Help My 8 Month Old Freaks When I Walk Away.

Should you let an 18-month-old baby cry it out, or try to help him stop crying?

I don't think there's a general answer you can give-- context is everything.First off, there's a question about what he/she's crying about.  "Cry it out" is often in reference to sleeping-- either for bedtime or naps.  It might be for other things too, but usually sleeping.For our son, we started letting him cry-it-out around ... maybe 8 months old for bedtime?  I don't recall exactly.  We put him in his crib at pretty much EXACTLY 8pm, and let him cry if he was gonna cry.  It worked like a charm.  Within 5 days (only 2 of which he had any crying), he was trained.  From then on (until his next sleep schedule change a few months later), when we put him in bed, that was it-- he would go to sleep, with almost no crying ever.Since that was so successful, we tried the same thing with naps a couple months later.  No luck.  He could cry the WHOLE time.  We felt awful.  All the books suggested that he'd eventually self-soothe, and figure it out.  But he didn't.The point of cry-it-out is to train them to:1) Self-soothe, so they aren't as reliant on the parents2) Understand that the world isn't going to obey their demandsYou're going to have to assess your own child-- if you think he/she is capable of understanding those things, then yes, it's probably time to start using cry-it-out (or something similar).  Bear in mind, though, that the longer you wait, the more difficult it is to train them.  If you wait until they're 30 months old, it'll probably take a LONG time, because they're so used to not having to cry.With that said, 18 months sounds plenty old to me, generically speaking.  When we spoke to sleep consultants, doing our first run of cry-it-out, they said that we were doing it early-ish, but still within the window of "normal".  And they said he probably wasn't ready for doing the same thing with naps (which is why we waited a few months before doing it at naptime).  So, if I remember my training correctly, 18 months is plenty old enough.But again, every child is different.  And every parent is different.  I can't predict how your child will handle it-- you're the best judge of that.

Will my 9 month old puppy be OK if I leave her alone all day (8 hrs) for work? I've never left her for more than 2 hrs and she freaks out when I leave. Upon return she whimpers and runs to me like she thought I abandoned her, even when gone briefly.

Dogs are not puppies by months but by maturity and different dogs mature at different rates. Would you leave a human baby for 9+ hours (you do have travel time to get to and from work) while you worked. “Never” should be your answer.Part of the responsibility of pet ownership it to think of this before you get the puppy.You do not want to crate a puppy for that amount of time either. You would most assuredly create a dog with separation anxiety problems and others. Puppies under that stress will relieve themselves in their crate as well.You might even create a dog that will shred your couch while you are gone if you leave it alone to early and they are not prepared, as your dog has already shown the signs of separation anxiety.Puppies and dogs live in the moment. Until a puppy has grown to the age where you can train it and it will understand that you will return to them, you are not being fair to the dog. The exception to this is when you leave them for a short amount of time, not a working day.As they grow and hear and understand what it means when you say, “I’ll be back.”, they are then old enough to be left alone.You might even create a dog that will shred your couch while you are gone if you leave it alone too early.Options. Find a dog sitter that will come to your house several times a day to let the puppy outside to go potty and have a bit of human time.The other option would be to put your puppy in a facility that has doggy daycare.Neither of these options are free but that is the price of dog ownership.You could also find a friend or family member with a dog that is home during the day that would be willing to let you drop off your puppy for the day. Personally I would pay them with cash or a nice 40 lb of dog food when they need it.If you can’t give your new puppy the care it needs you might consider finding it a new home. Be very careful to check out the person you turn your dog over to. People take dogs and even pay for them and your puppy finds itself in a research lab. Sad but true.You could also contact that breed’s rescue site to try and put you in touch with a foster home near you that might consider taking your baby for the day until it reaches maturity to know, you will be back.I hope this helps.

Do mother cats leave on purpose and go away from their kittens after two months?

Most mother cats will start weaning their babies when they are around 8 weeks old. Kittens usually begin eating food when they are 4 to 5 weeks old. And by the time they are 8 weeks old, they can begin to do without their mother’s milk. The weaning process is usually pretty complete when the kittens are around 12 to 16 weeks old. If the mother cat is happy in her home, then near 8 weeks she will probably start to cut nursing periods short, and refuse to allow them at all more and more. She will begin to be tired of babying her offspring. She may greatly enjoy playing with them, though. And through play she will teach them; how to be gentle with family and friends, and how to fight when necessary and protect themselves from enemies. If there is a good balance of space, food, and human loving care for the number of animals present, she will probably keep a good relationship with the kittens as they mature. And she will probably want to stick around.Harmonious relationships are more likely to be maintained if all or most cats in the household are spayed or neutered when they mature. Adult cats with intact sex drives are like adult humans - they want to be in charge of their own home territories. If the home is crowded with cats, and/or if meals, comfort, human love, and security are not reliable, a mother cat (who is able to go outdoors) may become unhappy enough to leave and seek out another home. And even if she is content at home, when she goes into heat, she will probably leave long enough to get pregnant again. After that, if she discovers another home she feels is a better environment to raise her babies in (less crowded with older kittens, for instance), she may not return. This may happen even if she loves you, due to the powerful commitment mother cats have to ensuring the well-being of their babies.