Soothing A Loud Crying Puppy

godmode

I have recently gotten a puppy! She's about 11 1/2 weeks old at the time of this post. She's just been separated from the breeders and her mother for the first time in her life. She does very well when I'm at home - she's very playful and active and she seems to like me. But the second I put her in her crate, whether it be to get something done around the apartment, shower, or get ready for work, she cries, howls, and eventually screams the whole time. She's very loud, and I fear the neighbors can hear her and are going to eventually get annoyed and angry.
How do I fix this? I already know I can't go to her when she cries or else she'll start crying when she just wants attention, but I can't have her pitching a fit for an hour every night I go to work. And I've put all of her toys in the crate too to try and distract her, but she just ignores them when she's upset.

And of course, here's a photograph:


Edit: Upon reading this back, I realized I sound a little cold. I should clarify that I already love her to pieces and she's a wonderful dog!

mts

you can try giving her a special crate treat so she is focused on that instead of you leaving

you can try putting a semi worn teashirt in it.

try waiting until the last minute to put her in the crate

godmode

The t-shirt was something suggested a little earlier this evening that I haven't had a chance to try. I'll be giving that a shot tomorrow night. As for treats, she does have one of those chicken-flavored Nylabones in her crate but it's among the toys she ignores when she's upset.

Sporked

You might want to position her crate so she can see the door or otherwise be able to verify when/if someone comes home. Dogs like to know what's going on in their house, so if she's pointed at a wall it could be stressful for her too. The second we moved our hound's crate so he could see down the hallway to the door he started doing much better.

The t-shirt thing is gold, and she should have some other stuff, a towel or two, to nest with. And always try to reinforce that the crate is a good place; give her a treat when she goes in, use pleasant tones, NEVER stuff her in there brusquely or as a punishment, at least until she makes it hers. She needs to feel safe in there, like it's her den. Maybe put her in the crate, leave the door open, and just hang out with her on the floor for a bit. The key is to associate good feelings with the crate.

godmode

Hmmm maybe putting her crate in the open would help. Currently I have her situated in the spare bedroom because I thought she would start to get anxious as she saw me getting ready to leave for work at night. I'm willing to give it a shot, though!

ihmmy

My dogs actually now kennel themselves when they see me getting ready to leave for work, it's really adorable. Totally seconding the t-shirt (or anything that smells like *you*, so preferably an old t you've worn and not yet washed) and the whole kenneling without door-closing idea. When we got a second dog I really tried to teach her that her kennel was a great place to be. It took a bit longer than with my first dog, but lots of praise when she went into the kennel, petting her loads inside the kennel (door open of course), special cookies that they only get when they're in their kennels

noir_blood

It's all about training and consistency Like ihmmy's dogs, mine immediately goes to his designated placed when I'm leaving. Heck, there's sometimes when I'm just picking up some clothes off the floor and Malone will run to his crate and lay there.

Here's what helped me;

The tshirt thing really helps. Also, if you have an analog clock(you know, the ones with the arms), try putting that under his layer of bedding. Supposedly a ticking tock mimics a dog's heartbeat.

Also, a blanket over the crate helps too. Just don't overuse it, and of course, be mindful about still leaving enough room for him to breath/be comfortable.

Another thing to do was make sure she was comfortable with the kennel. that mean that when I was around in the living room, I would bring the crate with me so that the dog could see it and start to get adjusted to it.

It is hard, and it'll suck and make you worry that your neighbors are going to complain, but if you're consistent, it can take as little as a week or two.

godmode

Okay, so t-shirt thing didn't seem to make any immediate difference. However, having her crate in the living room so she could see me a little longer while I was getting ready for work prevented at least a little bit of crying.

Demerdar

It will just take time.

Psychotic One

Get little soft treats and keep them by the kennel. When ever she goes in the kennel give her a treat and praise. The trick is to make it feel like a home for the dog. Their own little happy place. Also a blanket and maybe a little stuffed dog toy to keep her company. I know for small puppies they make blankets with stuffed heads for them to cuddle with. Helps with the seperation anxiety.

She'll grow out of it. Part of the trick is training the dog to handle the time with out you. They feel they should be with you all the time so the seperation from you is confusing and scary. With some training and positive reenforcement will help get over this phase.

BlindZenDriver

This won't help directly with the dog but it may be worth letting the neighbours know what's up. Informed people is usually much more willing to put up with issues. Plus they'll likely be less annoyed when they know the issue will likely go away once the dog feels more secure. Maybe you can even let the people meet the dog.

PS. The puppy is adorable.

Aoi Tsuki

BlindZenDriver wrote: »

This won't help directly with the dog but it may be worth letting the neighbours know what's up. Informed people is usually much more willing to put up with issues. Plus they'll likely be less annoyed when they know the issue will likely go away once the dog feels more secure. Maybe you can even let the people meet the dog.

This, so hard. If your neighbors are even remotely okay people, a short meeting and "Sorry in advance if she bothers you" can make a huge difference.

godmode

I'm still not entirely sure someone lives in the apartment above me. The day I was moving in, a guy said he was helping the folks above me move out. But there are still some items sitting out on their balcony, I don't often hear noise up there (and it could just as easily be from a different apartment), and I've only seen lights on and people present once a few nights ago. I don't know. If someone makes themselves apparent, I'll have a chat with them.
In any case, however, she has been doing much better the past couple days! She is whining a little less when she sees me leaving, and tonight she was even quiet and I couldn't hear her when I closed and locked my door. Maybe she's just adjusting already!

Didgeridoo

That's great, Godmode! If she's already whining less, it shouldn't be long before she learns that no whining at all is much less effort, and yields the same results.

Now kindly look the other way while I steal your puppy

Gilbert0

Being a new puppy, she just needs consistency and repetition and she'll eventually pick it up. My dog (who luckily trained before we got her, rescue) knows our routine. When the wife or me start to brush our teeth, she'll go get comfortable in bed. As well, her crate is more towards the middle of the apartment but against the wall and she can see everything. But when it's bed time, we put a cloth in front of the door so she knows there's nothing to see. Sort of like what you do with birds. Don't cover the whole kennel (breathability) just enough to cover her main eye-line.

and she is adorable.

godmode

I'm thinking the blanket may not be necessary if she keeps up with this trend! Also to my advantage, it's the middle of the night when I leave so she may be getting the hint that it would be a convenient time to get some shut-eye.

godmode

Didgeridoo wrote: »

That's great, Godmode! If she's already whining less, it shouldn't be long before she learns that no whining at all is much less effort, and yields the same results.

Now kindly look the other way while I steal your puppy

Interestingly, I learned that howling, barking, and whining are no more effort on a dog's vocal chords than it is for humans to talk at normal volume. Just an interesting tidbit!

Also, I'm sorry, but she's not available for theft! If you're ever in the VA/DC area, though, maybe you can meet her sometime

mts

we used to use this

http://www.kongcompany.com/products/dogs/kong-rubber-toys/classic/kong-classic

and we would stuff it with some carrots, yogurt, kibble, bananas, some peanut butter etc and then freeze it overnight. then we were leaving we would give it to our dog right when we were leaving. she would be so distracted with it, she wouldn't even know we were gone. we also would turn the radio on for some white noise etc.

the big thing is don't make a huge production out of leaving.

Darkewolfe

When we had a puppy that we had to crate at night during potty training, we started wrapping a ticking, mechanical clock in a towel (same function as t-shirt, I'd say) that he could snuggle up on. The combination of the soft, familiar smelling cloth and the sound being made by the clock soothed him. Dunno how reproduceable that is.

ceres

moar pics

GnomeTank

If you don't have a ticking clock, they make heart pillows for dogs that have a simulated dog heart beat in them. That helps a TON with our last puppy when we were first were crating him.

amateurhour

It sounds like bullshit, but there's this thing at petsmart that's like $50 and it plugs into the wall like an air freshener that has some chemical that's similar to what a mother dog gives off or something.

I thought it was a ridiculous waste of money when my wife bought one, but I'll be damned if it didn't help. I've raised several dogs from puppy to old dog over the years and I noticed a difference with this thing.

The refills are pretty cheap too, and they last a month.

godmode

ceres wrote: »

moar pics

Need to take more of those...I'll get some more soon!

Update: She's been about the same. I haven't tried the clock trick yet, but she's been a little quieter when I get ready for work and stuff.

And here's what I have right now

ceres

.... awwwww. You have soothed the savage mod.

godmode

Happy to help!

NailbunnyPD

We are going through the same problem. The dog is over a year old, and she's been doing this screaming/howling/barking routine for almost 4 weeks now (since we adopted her.) We only need to crate her for 4 hours for a few times a week. She does well on 5-10 minute sessions, but anything longer and she just loses it. Its actually separation anxiety, and not specifically the crate.

We've tried Kongs stuffed with frozen peanut butter, treats, and dry food. We've tried rawhide bones. I've sacrificed my pajama pants to her crate. The crate is partially covered, but she can see the entrance to our apartment. I've tried Skyping from work to comfort her. We try to wear her out with an over mile long walk in the morning before crating. Now we're trying Melatonin and ProQuiet (tryptophan), but even that seems to have no effect.

We're hoping more practice will eventually break her of it, but it's absolutely frustrating in the mean time. Fortunately, my neighbors have been patient, otherwise I'd be getting weekly $50 fines.

mts

NailbunnyPD wrote: »

We are going through the same problem. The dog is over a year old, and she's been doing this screaming/howling/barking routine for almost 4 weeks now (since we adopted her.) We only need to crate her for 4 hours for a few times a week. She does well on 5-10 minute sessions, but anything longer and she just loses it. Its actually separation anxiety, and not specifically the crate.

We've tried Kongs stuffed with frozen peanut butter, treats, and dry food. We've tried rawhide bones. I've sacrificed my pajama pants to her crate. The crate is partially covered, but she can see the entrance to our apartment. I've tried Skyping from work to comfort her. We try to wear her out with an over mile long walk in the morning before crating. Now we're trying Melatonin and ProQuiet (tryptophan), but even that seems to have no effect.

We're hoping more practice will eventually break her of it, but it's absolutely frustrating in the mean time. Fortunately, my neighbors have been patient, otherwise I'd be getting weekly $50 fines.

was she crate trained previously?

i would work on building up her tolerance. give it 10 minutes if she starts crying wait for her to stop, come back in and treat. then work on increasing the time. though 4 weeks of ownership is not a very long time and i woul dimagine she will get better the longer you have her

noir_blood

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but it worked for me.

Around the half year mark or so, our dog would start to bark whenever I left the house. Because the gf and I have a bit of different work schedules(I leave the house around 7, she around 10), we figured it was because the dog could sense that she was still there. We tried everything, kong products, crating him, leaving him in an caged area where he puts all his toys, etc. Nothing, he would just bark and bark till he got attention.

The GF has trouble sleeping as it is, and tends to need as much sleep as possible, so this was really messing with things, not to mention that just like you, we worried we what the doctors would do.

So I hunted around and did a last resort sort of thing- the anti bark collar.

I really, really hated the idea of it, but I also hated the idea of having to give him up even more, so I tried it. Bought this one;
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=dog+shock+collar

It's programmable, so you can set it so it gives the same type of shock every time the dog barked, or that it escalates the more times the dog barks, etc.

Honestly, it didn't even take a day for us to see a change. We didn't even have to leave it on for more than like two hours, before he sort of seemed to understand it.

Again, I know the idea can be off putting, but it might be an option to consider if you find that you're desperate.

godmode

Personally, I don't feel Mila is that bad. She's been significantly calmer going into the second week of her new life here. That might work for the folks that have a more serious problem. But I think it's still too soon to resort to that.

Heir

noir_blood wrote: »

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but it worked for me.

Around the half year mark or so, our dog would start to bark whenever I left the house. Because the gf and I have a bit of different work schedules(I leave the house around 7, she around 10), we figured it was because the dog could sense that she was still there. We tried everything, kong products, crating him, leaving him in an caged area where he puts all his toys, etc. Nothing, he would just bark and bark till he got attention.

The GF has trouble sleeping as it is, and tends to need as much sleep as possible, so this was really messing with things, not to mention that just like you, we worried we what the doctors would do.

So I hunted around and did a last resort sort of thing- the anti bark collar.

I really, really hated the idea of it, but I also hated the idea of having to give him up even more, so I tried it. Bought this one;
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=dog+shock+collar

It's programmable, so you can set it so it gives the same type of shock every time the dog barked, or that it escalates the more times the dog barks, etc.

Honestly, it didn't even take a day for us to see a change. We didn't even have to leave it on for more than like two hours, before he sort of seemed to understand it.

Again, I know the idea can be off putting, but it might be an option to consider if you find that you're desperate.

Had the same issue with my dog. Got to the point where the Vet suggested either the collar, or drugs to kind of make her sleep all the time. I had no desire to drug her constantly, so I went with the collar.

She's smart, and it only took a couple small zaps for her to learn. It also has that progressive setting that you mentioned. In fact, it vibrates and makes a noise first to warn her, and now she never gets zapped. Hell it's run out of batteries but just putting it on her makes the issue stop.

I hated doing it, but I was desperate.

Maybe it's just me, but I tried it on myself first. Felt like it was fair to do that if I was going to make my dog wear it. It wasn't pleasant, but the low settings weren't too bad either. I don't think she's ever gone over a 2 on the progressive scale (1 being the lightest, 9 being the worst).