Crate Problems.

[corgi_love]

Well, Kyrie does great when we first put her in the crate at night. She wines for about 10 minutes and then is dead asleep. Well, when 3 AM comes around we take her out and when we put her back in.. She screams, cries, barks for about an hour before she falls back asleep.

Then at about 6 AM, she screams, cries, and barks and DOES NOT STOP. She goes on, and on, and on. We take her out to pee, put her back in and she doesn't quit. So we end up having to wake up and take her out and stay up. So we don't get a lot of sleep around here anymore.

This is almost week 3 of having her, and she isn't improving.

What do we do? I'm going to have a break down if I wake up to her screaming every morning *sigh*

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

Now you know better than to let the puppy control what happens.

If you have to get up in the mornings because she is loud, get up and LEAVE HER IN THE CRATE.

Leave the room, shut the door, and ignore what happens in there. Sleep on the couch, or whatever. But STOP letting her force you to let her out before you are ready.

For the 3am nonsense, I'm afraid I would either become a crate thumper, or I would put another crate in a different room where I could close the door and muffle the noise.

I am pretty ruthless about crate training puppies. I have never trained one that did not end up loving the crate. But I never let the puppy control by theatrics whether I take them out of the crate or not. If I am sure they don't need to potty, they stay in there, loud or not.

 

[Gena]

The biggest thing that helped my crate-crier was so basic I don't know how I missed it. I started feeding in the crate. It sets them up to RUN to their crate and associate it with good things. Treats never worked as well as meals for whatever reason. I also looked at how *I* viewed putting him in the crate. I felt bad for having to do it and that transferred to him. I had to literally chant in my head "He's safe in there. He'll calm down and sleep in just a few minutes." Now I call out "get in bed!" and both dogs tear for the crates waiting for half a milkbone. No fits, no digging, no whining.

 

[corgi_love]

Thanks to you both! I will try feeding in her crate then.

Thing is, when I throw a treat she grabs it and runs out of the crate *sigh* Maybe the feeding will work out better. She just really doesn't like her crate. She's driving me nuts.

 

[bbkng]

I never had this problem with my older Aussie Licus when he was a puppy, he would do just fine in the crate, but Jazz, the new puppy is just like you explain...What we do with my girlfriend is to just ignore her so she gives up at the end and feed and threat her in the crate. She is now 14 weeks old and improved quite a bit. Its long and painful(to the ears and the neighbours)but it gets there. Good luck...

 

[corgi_love]

I never had this problem with my older Aussie Licus when he was a puppy, he would do just fine in the crate, but Jazz, the new puppy is just like you explain...What we do with my girlfriend is to just ignore her so she gives up at the end and feed and threat her in the crate. She is now 14 weeks old and improved quite a bit. Its long and painful(to the ears and the neighbours)but it gets there. Good luck...

You do what with your girlfriend? Lol, thanks. I will try this as well.

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

Thanks to you both! I will try feeding in her crate then.

Thing is, when I throw a treat she grabs it and runs out of the crate *sigh* Maybe the feeding will work out better. She just really doesn't like her crate. She's driving me nuts.

I want you to sit down for a minute and think long and hard about how big this dog is going to be.

TAKE CONTROL of this situation. Use the crate door to your advantage. My puppies learn VERY quickly after a few well timed crate door closings to wait for an invitation to come out.

You are setting yourself up for SERIOUS ISSUES later, if you do not stand up, lose the helplessness, and take charge NOW.

So, Take the puppy, hold on to it, put the treat in the crate, and then put the PUPPY in the crate, and close the door.

 

[lizzybeth727]

Thing is, when I throw a treat she grabs it and runs out of the crate *sigh*

In this case, you're using the treat as a bribe. Bribes are very dangerous, because basically as soon as the dog sees the treat come out, all thinking has stopped and she's only concerned with where the treat will land and how to gobble it up as fast as possible. She doesn't even really notice that she's gone IN the crate to get the treat, but once the treat's gone she'll surely get out of the crate as fast as possible.

Instead, think of the treat as a reward for a good behavior. Throwing treats into the crate is a great way to reward going into the crate, but you have to do it after the behavior has happened (or at least started), not before. So in this case, if a dog will willingly go all the way into the crate, you can throw the treats in the crate after the dog, so she will get them once she's inside. Or, if she won't go in at all, you can position her so that she's facing the crate door (door open), and when she takes the tiniest movement forward, THEN toss treats into the crate to get her to go the rest of the way in - your reward comes for moving in the direction of the crate.

And then yes, by all means, close the crate door once she goes in.

 

[Gena]

Corgi-love...yup I know all about the snatch-n-dash treat toss. I was in a bit of a rush earlier so I didn't fully explain the feeding in the crate we did. The first few times he got about 1/4 of his meal at a time and only had to stick his head in to eat it. He also had to sit and wait before "getting" to stick his head in the crate and eat his food. Eventually we moved, in small steps, to him all the way in the crate sitting and waiting, door closed, before he could eat his meal. Maybe part of the success was making it seem like he needed "permission" to go in the crate. Reverse doggy psychology LOL! I don't close the door now, mostly because I'm lazy But the lessons stuck and while he's not the type to snooze in his crate just because, he doesn't argue about going in there anymore.

 

[corgi_love]

Thanks all. I stopped throwing the treat in a few days ago(actually it was a BOOK that told me to do that lol), I treat her once she's in and the door is closed. I got her a wire crate and it just arrived today and she likes it a lot better because she can see everything. She's adjusting to it nicely now She actually has quited down a lot faster. Woo!

RR, I know how big my dog is going to be! Just because I don't shove her in the crate and slam the door, doesn't mean I don't know how big she will be or that I'm not taking control enough! I appreciate your advice, though.