Hi
What a fantastic site.  I hope someone can offer some advice to me too please.
I have two cockers - one who's 8mths old and we've had him since he was 8 weeks.  Good as gold, crate trained and socialised by us.
We have since taken on a 19 mth old from the same breeder who approached us as she knew we were thinking of getting little'un a friend.
We've had our older girl for nearly 2 mths and have been told by kindly neighbours (they told us as they thought one was in pain) that when we leave the house one starts to howl.

We know it's only been since we've had our girl as our neighbour said she'd never knew we had a dog before we got her 2 mths ago.

Our girl is nervous of people so we take her to puppy class, down the park etc to get her socialising and she is getting better with not shying away from people.  We know she's not unhappy with us going out as we've had the camcorder out and no noise is heard until perhaps 30 mins before I get home.  Although we popped out for 30 mins yesterday and our boy started up 7 mins after we left. 

Both don't need to be in your company all the time as they take themselves off upstairs when they get the urge.

We've tried crating our boy and leaving our girl out (she's not fully crate trained yet), we've taken our girl to my parents and left our boy in his crate - no noise at all.  We've left both out, but little un doesn't give our girl any peace as he wants to play with her all the time - plus I then found carpet chewed by the TV.

I've got a DAP diffuser and noise CD - makes no difference as both sleep throught it -although if someone knocks the door they both woof but it doesn't go into a howl.

Can anyone give me some advice on why one starts to howl, the other joins in?  And what I can do to help calm them both so they don't feel the need to sing to each other???

I wonder if the pup is a little nervous of the older girl. He mite not like being left alone with her. Have you tried leaving the TV on and giving your pup one of your tops to sleep on when you are out?. He may feel better if he can be near your sent and the TV on can make the house feel the same as it does when you are home

Hi Vinya, thank you so much for your response. 

He's no problem on his own - just when he knows Kate's around. I spoke with my vet earlier and he thinks it's because Henry is in his crate whilst Katie is out and about and he howls because he wants to play.  They do get on really, really well - like they've been together all of their life, and one of the reasons why the breeder wanted her to come to us was because she knows what we're like with our pets and that Katie needed someone to play with (there used to be four of them at the breeders, two were brother and sister who were older than Katie and the'd play together, leaving Katie to play with her mum who would soon get bored, as you can imagine when you want a nice little sleep in the afternoon and Henry is such a happy little boy he loves her. 

The vet suggested leaving both out together and see how they get on.  My only concern with this is that when I did this about 4 weeks ago the carpet got shredded. My vet thinks that top-dog has not been sorted out, and Henry was 'showing off' to Katie.  She does take things off him, and gets up on the bed with whatever it is.  I know when she's done it because of the short sharp woof he gives.

Where did the carpet get shredded? Was it near the door. You mite have to put up with a shredded carpet till he settles down. my dog use to shred the carpet by the door so I cut a piece of carpet out by the door, and I take it up when I go out and put it back when I come home lol. He does not do it any more I think he got board .but he does hate it if he cant go up to bed ,so I leave the door to upstairs open I think chowing and shredding is part of puppy hood. And it will stop it time

You could try putting a pen up, like a mini kennel inside.  that way they could have enough room to be together but not have free run of the house.  I use a puppy pen when mine are young and attach it to their crate.  gives them a bit more room to move around.

Jill

Hiya

Yes, the carpet was by the front window.  We did try with a pen type of creation (our downstairs is all open planned - great idea at the time, but now wish the kitchen had a door on it), but Katie managed to get out of it.

At the time we thought it was because Henry was driving her mad, but looking at separation anxiety it seemed similar to that.  That said, we know Katie is fine when out and about at home as the camcorder has proved, she doesn't get stressed with us gone, and as I mentioned earlier, Henry doesn't give a rats behind if we're not at home either.  However, I have just caught her taking a liking to the wallpaper on the landing!  As Henry likes to woof you to let you know what she's up to the little tell tell.