Puppy Whinning When In Cage......

[Lila&Ruby]

We have had Lila now for 1 month and she is not 14 weeks old.

She continuously crys or whines while in the cage. My wife and I dont pay attention to her or make any noise towards her. We give her plenty of toys and I give her a treat everytime I put her in the cage. How long does it take to break her from crying or whatelse do I need to do or try.

Thanks.

[poodlefan]

We have had Lila now for 1 month and she is not 14 weeks old.

She continuously crys or whines while in the cage. My wife and I dont pay attention to her or make any noise towards her. We give her plenty of toys and I give her a treat everytime I put her in the cage. How long does it take to break her from crying or whatelse do I need to do or try.

Thanks.

How long is she spending in there?

[Lila&Ruby]

We have had Lila now for 1 month and she is not 14 weeks old.

She continuously crys or whines while in the cage. My wife and I dont pay attention to her or make any noise towards her. We give her plenty of toys and I give her a treat everytime I put her in the cage. How long does it take to break her from crying or whatelse do I need to do or try.

Thanks.

How long is she spending in there?

She starts whining and crying right away.

However, she spend approx 4 hour-6 hours in there at a time, if we are not home. She has not slept thru one night yet. She wakes up every morning at 3 or 4 am. I dont mind this because she whines a little to let us know she has to go out. We allow her to use the restroom and then I put her back in the cage where she crys for another 30-40 minutes before she goes to sleep. Recently I have started to sleep on the floor next to the cage because that is the only way to get some sleep.

When we are home, she is with us the whole time. The cage is only used when we are going to sleep or leave for work.

[poodlefan]

When we are home, she is with us the whole time. The cage is only used when we are going to sleep or leave for work.

So, from her persepective, how do you think she views being placed in there? It currently signals two things.. you're leaving or she's going to be in there for hours, or both.

I'd strongly suggest you need to work on making more positive associations with the CRATE. Think of it as her den, not her prison. Its not a cage if you don't treat it like one.

Feed her in it, give her treats in it, put her in it for short periods of time while you're watching TV, having a shower etc. I think she views it solely as a place for long periods of isolation at the moment.

Oh, and get off the floor at night. That's not going to be helpful in the long run and must be bloody uncomfortable too!

Do you cover the crate? Is it a wire one? How big is it?

What breed of dog are we talking about

Edited November 21, 2008 by poodlefan

[Dogsfevr]

so how many hrs total a day does she spend.

During work hrs can she not be left anywhere else??

[Kyra]

My dog Kyra was the same, we bought her a crate when we first brought her home, however she would get very stressed out in it and would start bashing her head into the sides, crying like crazy.

The cage was ditched.

I hope you find a way to calm her down and get her used to it. Some dogs just won't take to them, though. Good luck :rolleyes:

[Miranda]

I don't know what breed you have, but if she spends a large part of the day locked in a crate I'm not surprised that she doesn't want to sleep at night. Crating a dog for 14 hours or more a day is far too long IMO, she would be far better left outside in a secure puppy proof yard.

[Erny]

I agree that this is a considerably long time to leave her in a crate - especially on a regular basis. Being left there for such a long period of time may well have established an association with punishment, rather than comfort. Not only for the long period of confinement, but for the isolation it now represents.

When I crate trained my puppy, it was initially for very short periods of time and even then only usually when it was his sleepy time (or for my 'first thing in the morning coffee' time, something I like a bit of peace with so I can contemplate all the things that need to be done throughout the day, not to mention so I can wake up properly ). So his association was one of 'peace, calm and comfort'. He was glad of it because he really did want to sleep. Because he is a RR and prefers the heat as opposed to the cold (and because it was cold weather when I brought him home), I included a hot water bottle in the crate (although this was carefully wrapped in a towel and tucked securely under a couple of thick blankets). He very quickly learned to love being in his crate. (Note: I did NOT leave the hwb in the crate when I was not close by enough to supervise, for fear of him deciding to try to 'dig it out' and chew it .... something he never did, but you never know - so safety first.)

During the day when I was home to supervise, his crate was left open and I would periodically (ie a few times during the day) let him have a food treat (eg. a piece of carrot; a bean; a piece of apple). I generally fed it to him in the crate using words to indicate that's where I wanted him to be. So on top of him liking his crate for rest and comfort, he also enjoyed going to his crate because it represented good things. Sometimes he was free to come straight out of the crate, other times not.

Initially I could not leave him outside (for reasons I won't bore you with here) but there were times when it was unavoidable that I leave him. I knew he was too young to be trustworthy to be left to free roam inside, so I had created a set up which comprised of a large dog crate and a puppy pen. The puppy pen formed a 'yard' and his large crate entrance was locked in the open position so he could wander in and out at will. I placed a tarp on the floor of the puppy pen as I knew that 'accidents' were going to be unavoidable during my absence.

I initially began leaving him in that 'set up' for very short periods. Eg. Just simply to skip out to the letter box and back; whilst wandering around the house doing housework; and then building up to me working in the yard (mowing; gardening) with him inside in the crate/pen arrangement. Then a trip to the local store. Then supermarket shopping. And so on until he was able to happily cope for up to 4 hours. Even then, those 4 hour stints were few and far between and often broken with a return for toileting purposes, a bit of a play, feeding (not necessarily in that order) and back in the crate so I could finish the other of my commitments that drew me away from home.

Many times he would make a dash into his crate/pen arrangement and sit up like 'Jackie' in the 'yard' part of it, fully hoping (expecting :rolleyes:) a treat for doing so ;). Sometimes he'd just volunteer to go there and have a sleep or rest through the day without need to close the door to it.

As the weather (and other things) improved, I began teaching him that being outside in the yard was ok and we began to use the crate less and less. Also, as his toilet training was getting better and better, I simultaneously began feeding him in the 'yard' component of the arrangement and included a snooza mattress in it as well. This actually helped in getting him out of the habit of soiling there. In fact I have now dismantled the crate/pen arrangement and pup (now 5.5 mo) either lays on his mat in the loungeroom whilst I'm watching TV (ok, he's not so perfect with that, but we are at that 'next stage' of teaching) or on his cushion bed next to my bed when we sleep (or on my waterbed where it is really warm when he thinks I don't know about it ). He has a well-sheltered outdoor kennel and has learnt to enjoy its comforts and is now capable of remaining in the back yard for a full working day without issue.

I admit I am lucky that I was able to structure my work around pup in those early first few weeks, but this is where planning holidays from work is helpful. Pups need to 'learn' about being by themselves and being happy with their own company. It isn't something that comes natural to them and being confined to a crate for so long so regularly is not going to help your pup be ok with the crate nor necessarily with being alone.

I am sorry if I seemed to have hi-jacked your thread with 'my story'. That's not intended. What IS intended is to portray a demonstration of what a crate should come to represent to a dog and some idea of perhaps how you can go about achieving that.

Remember that a crate is a training AID, not a training substitute.

Edited November 21, 2008 by Erny