argh, help! can I close the door of the crate to have a rest?

[sickoftheholidays]

Have now got puppy containment unit crate. Kids are home from school and its an endless round of dog jumping up at kids, sharp claws, lots of excited licking and nibbling, puppy is currently roaming from room to room, looking for mischief, wont stay in her crate for more then 1 second, please tell me it wont damage her psychologically to shut the door. I just need a huge glass of wine cup of tea and 5 minutes peace to get my breath back!
I think I have a real livewire here.

Well I always did and it did no harm. I also had a playpen I used.

cant you just separate the kids and puppy for 10 minutes? but tbh i dont think 5 minutes with the door shut will do any harm. put some food in and then close the door.

Puppy probably needs some down time tbh - like babies and nap time

I def. need some down time, dont know about puppy! She is now standing at the door to the pen whining pitifully.

I have said to kids that if she is fussing gently like pushing her head under their hands to greet them etc, thats fine, and to acknowledge her and pat her, but if she starts jumping up and licking/nibbling, to say "no" sternly and push her off gently and walk away. Trouble is kids now cant sit on the floor without being jumped on and pestered, if they sit on the settee she spends the whole time trying to jump up on there and wont take no for an answer.

Crate the children? It's their heightened energy that's feeding hers!

Seriously, a stair gate can really help. Children can see dog, dog can see children but no-one gets to interact until everyone's calm.

As soon as the energy starts to rise, dog behind gate until everyone's calm.

It's important your children understand their part in this. Pup needs to learn to greet calmly. She can only learn this through their example and she cannot learn this if they are hyped up as this will hype her up

Sorry but shutting the puppy in the crate will only make things worse. I am a huge fan of crates but they are supposed to be a safe place for the puppy to retreat to, not a punishment. If you start placing the puppy in the crate and shutting her in there when she is overexcited very soon you will find it very difficult to get her in there at all.

Things that will help:

• when the puppy jumps up, fold arms, turn around and walk away. The whole family should try to be consistent with this. If it's too difficult for the children to do someone should hold the puppy on a lead, child approaches, if the puppy jumps up child folds arms and walks away. If the puppy keeps all four feet on the ground it gets petted/treated.
• teach an 'off' command. Your puppy training classes should give you some advice on how to do this. Personally I avoid the word 'no' as it is in very common usage and it is really easy to desensitize the dog to it.
• when she displays unwanted behaviour distract her with a squeeky toy, a training session or a tasty chew. Kongs stuffed with all sorts of hard to get to goodies are a god send.
• make sure she has a lot of stimulation before the children get back home whether this is walking, play time or training time.

Pop her in, add a couple of treats and a toy and shut the door. She may whine for a couple of minutes but will settle.