aussielover Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 (edited) My puppy Mindy barks in her crate. I have read lots about crate training and talked to various "experts" but my puppy still seems to hate her crate! I've only had her for 5 days and I know I need to give her some time, but it is very frustrating at night especially, i feel sorry for the neighbours and I hope they don't get too mad! The situation is that she is in her crate in the laundary overnight from about 11pm-6.30am. she barks, howls, cries and carries on for around 45 minutes but last night she went for 2hrs. When she finally settles down, she sleeps through the rest of the night. I have practiced giving her treats and feeding in her crate, I have relocated it to the family room during the day, I don't shut the door on her during the day. She will still only go in there if there is food in there though. I have read that you are not supposed to lock the puppy in until they happily accept the crate during the day, but where else would you put them overnight in the meantime? I find it does help with her toileting (ie she doesn't go overnight) and I'm not sure that if she had access to a larger room, whether she would decide to go. Our house is open plan, so there really isn't anywhere to shut her off except the laundary. My feeling is that it is not the crate itself, but the fact she can't be with me that is the cause of the barking, so therefore locking her in the laundary may not help at all. Sorry for the ramble, i guess my question is: how long will the barking continue on for? Is there anything else I can do to make nighttime easier for her? Thanks for your help Edited June 7, 2010 by aussielover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 put the crate in your bedroom maybe? Sorry haven't used a crate for pups- so that's all I can think of :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted June 6, 2010 Author Share Posted June 6, 2010 My bedroom is upstairs and she's not allowed upstairs. I have tried having a mattress downstairs and having the crate next to it but it doesn't help- and makes it way noisier for me and harder to resist giving in to her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 (edited) Is the laundry warm/cool? Is she really tired before you put her to bed? Perhaps if you make sure she has a BIG play session about 10 pm ... then toilet, then bed? Do some basic obedience with her, too - teach her to come to her name - teach her to sit .... anything like that in bursts of a minute or two at a time :D This will give her little mind something to work on. When she barks etc - does anyone yell at her/whistle/go down to see her? if so- then perhaps if you stop - she will eventually realise there is NO reward in it for her at all.... Edited June 6, 2010 by persephone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted June 6, 2010 Author Share Posted June 6, 2010 The laundary is quite cool, but she has a blacket and also a warmed-up bean bag thingy to keep her warm. Wil try doing a big play session before bed time. She already knows how to sit, shake hands, come, up and drop (sort of). But I will teach her some new tricks. No one comes down to her or yells at her. Hopefully this behaviour will just go away after she is more settled in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolatu Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 My puppy took a while to learn to settle in his crate, slightly more than 1 week. My puppy is not really a barker so i am not sure how to help you on this. Maybe let her sleep beside you for a few days before putting her in the laundry? She just left her littermates to an unfamiliar surroundings and leaving her in the laundry all alone maybe scary for her. If you can't have her in your bedroom, maybe give her a ticking clock in her bed? I heard that helps to put them to sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 The laundary is quite cool, but she has a blacket and also a warmed-up bean bag thingy to keep her warm. Wil try doing a big play session before bed time. She already knows how to sit, shake hands, come, up and drop (sort of). But I will teach her some new tricks. No one comes down to her or yells at her. Hopefully this behaviour will just go away after she is more settled in? Hi, I mentioned what we did with our puppy over here in this thread. He screamed, barked, howled, yipped, wailed and cried for three whole nights - pretty much non-stop. He was in our bedroom, too!!! In the end the only thing that worked for us was having him close enough to our bed that he could see us and we could put our fingertips in his crate so that he could lick them/smell them. Since you can't take the dog upstairs, perhaps try putting a radio next to the crate - Radio National is good because it has a lot of late night conversation and voices. Good luck! Also, Elbie has a large crate in the kitchen but when we first got him, we kept him in one of those smaller travel crates. If you had one of those, perhaps your parents wouldn't mind if that was sitting next to your bed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted June 6, 2010 Author Share Posted June 6, 2010 Thanks for all your suggestions. We had a breakthrough last night, I am so happy! Hopefully it will continue. I left the crate door open so she had access to the whole laundary, I also put one of my jumpers in her crate. We played wih her about 30mins before bed and did some training. She was quite tired so I think this helped. She did not bark at all and slept throught the night until 7am! When I came down to her at 7am, she was playing happily with her toys, in her crate, YAY! and no accidents overnight either. she is now going into her crate frequently (to check for food- at least this is a start!) I think the trick is to tire her before bed! Thanks again for your help though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 Well Done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLB Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 My pup whines and barks when she needs to go out to the toilet - she is crated. That is the whole reason to crate them so they you are toilet training. They dont like going to the toilet on their beds. I take pups out when they need to go now my 5 month old pup is sleeping right through. She is in the bedroom though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussielover Posted June 10, 2010 Author Share Posted June 10, 2010 My pup whines and barks when she needs to go out to the toilet - she is crated. That is the whole reason to crate them so they you are toilet training. They dont like going to the toilet on their beds. I take pups out when they need to go now my 5 month old pup is sleeping right through.She is in the bedroom though. Mindy doesn't have accidents overnight and sleeps through the night from 11pm-7.30am, so i guess I'm pretty lucky. The laundary is pretty small anyway. I'm at the stage now where I could probably shut the door on her, but i don't see the need now as she happily sleeps in there anyway and no accidents. She will even go in there for a snooze during the day if she finds us too annoying! Ian Dunbar actually recommends that you don't lock them in straight away as you don't want them to hate the crate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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