Need help with puppy

We left our 12 week old puppy alone yesterday from 3:30-6:30 pm. We have a large wire crate we put her in with her bed, my old t-shirt, toys, Kong with PB, and puppy pad. When we came home she was still crying and barking. We could hear her outside of our front door. I hope she wasn't crying the whole time!! She didn't even eat the PB in the Kong. We leave a radio on for noise. Does anyone have any suggestions about what else we can do to help this? We are going to leave her alone again today for a few hours to try to get her use to it. Tomorrow she is going to start to be alone for about 4 hours each day.

We feed her in the crate. She has no problem going in there when we are home to eat, look for hidden treats we drop in there, or get her toys. If she falls alseep during the day, we pick her up and put her in her bed in the crate and she is fine. The problem is just when we are gone.

What can I do to help her???? And when will this crying/barking stop? :cry:
Thanks!

 

I dont know how much help I will be. We just had my puppy neutered, so I decided to get a crate to put him in to keep him calm and he absolutely hated it. I got him in it once and he carried on the whole time.

anyway, Maybe put on an old sweatshirt for a few hours, one you won't mind the puppy laying on and when you go away and leave him in the crate, put the sweatshirt in their for him to lay on that way at least he has your scent in there with him? I can't think of anything else since you give him treats and stuff to keep him busy.

 

Thanks for your reply Beth. I keep a t-shirt in her bed that I wore for a few nights and didn't wash. It doesn't seem to help. We left her alone for a 2nd time today and set up the video camera. She did a little better. She cried for about 6 minutes and then fell asleep until we came home. What do you do with your puppy when you are not home?

 

We have a fenced in yard, with a large Building...DH's shop, they can go in. We also have a kennel run with Dog boxes attached for each dog, sometimes they go in there and crash in a dog box, other times they just run. If we are going away for a long amount of time, we will put him in an outside run and latch him in. He is getting better and better in the house, not chewing stuff and is completely trained, so he also stays in side some if we aren't home.

 

It sounds like she did good today. I don't think you'll have any problems since she is so young I think she'll get used to being left for a few hours quickly alone quickly. Its also important that you don't make a big fuss over her when you come back home or when you are leaving and it would be a good idea to pretend your leaving sometimes even when your not so she does'nt start to anticipate and get stressed when you really leave.

 

Nern - I don't do a very emotional goodbye or hello. Today is the first she will be alone since both my hubby and I are back to work. I am going home at lunch to feed her, let her out, play, etc. I hope this doesn't make it even worse. I am worried about her today since this is the first day. She was shaking a little this morning. We got up, took showers, got dressed, etc. She isn't use to us doing that right away, so she knew something was going on. We bought a thing to put her food in that she has to rolll around and play with in order for the food fall out (I don't know what it's called, but it's purple), and she was very content and busy with that when I left. I hope she is OK :-(

 

Sounds like you are doing great! The t-shirt with your smell on it does help sometimes (if they don't eat it!) as does a ticking clock outside the crate. Leaving the TV or radio on is a good idea, too.

They somehow magically know when you are coming home, so she could start crying when you are walking up to the door. Setting up the camera was a good idea!

Make sure if you leave her with toys with food in them that you adjust her meals accordingly. Those toys are helpful to keep her busy.

We used to leave our pup crated while we worked. She was crated at night. Then I got up 2 hours early so she could spend 2 hours out of her crate in the morning. Then she was crated for 3-4 hours until my husband went home from work. He would let her out to pee and play and when she was little she would also eat. Then back in the crate for about 3 hours until I got home for the day. It worked well for months.

 

My pits are both crated when we are not home... out when we are and they've done splendidly...IN FACT my female would likely go nutts if she wasn't crated...as it is she feels safe and secure in her crate and knows that we will be back etc... I had a rescue that needed to LEARN that she would be safe and we would be back. Meds did the trick for her she learned how and what to expect on the meds so she wasn't stressed and then we weaned her off of them with complete success.

I think you and your pup are doing GREAT and likely going to work out with this crate training JUST fine...the crate will ease her separation issues she likely has. ALSO having her sleep in the crate while at home will be helpfull so that she doesn't associate the crate with your absense but rather with a place to call home.

 

Thank you all so much for the support. I went home at lunch to let her out. She wasn't crying until I walked in. I am pretty sure she was sleeping because she had that look. When she heard me come in, she started to cry. I waited until she stopped and then I let her out. She was mad at me. She wasn't interested in letting me hold or pet her. When I put her back in the crate, I gave her lunch in that purple thing. She was happily playing with it and trying to get the food out when I left. I know she cries a lot when we are gone, so that makes me sad :-(
But we are going to stick with it. Thanks again for all of the support.

 

Oops, repeat!

 

It really is better than letting her have the run of the house and destroy everything in sight.

 

Safer too...lots of ways for puppies to hurt themselves having run of the entire house alone... Read a thing in "Modern Dog" magazine the other day that stated that the healthiest dogs in the country are the ones that are good citizens etc... They went on to explain that they are the ones that ascribe to the following rules of living... can't remember the first one...second and third were Contain and Train...so...crate training and kenneling our dogs are some of the best things we can do for them according to this article...neat one...mentioned finding breeders etc...all that jazz.

 

When I got home from work yesterday she wasn't crying...
She started when I opened the door. Once I let her out, she was being her playful self. She wanted to play and let me hold and pet her. She is eating, drinking, and going potty like normal, so maybe this is a sign that she isn't too stressed. I think I am more stressed about it than she is hahaha. I am going tonight to sign up for a puppy obedience class, and I read that it helps with separation anxiety too. I am going home for lunch soon, so I will get to see how she is doing now. Thanks again!

 

Don't forget that dogs sleep a LOT. When I am not home, my dogs are no longer crated but all they do is sleep. Even when the kids are home, the dogs sleep. Then I get home and they go nuts. Then they sleep. LOL. :lol:

When I used to put chew toys in the crate, they never touched them (but they went nuts on them when they were let out later).

 

Thanks Jamiya. I hope she sleeps. I feel so bad putting her in a crate, although I know it's the best thing for her. When can you start leaving them out of the crate while you are gone? She is potty trained and has never chewed up anything.

Oh yeah and what you said about them not playing with toys....I don't think she does either. I thought it was maybe because she is too busy crying, but maybe not!

 

Yeah, I never could figure out why Nala would ignore something in her crate that she was nuts about out of her crate. Go figure. Don't you wish sometimes that they could talk and tell you what they are thinking?!

I stopped crating Nala at 9 months old, not by my choice but by hers. She had been crated since we got her at 14 weeks old and never had a problem with it. But she started resisting going back in at lunchtime when my husband let her out (she used to stumble outside, pee, and ask to go right back in). Then she started shoving the crate pan out of the wire crate and jumping it around the room. We were afraid she was going to hurt herself. So then one afternoon, my husband tricked her by putting her in the crate we use for the car, which she liked because it meant she was going somewhere (which I was really mad at him for, because I do NOT trick my dog - only leads to bad habits later). It was a big plastic crate. He left for work and by the time I got home in the afternoon, she had chewed her way out.

So, we left her uncrated, gated into the family room. She was fine for about 2 days, but I was worried what would happen when the novelty wore off and she got bored. But then we got Bonnie and would leave the two of them gated into the family room.

They have mostly been fine, but one day - months fter getting Bonnie - we came home to find the telephone cord eaten and also a patch of the wall-to-wall carpet. Then fine again for months and then one chair was eaten. Now we put the furniture behind a second gate when we go out, LOL.

So really it depends on the dog. I wouldn't let a puppy have free roam. At 12 weeks, she may not be destructive and you may think she is reliable, but they go through so many phases in the coming months that I wouldn't take a chance. Keep being consistent and crate her, and don't let her know how bad you feel when you put her in the crate. Having a dog used to crates can be very handy - for emergencies, vet trips, boarding, car rides, etc. We still crate both dogs at night and always will. They are fine with it and are actually relieved when I tell them it is bedtime. They get up from where they were sleeping on the couch and follow me down the hallway and into our bedroom and go right into their crates and curl up.

I think I was aiming for a year before letting Nala stay uncrated during the day, before she started her little rebellion. And I think my sister crated her Golden for 1-2 years. I think she is still crating her youngest dog, who is somewhere between 6 months to a year old. We may never let the dogs have free roam while we are gone, but it all depends on how they mellow out. Also, with the cat-chasing issues we have, it is safer to leave them gated in a room so they cats are safe on the other side of the gate.

 

Yes it is so funny how Lucy doesn't play with her toys in the crate, but when I get home and bring them out, she acts like a crazy lady playing with them. We tape recorded her this morning after we left and I listened to it at lunch time. It wasn't that bad!!!!!
She cried for about the first 10 minutes and that was it. When I left after lunch, she heard the door shut and lock, and she started to cry. I hope it didn't last long.

 

great idea tape recording, never thought of that. glad to hear she is doing better.


I would start at maybe 7-9 of months of keeping her confined before letting her have the run of the house and then start out for short periods at a time

many dogs come to find their crates as their permanent comfort zone and even if you decide not to lock her in it you want to keep the crate out and door open so she can go in.

Like wylie, she likes to lay under our bed, under the coffee table because she likes that security. she came to use as an older stray, but probably would have done real well with crating.

honeybear

 

Our dogs don't have access to their crates during the day (I wish they did) but Nala will crawl into hers at agility trials when I am sitting around waiting for the next run. She'll be on leash and I am just hanging out so she gets bored and crawls into her crate to rest or chew on something.

Bonnie also feels more secure in small places. She is under the computer desk right now, and when we took her to the Renaissance Festival last fall, she would crawl under the benches whenever we sat down to rest.

There was an article someone mentioned a while back that said sheep respond to photos of familiar people (or was it familiar sheep??) and it calmed them down. I wonder if a photo of you where she can see it would help....or if that's just crazy talk, LOL.

There are also toys where you can record your voice and they hear it when they roll the toy over or something like that. I think they dispense treats as well.

 

Luther loves to sleep under things at night he never sleeps on the bed with us, he prefers under the bed. We are staying with a friend and the other day Luther walked out of the living room which just has couch loveseat coffee table and entertainment center, and we couldn't hear any noise from Luther, the guy worried Luther was getting into something, so I checked on him and he had just found a nice comfy nook to hide under.
But I read an article one time, years ago so things are a bit dusty, on pets ability to predict when owners were coming home. I forget exactly how it worked, but I am thinking a parrot could sense and would start reacting a half hour before the owner came and a cat would be at about 15 minutes and the dog about 5. I can't remember if this was based on consistency per pet(one bird, one cat, one dog), or the consistency per group (ie all parrots, dogs or cats) Or the average time or what it was based on.