Crating issues

[Hillside]

Forgive me for my giant ramble, but here goes...Well, my practically perfect dog has an issue now. Ever since Ryan went back to work, Django now likes to scream like he is being beaten when you leave his sight when he is in his kennel. We did do a lot of prepwork before that point of having him in his kennel, but now it's an issue. I'm mildly confused because it's not like anything has really changed too drastically. If we are in the house and he is in his kennel and can't see us, he raises a fuss. We did move a kennel into our room for sleeping purposes, so I am wondering if we should stop using that one and just use the downstairs one to get him used to being alone? He doesn't raise a fuss in the bedroom when we are sleeping. I am also wondering if reintroducing a different type of kennel might make a difference if I do it super gradually? ( He has a wire one now and I actually just went and bought a plastic one.) If he is in the upstairs kennel and Ryan or I are on the computer he is fine since he can hear us, but if somebody goes outside and he hears the door, he will start screaming. I'm also thinking that if one of us is downstairs with him and the other just repeatedly opens and shuts the doors that we might be able to erase the reaction to the sound?


Thoughts?

[Saje]

What did you do to work on getting him accustomed to being alone? And what is your routine for putting him in the crate? Have you tried different activity toys to keep him amused?

[Hillside]

We did the "toss the treat in the kennel, shut door, open door"etc routine. He is a rescue dog and I believe he was kenneled before ( that's what his sheet said anyways) because he would go into his kennel on his own just to hang out ( his kennel being one of two places he is allowed to have chew toys, the other being his blankie and he is really good about only doing his chewings in those places.) He was 5 months when we got him about two months ago. Incidentally he was only seperated from his sister the day before we brought him home. ( Which I think is part of the reason he spazzes out when he sees other dogs, but that's another post.) Up until Ryan went back to work, he was only fed in his kennel as well. Now he refuses to eat in there, period. It doesn't matter if we are sitting right there or not, he won't do it. Whenever we had to leave him in there previous to daddy going back to work, he had a stuffed kong. ( generally a mix of wet food and kibble, sometimes frozen and if frozen, there was a smear of non frozen to pique his interest.) I can toss one of those in there now and come back to it untouched. The ONLY thing he will touch in his kennel now is peanut butter in his kong. Comings and goings are low key, he only gets attention after we come back in from the potty break. He is taken outside on a martingale to minimize contact ( and backing out) while the collar is being put on. I think for the next couple nights I am going to couch it and bring him to his downstairs crate like I did when we brought him home and gradually start sneaking upstairs again. Ahhhhhhhh puppies.

[Saje]

Sounds like you are doing everything I would do. You might want to talk to dr2little, doberluv, redyrerottweiler, or otch1 (to name a few). They give very good training advice.

[girlbuffalo1]

If it were me I would let him cry it out. I know it's annoying but he is going to have to get used to it sooner than later. Wrigley tried a few times to pull something like this and I put him on the absolute opposite side of the house with 3 doors in between and let him cry it out (after I knew he didn't have to potty ect)--he only did it about 4 times--and that was it.....

[Hillside]

Except that that tact has been tried already. It's been since the first of July that the screaming started. When we intially brought him home he would only cry for a minute before he realized it wasn't doing anything. He only did THAT for 3 days, and it was a drastic decline each day and that was after being seperated from his sister of 5 months.