My Puppy is Weird

[houlahoops]

releasethehounds: Thanks for the clarification! She does drag a long line (it's good for me to have a handle on her so that when she makes a stupid decision I can…ah…redirect her haha).

GatorDog:

Mine also don't typically go for a ton of walks really, more so just trips to stores or some play in the yard.

When I say walks, we aren't talking "dogs on leash walking where I walk on the sidewalk." We spend most of our time just sniffing around and then playing puppy-ping pong or tag or hide-and-seek or whatever she is most keyed into at the time. We don't do a lot of yard play just because our yard is boring compared to what's going on down in the cow pasture or out by the corn haha.

I get that she needs lots of break time (and I swear I am not chasing her around all day!), I'm just not sure how to get her to associate the crate with break time. Even if she is tore up and worn out, as soon as I put her in the crate (during the day), she hollers like she's being murdered for hours at a time. Will she get used to it if I just wait it out?

I really don't believe in "fear phases" really either. I think the genetic nerve and thresholds of any puppy will show early on, and as they develop, they will learn how to adjust their own attitude accordingly through the situations that we've shown them and what they've learned.

Although I agree with you to a point, here, I do think the literature suggests that there are times when it is less appropriate to put pressure on a dog that is behaving reluctantly or "afraid." Experiences during certain stages in puppyhood do have a more significant effect on both temperament and behavior of adult dogs than later traumas do (per Serpell, Stewart & DeGhett, Fuller, Scott, Elliot, etc.) Not to downplay the influence of genetics/pre-natal environment on overall nerviness, but to me there is enough evidence to support developmental consideration on training and exposure. JMHO! I am probably completely over thinking it!

I pretty much always have food on me to reward puppies at this age.

She is a total chow hound (and she loves her rope toys), and this is something I definitely need to get better at!

Oko:

At that point it was such a fear response that there was no way she was going to find it rewarding. She's now absolutely lovely in the crate.

This is where Pippa is now (the first sentence, not the second one, haha). How to I get her to be lovely in the crate??? TEACH ME YOUR MAGIC!

AgilityPup: Ugh maybe puppy class will help? Then she can learn from a bunch of dogs that she won't really have to hang out with ever again?

 

[Oko]

Feist freaked over the door closed period, so I started by having her sleep in the crate on my bed up by my pillow, then slowly transitioned from a chair next to the bed to the floor to farther away to out of sight. I really didn't push it and she slept uncrated with me a lot. We've just played a lot of games with the crate to make the value big, and I made sure not to overwhelm her and have another really bad experience.

She did sing the song of her people for two weeks while in the car crate, the thing that made her stop completely was someone sitting in the backseat for a couple of days until she got used to it. But that was woe is me, this sucks howling that would start and stop as opposed to losing her mind with terror.

I'd probably play a lot of games that involve her going in, you taking a couple steps away and then coming back and feeding her, etc etc working up to out of sight and more time, as well as throwing a party if she chooses to go in it on her own.

 

[Oko]

Oh, and another thing I did at that age when Feist would still go back to sleep easily is pop her in the crate for a nap once she had fallen asleep outside of it.