Hi everyone. I've run into a bit of a dilemma with my 5 month old puppy. In the morning, she will wake up with me, be taken for a walk and fed until I need to leave for work. On the days when my girlfriend stays home, I will put her back in the cage in our bedroom where my girlfriend is sleeping but she cries to get out within 5 minutes of me leaving. She is about 75% crate trained in the sense that at night when it's time for bed she willingly gets in her crate. The other 25% is that we cannot leave the room yet without her crying. What confuses us is that once my girlfriend lets her out (after she is quiet), our puppy will follow her out to the living room and fall asleep on the couch. Is there additional training we should take a look into? Also, when I leave I will give her a bone to chew on as well as her Kong but she ignores them. Thanks for the help.

To me, it sounds like she's having seperation anxiety. I've never had any experience with this (Jasper was pretty independent from day one) so maybe someone else can give you some ideas?

The only advice I have right now is maybe start putting her in the kennel for short periods of time while you are home and leave the room. She'll probably cry at first but as soon as she's quiet go let her out, she'll realize you haven't abandoned her and slowly get used to the idea that eventually someone will return and let her out. Also, try maybe covering the crate so that only the door is open so that'll she'll feel safer. If she still cries, try covering the door too so that she has no outside stimulation, that seemed to work for Jasper when we were crate training.