crying yelping dog

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

Our 12 week old jrt is lovely, he has brilliant recall (comes back even if initially was chasing a rabbit etc) and sleeps well in his crate overnight (10-0630). He is house trained and hasn't had any accidents since day 3.

The only problem we have with him is crying and Barking continuously when left in his crate, even if we are still in the room/house. He settles well there at night. I've been giving him a long with some biscuits he likes which he only gets when he is left in his crate. I take him outside for toilet first, then send him to his crate and put the radio on for him before leaving him.

What else can I do?

[Springermum1350]

Does he need to be in there during the day ?

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

I put him in for the odd half hour, for example if I'm getting the dcs (16mo and 3.5yo) ready to leave the house or if I need to get one of them changed. So far I've been building up leaving him, started 20 mins each day while I did the school run. He has lots of play time too and spends most of the day with the dc and I in the garden.

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

Bump ☺

[CaptainKit]

With LurcherPup I fed him in his crate in the early days, so all food was given in the crate. treats like chicken wings - super high value for him. I also put him in the crate when he was overtired and really testing the patience of my older dog; this way he slept in there when he'd worn himself out.

After a while he would take himself to bed in the crate. Unfortunately he grew too big for it and I don't have space for a bigger crate, so he's been loose overnight since he was about 6 months.

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

We feed him in his crate and he is happy in there, he takes his 'treasures' in there and will curl up and sleep in there with the door open... as long as we don't leave the room.

Has anyone any tips how to stop barking when you leave the room?

[TheoriginalLEM]

don't leave him in his crate. he doesn't need to go in there during the day.

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

He does. That's how our family works. He's happy in his crate, that is not the issue. Even if he's not in his crate he barks when I leave the room.

[AprilShowers16]

Have you tried giving him something to distract him if he's in there for only 20 mins or so ? You can freeze a kong full of food and it will take them a while to get through it, although if he's distressed he may ignore it. We tend to cover our crate up too so he feels safer and more like a cave.

Does he have a good wait/stay command or a lie down command? With our dog we worked on that quite a bit which was helpful when we wanted him out the way, now we tell him to go lie down or go to his bed and he does. Could you practise sending him to his crate and lying there for a bit with the door open in the day so it's not sure a big deal when the door is shut?

[AprilShowers16]

Cross posted - ignore 2nd part of my message if it's more to do with distress about you leaving. I think building it up and distractions are what I would do

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

Thank you April I will try and find some longer lasting treats/toys to entertain him.

I've been working on bed and stay commands, just while he's so young and small I want him to be safe while I'm not watching him, I also want the shoes and carpets to be safe! Obviously once he is a bit older I would hope to be able to leave him to Potter in the kitchen for 10/20 mins while I move around the house

[TheoriginalLEM]

so he is not allowed in the other rooms??

[cuntinghomicidalcardigan]

He is, when we are there. He's only 12 weeks old, I'm just trying to consolidate his house training? He has a lovely life being played with, cuddled, massive garden at his disposal, all I'm asking is that he learns to relax whilst not in view of us constantly? There is no problem with him hanging out in his crate with a treat so he can relax away from the dc and both him and them be safe while I pop upstairs, surely? He doesn't have to be my shadow? Is this a problem for you?

[TheoriginalLEM]

No, not my problem at all!

[AprilShowers16]

Try not to worry too much if he's only 12 weeks and keep doing what you're doing. Now is the best time for him to get used to it rather than having a dog who can't be left. Definitely recommend something to keep him distracted while he's in there so he doesn't notice you're gone

[moosemama]

Carry on with the positive associations with the crate and building up the time he's left slowly, but I would advise caution on getting him used to long-lasting treats to distract him from your absence.

I say this as someone that made the same mistake and now has a great lanky wuss of a Lurcher that developed separation anxiety.

If you give him long lasting treats/kongs etc, you could end up in the situation I did, where he would be quiet as long as the treats lasted, then start the wailing (or screaming in my dog's case) as soon as he was done scoffing. I inadvertently made the situation worse, because when he looked up from finishing his treats there was a sudden realisation that I'd gone. Whereas, if I'd taught him to self-settle and be relaxed with me coming and going I wouldn't have needed the distraction in the first place. Treat toys, kongs etc should be used as tools to keep dogs busy and prevent boredom when they have to be alone, not crutches to distract them from their solitude, iyswim.

Having done a lot of research on this, I now know the most important thing to teach is self-settling. You need to work on him doing this with you there to begin with (Google 'training a dog to settle', Victoria Stillwell has a page on it, as do other trainers, including Kikopup/Dogmantics). Then you gradually build up to him settling with you out of sight and for longer and longer periods. If you can set somewhere up so you can build up to being on the other side of a see-through barrier, such as a baby gate that can really help the process.

That isn't to say you can't use stuffed kongs or similar to help him learn to settle. A loosely stuffed kong can be a good way to introducing self-settling if your pup has a particularly short attention span - so you'd do the basic steps to get him onto his mat and not moving, then reward him with the kong to get him to stay there a bit longer - all while you are still within sight at first.

He will most likely pick it up really quickly if you follow the steps properly and you should end up with a pup that has learned to be completely calm when you're not in the same room as him.

[OttiliaVonBCup]

I'd be crying and yelping if I was caged.

[OttiliaVonBCup]

He doesn't have to be my shadow?

Yes he does.
It's what dogs do, they follow you everywhere.

[moosemama]

I don't think it's unreasonable for the op to want him to learn to settle in his crate for 20 minutes, especially as, at this age, it might not be safe to leave him loose if he's somewhere he might ingest something he shouldn't or chew wires, for example.

She's not saying she wants to leave him in there for hours on end on his own, just that she wants him to be happy in there on the odd occasion he does have to be left.

I'd agree that he does need to be able to develop some degree of independence, dogs that don't - like mine - are prime candidates for separation anxiety.

It doesn't appear to be the crate that's the issue though, as he's happy in there when she's in the room with him, it's more being on his own that he's unhappy about and he does need to get used to that, as with the best will in the world, most people can't be with their dog 24/7.

It's also a good idea to teach dogs to settle in a crate, as they will most likely be confined to one at the vets at some point in their life. Plenty of dogs end up on cage-rest for one reason or another as well (thin, cruciate repairs etc) and if they freak out when left in a crate it makes their recovery a whole lot more difficult.