Comments | dogsintraining: Crying in the Crate

snow_blossoms in dogsintraining

Crying in the Crate

Apr 06, 2009 21:09

Yesterday we brought home our new Australian Shepherd puppy so last night was the first time we put him in his crate to spend the night. Unfortunately he howled the whole night long. We tried talking to him sweetly and calmly, but when that didn't help we just let him cry himself to sleep. Today when we put him in the crate when we left for work he ( Read more... )

crate training

Comments 33

charlayne April 7 2009, 02:31:50 UTC

We have chewies and a comfort "baby" in the crates with our girls. We also give them one hollow bone with a bit of peanut butter (one of the girls needs a glucosamine/condroitin).

One thing we do that helps is that we have a towel to cover the grated front, to make it more comforting and dark, more den-like. They have been good and settle right down.

snow_blossoms April 7 2009, 03:07:55 UTC

Thanks for the tips. We'll try them out :)

charlayne April 7 2009, 04:27:58 UTC

We also have the same bedtime for the girls (shelties) every evening, if possible. About 10:15, if we aren't getting them ready, they will now actually start milling around their crates, going in and out, and looking at us. Sometimes we're up much later (night-owls on weekends) and the crates are in the living room) but the girls want to go to bed anyway. We are lucky I'm home a lot of the time so that they are out of the crate during the day a lot. They will go in while I nap, I have fibromyalgia and they seem to know when I am particularly bad.

Each girl has their own crate and they are very protective of their own. Rhi will bark at Isis if she goes in Rhi's box, and vice versa. It's really funny at times. It seems to be all in play.

BTW, your little baby is SO cute!

eeyorelovers April 7 2009, 02:32:33 UTC

I have no advice sorry but the last time I tried to put my aussie in a crate she bit me.....

eeyorelovers April 7 2009, 02:33:06 UTC

....she wasn't technically mine at the time. She was my aunts.

beasulike April 7 2009, 02:35:18 UTC

my pup was fine during the night (but i had the crate close to my bed) but awful during the day to start with. she'd just bark/howl/cry/freak out in the crate. in the end i took a few days off and worked with her. all meals in the crate. treat for going in the crate. leave her straight back out, gradually increase time. lots of praise when quiet, ignore when noisy - never let her out when noisy (even if that meant a noisy couple of hours - as soon as she was quiet for say 30 secs i praised her and let her out.)

after 2 - 3 days of doing that i had her down to barking for 5-10 mins only when i put her in the crate and she easily slept for a few hours. now (4 weeks later) she barely barks or cries when i leave the house and is usually quiet before i have even walked up the driveway.

snow_blossoms April 7 2009, 03:08:28 UTC

Thanks for the advice. I can only hope that if we try some of your tips out he'll be much better in a few days.

magnoliafly April 7 2009, 02:41:09 UTC

Recommend you read the "short term confinement" section in Before You Get Your Puppy. Your pup needs to be gently introduced to the crate. When training them to accept the crate you feed all his meals in there, throw super YUMMY treats in that he cannot resist and put in stuffed food toys tied to the back of the crate.

Make sure you don't let him out of the crate while he is crying or he will learn that crying = freedom. If you use a clicker you can click your dog for being quiet in the crate and throw yummy food in.

You can also read the section on Separation Anxiety in After you get your puppy.

Some puppies take a few days to get used to it while being trained to like the crate. Some take to it right away. Be patient and make sure you aren't reinforcing the crying by letting him out or giving him attention (unless he needs to go to the bathroom).

snow_blossoms April 7 2009, 03:09:05 UTC

Thanks for the links, sounds like I have some reading to do before bed. :)

magnoliafly April 7 2009, 12:41:32 UTC

I hope some of it was helpful.

I keep a bowl of super yummy doggie cheeze-its (they look like that anyway) next to my crate and my pup always got one after he walked into the crate on his own at night (after learning to go in there on his own by me tossing treats and pairing that with "crate" verbal cue). By the end of the first week he would run ahead of me to get in his crate to get his cheese-it. Even now, I leave his crate open all night - he still goes in there expecting a treat (and I usually give him one) because I did that from the beginning. He sleeps in his crate on his own from time to time too.

It is all about the foundation.

crysania4 April 7 2009, 02:50:56 UTC

No training comments -- I don't know nearly enough about puppies. But just wanted to squee over the Aussie pup! Such amazing markings. I love Aussies.

snow_blossoms April 7 2009, 03:09:47 UTC

Thanks :)