My Puppy Harasses My Boyfriend

He always barks incessantly when he's in his crate, day or night, wether I'm in the room or out of the house completely. When ever I walk into the room, or he hears me open the door to the house he stops barking - I think he knows he shouldn't be barking but does it anyway. I've tried just about everything - putting treats in his crate and letting him walk in and out so he gets a positive association, I've put his kong toy (frozen and stuffed with peanut butter and treats), stuffed animals, bully sticks, etc in his crate with him to try and give him something to do, he likes to sleep in front of a fan so I put that pointing towards the crate, I've covered it, I've been in the room and ignored him, I've left the room, I've slept in the room with ear plugs in, I've made the crate smaller and put shirts that smell like me and Adam in there and nothing has worked! It's getting to be really hard because our neighbors are starting to complain - our next door neighbor (we live in a single family home by the way but we have to leave the window to the bedroom open because if we don't it will get way way way too hot in the house, not that that matters much because you can still hear him from outside with the windows closed) actually said today that neighbors four doors down have been complaining and that she is "gonna give us 6 months and then she's going to get us a shock collar." (she better be glad she told that to Adam when I wasn't here or else she would have gotten quite an earful I can tell you. The crying is during the day when most everyone is at work and never goes on for more than an hour, it's not like he's barking all night long.)

The whole thing is just so frustrating and I feel like it's kinda of a Catch-22 situation: we have to keep him in the crate even when he cries so he will get used to it, but we can sleep through the crying and the neighbors are starting to complain so we have to keep him out of the crate.

Not sure what to do....

Sorry Kasey. Aiye...I kind of know how you feel .. >_>

Unfortunately, I'm no expert, but I can tell you my take on the situation regardless

"When ever I walk into the room, or he hears me open the door to the house he stops barking - I think he knows he shouldn't be barking but does it anyway"

Dogs have no sense of right and wrong. What this means is, what's actually happening is probably: 'whenever I walk into the room or he hears me open the door, he stops barking. He now knows I'm here, and -sees no need to bark any longer-'. The puppy will do one thing it's programmed to do: I want her HERE NOW! And I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES RAWR! haha. The thing we're trying to do (ideally) is to make it 'think' that barking is in no way contributional towards getting it what it wants. Kind of like a child and 'whining'

The thing I would ask you is: have you done anything that may make it think 'barking works'. It certainly takes some time to deprogram. When I had my puppy, the crying at night was so heartbreaking I couldn't take it. But people in this forum told me to toughen up, and lo'an'behold, after a couple of days, it stoped. Took a leap of faith.

The crying during the day is certainly a *****. I'm sorry, I'm not sure what to do about that...I basically stuck with my pup as a young'un during the day. The only thing I would say is -never reinforce barking- in any way. And also: this general situation is normal and somewhat to be expected Disney heavily misrepresents the 'difficulty' of taking care of a new puppy.

Haha yes I believe Disney has ruined my idea of raising a puppy.

I try my hardest not to do anything to encourage him to think that the barking helps him escape his horrible prison of a crate. I am in between jobs right now (a nice way of saying I moved and am still unemployed) so I am home all day with him and the only time he gets crated is when I'm taking a shower or have to go to the store.

I do have to say that we might have had a small break through last night - Diesel got put in his crate and I stayed in the room and for the first time evvvvvvver he was quiet, actually laid down and chewed on a bone, it was one of the best moments of my life! Then at night (he was of course on the bed) he actually left the bed and I heard him lay down in his crate! Granted he was back in the bed when I woke up but I'm going to take these as small victories and keep trying to get him to stop hating his crate.

Crate-luvin is a must (lol)

A crate should never be associated with punishment. over time, it becomes the puppy's 'home'. This then becomes really helpful during potty-training time (they dun like to soil their homes)

Glad to hear you might be getting a 'breakthrough'. That's how it was with me..I was like eh... I thought Wanta would -never- stop..but she did.

'Persistence' is generally a good word for puppies. You just gotta keep doing it over and over. Dogs are creatures of habit =]

I'm very happy to inform that Diesel is making leaps and bounds towards being crate trained! We've been implementing the NILIF program and as such we have been allowing him on the bed without being "invited" up. If he jumps up of his own accord he gets told off and put down on the floor. He has been visiting his crate more, chewing his bone while in there and last night he slept all night on the floor and in his crate because he was acting way too excited to be in the bed with us.

I am so thrilled to see him progressing like this! I love being a puppy parent and getting to see my little man grow up and learn new things!

Glad to hear it, and welcome to puppy parenting

Good luck, and remember to stick with NILIF. It's sometimes hard to stay disciplined because they can be -so cute- :doh:

To the OP, sooo glad to hear things are looking up! Keep up the good work

To Preethivarma, take your spam elsewhere.