New pup, Help needed please!

[lr2188uk]

Hello all, I have been watching the forums for a couple of days looking at various posts and it's very interesting.

However, I am looking for help with separation anxiety and although there is information everywhere there is TOO much, I just don't know what to do for the best so I decided to ask my specific question...

I have a 13 week old Pom/Bichon, she is lovely, just starting obedience class, working through potty training and seems to be progressing well. However there is one problem, she HATES being left alone...

A few facts about her environment;

She is cage trained and sleeps in our bedroom at night in the cage and does very well most nights, going to sleep straight away and only yelping when she needs the toilet, which we get up and let her out and put her back in the cage with no fuss at all.

She goes in her cage when we eat and is ok at this, some yelping for a minute or two then quiet until we finish.

Me and my partner are students and so are in the house a lot of the time, the dog is not left alone very often and if we are out my girlfriends dad is normally here anyway.

The way it works at the moment is the dog is put in the bathroom as it is the smallest and safest room for her to be in, she is left in there with her cage, but not locked in, with all toys, food, water, a kong full of treats and no fuss when left or on arrival

However she yelps so much, we returned today after an hour out and she had pulled the carpet off of the floor, not eaten any food and ignored her kong, we set up a camera, the film lasted 19 minutes and she howled for the whole thing, then the battery ran out, is was similar last time we went out and left her.

She also cries at the front door for a couple of minutes if one of us leaves the house, even if the other is still in, and sometimes when we are in the toilet and she is outside.

I've read all the bits about putting her in her room for small amounts at a time, some have said 30 seconds, some have said 5 minutes then let her out when she stops howling, however we are wandering if she is now too anxious to be trained like this.

I tried it briefly earlier and she yelped so much I couldnt find an opportunity to open the door, it's so distressing for her and us and we really need some further advice on the matter


We have researched this a lot but there is so much information all over the internet that we've just confused ourselves and don't know where to go now, we really need some advice as it our only major problem at the moment and we need to get it fixed before we start working properly for longer periods.

I thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Lee

[nottsdoggiedaycare]

Would you be able to afford to put her in daycare? She sounds very lonely. If not, do you have any friends who could 'dog sit' her when you have to be elsewhere?