# Going backwards



## AMT18 (Nov 21, 2020)

Hi everyone,
We have a 6 month old Vizsla girl. She’s been generally well behaved since she outgrew the biting as a tiny puppy (other than the kangaroo she seems to be crossed with - but that’s a different story!). But recently she seems to be unsettled again on a night and in the day when she is on her own. She has started waking again through the night (previously went 10-6.30) and barking until one of us comes down and lets her outside, which we don’t mind, but then last night she wouldn’t settle again, this was at midnight. Nothing seems to be waking her up, nothing has changed in her routine. She’s also started to be a lot more vocal when she’s left on her own. I leave her at least twice a day for the school run (work from home)and she used to be fine but now she has started barking again. I used to film her but I’ve had to stop because it’s making me feel guilty for leaving her and I really have no choice. The last time I filmed her, she barked the entire time I was out (after she finished the chew I left). She is crated in a large covered crate that has a single duvet in and blankets as she is a bed chewer! I’m a bit reluctant to not put her in the crate on a night and when she’s alone as our house is open plan and I don’t fully trust her not to destroy our couch or hurt herself due to the kangaroo element.
Sorry if that seems a bit long winded - but any advice would be great.


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

She could possibly need more mental and physical stimulation at 6 months than what you were used to as a puppy. With hormones kicking this is the age when they can take more, some sports even have this as the minimum starting age to compete. Once tired reinforcing the crate positive association could be much more easy too in my experience.


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## AMT18 (Nov 21, 2020)

Gabica said:


> She could possibly need more mental and physical stimulation at 6 months than what you were used to as a puppy. With hormones kicking this is the age when they can take more, some sports even have this as the minimum starting age to compete. Once tired reinforcing the crate positive association could be much more easy too in my experience.


Thanks for your reply. That’s really useful to know. She does do quite a lot of exercise but we know you aren’t supposed to push them but I’ll go longer if she can take more. She gets a lot of puzzle feeders for her meals and we do some scent games with her but I’ll try and up that. It just seems she has got some of the anxiety back that she first had, although she couldn’t care less when I’m upstairs and she is down through the day and happily takes herself off to another part of the house or in the garden. 
I filmed her to see what she was like this afternoon and she was on her own for 50 minutes, was fine for 5, cried for 10 then went to sleep for the rest. I just don’t want to make any anxiety worse but I can’t avoid going out sometimes.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

There was recently another post about a similar situation. We also went through and to a point still going through a bit of a bumpy patch in leaving our Ellie alone in her kennel while we are out. She is now 7 mos and it is getting much better. All we did really was to keep on with our schedule and life. We let her bark it out on her own as we know she knows we will be back as she has been kennel trained since we got her at 8 weeks. She doesn’t fear the kennel and eager runs in when asked and she gets her reward. I think it was just some tantrums of wanting to go with us. From their perspective it’s not like they want to be left alone so will protest. Eventually they come again to the conclusion to accept the alone time, relax, and the owners will be back.


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