Comments on: The Truth About Separation Anxiety in Labradors

By: Sammie@LabSiteHQ

Sammie@LabSiteHQ — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:59:04 +0000

In reply to Kathryn. Sorry to hear your Lab had such a tough time while you were away. I hope she's recovered now.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:02:40 +0000

Our beautiful black lab went into a total melt down depression when we left for Europe for a month. My son lives with us, and stayed with her while we were gone, and he was in and out with school. He is very attentive to her, but she stayed in our bed, ate and went outdoors. Wouldn’t engage in any other way. Long story short, two days before returning home se developed a swollen saliva gland.
I felt she would suffer from our separation, mainly because, our per cat passed approximately two weeks before we departed.
We really do love our labs, and they are a ride or die family member. She more than our previous labs.
Love. LABS!

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 22:39:14 +0000

With all of our labs we never made leaving them an emotional thing. We always gave them a treat, left a Kong filled with peanut butter for them. We would leave them in their crate for a few months until older. But then leave them for short periods of time and return to make a big deal of how good they were. Then we would work up to leaving them for longer periods of time. Eventually they would be left for up to 7 hrs per day with no behavioral issues. But then there was alot of praise and one on one time with the dog.

By: Sammie@LabSiteHQ

Sammie@LabSiteHQ — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:22:51 +0000

In reply to Debbie.

Hi Debbie – for your leash pulling take a look at the info on ‘proofing’, here: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-leash-train-a-labrador/ 🙂
And if you’d like to pop over and see us in the Labrador Forum, we can give you some more tips on extending that crate time when you’re out 🙂
~Sammie

By: Debbie

Debbie — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 14:08:00 +0000

My 15 mth old lab is great in her crate at night or during the day if we r doing something that we need to put her in it for a few minutes to an hr. She will go in it on her own and lay down and sleep with the door open. But if we put her in the crate and she doesn’t see us leave the house she is quiet, if she sees us leave she starts barking within 10-20 min.
We are in early 79s and retired we spend alot of time with her and taking her with us in the car, to dog park, play fetch. She gets very excited when she sees people but she calms down much quicker than When she was a puppy.
We too, her to puppy training but I feel she should go again mostly for pulling on leash which isn’t all the time ..again when with us she’s good but not so much when she sees people. I’m thinking she needs more socializing but is a handful not sure where to begin.
In closing the biggest thing is the crate and leaving here ..I guess one step at a time. I’ve been reading your articles ..I’ve been practicing heel with her in the house.
Thanks for listening any suggestions would be appreciated

By: Sammie@LabSiteHQ

Sammie@LabSiteHQ — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 09:09:52 +0000

In reply to Kimiko.

Hi Kimiko, sorry to hear you’re struggling with this. I want to reassure you that it is completely normal for a young puppy in a new home to need to be with a human, in order to feel safe, for the first couple of weeks. By being with your puppy all the time at first, you will actually build their confidence that they are safe in their new home. You can then start to gradually teach them to be alone at a pace they feel comfortable with 🙂 . If you’d like more detailed help with this please do pop over and see us at thelabradorforum.com
Sammie

By: Kimiko

Kimiko — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 06:05:20 +0000

We received our 9/10 week labrador puppy from the breeder two weeks ago. Since day one, the puppy has behavior problems that appear to be separation anxiety. We have tried everything sadly, even consider returning the puppy back to the breeder because of the concerns of the barking, whining and crying as soon as we walk less than 3-5 feet away we’re at a lost for words. And have consulted friends, family other peoples suggestions on how to resolve this with our puppy. I wonder if she’s unhappy with us but when we hold her, she cuddles calms down and seems to be happy and reassured. My concern is that if I don’t resolve this, this will continue on into her adult years. We have decided to keep her to try to figure out a solution as we all have come to love her very much as part of our family now. But the concerns remain as she continues, barking, whining she seems to be under stress or have anxiety issues that I don’t understand. We have ruled out all physical issues by giving her full check up and making sure that all her food is clean and natural. Most of all that she’s loved. Lastly, Things that have been recommended to us are not very kind or even human.

By: Richard Chiarello

Richard Chiarello — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:06:48 +0000

Im on my 3rd Chocolate Labrador and the current guy Iadopted me a few Months before I retired. My guy and me have been together 24 /7 for 8 years now. Obviously there have been a few times and places that we can not go to together and without a doubt both him and I suffer from severe seperation anxiety!

I have always told anyone that have admired my Labradors that they require a l9t of attention and dont even think of getting one if your time is limited.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 15:19:21 +0000

In reply to Barbara G. I adopted a three years old labradoodle a few weeks ago from a rescue group that got her from a kennel where a breeder had left her. She is a wonderful, sweet, affectionate dog until one leaves her crated or loose in the house. When in the crate, she pushes her nose under the wire of the bottom of the crate trying to get out, which causes cuts on her muzzle. We left her last evening for about an hour and a half with tall baby gates separating part of the house, but they did not deter her; she evidently jumped the 36 inch tall gate to poop in the living room and clawed the molding of one of the patio french doors. I do not have any further information of her history to help understand her separation anxiety.

By: Pippa Mattinson

Pippa Mattinson — Sat, 20 May 2017 11:01:47 +0000

In reply to Sarah. Hi Sarah, do join the forum so that we can support you. Let folks know how old your dog is too. :)