Whining and Neighbours

Hiya, sorry, but it sounds as though he might have or be on his way to getting separation anxiety which apart from being annoying for your neighbour, is extremely stressful and can have horribly negative affects on the dog too. I've used this guide www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/4_7/features/5374-1.html for trying to prepare my 11 week old puppy to happily be alone while we're out and it seems to be working really well.

We also exercise her before going out, then give her her tea and a frozen stuffed Kong. We reordered her when we were out recently and the only barks we heard were the occasional playful bark at the Kong. She slept most of the time and when awake was quite amused with her toy. She's still only 11 weeks though so sleeps a lot anyway haha, but still, if you do all these things early on then you should end up with a dog thats totally happy and comfortable being left alone. In fact, I think Rosa probably looks forward to us leaving haha cause that Kong is awesome.

I wouldn't leave a puppy too long at home alone though. I'm gonna be out for a few hours one night next week and have asked my neighbour to pop in and play with the puppy/feed her etc and generally tire her out while I'm away, so that hopefully she never develops SA.

Also, while I'm here, when you come home don't pay him any attention at first, just go in and after a while call him over or let him out for attention. Otherwise it makes you coming home a really big deal and can cause all sorts of future problems.

I don't think this programme is amazing, the guy doesn't really know much about the subject and they don't go into enough detail on methods of training dogs with SA to cope with being alone, but they have a few and its quite interesting:
As it mentions in that programme, SA mainly comes out in the first 20 minutes, but some dogs do make a lot of noise the entire time you're away, but as they can recognise you coming back from a distance (from voices, footsteps etc) he will stop then and also think that his howling or barking has succeeded, therefore encouraging the behaviour. alan that note, if he howls at home, never answer in any way. Show him that howling or barking or whining gets no reply, and only a quiet puppy will get attention.

Anyway sorry, this post wasn't as friendly as everyone else's haha. I don't mean it in a nasty way or anything, just be aware that your neighbour might be right about the constant noise and it could turn into a massive problem if you don't address it now. And even though your landlord allowed you to have a dog, if the dog makes too much noise then I think the neighbour can rightfully complain to the police about the noise, and get you into quite a bit of trouble with it if the noise doesn't stop. I think you can actually get the dog taken off you eventually. So maybe explain to her that it is a puppy you have and that you are doing training to stop the noise, and that it might take a while but it will work out better for both parties in the long term.

Sorry if anyone else has said all this, I've only just noticed that theres three more pages haha. I think its bed time for me (I'm an hour ahead of you all haha!)