Hey,

Okay, to make this short – me and my husband have a 9 month old lab, he had dogs before, this is my first time having a dog and rasing the dog. My husband is gone from like 12 to 14 hours a day – sometimes more if over time. This was a major change for me because I came from a family with cats. I know I did a pretty good job with this dog – her name is Buffy, and she knows all her commands in ASL and verbal (since I am deaf I wanted to make her deaf friendly dog) and she knows those “bonus” tricks such as pound (I sign with “are we cool?”) Shake (signing “make friends”), Roll over, working on the dead dog but its just goes on and off you get the idea…

So my question/problem: I know she’s a mommas girl – it can be pretty obvious at times, and she wants to go out when we go out but she stays home when we are at work (I don’t work much just a few hours a day) when we do errands and etc. we take her to the trips we take that are dog friendly. She’s pretty good when we travel. When my husband goes out the door Buffy will go up to the window wonder where he’s going – that’s normal from what I hear. But when I go outside and leave to a quick run, my husband says she cries. (she is kennel trained so she is to be in the kennel when she’s home alone – we don’t leave her in there for more than 5 hours – that doesn’t happen often most of the time just 3 4 hours…) when I go to the bathroom she follows me TO the bathroom, sometimes the bathrooms I use I tell her she can come in, but she just likes to bark at me and run thinking it’s a game, I think its cute, but when I open the door she’s there, and they say she cries when I am in there. Or when I don’t tell her to come in she’s sitting at the bathroom door crying. When my husband gets up before I do, I like to sleep in and he is considerate letting me sleep alone no disturbing me since I am sensitive to the light and vibration, she cries when he takes her apart from me. When we are all together and I am out of the car to grab something she cries.

She CAN stay away from me, I know my grandma’s dog wont even leave her side, not even by 3 feet, when we go and see her it can be annoying for her because its constantly on her legs that they are playing on, but she wont leave her side – I know that dog has issues and major separation anxiety. Sometimes my dad watches her if we were gonna be gone or more than 4 hours at a time, she has no problem she likes to play with his dog also a lab, she doesn’t cry but she wants to go with me but she is good on sitting and staying or staying.

I know she has shown signs of separation anxiety. I could be wrong, or over looking this, I know her breed is loyal, but why is it she does that? My husband and a friend told me because I do so much for her…. I did 95 percent of the training but he keeps up with them, I am so much harder on her (sometimes wonder WHY does she want to stay around lol) but I am not too hard, I make sure she isn’t gonna be out of control, I feed her change her water, take her to the groomers walk her play and so on and so on…

What can I do to get her to stop crying when I leave? Or when I am in the bathroom? What do you think is going on?

She is 9 months old, and I know she is in that teenage phase now, but I don’t think I ever heard of a situation of that old of a puppy still crying for those things… but if I am wrong please correct me.

Any advice would do. Thanks! :-)

it's normal. she's still a baby. slinky, my lab, does the same. he's six months. well he doesn't cry but he'll follow me to the bathroom and wait for me, or he'll go sleep outside my room when i'm at work if someone's home and let him out of the crate.

any breed of dog can do it. you just have to given them boundaries, like meghans follie said. slinky won't go into the kitchen if i'm cooking, but he will if my brother does [because my brother has no idea when it comes to puppies. he just yells at them and expects them to understand 8|], so it's just a matter of showing her what she can and can't do.

if she's crying, ignore her. everyone should. she has to learn that it's not the end of the world that you're not there and you will come home again. if you leave the house and come back, try to not encourage any excited behaviour. just act like she's not there and when she settles, give her some attention. my brothers would get slinky all excited, which brought on barking and whining when i'd come home. i just went about my business like he wasn't there. eventually he got over me leaving and now he'll just bring a toy to me when i come home and wait for me to throw it.

Don't make a deal about it when you leave.. (I'm not saying you do, I don't know if you do, just offering advice :) ) It's ok to say bye to her, and maybe pat her head or something, but don't use baby talk or stay to long. As you're leaving try giving her a bisket (a large one that will take her more than one bite to finish). That ought to take her mind off of you leaving, give her something to do for the few minutes that it takes to get out the door, and it will teach her that you leaving is kind of a good thing, cause she gets a treat. It'll take some time, but she will realize soon that "Mommy leaves, but mommy comes back."

I dont know WHY she does it, but I do know it is normal... its just a matter of helping her learn what rooms have boundries. Roxy knows that if someone is cooking she cant be in the kitchen. She has literally a line in the tile that she will not pass. But if someones just grabbing a pcs of fruit she'll follow you on in. Same with the bathroom. It took a long time to train her that she cannot be in the bathroom unless she is told she can go in.

hmm... i just didnt thinkit was normal... but thanks! lol - no she isnt to go into the bathroom HERE because its small... but i wouldnt care if she stood in the other side of the bathroom you know those LONG ones? but she comes in when i take a bath at times because shes curious lol (i leave it open for some reason i just cannot stand the hot heat when i take long baths and showers but if i take a short one ill close it - now i am rambling.

anyways for the kitchen shes like that too but at times she likes to push her limits. but i remind her out. so overall this is mostly just thier behavior or is it just the breed?

The oldest of my two dogs used to be like this. Had to be where I was etc. If I went out without him, he'd escape the yard etc. He just didn't like to be left alone and didn't like to be away from me. Have you considered a play mate? Byron finally grew out of it after 2 years when I got him another dog to play with. Now they have have seperation anxiety from each other haha, but they never get parted so its ok.

Wow... She has a few friends she sees my dads dog five or more tines a week once in a wgile see my friends' dogs

One dog is more than enough I also take care of our two xats its too much woek for me when im busy takun care of the house cookin n, my dad

Im glad it worked out well with ur dogs :) what breed r tgey??

I don't know if it would help all that much, but maybe get one of those gates for doorways parents use to keep children safe. So when you're in the bathroom/kitchen/bedroom etc, she'll be able to see you but not physically be able to get to you. She might start feeling less anxious knowing that your just in another room and not leaving her haha. And yeh, reward her to encourage the good behaviour.

this is so a good idea. we did this with my pup. it let him know where he was ans wasn't allowed to explore and saved our stuff from being chewed ;D