May 01, 2009 16:01
Hi guys, I've had this issue for a while and have no idea how to go about fixing it any more.
I have a year old male pomeranian. He's a sharp boy who went through obedience and at-home training and is now starting up with the clicker, which he loves because he gets Wellness cat treats (The dog ones have rice and oatmeal, which he can't eat) He picks up quick on everything. He doesn't have any issues except this one, but this one is just getting annoying, because it's starting to affect him. I won't let him out of his crate when he is barking, lest he learns that gets him out and he never stops.
The problem is, he won't stop barking anyway.
He's fine being alone. Leave him alone in a room and the worst he will do is chew everything up, hence the crate, which prevents chewing. He even likes his crate and will crawl into it to chill sometimes, and walk in perfectly fine when I tell him to go in after his morning walk and before bed without a fuss. I know it's neither crate anxiety or separation anxiety, because he doesn't care about the crate, or about being alone.
He just cares about being alone in the crate!
Those two things apart are fine, but together they're some new ugly beast. I've tried the putting him in and leaving for a few minutes thing, then coming back to let him out and praise him, but it just doesn't work... Because I leave, he hears the door to our room close, and he immediately starts barking and doesn't stop for at least an hour, at which point he'll shut up and go to sleep. I've tried ignoring him, I've tried teaching him that he'll come out when he's quiet, and neither approach is working.
If there is a magic spray to stop my dog from barking when alone in his crate, someone please direct me to it. Otherwise, I'll try anything at this point to try and get him to stop barking, because I don't like having an otherwise perfect dog when my options for containment are either A) Dog barks until his lungs hurt or B) Dog chews up everything in sight, including his toys.
Just in case it matters, the dog doesn't bark at any other times, unless he's very, very excited, and it's a single loud bark rather than a series of yaps. He'd rather growl and pant-laugh than bark.
crate training