Separation Anxiety, or just fear of missing out?

[lovemy4girls]

Sprocker Spaniel (Cocker, Springer cross)Male3 months oldHad for 3 weeks

I'm not sure if my puppy is suffering from separation anxiety, or just a fear of missing out.He's perfectly fine at home and happy to roam around the downstairs of my home, the back yard and chill in his crate. He also doesn't put up a fuss if i go upstairs to use the bathroom, but does like to sit at the bottom of the stairs when I do so. There's no fixation on our getting ready routines and he sleeps like a charm in our bedroom, locked in his crate.

However, the moment we go towards the front door, he gets excited to leave and will cry non-stop if left at home alone from the moment we leave to the moment we return (,he'll also cry when me or my SO leave but the other stays behind, but only for a few minutes). Any food, chews or kongs are also immediately dropped in order to cry.

We're waiting on his second puppy vaccine (the breeder lied to us, but that's another story), so I don't think this could be excitement for walkies as he hasn't been out yet.

In regards to our circumstances, I work from home while my SO works shifts. I make a habit of leaving daily for a walk, and have hobbies a couple nights a week. one in two weeks or so, he'll be alone for a couple of hours.

Does this sound like a case of Separation anxiety? Or is this something I could train out through repetition of leaving him alone for short periods of time?

I would post a photo, but my account is too new to do so, so I'll add that in later on.

Edit:

Puppy Tax

 

[feesperanzaamor]

@lovemy4girls From what I am reading you seem to doing great with him except for the small detail!

Some people put the crate in the bedroom and that's totally fine but i'd start slowly moving the crate away from your room to eventually put the crate downstairs. Some experts say it helps to have the puppy detach from you so the separation when you leave is not so hard on him. The crate should also be placed away from your work-at-home desk. Although, like anything, other experts say the contrary so it's up to you! It might be worth a try.

The best tip I can give you is before you start to get ready and gather your stuff to go outside, create a routine. Put your puppy in his crate, give him a kong or toy, put a blanket over the crate, put some relaxing puppy music on youtube and leave after few minutes. You are already leaving for brief periods so that's great.

 

[lovemy4girls]

@feesperanzaamor Cheers, That's the plan going forward to slowly move him out of our room.

We did try straight downstairs into the kitchen once, but that was met with disaster as it was too much too soon.

The reassurance that we're on the right track is wonderful, hopefully he'll be right as rain in a couple weeks

 

[feesperanzaamor]

@lovemy4girls We also put her downstairs a little too quickly at first and we didn’t get much sleep Aha. Baby steps!