I have a 12 week old lab puppy, he happily goes into his crate at night now and will sleep for several hours. However this past week he has been howling / barking at 04.30 in the morning as he’s hungry, he won’t stop until he comes out and has breakfast (I get him to be quiet before I let him out). Also, in the day if I need to do something I put a kong his crate and he walks in willingly, however after about 5 mins he gets frustrated with the kong and howls / barks / cries continuously. He happily eats all his meals in the crate will run in there to get fed with no issues. He does not wet the crate or soil in it, he has not done that since he was 8 weeks old. Anyone have any advice on the above two problems? Thanks in advance!
Hi Mollie, Monty is 6 months old and crate trained. We found that the following guidance worked for us - Crate Training Your Puppy in Easy Stages (thelabradorsite.com). If you take him out of his crate in the night and feed him when he barks/howls, you're teaching him that barking/howling gets him what he wants. You say that you 'get him to be quiet' before you let him out - but having interaction with you in itself is likely rewarding puppy. The only reason to take a puppy out of the crate in the night is to toilet them - this should be a really 'boring' trip for them - don't engage with them (eye contact/talking/playing/feeding etc), wait for them to potty, then return to crate. If puppy is getting the right amount of food during the day, has no medical issues and doesn't need to potty, ignoring any barking/howling at night should be safe (although it may leave you a little sleepless). Also are you sure puppy is hungry - is a noise outside spooking him at 4:30am every day for example? We struggled a little with crating Monty during the day, and used Pippa's 'click for quiet' technique from her books. It took Monty a while to settle in the crate - it's important to make it a nice and comfortable place for puppy - so safe toys and something soft to lie on (we use vet bed). Monty did get there eventually - by around 16 weeks he was good as gold and at 6 months he loves it. He's always 'on' during the day, so issues with crate training were related to struggling to settle I think. You will get there if you follow the guidance and are really consistent. Also with the kong - you need to make it really easy to start with - you mention that puppy gets frustrated with it, so perhaps make it easier for him to get the food out?Good luck.
