Got a puppy! And need help

[rwinner]

hey everyone. I found my puppy! I was able to find a pup from a breeder in Idaho, pictures to come. We named him Brahms. However we have a big problem. He barks every time he is put in his crate except at bedtime. We are visiting some very understanding family for the holidays right now, but will be going to our apartment in a week. I'm afraid of him or us getting kicked out if I can't stop the barking. He will only need to be in a crate three hours a day. Any ideas?

[rwinner]

Forgot to say, we do feed him in the crate. He will stop barking just long enough to eat. He also has no interest in kongs

[CptJack]

The real problem here is that teaching a pup not to bark in a crate almost exclusively relies on ignoring the puppy barking/crying in the crate and only letting them out or acknowledging them for quiet.

 

I'd be making nice with your neighbors. Because every time you respond to him barking in the crate, you're making it worse. Food in the crate, crate games, all things that help a lot but at it's heart it's an ignoring game.

[Maxi]

Also it often helps if the crate is covered and perhaps while he learns to get used to being in it, put it in a quieter part of the apartment so he doesn't think he is missing out on some fun

 

...but basically as CptJack says..it's an ignoring game

 

..good luck with your new pup.

[Maralynn]

+1 to covering the crate. My pup quieted right down when I started covering the crate.

[Gideon's girl]

Are stuffing the kong with food/treats? I layer canned food, yogurt, dry food, and treats and then freeze them to make them last longer.

[denice]

A tired border collie is a good good border collie

[Tess's Girl]

My pup wailed the first two nights he was in his crate. He wasn't barking or howling, he was wailing. I covered it and just let him wail it out. I also live in an apartment. Thankfully I asked my neighbors and surprisingly they said they couldn't hear him. From my end I was pretty sure that all the creatures on earth and in heaven could. He will learn that barking gets him no where.

[Sue R]

Make the Kong appealing by stuffing it as Gideon's Girl said - you can use a variety of soft foods (cottage cheese, soaked kibble, yogurt, broth) and freeze. You can press sticky foods to the walls of the Kong with your finger or an implement. Make sure to introduce new food items gradually and in small amounts, and reduce regular meals accordingly so you are not overfeeding.

[Laurae]

Count yourself lucky that he is quiet at night. My pup is also a crate screamer like I have never experienced before. I have raised five puppies over the past 15 years, and all have responded to ignoring after a few days to settle in their crates. This one is now 14 weeks old and still screams bloody murder whenever he is put in a crate. He is better at night, though he still wakes up screaming at least once every night, even though I am sure he is well developed enough to hold it by now. I cover the crate, use kongs, have consistently ignored his screams, let him out only when quiet, etc. He is just ridiculously persistent or just still frightened of being alone or confined maybe. I don't know. I generally have stopped crating him except at night or when I leave the house without him now. I continue to hope he just needs to mature a bit more.

 

This is probably not making the OP feel better. Sorry. I guess every now and then a pup comes along who presents a bit more of a challenge!

[Alfreda]

http://www.sithappens.org/PDFs/LoginArea/HandoutCrateGames.pdf

 

Here's a link to Susan Garrett's Crate Games program which many have success with.

[kingfisher7151]

Everyone has it right with the ignoring game. They'll scream and wail their hearts out until they realize that it gets them nowhere. And crate games and kongs will certainly help make the crate a nice place to be!

 

And as I'm finishing up my music degree, I love the name!!!

[D'Elle]

All good advice, above.

Just thought of something: perhaps if you cover the crate, you could use several layers of blankets, which would definitely have the effect of muffling the barking at least a bit.

It may take a few days of getting ignored for Brahms to stop barking, but eventually he will.

Best of luck.

and where are the photos of the new puppy?

[chene]

Our pup was also obnoxiously loud in the crate, and we lived in an apartment. We put up a note on our door explaining and apologizing and included our contact info in case he was barkig too much when we were out. Everyone was really nice about it (granted they couldn't hear him unless they were in the hallway or on the balcony), plus they all wanted to meet him and a few offered to babysit. He quieted down after a few weeks and it all worked out pretty well.

[Laurae]

^^ That's a great idea, chene.

 

I do want to caution about putting a lot of heavy blankets over the crate to muffle the sound--very young puppies can't regulate their body temperatures very well, so watch for overheating.

[rwinner]

Thanks everyone for the advice. We do stuff his kong, he just has no interest in it. He doesn't like any rubber toys, I think they are either too hard for him to like chewing or he doesn't like the smell of new rubber. Anyway, we have been covering the crate with a light blanket to try and make it more den-like. It seems to settle him down a bit. We have also been better with active crate training. We will put him in and ignore him when barking or whining, praise when quiet, and praise and treat him if he is quiet and laying down. He's getting the idea pretty quickly. I do this a few times a day. If we do it before we go somewhere, he usually will have a couple barking fits, then settle down. Then we can leave him alone and he is quiet. We will definitely be leaving a note for the others in our apartment building though, just in case. Oh and my profile picture is the only picture I have of him on this computer. Been busy.

[chene]

Aed did not like his kong either for the first little while. Turns out he just wasn't interested enough in the stuff we were putting in it. Alternatives you can try, though, are cardboard boxes (like cereal boxes, granola bar boxes, kleenex boxes, etc.). Either smear bits of yummy stuff around the inside of them, or put boxes inside other boxes inside other boxes and put a few treats in each layer. You can make it harder by putting newspaper in or wrapping some of the treats in newspaper. Aed will also spend a long time on something yummy frozen in a big block of ice, especially if it's meat or a meaty bone. Actually he'll spend forever on meaty bones in general.

 

Unfortunately these are all things we realized he liked after we'd been through the barking phase. i regret not trying enough different things to help it.

 

Last point, the eventual thing that quieted him down was actually moving him to his big boy wire crate earlier. I think he felt claustrophobic in the little plastic one.

[deadlywarbler]

I made a game out of the crate when I brought my pup home. She cried like crazy the first three nights, but that was it. Lucky! During the day, however, I would sit by the crate with the door open and reward ( I used a clicker and treats for this ) even a glance toward the crate. Gradually she would sniff around the door and I would do the same reinforcement. In a couple days I was able to toss a treat in and she'd follow. Soon the crate was a lovely place to be. Even if I put her in there as punishment (always calmly and quietly) she would just stare out for a few minutes and fall asleep. Each dog is different, I think, but you might try this approach. The barking sounds like anxiety about being in the crate and you definitely don't want to reward that behavior!