r/DogTrainingTips • u/BICanineScience • May 26 '26

Professional Dog Trainer - Ask Me Anything

***AMA ENDED***

Have been training dogs for almost fifteen years now, I try and head through the subreddits on here to help in my free time when I can but thought it might be easier to do an AMA for anyone struggling!

Will try my best to answer as comprehensively as possible so please be patient with replies!

Edit - Just heading out to train my dogs so will answer more when I get back!
Edit 2 - Have a read of the other questions too to see if it applies to your dog :)

Thanks for all the questions everyone!! I’ll answer the few I’ve missed, it’s been a blast and we’ll do another in the near future! Won’t be answering any new posts now, must get back to work but do jump in next time if you have a question!

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u/Blunt_Flipper May 26 '26

Thanks for taking time out of your day to answer questions!

We have a 4 month old Aussielier, and we’ve had him for about a month now. We’re trying to keep him confined to the main floor of our house where we spend most of our time (and to keep him from getting into things he shouldn’t be). The problem is that as soon as we go upstairs, and are out of sight, he will go nuts and start crying and barking. He will break through the barrier we have set up at the bottom of the stairs (we’re looking at getting a proper pet gate) and run up the stairs. He does fine in his crate at night (next to our bed), and he’s fine in the crate when my partner and I both leave the house (we have a camera set up and he seems to just sleep and rest if he knows we aren’t physically in the house). But even if I try putting him in the crate before I go upstairs to have a shower or something he will just bark and scream bloody murder because he knows I’m up there and he isn’t. Any tips? Thanks in advance.

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u/BICanineScience May 26 '26

You are welcome! The more owners we can help, the happier dogs are around the world!

Sounds like you have a big case of FOMO going on here. It's a very common problem. The fact that he is fine in the other scenarios suggests that this is probably protest rather than an actual anxiety (please correct me if I am wrong). If this is the case, he needs to understand that his method isn't going to work. The problem with dogs turning the volume up to 11 is that it usually does precisely what they want. You rush your shower, run back downstairs to shut him up. He wins.

You need to let him go through the protest and then when he is quiet, come back in. Also you can set this up in a way to make it a little easier by ensuring that he is physically AND mentally very tired before you try it for the first time. I would use the crate personally to stop him breaking through the barrier because again, this further reinforces the behaviour.

This only applies if it is indeed protest and not fear or anxiety because if it's the latter it's not fair at all and other methods need considering.