frustration with crate training.

RossGirl · 01-20-2004, 09:29 PM

i just need to vent about crate training pippin. he has been in a crate since the day we brought him home, as a young puppy, we got up with him once during the night sometime around 1:30 ( if we went to bed at ten) anyway, now... i cant get him off the habit. he will start to bark around 1:30 and continue till 2:00am or longer. the sort of problem is scott usually gets tired of him barking and gets up to let him out.. big no no as far as i am concerened but he wont stop doing it, and i am at the point where i figure, "fine if he wants to get up in the middle of the night then let him cause i sure am not getting out of bed"

i am thinking bout moving his crate to the basement or.... into the spare bedroom to stop us from hearing his bark and eventually break the habit, it is in the living room at the bottom of the stairs right now... what does anyone think about moving it?? it has been in the same spot for 4 mos and i even leave a radio on at night, but i just cant stand the barking in the night anymore and i can hear it plainly upstairs in my bedroom,

also he needs to be in his crate during the day while we are not home, but what about letting him sleep with us at night??? i know that will alleviate the night barking, but then i am giving in,, plus joey's territory is our bed at night and always has been, i dont let pippin upstairs because it is joeys place even during the day, and if he comes up there with me, i shoo him back downstairs. is keeping him away from upstairs good for joey ( cause it is his place) or am i making the acceptance thing worse by allowing pippin in bed with us at night and crate him during the day??? see the dilema i am in ?? plus am i still leader of the pack or letting joey rule me by keeping pippin out of the bedroom,
and lastly am i just reading way toooo much into the situation

comments, suggestions, help

CTChin · 01-20-2004, 09:43 PM

Whenever I crate trained a puppy, I kept the crate in the same room as I slept. That way I could reassure the puppy that I was close and there was no need to feel anxiety. You could try that. Surely if Pippin were in his crate, Joey won't feel as threatened.

Unfortunately Pippin has Scott trained well. You may have to ignore him for a few nights to break him of this habit. Is he in the crate for long periods during the day? Make sure he is getting plenty of exercise. A puppy getting adequate exercise will sleep the night away.

RossGirl · 01-20-2004, 09:46 PM

he isnt usually in the crate for more then 4 hours during the day, i go to school at 9 am and get home at 12, on days i am gone to the hospital all day scott comes home and lets him and joey out on his lunch, he and joey play a lot in the backyard and we play with him a lot in the house, but it is just too darn cold to take him and joey out walking in the neighborhood. (-14) today

Shadow · 01-20-2004, 10:54 PM

Don't crate. Problem solved.

CTChin · 01-20-2004, 11:10 PM

Shadow you will have to give her more ideas than that. If I remember correctly she had some territorial issues with her older dog when she brought the puppy home. I think she is concerned about that.

Honestly (and please don't think I'm being sarcastic) I AM very curious about how you go about house training your puppies without damage to your home and the stuff in it. Notice I'm not saying potty training, I am saying house training. How DO you do it?

Pawzforamoment · 01-21-2004, 02:00 AM

When my dogs were puppies I had a medium sized crate that I kept in the kitchen during the day with a baby gate across the doorway. I worked for 8 hrs so I couldn't possibly keep them crated for that long. So I kept the crate door open with some blankies inside, and left some newspapers on the floor in case they couldn't hold it. Then when I went to bed I would just take the crate into the room and put next to my bed. Potty training was fairly hard but they learned after awhile, I heard beagles are hard to pottytrain anyway, so I was already expecting that much.

greencolander · 01-21-2004, 09:00 AM

I think the dog has Scott well trained!

It will be a bit of a pain, but I think after a few nights of no one responding to the bark, the dog will give up.

Rincewind · 01-21-2004, 09:46 AM

I have to admit I don't know the back story on this but I have a few questions and suggestions for you.

Does your dog view his crate as his home, or as a punishment? If you put him in only when you are leaving (to go out or to sleep) then he might have come to realize that this is a bad place to be and therefore not be to thrilled about crating.

I suggest putting him in for a few minutes during the day then let him right back out again (giving him lots of treats and attention of course). Once they come to the realization that their crate is a safe comfortable spot they will be more content to spend the night there.

You also might want to try different locations. I currently have my dogs crate in front of our patio doors. He loves to look outside so it was the obvious choice.

My dog loves his crate. In fact, he is in there now. I leave the door open whenever I'm home and he comes and goes as he pleases. I did have the same problem as you when he was a pup. For the first 3 nights he cried (but I ignored... it was hard) and now he is fine. I've even forgotten to crate him at night only to wake up and find him laying in his kennel with the door wide open

Basically, the only help I can offer is to be patient... do not go to him (if that means moving the kennel for a few nights then so be it. Crate him for a few minutes for no reason in the middle of the day. And make sure they actually 'like' being in their crate. Once you establish that then the rest is a piece of cake.

Good luck

Rincewind · 01-21-2004, 09:52 AM

I forgot to mention...

ALWAYS give them treats when you put them in their crate, and NEVER give them treats when you take them out.

Think of it this way, if you always got lots of attention and yummy treats every time you got out of your home then we would all want to get out ASAP too

clearjade · 01-21-2004, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RossGirl

also he needs to be in his crate during the day while we are not home, but what about letting him sleep with us at night??? i know that will alleviate the night barking, but then i am giving in,, plus joey's territory is our bed at night and always has been, i dont let pippin upstairs because it is joeys place even during the day, and if he comes up there with me, i shoo him back downstairs. is keeping him away from upstairs good for joey ( cause it is his place) or am i making the acceptance thing worse by allowing pippin in bed with us at night and crate him during the day??? see the dilema i am in ?? plus am i still leader of the pack or letting joey rule me by keeping pippin out of the bedroom,
and lastly am i just reading way toooo much into the situation

comments, suggestions, help

I wouldn't just say 'don't crate' because of past aggression issues between both dogs. For those who aren't familiar, here the past thread which will give some background on Joey and Pippin: http://www.pets-on-the-net.com/forum...pic.php?t=2420

By the way, how are they doing with sharing their toys now? Also is there still food and water bowl aggression?

I'm not sure about allowing him to sleep on your bed, you might end up with both dogs on your bed and that's really up to whether you are prepared to sleep with two dogs in your bed for the rest of their lives. Or it could cause aggression to flare up again. How are the boys getting along now? Maybe you could slowly introduce Pippin to the upstairs and bedroom so that he and Joey can be together? Then you could move his crate upstairs.

Pippin might be lonely downstairs while the rest of the pack are upstairs which might be why he's barking at night.