Westie risks grow through rehearsal: live movement rewards pursuit, soft fence edges reward digging, barking can change the environment and departures can exceed an untrained alone-time baseline. Change access first, then reinforce a specific alternative.
Prevention card 01
Small-animal pursuit becomes a digging escape route
Why it happens
A complete terrier hunting sequence and persistence make moving wildlife and access beneath a fence highly reinforcing.
Early signals
Stillness, hard fixation, scanning a fence edge, returning to one gap, digging beneath a gate or refusing food around movement.
Prevent it now
Scan and supervise the yard, secure the full fence base, use physical control where wildlife appears and reinforce the legal digging area before boundary work begins.
If it has started
Stop unsupervised access, add a secure temporary barrier, repair and re-audit the route, then work only where the puppy can eat and turn away.
When to get professional help
Seek qualified reward-based help after a boundary breach, road access, injury to an animal or repeated failure of practical management.
Prevention card 02
Alert or demand barking is repeatedly rewarded
Why it happens
Barking can produce attention, access or play, while an outside trigger often happens to leave soon after the sound.
Early signals
Running to a window, staring before the first bark, vocalising as a hand reaches for a door or toy, or escalating after a response.
Prevent it now
Keep an antecedent record, block rehearsed views, reduce sound intensity and reinforce a quiet turn away, mat behaviour or food search.
If it has started
Do not shout back or repeat a cue through continuous barking. Lower the trigger, mark a genuine pause and redesign the next setup.
When to get professional help
Sudden vocal change needs veterinary assessment; barking linked with intense fear, freezing, growling, lunging or failure to recover needs qualified behaviour help.
Prevention card 03
Alone-time distress is allowed to escalate
Why it happens
Household separation is a learned skill; an independent working history does not make departure signals or isolation automatically easy.
Early signals
Shadowing before departure, refusing a familiar chew, pacing, vocalising or focusing on the exit during a short recording.
Prevent it now
Video very short absences, return before distress, separate crate training from departure practice and build many calm seconds.
If it has started
Reduce duration to the last relaxed point, neutralise one departure signal and stop leaving the puppy to cry until exhausted.
When to get professional help
Persistent collapse lasting minutes, drooling, exit destruction or self-injury needs prompt veterinary and qualified behaviour support.