Sorry it's me again. Red has always gone into her crate for a snooze when she is tired without any fuss. She will happily snooze or fall asleep on her bed in the kitchen but as soon as I leave she will wake up and if I have left the kitchen which has a baby gate across the doorway, she will start whining and eventually howling. So I have always used the crate for her daytime naps. She has now started to make the same fuss in her crate. I want to nip this in the bud now. I could give her a kong but I restrict to 2 a day when she is 'free' in the sitting room and I am working on her settling on her bed in there and being near Sky the older dog, so I can't really give her anymore. She has an antler's bone and a special block of wood that I place in her crate so she has things to gnaw on. It feels like she just wants my constant attention (which she was pretty much getting whilst she had diarrhoea). Any tips on how I can stop this? She is 17 weeks.
Take it slowly. 1 minute away, return and treat. 2 minutes away, return and treat etc till she's happy to be left . If a minute is too long at first - make it seconds and build from there xx Mm
Boogie is right. Start with very short absences and build up from there. Once Red feels confident that you will come back the whining should stop. Also, I'd be very careful about antlers. We stopped using them as treats after several report of dogs braking teeth on them.
Unfortunately I have just found out that both DH and I are to be out at the same time tomorrow morning - it cannot be avoided. I should be gone for 1-2 hours max so she will have to go in her crate. I will walk her, play with her and leave her daily ration of Kongs. Then I will start on the one minute, two minute plan. This whining/howling thing is so new.
If you have never been able to leave her in the kitchen without her whining and howling, then far from this being a new thing, it sounds to have been brewing for a while. It would be a wise investment to try to get her used to settling down alone.
Hi, I would definitely go back to waiting for tiny periods of quiet and then rewarding, the good thing is that you know Red does at least like like her crate so I think you will progress quite quickly. When I first did crate training with monty my first session was click and treating on 3 seconds. Also, if you know she likes kongs and she is happy and calm chewing them, why not increase their use while she is in her crate? You could use a good chunk of her food allowance plus any extras to increase to 4 or 5 a day. It may have been Ian Dunbar (I might be wrong, and if it was him I didn't agree with all that he said but I do on this) that getting your dog addicted to kongs is a great thing to do. I don't freeze kongs that often now but still use them as a fall back position when we are away on holiday or somewhere new where I know I want monty to be calm, quiet and nicely occupied. Also after a few frozen juicy kongs they are often ready for a rest anyway.
Julie, I have been able to leave her in her crate in the kitchen when it has been 'time for a rest' and she has always been ok until recently. What I haven't been able to do for long is leave her resting on her bed outside of her crate in the kitchen. Even when she appears fast asleep, she will stir as soon as I move and if I leave the kitchen she will start. I realised this would be something to work on - my difficulty is that she is now making that fuss in her crate. Even when I know she is tired, she is now whining and if I try to ignore, she escalates it to a howl.
Stanley used to do this - really really badly. I couldn't even pop to the toilet without him yapping and if we went out he would cry the entire time. It was really awful. We "clicked for quiet". There's an article about it on the main site. We just built the time up - starting at 3 seconds of quiet. Then we'd to 5 seconds, 10 seconds etc. When he got to about 10 minutes he was fine after that and now there's not a peep out of him when we leave. If he thinks me and OH are doing something without him in the house he'll whine (I.e usually upstairs cleaning). But we just ignore him and after a couple of minutes you hear a hmpfff and he slopes off to his bed.
I have found the article Jen, thank you. Can I ask how old was Stanley when he started doing this and how long did it take to get to the ten minutes?
He did it as soon as he came home. We tried the ignoring etc but it never seemed to stop so when he was about 15/16 weeks we tried that. I think it took about a week to get to the 10 minutes because the longer it got we seemed to be able to jump further. So rather than a few seconds you could go 5 minutes to 6 minutes. We did seasons about 5 times a day for the week and it seemed to sort it right out
This is new behaviour for Red which has only started since the horrible diarrhoea thing she has had. She is howling in her crate now. I tried exercise 1 but after 30 times of going in when she paused for breath and treating her, I have just become totally exhausted and feel I am stuffing her full of treats. (My DH says firmly 'Be quiet Red' - not in a loud way in the past when she has whined a bit). As I type she has gone quiet. Not sure what to think is the best approach. This puppy lovely as she is, is testing me to the extreme.
@Atemas Snowie as a puppy would howl even when he could see me through the shower door. I didn't know about training one min, etc to be alone at such a young age. I was told you must never leave a puppy alone until six months old. We followed this rule (often roped in my mother to babysit). At six months, Snowie was ready and never made a peep when being left alone. Now, when he sees us getting ready to go out, he goes to his bed (looks mournful, mind you!). Of course when he's left behind he's had exercise and food, no needs are wanting. Hopefully as Red matures, things will become easier for you.
Just to add: as a puppy, he was always left with something to lick and chew. Often a hoof thinly smeared inside with peanut butter. One night I was in such a hurry that I forgot to put away the peanut butter. Came home to a very happy dog!!! Poos for the next couple of days looked like pure peanut butter!!!
I do feel for you, it seems to have been one thing after another with little Red. In all honesty, after he stopped crying and biting Stanleys not really been too much bother. If you lived closer I'd have offered to have her for the long Easter weekend to give you a break
For all the time I spent clicker training, and I don't regret that time as it was well spent, there were also many occasions when I walked away and just closed the door on monty and left him to whine. Although now over 3, I really do remember how difficult he was as a pup, possibly right up until 10 to 12 months when I stopped worrying when he wasn't in my sight at any given moment and could be trusted a bit more. I can't imagine really ever wanting a puppy again, as he was really difficult and wore us out whilst we juggled full time work.(snuggling other people's puppies would be nice though! ) But I love him to bits now, of course. I truly think you will see some improvements as Red matures, along with all the positive training you are doing. You've heard it before, many times, but it will get better.
