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my husband and I have just got a puppy from a rescue centre, she is about 4 months old and a cross breed!
We have got a crate/cage for her to sleep in and she is barking when she is left and sometimes during the night. Are we right to ignore her? I feel horrible but feel we should ignore her so she learns to sleep there.
We are tryingt o put her in for a small amoutn of time every day so she gets used to it and we are making a big fuss of her when she goes in and giving her a little treat so she learns it is a nice place, but is there anything else we can do to stop the noise
I had the same thing with my little puppie; I posed a similar question with Early Riser post. I tried the advice and it worked. Basically I let him into my room, i didn't bring his crate up as its massive but made a bed from one of his blankets and another pillow and put him by the warm radiator and put lots of paper on the upstairs landing. He slept there for a while and i gradually moved the bedding onto the hallway with my beedroom door open; he was more than happy to sleep there and one night i shut the bedroom door and he was still happy.
Once he learnt to come downstairs I thought I could give it a try and leave him in his crate. I made sure he was fast asleep in his crate when I went to bed, and that he had spent the past hour in it, and not curled up on my lap which is such a temptation, and I snuck upstairs to bed. He did wake up and I would hear him make his way upstairs only to find a dark hallway, still with paper down, and small little bed. Needless to say, he soon decided his warm comfy crate with his toys, chews located next to the radiator far more appealing. It only took a couple of weeks and it worked really well. No more waking up in the middle of the night. Job Done!
My worry was that once he was upstairs he woudn't want to go back down but although he did have a comfy place to sleep upstairs i guess for him, who likes his crate, it just wasn't home.
Understandable, that was my worry at first but it worked. I think it's just a gently gently approach. I was determined that he would not sleep upstairs but as i had neighbours either side his ear splitting howls in the middle of the night just weren't an option for me, but you set-up may be a little different. Anyway good luck either way.
If you can move the crate upstairs, it is a little easier as they associate the CRATE as being bed and not so much the room its in, then you just move it away gradually.
If you do that you will also find that if you need go anywhere or your dog need stay at someone elses house they will settle very easily in their own crate.
Otherwise, making sure taht pup is empty and not hungry, you just have to ignore it, and you must be sure you can do this as the ONE time you give upand go down to a sh outing pup you will have made the job 10 times harder. If you go down, even once, you have taught the pup that if he tries hard enough, you will come back so he will try even harder next time which is harder to ignore.... and so on.
Choose which you will do and stick to it religiously - if you have neighbours discuss what you are doing wtih them as its always better than upsetting them because they dont know whats going on.
Thanks for that, we might have to try moving the crate upstairs and seeing if she settles then. She settles after a few minutes of barking, it is just that she has started waking up in the middle of the night and barking, and we are so tired we are going to get ill if it carries on but of course we don't want to give her up.
I am determined to ignore her when she barks but she is trying harder and harder and I don't see her stopping!
When she was at the rescue centre she was staying at one of the trustees house as she needed her jabs, and he didn't mention her being noisy during the night, but he had dogs and I wonder whether the presence of other dogs (even though they weren't in the same room) made her feel better!
I am really stuck, but may have to try moving her crate upstairs!
If you are sure shes not barking because seh needs the toilet, ignore.
At firstr if you have been coming running to her barking, she WILL try harder (hey it worked before she'd be daft not to try harder!), but she will eventually get the idea.
Id go for an easy life and just move the crate - you should be able to tell if she does need the toilet, the bark will be different. If that happens in the night and shes by your bed in the crate, ask her to shh for a second, when she does take her out, straight down the stairs, outside on the lead and the ONLY thing you say to her is if she toilets, you reward her really well with praise. If she doesnt toilet, ignore back upstairs and into the crate.
The reason for this is she needs to know that the ONLY thing that might happen at night is being allowed out to toilet. Nothing else, no games or fun, just toilet and back to bed.
Tried putting her cage at the top of the stairs last night and she was much better, no barking, but we did have a few accidents which we don't usually get (usually there is just 1)!
If I hear her cry tonight I'll taker her out as suggested!
Have you tried giving her some sort of toy as a comforter whilst in the crate? We have a 3 month old beagle pup and he has slept through every night apart from his very first with his Snuggle Puppy comforter. He sleeps in a bed in his crate by the radiator in our downstairs utility room, we don't shut the crate door but we have a baby gate to keep him in that room, and at the moment he gets out of his crate and pees on some newspaper if he needs to go.
The Snuggle Puppy isn't cheap at £25 plus postage but well worth it, it's a safe dog shaped soft toy with a pouch in its tummy for a heat source - we use uncooked dry rice microwaved for 30secs inside one of my old socks as he gets the warmth and my smell for comfort. It also comes with a plastic battery powered heart which has a heartbeat, supposed to mimic the puppy's mum but could feel like she is close to her human I suppose. We only produce the Snuggle Puppy at bedtime and he knows exactly what it means and can't wait to get it into his bed. Don't know if it's ok to give the Snuggle Puppy website on here but if you Google it you will find it.
You might be able to make an alternative by wrapping a heat source in a old tshirt of yours or something similar, you'd just have to be sure it's something she can't chew and hurt herself with.
Hope that helps and you will be able to sleep eventually!
