Crate training question

[holland]

Hello,

I have a problem. I have been crate training my 7 month old pug, Sammie. She is fine sleeping in there at night, and if I put her in there during the day she is fine as long as I am in the apartment. I need to transition to her being okay, with my leaving the apartment.

I put her in her crate, waited a few minutes until she settled down, I told her to 'Watch the house' and I left. It worked! No barking. I was only gone 5 min, but that is fine. I know to go slowly. Well, I did this 3 more times over the next couple of days, and no barking.

Well, yesterday we went for a long walk in the park, and I thought that would be the perfect day to try to go for a bit longer, since she would be tired. Can dogs read minds? I did the same thing I had done before, but she started barking as I went to the door. I just pretended I was going to the bathroom. I walked around the apartment with my coat on until she fell asleep again. This time I left, but heard the barking in the hallway. It wasn't an angry bark, but a panic crying bark. I waited for a quiet moment before I came back in and it stopped immediately.

So, how do I get her used to my leaving? Do I just leave (for short trips) and let her figure out that barking doesn't bring me back / I always come back? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have to return to work soon, and need her to be okay.

Thanks

[adoptbullies]

May I ask why she sleeps in her kennel at night? Because if you lock her up at night she could be getting too much kennel time. A baby gate to block off some of the house would be better in this case. In other words, would you want to be locked up the majority of your life? (my husband says this sentence sounds like a personal attack :rolleyes: so I wanted to clarify this is only food for thought, not an attack)

She may have an association problem. She may think "kennel = master home" instead of "kennel = master gone."
If you put her in her kennel when you are at home then she associates "when I am in my kennel, my master is at home." So when you put her in her kennel when you are gone then this all of a sudden shocks her belief that you have molded of "kennel = master home." What we do is only use the kennel when we are gone from the house so the only association they can build is "Kennel = master gone." And the kennel is only used for this purpose so they can only associate kennel = master gone, not kennel = master home. They will also start seeing their kennel as a den, as a safe place to be/protect until the master as returned home. So you might try not using the kennel when you are at home, this might help train her association for "kennel = master gone."

Do you leave the TV on when you leave? In my experience, if you leave the TV on or radio it helps drown out outside noise and keeps the dog more calm.

Also, do you give her a toy or treat to chew on while you are gone. She could be bored.

With my yorkie we dont cage him when we leave because he sleeps thru the day and has no "seperation anixety" (that might be a phrase you want to google) therefore doesnt need to be caged. But with him and with our past foster dogs we always kept the same routine this helps keep them calm and not bark while we were gone. Maybe soemthing similar can help you. This is what we did.

1. We would use a command word for them to go to their kennel. We would say "kennel" once they were in their kennel on their own, we would give them an immediate treat to eat this was a reward treat. With our yorkie today he sits at the door as we put our shoes on, we give him a "bite-snack" right away. The dogs (yorkie and past dogs) ate this right away because it was soft and bite size. So they actually looked forwarded to going to their kennel/us leaving because of this treat.
2. We would make sure they had something to snuggle with and a toy to keep them occupied. The snuggle stuff like a blanket gave them materials to make their own den as they would do in the wild. The toy was to keep them from getting bored. A "kong" is great for this.
3. we would leave the TV on and the volume is consistent with what it would be if we were home.
4.We would say soemthing similar to what you said...thats excellent because it gets them in a routine. then we would leave.

Now I know alot of advice says to warm the dog up with 5 mins intervals and so forth, but we have never done this. In fact the only dog we had that would bark in the beginning had seperation anixety. This was the first dog we hadto kennel (my husband thought I was being mean to lock a dog up all day :rolleyes: but he quickly learned). Anyways, we bought a kennel a bed for the kennel, treats, started a routine and that stopped the barking because the routine and his kennel became a safe place for him while his masters were gone. And do you know the chew treat we would give him for the day to stay busy he would not eat until we returned...I guess he was protecting the food supply until the master returned. :D Also,we always leave the kennel open for them to go to when we are at home (never with the door locked though) the experts say this allows the kennel to be seen as a den rather than a cage.

Hope this helps, keep us posted!

[alibuch]

I crated my dog when I was working and when I was sleeping until I knew she wouldn't have accidents in my house. There's no problems with crating at night to get the dog trained.
You need to be consistent with the crating. Try crating her while you're home and make her crate someplace comfortable for her. The crate is her safe place so she should feel that way. When you feel confident she won't have accidents, start letting her out for longer periods of time. I started testing her by leaving her out just while I walked to the corner store to get water, then when I'd go grocery shopping, then dinner with friends, etc until I felt she'd earned her trust. It took a solid 6 months before I felt 100% comfortable leaving her out. Since she was from the Daejeon shelter and was used to being in a cage 24/7, she had issues with knowing where was appropriate to the use the restroom but in the two years since I stopped crating, she's had zero accidents in my house. The only time I crate her now is if someone is sleeping over at my house because she can't calm down knowing someone new is there and since it's just a one-room apartment it gets annoying and no one can sleep.

[holland]

Thought I'd give an update.
I was originally putting her in her crate when I was home (about 30 min) because I didn't want her to associate her crate with my leaving. I thought it would make her hate her crate. But, thinking about it, you are right. Dogs like routine. So I only put her in her crate when I leave and for sleeping (she sleeps in there cause that is what she did at the breeder, all the books I read said its best and my place is not large enough for a 'pen'). I do leave the TV on, and the kitchen fan too, so as to block out apt noise (including yappy dog down the hall). I feed her in her crate, tell her to 'watch the house' and go. At first, I only left for an hour and she made a fuss. But after 3-4 days she was fine with an hour. So then the next day I went for 2 hours. I continued like this and now she is fine. I just make sure to leave her something to do that she loves (peanut butter in a kong for example) and I walk her for about 45 min before I go. It helps that her body and mind have been exercised. It is just a matter of establishing a routine and sticking to it. Thanks for your advice, and good luck to everyone else who is just starting!

[adoptbullies]

thanks so much for the update, so glad everything worked out for you! :D