Hello all! First time poster but I've been lurking for a little while and found some really helpful comments and suggestions on here - so thankyou! We got our Fox Red Lab puppy - Bixby - at 8 weeks (12 days ago). He's been doing really well and is clearly super smart; he's picking up some of the basics like Sit, Down, Stay, Paw etc very quickly; but is obviously a little furry land shark! We have a crate for him; which lives in our living room. At night it gets covered over. He's been excellent at sleeping in his crate from the night we got him - we used to settle him in there (stay with him until he fell asleep) but now we can put him in, give him a quick fuss and encourage him to cuddle up with his blanket and stuffed toy. He sleeps typically from 10pm until 6am; though we wake him up at 3am (used to be 2am, then 2:30am) to take him out and have a very boring wee - he *might* make it through the night but not sure yet so not risking it. We've also been doing crate training - he eats his meals with the door shut in the crate; we've thrown treats in and 'clicked'; all the way through to sitting in the crate for a minute with the door open; then held shut and then actually shut - he's grasped that quite well. I'm not sure if we've been 'clicking' in the right place though (typically when we open the door) and put his treat inside the crate for him to eat. The issue we're having is getting him to settle in his crate on his own and us leaving him. Right now; I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home whilst my wife is at work - but I can't really continue this for too many more weeks and we'll looking to crate him all day with a dog walker/puppy sitter coming in the morning and afternoon; and a parent coming to let him out at lunch time (so nicely chunked up into 2hrs in the crate; 30-45mins out and attention). He's getting better at settling himself if I'm still in the room and he can see me (and he's tired) - he'll mope and whine and howl for a little bit, maybe 5-10mins, before he settles. Then he'll wake up whenever I move and sometimes will settle again, sometimes will demand to be out. I tried to extend this to working from my office (which is upstairs) yesterday - and made sure he was fed, had been to the toilet and had had a good play or training session beforehand; he he sat and screamed blue murder and howled the house down for 30mins. He has some treats/toys he only gets in his crate - a nylabone, a ruffly chew toy, his favourite soft toy etc; and he's also had a kong stuffed with treats with some peanut butter around the rim. He tends to ignore all of these as soon as he knows the door is closing and being separated from me becomes the most important thing to him. Am I pushing too hard by trying to leave the room? Our friends lab was crated after the first week and they left him alone, went out to work and came back every 2hrs to let him out - but they were out and lived in a detached house so he whined the house down but soon learnt that got him nowhere - the tough love approach seemed to work. I'm nervous of doing that; partly for my own sanity whilst I'm in the house and mostly because I'm in a semi-detached and I don't want my neighbours to hate me Help and advice appreciated! Peter & Bixby x
Are you following a structured crate training plan, such as this one: https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/ ? If so, you don't leave the puppy alone until the puppy is 100% comfortable relaxing in the crate with you in the room right next to them. They need to associate the crate with your presence, not your absence, or it will all go downhill... I'd suggest this may not work and may in fact not be meeting his needs, as a puppy. I've got a 6 month old puppy at the moment and she is left for 3 hours in the evening, crated - having previously just been exercised out and about in an interesting and novel location and an hour - and being tired. I wouldn't dream of letting a pup out into the house for 30 mins and then re-crating again for another 2 hours - and continuing that all day. That's no life for an active puppy (mentally or physically). Letting a pup out into my house or garden doesn't tire them out at all - what tires them out and sees them happy to sleep, is novel, new experiences and physical or mental exercise...
I feel I may have made a drastic mistake after reading this post. I am devastated. I work, I have to crate my puppy all day. I live on a farm, I don't know anyone and not sure who in the world I could possibly trust to come into my home to walk my dog. I rush home after working all day, with such stress, I am making myself sick. I feel so very bad leaving him all day. We love him more than anything, but feel we should have thought this through before taking on this responsibility. Did I make a mistake in getting this puppy?
Sadly, possibly yes. It’s just not kind of meeting any of your pups emotional or physical needs by being crated for so long. You could end up with all sorts of problems in the long run and a miserable animal. Unless you could find a doggy day care or dog walker, it might be kinder to rehome him now. Then wait until your lifestyle is more suitable to nurture and support a dog. Sorry, it’s probably not what you want to hear.
Hi Peter, you are right to be nervous about that approach. Not all dogs 'give up' easily. And barking / howling can become a habit. Some dogs seem to be able to keep it up for hours at a time. It sounds as though you made too big a leap in duration. Most puppies need to get used to you leaving them for a few seconds, then gradually build up to minutes etc. You need to start by literally stepping out of the room and back in again, poking a treat through the bars and repeat many times, adding a little duration as you go, and including some shorter stretches with the longer ones. The first part (going from two seconds to thirty seconds for example) is the longest part. Once you can leave the room for a five minutes you can add duration in bigger chunks. And once you get to twenty minutes or so, the puppy will normally settle themselves even if they complain a little once you've been gone for a while.
I am very sorry to hear of your predicament Donna. Yours is not an uncommon problem. And you are very brave to recognize that your situation may not be right for puppy parenting right now. I've put up a new post with my thoughts on this topic, you'll find a link at the bottom that may help you. Here's the article: Crating Puppies And Leaving Them Alone
