puppy follows you everywhere clingy

11 Reasons Your Puppy Follows You Everywhere (+Help Tips)

Your puppy follows you everywhere, constantly underfoot and demanding attention or keeping its distance but remaining in sight.

Is this normal puppy behavior or an issue?

Some puppy following is a natural behavior that your puppy will probably outgrow. Some shadowing is less healthy and rooted in more negative causes, and this behavior may need an intervention.

11 Reasons Why Your Puppy Follows You

Your puppy follows you for a mixture of instinctual, learned, and emotional reasons.

#1 It’s What Puppies Do Naturally

A puppy learns about the world and its pack behavior from following its mother. Likewise, all young animals spend their infancy following around an adult.

The behavior is known as imprinting, and in the natural world, this can result in some unusual bonds like baby geese imprinting on a human.

Most puppies leave their mothers at a young age when they still need a combination of nurturer and role model.

It is natural for your puppy to attach to the principal caregiver as a substitute mother and follow you around.

#2 Feel-Good Hormones

Puppies experience a burst of oxytocin when they are happy being with somebody like you do in a new relationship.

This feel-good hormone reinforces your puppy’s desire to spend time in your company. Being with you makes them feel happy, so they follow you around.

Oxytocin plays an essential role in promoting social bonds between humans and between dogs.

Plus, oxytocin works in forming the puppy’s bond with its owner.

You and your puppy get a burst of this happy hormone when you interact through cuddling, playing, and spending time together.

#3 Rewards and Good Things

You may not realize it, but you may be offering positive reinforcement for your puppy following you around.

Perhaps you give your puppy a quick cuddle, treat or simply talk to it while your puppy follows you from room to room.

Any behavior that earns a reward is worth repeating.

If you don’t want your puppy to follow you everywhere, look at how you interact when it follows you from room to room.

But whatever you do, don’t shout at or punish your puppy when it follows you because you don’t want to damage the loving bond you share.

#4 Boredom

If your puppy is bored, it may be more entertaining to follow you around than sitting by itself.

If your puppy hasn’t got enough physical and mental stimulation in its life, it may follow you in the hope of something happening to alleviate the boredom.

You may want to review your puppy’s routine and schedule more activities or provide more exciting toys.

#5 Puppies get FOMO Too

Your puppy’s curiosity and fear of missing out (FOMO) may result in a persistent puppy-shaped shadow poking its nose and paws into everything you do.

Your puppy may believe that something fun or delicious will happen without it if it is not there.

As your puppy matures and knows your routine, it may outgrow this behavior.

Unless, of course, your day is full of puppy fun and delicious treats, and you positively reinforce the need to follow you around.

#6 Clocking In

Your puppy thrives on routine, which means it soon learns when you will take it for a walk, provide food, or a fun activity.

When your puppy starts following you at the same time each day, you can reasonably see it as a reminder that it is time for the kids to come home from school or some other event that features in your puppy’s life as a regular fixture.

#7 Someone’s Fallen Down the Well

Have you ever seen the Lassie films?

Lassie (a Shetland Sheepdog) rushes up to a responsible adult to attract attention. Poor Timmy needs rescuing from the old well.

The point is that if your puppy needs to tell you something, it has limited communication methods. If your puppy is following you while barking, whining, and trying to attract your attention, it may be trying to communicate.

Your puppy may need water, a bathroom break, or there may be someone at the door.

If your puppy comes to find you, it is worth following it to see what it is trying to tell you.

It may be important.

Your puppy is an intelligent, social animal that cares for its pack.

#8 Looking for Comfort

If something frightens your puppy, it may come to you looking for reassurance.

It may be enough for your puppy to follow you around for a while to get over its fright.

Your puppy may hear a sudden noise or wake up from a bad dream and decide to spend time with its favorite human.

When your puppy feels better, it will probably wander off to do something more interesting than watch you fold up the laundry.

#9 It’s a Breed Thing

Some puppy breeds are more prone to following you than others.

The breeds most likely to follow their owners include working breeds (Border Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs, Hungarian Vizsla, Labrador Retrievers) because they need a close working bond.

Toy dogs (Affenpinschers, Chihuahuas, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Maltese terriers) will follow you in the hope of a cuddle because they are lap dogs who thrive on human contact.

Guarding breeds (German Shepherds, Dobermans) need to be close to the human they protect.

It may be in your puppy’s DNA to stick close to the herd, work, cuddle or enjoy your company.

#10 Habit

Your puppy may start following you around while it gets familiar with its new life, but the behavior can become a habit.

Your puppy may follow you from room to room because it is habitual behavior.

As the puppy matures, its following may be less intense, and your adult dog may choose to flop down in vantage points where it can monitor your comings and goings.

#11 Separation Anxiety

Many puppies suffer from separation anxiety and follow you around because they fear being alone.

A puppy that whines, barks, has accidents, or chews everything in reach when left alone may have separation anxiety.

Severe separation anxiety is bad for your puppy’s well-being.

If you can’t resolve the behavior yourself, you may want to get some help to encourage your puppy to be confident with being alone periodically.

Should You Stop Your Puppy from Following You?

Everyone has a different approach to puppy companionship.

It may suit you for your puppy to be your constant shadow, or there may be times when you need your puppy to be comfortable alone in the house.

Why Does Your Puppy Follow You Into the Bathroom?

Most people prefer to go about their bathroom business in private and find a puppy nosing open the door or howling outside to be strange behavior.

But your puppy does not appreciate what different rooms mean and sees no difference between following you into the bathroom or the bedroom.

Plus, the bathroom contains interesting smells for your puppy.

When your puppy is outside, it marks territory with urine, so urine smells are interesting to your pup.

If you use a lot of lemon-scented bleach in your bathroom, your puppy is likely to decline following you unless it has severe separation anxiety.

Why Stop Your Puppy from Following You?

If your puppy spends no time alone and follows you everywhere all day, there can be some issues:

  • Some spaces are dangerous – you don’t want to trip over your puppy while cooking in the kitchen.
  • Your puppy needs naps – if your puppy spends too much time awake and following you around, it misses out on essential naptime.
  • Being alone is an essential skill – it is not healthy for your puppy to become distressed whenever it is unattended. You need time to shop, visit the doctor, and go out to work.

Although it is natural for your puppy to follow you, there must be some rules to keep you, your family, and the puppy safe.

How Can You Stop Your Puppy Following You?

The methods you use to stop your puppy from following you depend on your goals for you and your puppy.

Safety Gates

Safety gates create a barrier to your puppy going through a door or up and downstairs.

Putting a safety gate on the kitchen door allows you to keep the puppy out of the kitchen while cooking dinner but enables the puppy to watch you safely behind the gate.

A safety gate can contain your puppy’s exploration to a single room, downstairs or upstairs. You can use a safety gate to ensure your puppy can’t dash outside when you open an external door.

A safety gate is excellent for keeping your puppy in a safe zone and out of danger.

Dog Crate or Puppy Playpen

Your puppy needs regular naps and quiet time during the day, and providing the security of an enclosed space prevents the puppy from following you around the house.

Careful, considered use of a playpen and dog crate helps train your puppy to be comfortable being alone for short periods.

Plus, it gives you peace of mind that your puppy is safe while you hoover or carry out other potentially dangerous tasks.

Giving your puppy structured alone time provides you some personal space without your puppy to rest and relax.

Avoid Boredom

Your puppy needs sufficient mental and physical stimulation during the day.

If following you around is the most fun your puppy has during the day, you need to rethink the routine.

Providing puzzle toys and rotating the puppy’s toy selection means you keep your puppy interested and mentally stimulated.

Scheduling regular walks and play sessions provides enough physical exercise, so your puppy is ready for a regular nap by itself when you need to be moving around.

Positive Reinforcement

There are two parts to positive reinforcement:

  • Avoid providing rewards for following you around.
  • Provide treats for staying quietly in a room without you.

You encourage your puppy to do more of what you want by rewarding desirable behavior.

Watch for times when your puppy doesn’t rush to follow you out of the room and reward that behavior. It may help if you enlist someone else to stay in the room and reward your puppy for not following you.

Training

Training your puppy to stay when you walk away is a typical command your puppy will learn in obedience classes either with other puppies or from you in training sessions.

Following orders is comforting for your puppy.

When you train your puppy to stay, it expects you to return and is less anxious. The puppy doesn’t need to follow you when it knows the routine.

Training to spend time alone builds your puppy’s confidence and independence.

Silence is Scary

When you need to leave your puppy alone, your puppy may prefer noise to silence.

When people are moving around, there is plenty of noise and activity. If there is no noise when you go out, the silence reminds your puppy that it is alone.

Your puppy is a social animal, and leaving gentle music playing or the radio on may be sufficient to provide reassurance.

You can download music chosen to appeal to your puppy, but honestly, your puppy will likely enjoy any familiar noise.

Community Links

Your puppy will be more confident and independent if socialized with other dogs and people.

You can swap playdates if you have friends with friendly dogs and puppies, and you can enlist friends and relatives without canine companions to puppy sit.

Some people pay for puppy daycare that involves socializing with other dogs and people during the working day or as a regular treat.

Like you, your puppy benefits from regular contact with a community.

Spending a morning out of the house, without you, in the company of other dogs and people allows your puppy to develop self-confidence.

A more confident puppy is less inclined to follow you everywhere.

Fuss Free Coming and Going

The more fuss you make, the more critical your puppy sees an event.

If you fuss over your puppy both leaving the house and returning, your puppy can associate your absence as something to worry about.

Now, most puppies enjoy a short enthusiastic greeting to celebrate your return to the pack, which is natural.

However, avoid making a big fuss about going out; you want a routine that reassures your puppy that you leaving home is not a disaster.

Desensitizing the Puppy

If you have time and patience, you can desensitize the puppy from following its urges to follow you everywhere.

The technique is to sit with the puppy in a comfortable room. When you get up, and head for the door and the puppy follows you, either sit down again or wander around the room.

Effectively you are teaching the puppy that getting up and following you is somewhat dull.

Like most training, you will need several sessions to teach your puppy appropriate behavior.

Be Patient

Under no circumstances punish your puppy for following you; negative reinforcement simply won’t work and will create behavioral and bonding issues.

Most puppies outgrow the need to follow their owners at around six months, and the following to learn stage of a puppy’s development is far shorter than that of a human child.

While your puppy is in the following phase, you can teach useful commands like sitting, waiting, and where they can tuck themselves out of the way while you get on with your household tasks.

Can a Puppy Be Too Clingy?

Many puppies suffer from separation anxiety, a form of mental illness that causes stress to your puppy whenever it cannot be with you.

Some breeds are more prone to excessive attachment than others.

In its extreme form, your puppy will bark, whine, chew anything in reach and possibly chew itself because of its stress at being alone.

If your puppy has extreme separation anxiety, you may need to enlist professional help in dealing with the issue. Your vet may recommend calming medication. You can work with a dog behaviorist to desensitize your puppy.

There is plenty of help for dealing with a needy puppy:

  • Stress vests provide a reassuring hug.
  • Calming hormones infuse the air.
  • Stress-relieving music.
  • Cuddle toy with a heartbeat.
  • Providing objects with a comforting scent.
  • Training exercises.

The puppy attachment may not be an issue if your lifestyle means the puppy is always in your presence.

For working dogs, a strong attachment is essential for effective performance.

A puppy is too clingy if its behavior impacts your quality of life.

However, modifying a puppy’s behavior is relatively straightforward with persistence, kindness, and the correct approach.

Is It a Singular Attachment?

If it is just you and the puppy, it is natural for the puppy to firmly attach to you, the sole person in its life.

But will the puppy only attach to one person in a family setting?

Your puppy attaches to a person through:

  • Body language – does that person like the puppy?
  • Food and treats – cupboard love works both ways.
  • Playtime – attention and fun form strong bonds.
  • Safety – close pack members sleep alongside each other.

Some breeds like Yorkshire terriers and German Shepherds give their loyalty to one significant human.

Other breeds like Labradors are friendly to more people and form multiple attachments.

Does Gender Matter?

Many owners will say that their puppy prefers women or men, and this preference is prevalent amongst shelter puppies.

The primary reason behind a gender preference is former experiences. If the puppy has negative associations with one gender, it will prefer the other gender.

Puppies without previous poor experiences may prefer women because of the softer voices and the less threatening frame. But a man with a soft voice and a smaller frame appeal to these puppies as much as any woman, so it is not really a gender bias but a behavioral bias.

Large, dominant puppies may prefer men because they find the deeper voice more authoritative, and most men are more physically playful.

Some women with dominant puppies need to use a deeper voice to get the puppy to sit, stay or obey any other command.

Female politicians, businesswomen, and men with high voices may benefit from training to pitch their voices lower to gain the respect of their peers in meetings and when delivering presentations.

Humans and dogs share similar responses to behavior and tone in many areas.

A puppy may prefer a man to a woman (and vice versa) because:

  • Previous experience.
  • Body shape.
  • Attitude to play.
  • Voice.
  • Behavior.
  • Breed characteristics.

Your puppy can bond with any gender if that person demonstrates care, attention, and affection for the puppy by providing food, comfort, and security.

Ultimately the puppy bonds with those who meet its needs.

Do All Puppies Outgrow Attachment?

Your puppy will outgrow the need to follow you everywhere you go (in most cases), but the attachment is a lifelong bond for your puppy.

Depending on the breed and other factors, your puppy may firmly attach to one person as their life partner or many as a social group.

Even dogs happy with their own company, like the Beagle and the Akita, firmly attach to individuals.

All puppies need that human-canine bond because of selective breeding to be loyal companions.

Some puppies form an aggressively strong attachment to one individual and insist on jealously guarding that person against all other humans and dogs.

These breeds are not ideal family pets for most people but do well as companion animals for those that enjoy the singular bond.

Conclusion

It is natural for a young puppy to follow its owner, but you can expect most puppies to outgrow this behavior when mature.

Separation anxiety is different, and it is best to treat this behavior to reduce stress and discomfort for the needy puppy.

Attaching to one or many people is mainly dependent on the breed and is one of the characteristics to consider when choosing your puppy.

A puppy’s ability to attach to a human is a primary reason why your dog becomes your best friend.