Will Not Settle At Night

[bridie]

Forum Member

I am my witz end as to what I should do.One whole end of my pergola is sectioned off with colour-bond for the fur kidz and their kennels.My male is always the first ready and quite willing to go to bed.During the day they are free to roam,used only to sleep in.Three weeks ago my bitch was in season,so brought her inside.Male really performed by scratching on the colour-bond gate & howling,didn't you hear it ! Let him roam free ,put the bitch back in the kennel run,that was no better,he started scratching on the out-side of the gate.Male back to the kennel,bitch inside house again.

Got over those two long weeks,ever since although they are now together in the kennel run he is still continuing to rattle the colour-bond gate,starts probably 1-2 hours intervals after he has been put to bed,then has another go at 2a.m.before the 5a.m.rattle, at this stage I let him out.I am in residential,if I was on acerage perhaps I could try ignorance.The gate is attached with 2 hinges,top & bottom to a post therefore all the noise is when he scratches where it is slack in between thus the noise.I have put up a heavy duty play-pen on the inside of gate and surround but he manages to pull this around& out far enough to get between it and the gate.I have threatened water to no avail,he just ducks into his kennel.

I have just read some "crate" links,if I tried this I think he would howl the place down,I need to correct this behaviour asap , I want some sleep,can some-one else give me some ideas as to what they did in similar situation, as to what I should be doing.

He is 3 years old& I have had him for 5 months,great little dog in all other aspects, just wish he would settle at night .Yes,he is a Cheeki-Chi

Thanks folks

P.S.

Had another look at colourbond fence gate,I will add another 2 brackets to stop the slack,it is only about one metre high,so hope to hear from some-one in the meantime with a better slant on this for the long term.

I had this posted under behaviour & some-one suggested to put it under "training" so now I have.

This post has been edited by bridie: 26th Apr 2010 - 10:05 AM

[Aidan]

The trick with crate training, if you can take the time to do this, is to get them to be able to relax in the crate with the door open first, before you ever shut the door. When you do finally shut the door, you just close it very briefly and build up the duration.

It won't solve your immediate problem, but it might be a good contingency for the future. Let me know if you would like more detailed instructions.

[bridie]

The trick with crate training, if you can take the time to do this, is to get them to be able to relax in the crate with the door open first, before you ever shut the door. When you do finally shut the door, you just close it very briefly and build up the duration.

It won't solve your immediate problem, but it might be a good contingency for the future. Let me know if you would like more detailed instructions.

Thanks Aiden,

Bit off topic on Marshie and on to Crate training, I have a 3 month old Puppie and I am giving this crate stuff a go,never heard of it before DOL! Any-how I have the cage in the laundry where she sleeps of a night,I have treats and a toy in the cage to encorage her to venture in and just leave the door open,the question is if & when I close the door I would think that at 3 months it would be too much to expect for her to stay in all night ie. re-toilet break,at the moment I leave newspaper on laundry floor and she is really good as she does it there not just any-where.

Marshie actually never started his rattling until 5 a.m today, so when he didn't do it for 5 minutes I rushed out and let him out for the day.Maybe his hormones have settled down and he is back to himself again.I taped the door with duck tape between hinges last night & tonight I will also put a taup over it to make it more difficult to do,I would really love a sleep-in....soon! I actually put Marshie in a crate the first night he arrived here but all that did was stress him out,& me,I eventually put him in a play-pen with my bitch until he was more comfortable as to where he belonged.Been quite happy in his pen and kennel until this episode.Mind you if more latches doesn't solve this problem I am stuck as to what to do,he will be going to a boarding kennel for when he is not allowed to mate,if he does this every time.

[Aidan3]

I have treats and a toy in the cage to encorage her to venture in and just leave the door open,the question is if & when I close the door I would think that at 3 months it would be too much to expect for her to stay in all night ie. re-toilet break,at the moment I leave newspaper on laundry floor and she is really good as she does it there not just any-where.

Young pups are often pretty good about just being put in the crate with the door closed.

One of the best applications for the crate is to have pup crated in the bedroom with you. Set your alarm for, say, 2:00am. Wake up and take pup out to toilet. The next night, set the alarm 5 min later. After a little while you can have a young pup sleeping right through with no accidents. For this to work the crate must be the right size, not too big (and not too small either).

[bridie]

I have treats and a toy in the cage to encorage her to venture in and just leave the door open,the question is if & when I close the door I would think that at 3 months it would be too much to expect for her to stay in all night ie. re-toilet break,at the moment I leave newspaper on laundry floor and she is really good as she does it there not just any-where.

Young pups are often pretty good about just being put in the crate with the door closed.

One of the best applications for the crate is to have pup crated in the bedroom with you. Set your alarm for, say, 2:00am. Wake up and take pup out to toilet. The next night, set the alarm 5 min later. After a little while you can have a young pup sleeping right through with no accidents. For this to work the crate must be the right size, not too big (and not too small either).

Thanks Aiden,

I get the idea,just stretch it our over a period of time until it will wait all night.