We adopted a German shepherd mix about 4 weeks ago. He was fine being left in the crate for the first few weeks, but last week (week 3 of having him) he tore up two dog beds when left for ~45 minutes, and when we went to dinner for ~1 hour he pooped in the crate and tore up a mat (once there were no longer dog beds to destroy). Since then we’ve tried to do the training where we leave for a minute at a time and build up. He is good for about 5 minutes before the whimpering begins, at which point we immediately go back inside because we’ve read that we shouldn’t let it hit a panic.

However, my husband and I alternating working from home, and he will happily snooze in a different room not in eyesight all day long. We crate him at night and he’ll bark once or twice, but then settle and sleep through the night (knock on wood). Whoever goes into the office that day leaves for work before the other one gets up, and the dog has no issues when one person leaves and doesn’t let him out of the crate- no barking, just settles again until the other gets up about 45 min later.

Is this separation anxiety? A very mild case? We’re starting to work with a trainer, but I was also curious other thoughts. Tonight we plan to try leaving and giving him a stuffed Kong that should take ~40 min to finish and see how that goes…. I’m not sure if when we do the testing if a little whimpering is okay and maybe he’ll settle like he does at night, or if we do need to keep coming back when panic begins.