Dog Training Q and A! 3/25/2021: Training a "Velcro puppy" to be more confident and independent in order to prevent separation anxiety in the future

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman. Today, Annie spoke to the human belonging to Penny ( @heytherepenny on Instagram) about how to help young Penny feel more comfortable alone and how to start to prevent separation anxiety before it begins. Annie gives lots of tips on crate training, talks about how to create crate "FOMO," use the Treat and Train , and more. Join us on Instagram in April for our Day 1 of our Dog Training in 21 Days Challenge! --- Partial Transcript: Annie: Hi, is this Penny? Angela: Yes, this is Penny. Annie: And tell me your name. Angela: My name is Angela. Annie: Hey Angela. I’m recording this for School for the Dogs podcast. Is that okay? Angela: Yes. Annie: And where are you guys based? Are you in New York City? Angela: Yeah, so we are, we actually did sign up for a course at School for the Dogs, which starts in April. Annie: Oh, great. Which course are you doing with us? Angela: We’re doing Calm canine. Annie: Oh, great. Excellent. Angela: Just cause Penny, she’s really excited whenever she goes outside. So we’re hoping that’ll help. Annie: Is she a golden doodle? Angela: She’s a cavapoo. Annie: Okay. And how old is she? Angela: She’s six months old now. Annie: Oh, she’s a little, just a tiny pup. Okay. Well tell me what’s going on with Penny. Angela: Well, so she basically follows us everywhere in the home. So like if she’s on the couch and we get up to go somewhere, she will, even if she’s asleep, she will wake up, hop down and follow us to wherever we are. My only concern right now, my boyfriend works from home, so she’s around somebody all day, but my concern is just like, when things go back to normal, he goes back to work. Just because she’s so used to following us, seeing us everywhere, if this becomes an issue for separation. Annie: Yeah. Well, I think you’re right to be thinking about that in advance. Have you tried leaving her alone? Have you tried leaving her with anyone else? What happens when you do that? Angela: So she we’ve done little intervals, like maybe five, 10 minutes or something, but just like we’re in another room. So we’re still, you know, she’ll be in the living room and we’ll just go to another room and kind of watch her on the camera. She again tries to follow us. So for the five, 10 minutes, she will eventually, after a couple minutes of scratching at the door, will go and kind of like sit on the couch. But the longest that we’ve left her is probably like 10 minutes or so. Annie: And she cries during those 10 minutes? Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe