Crating making me crazy

[JeanieK]

I would try some very vigorus play or a nice long walk, a half hour before bedtime. And it might be best if he weren't in your room where he can see you.

Good luck, I hope you find a solution. I believe there is something you can buy, for them to sleep with, that will sooth them, I'm not sure what it is, I've just seen it mintioned.

[YorkieGuru]

I have crate trained all 3 of mine. They all have whined or cryed when they first get used ot it. But now they actually are tired and want to go in their crate. Trust me, I wish it could be different and we all could sleep in one HUGE bed, but thats not living in a realistic world. I have to sleep so I can go to work and need my sleep.
But seriously, taking a walk before bedtime is the best thing to do to make him tired.

[YorkieGuru]

u know the funny thing is, as soon as I replied, my Elle just walked into my other dog's crate to lay down on the pillow. So there is a prime example that they think of it as a safe place eventually. It will get better. Good luck!

[starleneo]

I have found putting a stuff animal in the crate and leaving a night light on does wonders. When I got Baby I put her in her crate by the stove and turned out the lights and she cried and cried. I let her do this about 10 mins. Took her to go to the bathroom and then put back in her crate. She still cried so I turned on the light over the stove and she was quiet from then on. Both of my girls sleep in their own crate in the kitchen with light ovewr the stove on. If I hear them cry during the night now I take them outside to potty and put who ever it was back to bed and she goes right back to sleep.
When I got Taffy I took a small blanet over and rubbed the mother dog with it and placed it in the crate with her and a stuff toy . Not a peep out of her.

Good Luck.
Starlene Taffy and Baby's mom

[codegirl42]

I think I will try the walks once he gets his third round of shots *week after next*. Until then, I'm thinking of trying having him sleep in his crate, in his little kitchen area. As of today, I've limited his play area to just the kitchen.

I think before, he just had WAY too many options.

1) Before, he had a rest bed in his kitchen area OUTSIDE of the crate. Today, I took out the extra bed, and just left him the crate with the smaller cushion inside, and he decided to sleep on the floor instead. *eyeroll* I guess he just hates that thing with a passion.

2) Before, we would let him in the living room. But he'd "go" in front of the doorway *same spot always - i need some vinegar*. So today, I decided to stop that behavior by just limiting him to the kitchen area where his wee wee pad is. Let's hope THAT works

3) God, if there was a magic pill to stop the incessant barking, I'd buy it. How do you guys combat the barking? I never realized he could bark so loud. I guess my real issue is my concern for my neighbors. I just really dont want him to be an issue...because he's so loud, you know?

[ChiliPepper]

I don't have any advice for during the day, but I will share what I did with my pup and crating him at night. The first night Home...
I made sure there was only enough room in his create where he could stand and turn around. I did this by stuffing the back with rolled up towels and this made a small cozy sleeping den. I then put the crate on my night stand with the door facing my bed so he could see me all the time and know I was near. Then I draped a hand towel across the top of the crate to cover the side openings that did not face the wall. I put in a hot water bottle half filled with warm water (weather was cold at the time) and covered with a hand towel and put a soft blanket over that to make a really comfy bed. Then I added a cuddle buddy animal with the battery operated heartbeat. I sware I put him inside and said "night, night" closed the door. Turned off the lights, got into bed with my back to him (never acknowledge him in any way). He whimpered softly once and I didn't hear a peep until it was time for a potty run. Now I can put him in his crate and watch tv or listen to the radio and he just goes to sleep without a word. Good luck, I think they need to be near you at night when they are so young and newly separated from their litter as someone earlier posted. Can't hurt to try it

[Mezzi]

OMG I feel your pain. when my girlfriend and I first got Chelsea it was the same way....yelping, yelping, yelping....she would not stop barking at night. and for a little thing her barks were loud. I ignored her too in the beginning, but that did not help, she would bark nonstop for hours on end. And yes she too would sleep during the day
It got so bad with the lack of sleep issue that one morning I woke up, went into the kitchen and totally blacked out. i mean one minute I was up and the other i was on the kitchen floor with water dripping all over me from a plant i had knocked down on the way down. The lack of sleep from Chelsea's barking had taken a dangerous toll on my well being.
So now several months later...has the barking stopped...yup, but that's only because she now sleeps in the bed with me. So no this may not be the best solution, but it's working for me. I'm getting my sleep and she's not barking all night.

[codegirl42]

Last night wasnt so bad....

He whined/cried/kicked the crate for a good 20 minutes tops...and then fell off to sleep until 6am this morning...

However, he still feels like the living room is his...so he gets frustrated from being in the kitchen all of the time. I try to take him out and hold him, so that he feels my heartbeat and he can relax...but still know that he's not getting down to run around and tear things up in the living room.

I bought a "brown snuggle puppy w/ heartbeat" this morning, so we'll see how it goes when that gets here.

[Pup-e-Love]

I've read several threads on barking and here is what I found......

At night, tap the metal part of the crate while he is barking. (Not WHACK, just tap) He will not like the sound and realize after awhile that if he barks (something that you do not like), you in turn will tap the crate (something that he does not like).
I've also read that you can put a few coins in an aluminum pop can (tape the top shut), and every time he starts to bark during the day, just roll the pop can. He will not like the noise and hopefully will stop barking.
Hope this helps!

[bebe37]

I agree. My Bebe was like that when I put her in her playpen. She would cry until someone notices her. So I heard that if you totally ignore them, they will eventually get the hint that they won't get their way. Hahaha.. I would put her in her playpen and not even look her way. She would start barking, then it went to a wimper, then a purrr... and eventually she would stop and klonk out. Hehehee... It really works. Make sure u don't look at your puppy, because they will know.

[Yorkiedaze]

Puppies only nap off and on. In between napping they need stimulation like walking playing and also to pee. For these reasons, I attached an ex-pen to the front of the crate, making sure the door to the crate was open and secured to the fence so it wouldn't shut. I put a wee-wee pad at the opposite end and a water bottle attached to the fence. I put in a couple of chew toys. I covered the crate with a blanket making it more like a little den. For my first Yorkie, Zada, I had to lay two baby gates over the top of the pen because she would climb out. (This set-up was in the breakfast room on tile floor.) It's just very, very difficult to make a puppy stay in a crate all those hours.

[milomlo]

Well I took Izzy's crate into the guest bathroom at night so I couldnt' hear her. After 2 nights of that she was fine and has been in the living room ever since and it has been about 3 weeks that we have had her. I actually did the same thing with Cody to crate train him (although now he has the run of the house).

I had to put her in the guest bath because she was keeping me awake. So I turned a fan on in my bedroom and moved her to the bathroom and shut the door. Sounds mean I guess but it worked for us.

[codegirl42]

I've been going through issues with my apartment complex who suddenly adopted a "no-dog" policy when Bentley started barking *I didnt realize he could be so loud*.

They're allowing me to keep him Yay!

In any case, Bentley had a good night last night. May have been because the Mr. was here and doesnt tolerate noise while he sleeps. lol The can of coins has worked so far...so we'll continue to use it. Today I walked into the kitchen and Bentley had crawled into his Crate on his own.

He's still missing the wee wee pad, by a few inches/feet sometimes, but we'll see what happens over the next few days.

[Sweetums]

We didn't keep our babygirl locked up in a crate all day and most people don't. That would be too confining. These are live, very lively little creatures afterall, and instinctively they need a lot, and I mean a LOT of exercise and stimulation. They are very energetic critters. Otherwise, without enough exercise and too much confinement, you're going to have a puppy who has basically given up and goes into depression or becomes neurotic.

I think your puppy is very smart as most of them are, and is very conscious of the fact that he is being deprived of freedom for prolongued periods throughout the day and your puppy also quite naturally shows it's disappointment at being put back into the crate for another prolongued period after each relatively brief period of freedom. And you can't really blame an intelligent, very energetic little creature for that. That's like imprisonment for you and me, and I can see that having only brief periods of freedom would set your puppy up to protest having to be locked up all night long as well. Our puppy was out of her crate most of the day, so she was tired by the time bedtime rolled around and slept all night from the first night on. If your puppy hasn't had enough stimulation and exercise throught the day and has had too long periods of confinement, then it's not going to be tired enough to sleep through the night.

What we did was to buy one of those pens that is about 36"-48" around. Ours is called a "Small Animal Pen" which has no bottom on it. We have it in the living room with all her toys in it and crunchies and water. We also have her crate which she sleeps in inside the pen.

Even at that, we didn't keep her in it all day. She had her leash on all day (that was a must because we could grab the leash as soon as she showed signs of going potty off her potty pad) and my husband is home all day, so she was out of the pen most of the time. So we never had a problem getting her to sleep during the night. He kept an eye on her and basically, we just watched for the signs that she had to go pee or poo. We followed what the trainers said and paid particular attention to her whenever she ate or drank, had played with us for quite a while, and when she woke up from a nap or in the morning after she'd slept in her crate during the night.

When we watched for those particular times as listed above, she was very predictable. She always went pee after a nap and usually after a drink of water, and went poo in the mornng first thing after peeing, and in the evening sometime between 6 and 9. The signs that she had to poo were that she would walk around the living room in circles for a while sniffing the whole time. There were occasional accidents, which we just ignored and cleaned up, but everytime, and I mean every single time she went on her potty pad, we gave her lots of praise and a treat. Even if we didn't notice it immediately, we would make a big deal out of it and give her a treat.

These little critters are very very smart and they pick up on things really quickly. They particularly pick up on what it takes to get a treat. Rewards are really big with them as far as a teaching tool. So use treats everytime they do something right and just ignore when they do something wrong. Since they are so quick to pick up on treats, they learn things really fast this way. Give treats for any behavior that is even close to what you want them to achieve. They will work harder each time to do an even better job.

[codegirl42]

Originally Posted by Sweetums

We didn't keep our babygirl locked up in a crate all day and most people don't. That would be too confining. These are live, very lively little creatures afterall, and instinctively they need a lot, and I mean a LOT of exercise and stimulation. They are very energetic critters. Otherwise, without enough exercise and too much confinement, you're going to have a puppy who has basically given up and goes into depression or becomes neurotic.

I think your puppy is very smart as most of them are, and is very conscious of the fact that he is being deprived of freedom for prolongued periods throughout the day and your puppy also quite naturally shows it's disappointment at being put back into the crate for another prolongued period after each relatively brief period of freedom. And you can't really blame an intelligent, very energetic little creature for that. That's like imprisonment for you and me, and I can see that having only brief periods of freedom would set your puppy up to protest having to be locked up all night long as well. Our puppy was out of her crate most of the day, so she was tired by the time bedtime rolled around and slept all night from the first night on. If your puppy hasn't had enough stimulation and exercise throught the day and has had too long periods of confinement, then it's not going to be tired enough to sleep through the night.

What we did was to buy one of those pens that is about 36"-48" around. Ours is called a "Small Animal Pen" which has no bottom on it. We have it in the living room with all her toys in it and crunchies and water. We also have her crate which she sleeps in inside the pen.

Even at that, we didn't keep her in it all day. She had her leash on all day (that was a must because we could grab the leash as soon as she showed signs of going potty off her potty pad) and my husband is home all day, so she was out of the pen most of the time. So we never had a problem getting her to sleep during the night. He kept an eye on her and basically, we just watched for the signs that she had to go pee or poo. We followed what the trainers said and paid particular attention to her whenever she ate or drank, had played with us for quite a while, and when she woke up from a nap or in the morning after she'd slept in her crate during the night.

When we watched for those particular times as listed above, she was very predictable. She always went pee after a nap and usually after a drink of water, and went poo in the mornng first thing after peeing, and in the evening sometime between 6 and 9. The signs that she had to poo were that she would walk around the living room in circles for a while sniffing the whole time. There were occasional accidents, which we just ignored and cleaned up, but everytime, and I mean every single time she went on her potty pad, we gave her lots of praise and a treat. Even if we didn't notice it immediately, we would make a big deal out of it and give her a treat.

These little critters are very very smart and they pick up on things really quickly. They particularly pick up on what it takes to get a treat. Rewards are really big with them as far as a teaching tool. So use treats everytime they do something right and just ignore when they do something wrong. Since they are so quick to pick up on treats, they learn things really fast this way. Give treats for any behavior that is even close to what you want them to achieve. They will work harder each time to do an even better job.

Thank you for this.

Bentley enjoys being in the kitchen area now. He goes into his crate as he pleases throughout the day, and sleeps in it at night. But that's the most crate action he sees now.