Puppy Pen/ Separation Anxiety

by C-A Giles
(UK)

Hi Our beautiful boy Casper is 18 weeks old. We have had him since he was 8 weeks and is our little prince.

We chose a wonderful breeder who loved and adored him and he had the best start in life. He has a large puppy pen in the lounge - and it took about 2 weeks before he stopped crying but we got there - and he is happy to go in there now at night. We both work full time but each work two days a week from home (different days) and have a wonderful friend who looks after him with her dogs/cat on a Monday (he adores her and the other dogs)... hence he is rarely alone. He is very attached to us and follows us everywhere.

Our problem is... if we leave him for even 10 mins in his pen in the daytime he screams the place down... getting so upset he actually moves the pen across the floor. He is just not happy at being left in the pen in the day at all. Also we want to move him to the kitchen to sleep at night ultimately getting rid of the pen and using a crate.... we moved the pen to the kitchen for two nights running and he has just screamed the place down and ended up moving the pen across the kitchen. My husband cannot bare to listen to him cry and ended up moving the pen back into the lounge. We are concerned he will hurt himself.

Has anyone any advice about moving him from this pen at night and how to do it gradually, causing him least anxiety? Do we just need to use "tough love"?

Thanks in advance for any advice.