Separation anxiety and how to overcome it

Separation anxiety is fairly common for Bernedoodles. I think it comes from the Berner (Bernese Mountain Dog) genes. You can have a normal, well adjusted Bernedoodle hate being separated from their person. Bernedoodles are super sweet, loving, and get very attached. These are just some of the qualities that make them one of our favorite Doodle hybrid. If they are separated from you, they can exhibit many behaviors such as whining, barking, etc all the way to making themselves so sick that they have diarrhea and throw up.

Take heart though because you can help them grow accustomed to you leaving. I tell all my puppy parents to teach their puppies that they can leave and that they always come back. Place your puppy in a crate and leave the house for 15 minutes. Then quietly come back inside the house and calmly open the crate and take them outside to potty. Do this REGULARLY and increase the time you’re away from the house. Eventually you want to leave them with a friend at their house for an hour and then come back increasing to overnight stays (with their crate). I speak from experience. I worked from home and never left except for church and shopping Hazel’s (F1 Standard Bernedoodle) first year. She’s an amazingly perfect dog but when we left her with our teenage sons and oldest daughter and her family at our house for a week vacation, she became violently ill. The moment I got back, she was fine. I then worked with her and she is fine now.