[Addi.B]

Just adopted Addi ["baby girl"] 4 days ago. We are crate training her, which she is doing great at! But she immediately starts barking when we walk out of the room. We have no idea how long she barks for, typically, after about 3 hours in the crate, when we get home she is quiet. But we have come home after about an hour or two and can hear her barking/whining/crying/howling.
We try peanut butter in a kong, she loves it, but it doesnt keep her occupied for long. We also keep her crate open all day for her to lay in, and she sleeps in it at night no problem.
Any suggestions.....hoping she gets more confident being alone and grows out of it.

 

[Wworm]

Congrats, and we hope you post pics soon!

Seems fairly normal, as it's been just 4 days. Worm would fuss, too, for 15-20 min every time for the first month (30 days...!). One time, he barked and whined for 45 minutes and we heard about it from our neigbors. ("I don't know whose dog was crying and barking for 45 minutes...??" she said. Hmmm. I knew.)

One idea to share is that we also put Worm in there throughout the day when we were home, like on weekends. Sometimes just really short 10-20 min. And would also give him super yummy treat there that would occupy him for 15-30 minutes, w/the door locked. Like kong toy or beef rib bone. That gets him to like the experience in the crate more, it seemed. These days, it's the funniest thing that I never thought would happen, when i'm getting a beef bone ready, he gets super excited and crawls into the crate and waits there for me to bring it. Also I would put him there 1-2 hrs when I had to shower or nap or get housework done. I think the good thing about that is that in a day, he gets used to being in and out of the crate multiple times. And he has multiple experiences of being let out, and learns faster that just because he's in there doesn't mean he won't get to get out fairly soon...

 

[MollyMcFrecklesMom]

Try the old reliable t-shirt trick. Wear an old shirt and then give it to the pup when you leave. It has your scent and may help calm her. It worked with Molly when I had to leave her early on.

Make sure you are willing to part with the shirt...for obvious reasons.

 

[Mikey T]

Any suggestions.....hoping she gets more confident being alone and grows out of it

not very likely this is something that gets worse over time rather than better if not addressed properly. see Seperation Anxiety

Puppies and newly adopted dogs are at higher risk to develop separation anxiety if they are smothered with constant attention their first few days home. It is much better to leave for brief periods extremely often so the dog’s early learning about departures is that they are no big deal and predict easy, tolerable lengths of absence: "whenever she leaves, she comes back." ​

Give your dog both physical exercise and mental work to do. Not only does problem solving increase confidence and independence, it is mentally fatiguing and so increases the likelihood that your dog will rest quietly when he is left alone.

...Soften the blow of your departures by providing extremely enticing stuffed toys for him to unpack

...

Reduce the contrast between when you’re gone and when you’re home. Refrain from smothering him with affection (see the "mental work" options above to discover other ways of interacting with your dog). Regularly interrupt his shadowing you around the house continuously when you’re home by baby-gating him into another room for short periods. This is like practicing a "semi-absence." Do many, many extremely brief (1 – 30 seconds) absences with no fanfare on departure or arrival. Increase physical exercise and mental stimulation.​

 

[Mikey T]

part of the reducinging the contrast is not making a production out of departures and arrivals as well. Dogs quickly pick up on these cues and becaume anxious starting before you actual leave. When you come back don't have a big greating at the door dog jumping all excited instead don't even acknowledge the pup until it is calm.

 

[gsally]

I hope I get this right next time around!

Separation anxiety is not fun in human or k-9 form.

Thanks for providing good (proven) advice Mikey T.

 

[Addi.B]

Thank you all for the advice and tips. We actually have been doing most all those things from the start. Not making coming and going a big deal, giving her special treats, leaving for short periods and coming right back.
I think it's still just really new for her and she hasn't got any confidence yet. She has now gone to the bathroom a few times in her crate. We even made the crate a bit smaller, thinking she woldn't go on her bed...but she did. Poop everywhere. Even though she is on a schedule and has gone potty before we leave her in there. Is 3 hours too long for a 7 month old?

 

[Mikey T]

She has now gone to the bathroom a few times in her crate.

I am going to assume this is happening when you are gone. Deffication like this is common with seperation anxiety. It is the likely cause.

That said it is a myth that dog won't defficate in a crate as addie has shown. It is a common problem in petstore puppies that never get to leave the crate/cage/ It works under the same principal that allow dogs to be housetrained. The act of eliminations is self rewarding, that is removing the pressure on the bowels and bladde. The associate that with what is under there feet at the time, (substrate prefference) in housetraining you try and create a substrate prefference for the outdoors, grass, dirt asphalt depending on the particular environment. Mut a dog that goes in the crat a numbe of time can develop as subtrate prefernce for in instead. At that point the crate becomes a useless tool actually a hinderence to housetraining.

Is 3 hours too long for a 7 month old

It is not about the time in the create but what the dog is doing. I assume at night the dog is not needing to go out every 3 hours so it shows when the dog is sleeping it can go at least that long. But if the dog is anxiexious and active well not so much activty makes urine.

see my favorite house training article on the web.

Housetraining Your Puppy

Do not rely on a puppy to tell you when it's time to go out. That is expecting too much responsibility and communication at too early an age. It is up to you, the adult human, to know when he needs to go out. Watch his activity level and the clock.
A 12 wk puppy who is busy playing may need to urinate every 15-20 minutes, whereas a resting puppy might go for an hour, and a sleeping puppy can go 8 hours at night. Activity makes urine! Activity makes urine! Repeat this 10 times, slowly. This is a very important lesson for new puppy owners.

...Dogs develop substrate preferences for eliminating. By substrate, I mean what they feel under their feet. In their first few weeks of life they need their mother to lick them to stimulate elimination. Around 4 weeks of age they begin to control this themselves. It is a self-rewarding behavior because it feels good. They associate this good feeling with the environment they are in at the time. This is about the same time they are walking well enough to go outside. If they are taken outside enough, several times a day, during this period of development (4 through 8 weeks) they will associate the good feeling of relieving themselves with the grass under their feet, the sky above, and all the smells and sounds of the outdoors. The tactile experience, the texture under the feet, becomes the cue.
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, Arial, sans-serif]If your puppy does not already have this outdoor experience, then you can provide it for him now, to retrain the "substrate preference" he has already learned. Take the pup out about once per hour. This is after play, eating, sleeping, etc. If the puppy can't hold his urine from the crate to the back door while walking, carry him for the first week or so. After a busy play session, take the puppy out, even if it's only been 15 minutes since he last went out. Physical activity produces urine. Inactivity slows the production of urine. This is why a puppy can sleep all night without wetting in the crate, but will urinate on the floor as soon as you let him out of the crate.

[/FONT]

 

[Addi.B]

We really don't know how or where she learned potty training as a young pup, since we just recently adopted her from a rescue. She could very well have been in a pet store kennel. She has learned to go pee or poop or both every time we take her outside, same spot every time. In the am, after eating, and every 2 hours or so. I guess it will just take time and hopefully she will stop going in the crate.
I wonder if locking her in the kitchen area if we have to leave her alone would be better than crating her now. I just worry about changing the scenario too much and confusing her.

 

[Kirska]

I don't think changing the location of where you leave her will make much of a difference.

You can try on a day when you have a lot of errands to do, to go do them one at a time, coming back between each one. So that you are leaving and coming back several times. She just has to learn to accept that you will eventually come back.

Here's some tips I found: Separation Anxiety | "Dog Whisperer" John's Natural Dog Obedience / Puppy Classes