Hi All, Looking for some much needed advice and support. We've followed crate training guidleines to a 't'. Our 10.5 week old lab goes into her crate on her own during the day to rest. She is fed yummy kongs in there, naps in it and is happy being left for short varying periods of time. However, at night she howls, whines and barks constantly. She goes down at 11pm (after being out etc) and settles after 5 mins or so. She strats to whine around 4.30am for the toilet so I set my alram for 4am and only let her out whilst she is quiet. I don't interact with her, quietly take her out and then place her back in the crate and this is when it all goes wrong!!! She goes bananas and although I do not go back to her she doesn't give up. My neighbours have a baby and others have small children and I am so worried that for the past week and a half we've had a howling dog from 4am onwards. We are at a loss and mega sleep deprived. Any advice or hints fully appreciated. Thanks so much, Jovi x
Well it sounds like you are doing everything right there. A couple questions: How much is she in the crate during the day? Do you work and are you crating her regularly during the day? Where is the crate? Is it by your bed? Probably not if she goes in it during the day.... I would suggest that at night you are using a crate by your bed....
Hi Jo, Thanks so much for the reply. We actually had our first night of no barking or crying last night! Delighted we might have turned a corner. No, i am not at work (off for 4 weeks whilst we settle the pup). During the day it is an odd 10 mins up to an hour. Tried to vary it. Crate is in our family room where we spend most of our time.
I use a small radio and play low volume country music when she's in the crate at night. She's just under 10 weeks old and crate is in my bedroom at night. She she goes to bed at 11:00PM and only peeps about 5:30 AM or so to go do her business at which time I take her out in the backyard to the designated spot where she does her business. I let her have up to 10 minuets to do her business there, 5 minuets play time, then its her first feeding of the day. 10 minuets of feeding then back to her designated spot to do her business and then another 5 to 10 minuets of play time. Only have had her for a few days and she did come crate trained from the breeder. So far so good.
Not that this will solve your problem, but one thing I did (and continue to do but less frequently) to create a positive association with the crate is to randomly drop a little cube of cheese in the crate when he wasn't looking. Made for a nice little suprise as long as the cat didn't get in there before he did . After a while I would start to see him wander in there randomly just to check if anything had appeared, and often that lead to him just staying there hanging out for a chew or nap or whatever. Gary now loves his crate and I think this was a big part of building that positive vibe.
I'd try putting the crate by your bed at night or - if not enough space - using a smaller crate by your bed. Crates are pretty cheap, especially the small sizes.
