Hello everyone I picked up the gorgeous Bella who is 8 weeks, on Saturday. She really is a little star and I don't mind all the puppy behaviours as I had read up a lot so was expecting lots of cheekiness. She's settled really well, is eating well, loves the garden, playing and I can leave her in the kitchen when I'm not there with no problems. ( not for long though as she stats chewing the cupboards). She has even started to sit and responds well to the clicker training. My only stress and caused me to get upset last night was when she began barking, whining and howling and was very distressed when shut in her crate. The first night I had her in my room with me in her crate with only little whining. Second night I thought I should put her in the kitchen in her crate but because I left her she did not like it!!! Now she doesn't mind her crate -I've been feeding her in there and playing near it, toys in it etc. She's happy to go in with door open and even door closed very briefly - as long as I'm there but last night was so awful I had to get her out and bring her back downstairs as after 30 mins it was too much ( for the neighbours too I'm sure!!) - I know people say that's the last thing you should do but I just couldn't bear it. She had knocked her water over and pulled everything out. I took her outside and she did not need the toilet so she just didn't want to be on her own. I've started click and treating so she gets in the crate more and keep feeding her in it, but just wondering what my next move should be. Im off with her for a month but then start going back to work so I know I need to start leaving her for small periods during the day in there. I've got kongs - shall I start leaving a few filled ones in there during day and shut the crate? What about at night do I keep her with me a few more nights or will this lead to her never sleeping alone in he kitchen and always wanting to be in my room? Any help much appreciated!!! I can't take any more tears ( hers or mine!!!) I do also realise I've only had her 2 days and it will get better but worried about separation anxiety setting in?!?!
Re: Whining / barking when in crate - help please! Hi and welcome to the forum You will get different advice on here I'm sure, but it helps having options Harley hated her crate from day 1 overnight. We did everything - feed her in her crate, put fun toys in there, treat every time she went in, but she really didn't like it. During the day when I was at work - no problem at all : she would have a kong then sleep (I have a webcam on her when I'm out!). At night it was horrendous. After a few weeks, she would settle from 1am-4am max. In the end we brought her up to our bedroom - initially on her bed next to mine, but after a few weeks came onto the bed which is where she has stayed (she is 16 months old now). Personally, I don't mind her being on the bed, but I know some people don't like this. She also sleeps with our 19 year old daughter when she's home from uni Hope this helps a bit I'm sure others will be along with advice of crating overnight soon
Re: Whining / barking when in crate - help please! Hi Naya Thanks for you quick reply! I'm going to nip out this afternoon so will try the stuffed Kongs and see how that works out. Will leave my phone recording to see if there's tears. I live in rented accommodation and the cupboards are all wooden that's why I can just leave her to roam on her own ( plus it's not really safe) so I need to close the door!! The night one is a tricky one ... Ideally, I don't want her in my bedroom every night....but I don't mind for a little while.. However, if every night is as horrendous as last night I might have too!!! It's made me feel much better to know your dog is ok in there during the day though as she's going to have to be!!! She doesn't even like being put in her play pen and left , she just wants to roam free ha!!
Re: Whining / barking when in crate - help please! I had a similar experience to Ternaya - Gypsy simply hated her crate! She is not allowed upstairs at all so we got her a puppy pen. She settled immediately and hasn't looked back. In fact we put the puppy pen down once she was house trained at 15 weeks. Here she is in the puppy pen - I think she needed a choice of surfaces to sleep on as, even now, she moves around a lot to different places when snoozing. Tatze, on the other hand, adored her crate from day 1 and still has it at 20 months! .
Re: Whining / barking when in crate - help please! Kenzi was the same the first couple of nights and, because i'm a single dog owner and need my sleep, I decided to leave her crate door open so she could get out if needed. Admittedly it might have extended her night time toilet training by a few weeks but I have stone tiles in the kitchen and had plenty of pee cleaner and kitchen rolls (also had puppy pads but she rarely hit them). I consider the extended toilet training the price to pay for getting some sleep and was less distressful for her also.
Re: Whining / barking when in crate - help please! Hi thanks for the replies, I also have a puppy pen but she whines and barks when closed in that too , I even put her crate in the pen, buy to no joy. She's also pooed in her crate during the night but during day always goes outside so wasn't sure if that was stress?! Skooch - did leaving door open stop her crying even though you were not there?? Boogie - Gypsy looks like my Bella!
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! I think I would continue with her crate in your bedroom for a while longer. You both need your sleep! Don't forget everything is new to her, and at night she gets lonely, that is all. After a while she will be more confident, and you can start to move her back downstairs.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Inca loves her crate now but we did have some painful moments with it to begin with. We were lucky as she wasn't too bad with it at night but we always made sure she was absolutely exhausted before we put her to bed to make sure she would sleep. We had to build her up from very short periods of time during the day as she would get very anxious and start howling. The minute she went quiet we would let her out. Now she is perfectly happy to go in and if she has to be crated during the day we always give her a special treat. Although now she generally gets the run of the utility room. Keep feeding Bella in her crate, it does help and 2 days probably isn't long enough to build up the positive association just yet, we did it for weeks. Pooing in the crate isn't good as she will want to keep her bed clean. It probably was stress but also make sure you are not leaving her in there longer than she can hold it. Inca pooed in her crate once and it was our fault for thinking she could last longer than she could. At 8 weeks we were taking Inca outside every 2-3 hours at night to toilet. Hope this helps, hearing them crying is always horrible but we were lucky that after the first week Inca settled a lot easier.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! It's both exciting and stressful having a new puppy, isn't it She sounds like a lovely girl. With the crying.... At the moment your puppy doesn't see your house as home, having been there for such a short time. Being left alone at night in a strange place is quite frightening. To a little puppy it seems like a matter of life or death. It would soothe your puppy and make her feel safe if you can have her in your room for another few nights. Then move the crate gradually to where you ultimately want it, over the course of a series of nights. Does that sound worth a try? I was slow typing - what Karen said
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Thanks everyone!!! Yes I'll keep her with me for a few more days. I haven't been taking her out during the night as the breeder told me not too and says I will set myself up for always getting up at night if I start this - do you not agree? I have made a toilet area in her crate though so that's where she goes not on her bed. I'll try her with a kong in her crate later for a short time and keep going! Thanks for your help everyone
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Yes - leaving the door opened helped, although I don't think K was as stressed as Bella sounds as she did last some time with the door closed without whining. I think you'll get different points of view on getting up in the night, a lot of people do as it's supposed to help with toilet training quicker and you extend the time you sleep each night. I just couldn't do that and be able to focus for work, so chose to not close crate her at night. I didn't have an area in her crate for her toilet, ideally I wanted her to do anything away from there but I had it setup like it was at the breeders, i.e. bed at one side of the room puppy pads at the other admittedly she didn't always go for puppy pads and after time actually started going towards the door.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Different approaches work for different people and different puppies so definitely see what works for you. A lot of my friends and relatives thought we were ridiculous getting up in the night but Inca was really quite tiny for the first couple of weeks. She has a huge crate and had plenty of space to toilet away from her bed if she needed to but it completely stressed her out and I wanted to avoid stressing her and minimise bad experiences in the crate. We started out getting up at 2 hour intervals and would basically do this for 3 nights in a row without accidents and then push it back by 30 mins. I did worry that it might prevent Inca from sleeping properly as your breeder said but she naturally grew into a longer sleeping pattern and by the time she got to 12 weeks she could sleep for 8 hours. It does help that my boyfriend and I shared the pain of getting up! Also I'm not too bad on sleep deprivation. Other people have started with only one get up in the night (maybe after 4 hours) but it all depends on the puppy and certainly Inca could only manage a couple of hours to begin with.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! The breeder and a lot of my friends advised me to just leave Rolo overnight instead of getting up every few hours. Ignored that. I set my alarm for every 2 hours at first and then very gradually pushed the length of time between each toilet visit. Rolo is 5 months now (sounds a long way off but it really goes quick) and goes to bed between 9 and 11pm and wakes between 7 and 9am, he whines a bit to say come on mum get up lazy bones. As for the crying/whining it does get easier. Rolo cried for the first 4 nights gradually each night getting less and less. We put an old hot water bottle in, left a radio on quiet and put an old top of mine in the crate. Good luck. It will get easier, I promise. Kris
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! So I just tried her in the crate again with a nice banana and peanut butter frozen kong whilst I was washing up ... After 2 minutes the High pitched whining and barking started again , I ignored for a bit but it didn't stop, when it did briefly I gave her treat, started again, treat, started again, treat, then I let her out. So I left the room but with her in the kitchen , crate door open , baby gate in place, some whining ( no where near as bad as in the crate though) ignoring her when she's not in crate does work as she's now fast asleep, on the kitchen floor not in the crate ha ... I'm just worried as I do need to start going out for brief periods and can't give her the whole run of the kitchen :-\ :-\ My play pen is not as big as the one in photo above so maybe I should order one of those?! God knows what will happen when I have to go out in next day or so.... Eeek.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! I have some harsh words for you - Steel yourself! When you know she is properly tired put her in the crate or pen, get a book, sit by the crate/pen and read! Do not even look at her. She WILL fall asleep, but it may take a while. Then, once she is snoozing, open the door so that she doesn't have to cry to get out. She is learning that whining/shouting/crying gets attention and gets her out - a lesson you do not want her to learn. Do it - go on, we are with you in spirit! We have all been there Rinse and repeat every time she's tired and you will find the cries get less and less. Night time is much harder, but getting it sorted in the day is more important imo - they soon sleep through the night whatever method we use.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Ha I've just put her in the crate and she's sleeping ... Door closed but not locked ... I'll keep at it!!!
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Hi everyone, well Bella still isn't a fan of being shut in the crate at night even if I sat by her ( as soon as I put her in it last night she started barking and whining again then pood all over her vet bed). I've realised a) she's eating her tea too late hence tummy being full and b) she needs lots of vigorous play and sleep time in Bella land is at 12 o clock. Soooooo after quite a bit of drama last night , I took her out of the crate and put her into a travel fabric crate next to my bed and as soon as I put in a top of mine she went straight down!!!if I'd known this night 1!! Amazing!! She also slept from 12-6am with no accidents or waking me up.... Couldn't quite believe it! I've also got stronger at ignoring her whines during the day and she's just gone and got in her crate by choice and gone to sleep. So I'm going to stick with keeping the crate door open all times for now and half kitchen cornered off with the play pen.
Re: Whining / Barking when in crate - help please! Well done! Each pup is different and we work them out in the end
