# Puppy yelping in crate nonstop



## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

Hello all,

New member here looking for advice/reassurance:

We just recently got a 9.5 week old Boxer puppy, and he is extremely well behaved when we're able to attend to him - he's getting the hang of a few basic commands pretty quickly, and has had only 1 accident the moment we got him home - he also isn't super clingy, and will gladly play with his toys on his own in the living room. 

We got him over the weekend, and took off Monday to try to acclimate him to his crate and slowly get him used to being a lone for a few hours here and there. To acclimate him, we lured him in with pork liver treats, and made it a fun experience to be in and around the crate. We closed the door slowly and kept feeding him treats, etc. etc. (you probably know the technique). All was fine down that road, but he hasn't progressed nearly as fast as we had anticipated, and we cannot get him to be calm with the door closed for more than a few short minutes (however he still likes to be in there with the door open at any time of day). Today is the day my fiancé and I have to work, and he is going to be home, in his crate, for about 3 hours before I can come home and let him out, play with him, and then put him back in the crate for another hour or two. My concern is - is it okay to just leave/ignore a wailing howling biting-the-door jumping-up-and-down barking anxietal puppy in his crate for a few hours? Will he eventually get the hang of being alone? Or is this just more traumatic and counter productive? We gave him a Kong stuffed with liver treats, canned dog food, and peanut butter, so hopefully when he calms down (if ever) he'll see that he has something cool to gnaw on. Anyone know if we're okay leaving him - are we in the right?

Thanks a lot!


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

Sounds tough, we never could do it.... maybe a puppyproofed, easy clean floored room (like the bathroom ) or babygate off the kitchen might be more comfortable for him with a big raw beef bone to keep him occupied....


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

BernerMax said:


> Sounds tough, we never could do it.... maybe a puppyproofed, easy clean floored room (like the bathroom ) or babygate off the kitchen might be more comfortable for him with a big raw beef bone to keep him occupied....


We tried an exercise pen - but it looks like whenever there is any sort of barrier between us and him, and he cannot find us (when he's actively looking), he triggers. We saw a worse temperament when he had more room to run around and express his anxiety - his pacing back and forth worried us.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

My puppy cried in the crate for a very long time, and still does it occasionally. He has been in there while we were at work from the second day we had him. It's fine, and totally normal and most get the hang of it pretty quickly.

And it's far better to ignore the behavior than to reinforce it by going to him when he cries. He'll just learn to cry more if it brings you running.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

elrohwen said:


> My puppy cried in the crate for a very long time, and still does it occasionally. He has been in there while we were at work from the second day we had him. It's fine, and totally normal and most get the hang of it pretty quickly.
> 
> And it's far better to ignore the behavior than to reinforce it by going to him when he cries. He'll just learn to cry more if it brings you running.


 Okay - I will just leave him in there, then! He was still yelping when I let him out after being gone 3 hours today (I stood by the window and heard him going nuts). I guess it'll pass with time!


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## Arya of House Stark (Jan 14, 2014)

I lucked out in that Zoe loves her crate, but Esme would cry for a long time if she was in there as a puppy. Like everyone else said, it's okay to ignore them--they'll eventually figure out that whining gets them nowhere, haha. 

What you could do to soothe him is put something that has your scent on it-old blanket, old shirt, pillow, etc in the crate so he'll feel a wee bit more comfortable. I tried it with Esme and it worked pretty well.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

Arya of House Stark said:


> I lucked out in that Zoe loves her crate, but Esme would cry for a long time if she was in there as a puppy. Like everyone else said, it's okay to ignore them--they'll eventually figure out that whining gets them nowhere, haha.
> 
> What you could do to soothe him is put something that has your scent on it-old blanket, old shirt, pillow, etc in the crate so he'll feel a wee bit more comfortable. I tried it with Esme and it worked pretty well.


Thanks for the reassurance. I put a t-shirt in there and he seems to disregard it unfortunately. The good thing is he's starting to sleep pretty consistently in the crate at night! We have learned to cover it with a towel, and that dampens his bark into just a whine that's tolerable. He'll sleep for about 3 hours before yelping a little harder, and then we let him out to pee, put him back in, and then if he yelps directly after we tell him "Shhhh" and he whines for a few seconds but falls back asleep - then a few hours later the process starts over. Seems to be working well. As for the daytime, we're just letting him whine his little heart out and I'm coming back to let him out every few hours and play with him. Hopefully he'll get the hang of daytime soon! We don't mind his behavior at night, since he's not disturbing anyone. Anyone see any problems with our nighttime routine? Will this develop any bad habits? We're thinking about extending the time/frequency of potty breaks after whining as he gets older.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Yankee said:


> Thanks for the reassurance. I put a t-shirt in there and he seems to disregard it unfortunately. The good thing is he's starting to sleep pretty consistently in the crate at night! We have learned to cover it with a towel, and that dampens his bark into just a whine that's tolerable. He'll sleep for about 3 hours before yelping a little harder, and then we let him out, put him back in, and then if he yelps directly after we tell him "Shhhh" and he whines but falls back asleep - then a few hours later the process starts over. Seems to be working well. As for the daytime, we're just letting him whine his little heart out and I'm coming back to let him out every few hours and play with him. Hopefully he'll get the hang of daytime soon! We don't mind his behavior at night, since he's not disturbing anyone. Anyone see any problems with our nighttime routine? Will this develop any bad habits? We're thinking about extending the time/frequency of potty breaks after whining as he gets older.


With a puppy who whines in the crate, I wouldn't ever take them out while they are crying. I would set an alarm, hopefully before the time the dog would normally whine, and take him out then. Let him pee, put him back in, and then ignore. 

How long is he in the crate every day? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but from your post it sounds like he's in there all night, and then in there most of the day except for some play sessions every couple hours. I'm all for crates over night, or while you're at work, but if you're home and can watch him I wouldn't keep him in there.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

elrohwen said:


> With a puppy who whines in the crate, I wouldn't ever take them out while they are crying. I would set an alarm, hopefully before the time the dog would normally whine, and take him out then. Let him pee, put him back in, and then ignore.
> 
> How long is he in the crate every day? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but from your post it sounds like he's in there all night, and then in there most of the day except for some play sessions every couple hours. I'm all for crates over night, or while you're at work, but if you're home and can watch him I wouldn't keep him in there.


Okay - I will set an alarm every 3 hours during the night. He will be in the crate at night - just because that's sleep time. During the daytime on Monday Wednesdays and Fridays he will be in there while my fiancé and I are at work - he won't be in the crate other than at night for the days we have off. So for work days he'll be in there from around 9 - 12, I will let him out to pee on my lunch break and play with him for a bit and put him back in. Then he will be in there from around 1 - 3, and a friend will be doing the same as I do at 3 (playing w/ him for a bit and letting him go to the bathroom). And then back in from 3:30 - 5, and he'll be out the rest of the evening until we go to bed (around 12). He'll be starting puppy preschool next week Wednesday, and we're trying to constantly play with him when we're home - he seems to really miss us and be full of energy when we're back, but still doesn't like the daytime crating situation.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Yankee said:


> Okay - I will set an alarm every 3 hours during the night. He will be in the crate at night - just because that's sleep time. During the daytime on Monday Wednesdays and Fridays he will be in there while my fiancé and I are at work - he won't be in the crate other than at night for the days we have off. So for work days he'll be in there from around 9 - 12, I will let him out to pee on my lunch break and play with him for a bit and put him back in. Then he will be in there from around 1 - 3, and a friend will be doing the same as I do at 3 (playing w/ him for a bit and letting him go to the bathroom). And then back in from 3:30 - 5, and he'll be out the rest of the evening until we go to bed (around 12). He'll be starting puppy preschool next week Wednesday, and we're trying to constantly play with him when we're home - he seems to really miss us and be full of energy when we're back, but still doesn't like the daytime crating situation.


Ahh, that makes sense then. That's pretty much the schedule we had with our pup when he was little. 

I did the alarm thing, because my pup was always a whiner in the crate. We go to bed around 10, so initially the alarm was set for 2am, then 6am and we gradually moved it out until about 5:30, where we stayed for a little while (otherwise he would wake up and whine), and then he was able to sleep as late as we wanted.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

elrohwen said:


> Ahh, that makes sense then. That's pretty much the schedule we had with our pup when he was little.
> 
> I did the alarm thing, because my pup was always a whiner in the crate. We go to bed around 10, so initially the alarm was set for 2am, then 6am and we gradually moved it out until about 5:30, where we stayed for a little while (otherwise he would wake up and whine), and then he was able to sleep as late as we wanted.


Great - good thing to know I'm not doing something horribly wrong! I'll start doing the alarm - I think this will help him understand that he's under our time table and isn't dictating when he can go out.

So over time do you think he'll get more comfortable during the day? He still likes to freak out while we're gone, I'm hoping that stops eventually as our neighbors don't wake up until later in the day. We're thinking about keeping this schedule for a couple of weeks, and then moving the first let out time back to 1 pm (and playing w/ him until 2), and then just getting him at 5 when we're off so our friend doesn't have to help anymore. He hasn't soiled his crate yet, and I can't really remember his last accident in the house (I think Sunday?).


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Yankee said:


> So over time do you think he'll get more comfortable during the day? He still likes to freak out while we're gone, I'm hoping that stops eventually as our neighbors don't wake up until later in the day. We're thinking about keeping this schedule for a couple of weeks, and then moving the first let out time back to 1 pm (and playing w/ him until 2), and then just getting him at 5 when we're off so our friend doesn't have to help anymore. He hasn't soiled his crate yet, and I can't really remember his last accident in the house (I think Sunday?).


Hard to say. I know conventional wisdom is "yes, they'll get used to it", but mine has never loved his crate. He doesn't have accidents or try to hurt himself when he's in there, and he goes in readily for his kong, but he does bark and he's not thrilled to be in there. He's always been a bit anxious about us leaving him (or being in a different room without him) so I think it's just his personality.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

elrohwen said:


> Hard to say. I know conventional wisdom is "yes, they'll get used to it", but mine has never loved his crate. He doesn't have accidents or try to hurt himself when he's in there, and he goes in readily for his kong, but he does bark and he's not thrilled to be in there. He's always been a bit anxious about us leaving him (or being in a different room without him) so I think it's just his personality.


I'm thinking this might be the way our dog turns out as well, but it's too early to be sure. Our goal is to use the crate only as a way to housebreak him, and then we'll slowly give him access to small parts of the house once he can be trusted. Over time, we will extend the area of the house he has access to as he gains our trust. Eventually we want him to sleep in a bed next to our bedroom door and have freedom to roam around while we're not there. Getting to that point I'm assuming is just going to take time to break him out of his "puppy" phase with his bladder and his desire to put everything in his mouth.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Yankee said:


> I'm thinking this might be the way our dog turns out as well, but it's too early to be sure. Our goal is to use the crate only as a way to housebreak him, and then we'll slowly give him access to small parts of the house once he can be trusted. Over time, we will extend the area of the house he has access to as he gains our trust. Eventually we want him to sleep in a bed next to our bedroom door and have freedom to roam around while we're not there. Getting to that point I'm assuming is just going to take time to break him out of his "puppy" phase with his bladder and his desire to put everything in his mouth.


My dog is over 1.5 years old now and is still crated during the day (though he's been great with the run of the bedroom at night since 8 months). He doesn't chew things out of boredom, but I do worry that he will destroy things out of anxiety. I know we have to give him more freedom eventually, but we're afraid to take the leap because of his personality. It's really dependent on the dog.


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

elrohwen said:


> My dog is over 1.5 years old now and is still crated during the day (though he's been great with the run of the bedroom at night since 8 months). He doesn't chew things out of boredom, but I do worry that he will destroy things out of anxiety. I know we have to give him more freedom eventually, but we're afraid to take the leap because of his personality. It's really dependent on the dog.


Interesting - yeah, if it turns out our dog just has an anxietal personality then I'd be a little timid about doing that as well. Our pup is getting the hang of potty training pretty quick, and doesn't seem to like to chew many things but his toys (that'll change when he teethes). He hasn't had an accident in a while - and isn't soiling his crate during the day or night which is pretty awesome. I feel bad, though, crating him during the night, and crating him while at work even w/ the brief breaks in between - isn't that too much time in the crate? He gets lots of love while we're home, but I still don't like doing it. Perhaps in a week or two when he's a little more trustworthy on the potty-training we can put a nice bed in our room so he can see us and have him roam in there and let him out once a night. I know they're den animals, but I think letting him sleep in an open space close to us will take away my guilt of him being crammed in there so long :/


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

We did an open crate in an expen when our dog was young. We realized real fast that there wasn't going to be any "quiet puppy in a closed crate" any time soon! Over time, we shrunk the size of the pen until it was barely bigger than the crate, and then we started shutting the crate. He still cried when we left him alone for about the first week. We started giving him a special treat when we left him (chicken jerky) and he minded less and less.


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## armk520 (Feb 28, 2014)

Our blue tick cried every second he was in the crate his first two weeks home. Cried is an understatement, he howled so much we had to put him in another room to get any sleep (yes, we kept an alarm for potty purposes!). He didn't stop until we put him in a crate with our beagle. That first night I called my boyfriend and said, "Well, good news is, Fred is sleeping. The bad news is, the snoring is almost as bad as the howling!"

He started crying in his crate again right after she died and will cry from the second I put him in the crate until he hears the door latch behind me. Now with the new puppy, when I put the gates up and I'm in the kitchen (in full view) and they are in the living room, he whines at the gate. I am afraid to leave him out of his crate when I am not home because he may destroy things out of anxiety. Some dogs just get anxious without us around, and it's hard to figure out the next step when it feels like you've exhausted most of them.


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## jade5280 (Feb 20, 2013)

armk520 said:


> Our blue tick cried every second he was in the crate his first two weeks home. Cried is an understatement, he howled so much we had to put him in another room to get any sleep (yes, we kept an alarm for potty purposes!). He didn't stop until we put him in a crate with our beagle. That first night I called my boyfriend and said, "Well, good news is, Fred is sleeping. The bad news is, the snoring is almost as bad as the howling!"
> 
> 
> He started crying in his crate again right after she died and will cry from the second I put him in the crate until he hears the door latch behind me. Now with the new puppy, when I put the gates up and I'm in the kitchen (in full view) and they are in the living room, he whines at the gate. I am afraid to leave him out of his crate when I am not home because he may destroy things out of anxiety. Some dogs just get anxious without us around, and it's hard to figure out the next step when it feels like you've exhausted most of them.


My puppy has separation anxiety too. I'm starting to think that maybe coonhounds are more predisposition to it (maybe boxers too?). I've really tried everything to help his anxiety from the day we brought him home. I'm thinking another dog may help. I wont be getting another for a while though. I guess I will just have to cope for now.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

My breed is prone to SA, so I knew there was a chance. I did work hard to prevent it, and maybe that's why his is so mild, but it's been a little challenging. He has grown out of it some with age (he's 1.5 years now) so I think maturity helps if you're consistent.


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## jade5280 (Feb 20, 2013)

elrohwen said:


> My breed is prone to SA, so I knew there was a chance. I did work hard to prevent it, and maybe that's why his is so mild, but it's been a little challenging. He has grown out of it some with age (he's 1.5 years now) so I think maturity helps if you're consistent.


He is progressing but not as much as I would like. I'm hoping he settles down as he gets older. It's really a terrible feeling knowing your dog is stressed out and anxious without you. I really wish he could be happy without me!

For the OP, this may help http://www.poodlestopitbulls.com/1/...on-anxiety-food-toys-will-save-your-life.html


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## Yankee (Mar 4, 2014)

jade5280 said:


> He is progressing but not as much as I would like. I'm hoping he settles down as he gets older. It's really a terrible feeling knowing your dog is stressed out and anxious without you. I really wish he could be happy without me!
> 
> For the OP, this may help http://www.poodlestopitbulls.com/1/...on-anxiety-food-toys-will-save-your-life.html


Great article! He's actually doing MUCH better during the day yesterday, last night, and so far through today (my fiancé went to work again just so we could test whether or not yesterday was just a fluke of him being a good boy). He definitely doesn't like the crate, but he tolerates it, and that's fine with us. He doesn't bark loudly, he just whines now. What we have found is that covering the crate and giving him a Kong calms him down after the first 20 minutes or so of soft whining. I also put a bully stick in there and he seems to gnaw on that after his Kong (he's too young to go through the whole thing quickly, he hasn't even made a dent and it's been 2 days). The night before we leave I put some pork liver treats in the bottom of the Kong, then put some canned Dog food in the middle, add more liver treats to the top, and cover w/ peanut butter then freeze it. Once he's done throwing his first little (pitiful!!!!!!!!! - oh man I feel so bad when he does it) whimpers, he goes to town - usually has the peanut butter gone by the time I'm home to let him out the first time. No accidents since last Saturday (the day we got him), so I'm hoping we can trust him a little more in a week or so outside of his crate in a bed at night in our room. How do you get your dog to go to the door when he needs to go out, though? We think he gets the fact that the entire house is a "den" and he shouldn't soil it, but he sort've whimpers and runs around a bit when he needs to go to the bathroom; we'd prefer him to go to the door.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

Yankee said:


> Great article! He's actually doing MUCH better during the day yesterday, last night, and so far through today (my fiancé went to work again just so we could test whether or not yesterday was just a fluke of him being a good boy). He definitely doesn't like the crate, but he tolerates it, and that's fine with us. He doesn't bark loudly, he just whines now. What we have found is that covering the crate and giving him a Kong calms him down after the first 20 minutes or so of soft whining. I also put a bully stick in there and he seems to gnaw on that after his Kong (he's too young to go through the whole thing quickly, he hasn't even made a dent and it's been 2 days). The night before we leave I put some pork liver treats in the bottom of the Kong, then put some canned Dog food in the middle, add more liver treats to the top, and cover w/ peanut butter then freeze it. Once he's done throwing his first little (pitiful!!!!!!!!! - oh man I feel so bad when he does it) whimpers, he goes to town - usually has the peanut butter gone by the time I'm home to let him out the first time. No accidents since last Saturday (the day we got him), so I'm hoping we can trust him a little more in a week or so outside of his crate in a bed at night in our room. How do you get your dog to go to the door when he needs to go out, though? We think he gets the fact that the entire house is a "den" and he shouldn't soil it, but he sort've whimpers and runs around a bit when he needs to go to the bathroom; we'd prefer him to go to the door.


In terms of training to go to the door, it sort of happens as they get older- they want out they go to the door you let them out.
A puppy is really alot like a toddler, in that they get busy and arent great at keeping track of their bladders, and play right up until the time they wet their pants (or your floor)-- its maturity that helps them to catch themselves in time.
(Trust me, a puppy or two is great preparation for kids!)....
You can help this process along by gently catching Puppy when he starts throwing out the signals for needing to go Potty, then just say Potty? (or whatever command you are associating with this ) take him out let him go and Treat Treat Treat- its a potty party....
(repeat x like 1,000,000) you get the idea.

Some people really like the bell(hang on a string, like some Christmas bells) on the door nob idea-- that can be handy if you are in another part of the house and cant see him go to the door-- Our 2 boxers learned fairly quickly however, to ring the bell just to go out (we had 3 flights of stairs and that was no Fun).... so we ended up getting rid of the bell, and just stuck to the method of strict potty schedules and 2 long romps a day....


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