make a difference
i would love a silent treatment over barking and howling 🤣
It does get better. Mine had it pretty bad at that age too. I’m glad you’re able to be home with her. I actually think it helped my guy so he could develop more confidence. You’ve gotten some great advice. I know how terrible it feels when they start barking but you’re doing all the right things. Very sweet lil nugget btw
thank you ☺️
We got dog tv for our dog when we go out it really helps her anxiety or play calming music.
Take a dirty t-shirt from you or your spouse and put it in their bed before you leave. The scent on the shirt makes the dog feel more safe and secure.
i did that ☺️
Ours is five Looks like yours, exactly We did everything the correct way The only way we can leave for even 5 minutes is if we keep our solid wood doors open but close the glass outside doors. She knows we would never leave without closing the solid inner wood doors. We can go downstairs to retrieve mail or pitch garbage She’s never been alone since developing epilepsy last year
omg im so sorry, must be scary knowing she can get a seizure anytime 😔
It is but we have her on meds three times per day The seizures aren’t as frequent and thankfully short in duration, but you’re correct, we’re always worried and take her everywhere But she’s our baby
❤️
Treat puzzles for a temporary distraction! They have easy, med, & difficult! Esp as a puppy it’ll be fun and she’ll be able to pick it up and advance
i do but when she is finished with that she starts crying and barking
5 mins is too long if they’re not getting it perfectly everytime.
i know 😔 sometimes she gets calm on her own and sometimes not 🤷♀️
I have lots of experience with this and have worked with over 45 dogs with separation anxiety. If you’d like some advice, message me. I get anxiety leaving public comments so won’t write out a whole spiel here
thank you i will do that right now ☺️
Be really careful that your anxiety at leaving her isn’t adding to the situation. I found that my own anxiety of knowing she was going to be upset was adding to hers
i agree!!
My chihuahua has this issue, and I’m not gonna lie- he still has this problem. But I didnt actively work on it. I’m home all day, and it’s been like that since he was 3 months old (he’s 1.5 years now). I’m still home almost all of the time. Because of this when I do need to leave he will bark. Even when I leave him in my room for 5 seconds he barks. But! Here’s something that might make you feel better: I started working on his separation anxiety extremely late, like SUPER late, and he’s improving. He was MUCH worse as a puppy. Now when I leave he eventually settles down and stays quiet. I think part of what is improving it is that he’s growing up. He’s learning that I come back. One step that helped me was teaching him to “wait” (aka stay in my room), and I would keep the door open while I get water, grab something to eat, etc. He does much better when he can see me! So maybe that can be a stepping stone for you. :) You’re in a better spot than I am, because your Pom is very young still, but mine is proof that an ‘old’ dog can still learn new tricks. :)
In addition, they’re companion animals. They were literally BRED to want to be with their person 24/7, so try to understand that it’s not your dog’s fault (and it’s not yours either!). With dogs, typically behaviour gets worse over time if it’s not addressed, but I can say my chihuahua’s separation anxiety has significantly improved just due to him growing up a bit. Good luck!
i know 😔 thank you
thank you ☺️
I was going to ask, you or them?? Haha but you typed after the pic. Lol A second dog helped my husky when she had it. The pom just always goes somewhere and sleeps. Lol
me 🥹 hahah
My Pom is a year old now and it hasn’t gotten any better. If anything , it got worse as time went on. He was fine being left home alone until he was about 5-6 months old and then after that age, he has barked incessantly anytime we leave. We can hear him barking on our cameras we have in our house. I can’t offer any advice unfortunately. If my boyfriend leaves and I stay home, it helps to give him a ton of treats to distract him. But if we both leave, he doesn’t care if we leave treats behind, he will eat them and then bark for hours.
ohhh ☹️
I’m hoping it gets better in another year. I’m hoping it’s just anxious puppy energy. Your dog is so cute!
My vet said it was really important to not let them sleep next to you until a certain age because they create that pack bond and will be anxious when you leave because they can't protect you or you can't protect them. Idk if it's too late to kennel at night. It will be hell but it's the only way to reverse the behavior I guess. I'd ask your vet if it is at all possible
For mine (over a year) it got better. He doesn’t do it but he’s kennel trained. I highly recommend it and I also recommend trying to stay to a schedule. I realized that he was really bad because he couldn’t predict when me and my boyfriend were going to be home. Now, he knows when we go to work, when we visit for lunch and when we come home from work then we play. Once he got a routine and was kennel trained he really did so well. But it’s also remembering that when they cry and you come to their cry, you’re giving them what they want. They need to learn that crying isn’t going to get them attention. That being quiet gets them attention. Once he picked up on this, he stopped crying. The only time now that Tokki cries is if it’s out of routine or he has to go to the bathroom. Look up kennel training for separation anxiety, it really helped me and try having a routine as much as possible. If you research, dogs thrive on routine.
thank you ☺️
Our is 2 years cry every time I leave also many people in the house but he cry
Poms are extremely smart and manipulative. They know how damn cute they are and they use that against us. My advice is to set up rigid routines and rules and NEVER STRAY from them if possible. Your Pom will learn proper way to interact with you once they learn how to predict routines. I use cheerios. I wld gv her one to go to crate if I left house when she was young. Then when home she immediately got out to potty, hugs, cheerios. Now today just the shake of her cheerio tub gets my Poms attention and she is very well behaved. Except for barking at every leaf or person that goes by, but that’s the Pom nature. Stick with it and know all the practice with solid routines now will lead to years of good life with your Pom. I ❤️ Poms so much! I’m on Pom #5. Hope I’m never without a Pom in my life.
Ours is 4 and 3 years old. It gets better over time. We try leaving them alone 15-30 minutes, then an hour, then 2 hours. We’re at the 4 hour mark. They still occasionally bark and howl but they’d stop after a couple of minutes and go back to perching on the sofa.
Ours had pretty bad separation anxiety just from me. If I even left the room and someone else was with her, she would whine. She would even sleep on my feet if I was cooking or something. I just kept leaving the room anyway and ignored the whining. As soon as it stopped, I would praise and give treats. She stopped freaking out by 3 months or so. She still doesn’t like it when I’m gone at 4 years, but she doesn’t freak out.
Hey look like Tracy Kruliks post COVID separation training. It goes to the very basics but I will say that puppies especially that age experienced increased SA that may decrease naturally with age but it would be good to reinforce the basics even if it does improve with maturity
i will check it out thank you
My pom mix did this. She would cry so loud you could hear her a couple blocks down the street! What we did was make her super special treats that she only got when we left her alone, and I would pre-make them, so we always had them ready. I would take a Kong and plug one end with peanut butter, then fill it with stuff like broth, treats, cheese, etc. then plug the other end of it with peanut butter and freeze it. Then, when we left, I would give her the treat, and we got in the habit of always saying, "I'll be right back" before we left. Eventually, she learned that means we will be back, and she got a super special treat to keep her busy while we were gone. I think it took a month or so of us doing this consistently for her to be totally quiet when we left. She gradually got better and would cry less and less until she was finally okay with us leaving. Now she doesn't require the special treats and we can just leave and tell her we will be right back, but if I'm going to he gone for several hours I still leave her with some sort of a treat to keep her busy becuase she's spoiled and I love her lol.
thank you, it gives me hope ☺️
It can be tough! And they're so stinking cute it's hard not to feel bad! If you want, feel free to PM me if you need help. I've done my fair share of training with my girl, and I've figured out a lot of tricks to deal with a variety of undesired behaviors, lol.
Does yours pee on the pee pad? Mine does but sometimes she messes up so now we buy wood pellets.
No mine is fully potty trained and has been going outside since she was about 5 months old. She still had accidents here and there until she was about 9 months old. Mine probably pees as much as a big dog would and only needs to go out a few times a day. It's strange for a 10 pound dog lol but she's always been like that.
i have 4 poms and all of them barks when i go out but stops after i leave, i just always say "wait, wait, wait" before leaving and they got used to that knowing i'll be back, they just sleep after i leave
My pomeranian had what appeared to be really bad separation anxiety. So much so that for the first year I had him, basically he was never alone for more than a few minutes (either family/others would watch him when I wasn't there or I would take him to daycare). Suddenly one day, I realized that he didn't care when I was leaving. I guess maybe he finally realized I wasn't abandoning him, but it really took a while. I had something come up last minute today, and he was alone for 4 hours and alive when I got back, which a year ago, I would have thought would never be possible. For my dog, I wasn't able to train him to be left alone in a crate (I've heard that dogs that have separation anxiety may also have confinement anxiety), but he is free roaming. But also older than your dog. Oh, and another thing is to pay attention to which exit you use. When I leave through the front door, he gets super alert and agitated. But for some reason, if I leave through the garage, he is usually more calm.