Puppy settling in really well, happy to go into her crate, but even with a frozen Kong she cries when left for more than 3 or 4 minutes. I am trying to put her in her crate regularly with her Kong, but she gets bored /licks as much as she can reach within a few minutes. Any advice would be welcome.
Hi there, teaching a puppy to be happy in a crate with the door closed needs to be done in stages. So make sure you stay in the room with her to begin with. Put some food in the crate and just shut the door for a couple of seconds, then open it and let her out. Repeat many, many times throughout the day. Build up gradually to 10 seconds over two or three days. Once you get to ten seconds you can build up to 30 seconds over another two or three days. You can easily practice this in the evenings while you have a meal or watch tv. Just have the crate in the same room and keep letting her out again. Once she can lie happily in her crate for minute or two while you are in the same room, then you can start to go out of the room for a brief period . Just a few seconds to start with, and build up gradually in the same way as you did with her in the same room. If you get to the point where the puppy cries it simply means you have increased the duration too quickly. Cut the time in half (or less) and move forwards again more slowly.
Hi we are now almost at the end of week 4 and still struggling to stay happily in crate when I leave the room. I feed her there, put in treats, Kong she is ok when I’m in the kitchen and if I pop in and out for a second or two but anything longer she cries. I then return do a few jobs so she isn’t crying and open the crate without saying anything. We still have two crates one upstairs for sleeping which I am gradually moving towards our bedroom door, she settles well at night and sleeps for 7 hours. She howled when left in her crate downstairs after being in a box by our bed for a few days. I am really concerned that she will suffer from ( or is already suffering from) separation anxiety. My husband and I are both retired so one of us can be in the house. But, we aren’t able to go out anywhere together. It’s starting to get me down. Any advice would be welcome. Suki’s mum
To add to above. We have the downstairs crate in the kitchen. We don’t spend a huge amount of time in there other than cooking, cups of tea etc. Would I be better moving it into our main room? I feel like a real novice but I’ve had 3 labs, worked full time and never had a problem like this before. I would really appreciate some advice, I don’t want to make our girl into an anxious dog who can’t be left alone.
