Poodle Separation Anxiety and Barking: Why It Happens and How to Fix It

Poodles are attached. They follow you to the bathroom, sleep against the door and watch your face for clues about what happens next. That attachment is most of why people love them, and it is why the breed sits near the top of every list for separation anxiety. Add an alert, watchful nature and a big voice in a small body and you have the two complaints poodle owners write to us about most: 'she cries when I leave' and 'he barks at everything'.

Separation anxiety or boredom?

Film it. A phone propped on a shelf will do. A bored poodle mooches, chews something, sleeps, barks at a noise and settles. An anxious poodle starts before you leave: pacing as you pick up keys, whining at the door, and then, once you're gone, howling, scratching at the door, drooling, panting, toileting indoors though house-trained, and often refusing a chew they would normally love. Boredom needs a job. Anxiety needs a plan, and the plan is not 'let them cry it out', which teaches a sensitive dog that nobody comes.

The alone-time ladder

• Start below the point where the dog worries. For many that is ten seconds behind a door. Return before the whine, calmly, no fuss either way.
• Build in tiny steps. Thirty seconds, a minute, three, five, ten, twenty, then real absences. If the dog cries, the step was too big; go back two.
• Pair leaving with something good. A stuffed food toy that only appears when you go. If they won't touch it until you're back, they're still too worried; make the step smaller.
• Break the cues. Pick up keys and sit down. Put on a coat and make tea. Open the door and close it. The cues stop predicting a long absence.
• Use a camera to see exactly where the ladder breaks, and to stop guessing.
• Tire the brain first. Ten minutes of scent games before you leave beats a long walk.

Expect weeks for prevention and months for an established case. A dog who is already panicking needs a vet, because medication buys the calm that training needs and is not a failure, and a behaviourist, because separation anxiety is the one problem most owners can't fix alone. Puppies should start the ladder in their first fortnight at home; the first 30 days guide has it on the checklist.

Barking: which kind?

Alert barking at the door, the window, a noise outside. A few barks, then they look at you. Thank them, call them to a mat, pay the quiet. Manage the view: film on the lower glass, a gate that keeps them out of the front room when you're not there. A poodle who spends the day at the window rehearsing gets better at barking. Don't shout; to the dog you've joined in.

Demand barking at you: while you cook, when the game stops, when the treats are slow. Nothing happens until one second of quiet, then pay. A poodle learns this in a day if everyone in the house is consistent, and unlearns it in a day if one person gives in.

Anxiety barking when left: the ladder above.

Boredom barking in a dog who has nothing to do: a job. Trick training, retrieving, scent games, a class.

What never works: shouting, which sounds like joining in; and bark collars of any kind, which punish a sensitive dog for being worried and reliably make the underlying anxiety worse.

The noise game

Teach it early and it prevents most alert barking. A sound happens, the puppy looks at you, a treat arrives. Doorbell on a phone at low volume, a knock on the table, a neighbour's door. Over weeks the sound becomes a cue to check in with you rather than to shout. Adults learn it too, more slowly.

The Toy problem

Toys bark more than the other sizes, and it isn't the genes. They are more often carried, coddled and allowed to practise; a dog in someone's arms barks at everything because nothing can be avoided and nothing can be investigated. A nervy small dog also barks to make things go away, and it works, which teaches them to do it again. Socialise a Toy like a big dog, walk them on their own feet, let them investigate, teach a settle, and never let the barking pay.

When it's pain

A poodle whose barking or clinginess has changed suddenly in adulthood may be uncomfortable: a sore knee, an ear infection, failing eyesight in a dog with PRA, or cognitive decline in a senior. Vet first, then trainer. The health guide covers what to look for.