Whining in crate at night

[skittledoo]

Ugh Joey us frustrating the hell out of me right now. He does not settle well in a crate at all it seems. He will settle down for a bit with frozen kongs and we have a few toys you can stuff food and treats in to keep him busy, but as soon as he is done getting through the goodies he starts that high pitched whistling whine again. I've been playing some crate games with him, but I can't get him to the point of settling down when he is crated while we are here. It's really annoying at night when I'm trying to sleep since he will do it for hours.

Any advice on what else I could try? His crate has to stay in my room so I can't just move him out of earshot. He just doesn't seem to be ok with being crated while we are home.

He does fine when we aren't here. One of my friends works for my landlord and she is here during the day. If I leave him for any reason he barks for a couple minutes and then quiets down and doesn't make a peep after that. So... It's just when I'm home that he does it if I crate him for any reason.

[stardogs]

Z did (and occasionally still does) something like this now that she has to be crated at night due to incontinence. What seemed to help was covering the crate with a blanket - if she could see me we had more issues than when she couldn't.

[Fran101]

Wax earplugs.
Seriously, anything you do is just going to encourage him.
I would try a blanket over the crate (so he can't see you moving around and to make the crate more cozy)

Also, try putting him in there randomly during the day while you are home. When he fusses, ignore him and when he settles down finally.. take him out for playtime or something fun or treats.
While he is making noise, act like you don't even see him, let alone hear him. But once he quiets, make it rain treats, say hello, let him out etc..

Right now..he is relying on the kongs and other entertainment like you. but it's obvious that the crate isn't too scary or really upsetting him, because as you said, he's fine when he knows he's not getting out/you aren't home. It's just he is bored and you are around lol he just needs to learn how to settle and entertain himself.

We have dogs at work that are FINE in crates as long as they have these elaborate kong contraptions stuffed with goodies.. but that's it. And frankly, it's a little tedious to have to make kongs to last however long.. I would start teaching him now that kongs are an added fun thing, but necessary for crate time and regardless, he should learn how to settle and entertain himself.

[Taqroy]

I have so much sympathy - crate whining drives me insane. Greta was an awful crate whiner. The only thing that really worked on her was covering her crate (we called it the canary, as in "my god canary that dog before I kill her"). Our crate was wedged back into the corner between the sofa and the wall so we covered the top and the half of the front she could see us out of. At night we had to super canary her - the entire front covered and half the top (so she could still breathe - she wasn't that annoying). Otherwise she would wake us up at 4 every. single. morning.

Oh and we had to make sure that she was properly exercised before we put her in the crate or there was no shutting her up. We spent a lot of time out of the house while she was in her crate after her spay. We couldn't keep her still so she HAD to be crated. It was horrible.

[sassafras]

I don't know how big your place is, but is it practical to put him in his crate for the night before YOU go to bed so you don't have to lay there and try to ignore it? I completely accidentally taught Squash to settle in his crate at night that way. He and Maisy sleep in crates in our bedroom, which are upstairs. At a certain time at night (9-10 pm for us), we would "put them to bed" upstairs in their crates with a stuffed Kong... at the time this was for OUR benefit as we just needed a break for an hour or two at night without a raving mad puppy around and we made Maisy be the bedtime nanny, but what we inadvertently did was teach him when he goes in that crate at night, it's just simply time to sleep and no one is going to save him from whining or fussing. And to this day around 9-10 pm he kind of expects it.

[Mach1girl]

He will get over it-I promise!

[hedwig]

Absolutely shatter the dog out with a run, literally minutes before bed.

Then he wont have the energy whine!

if he starts whining after wait for him to stop for a minute n give him his goodies then or just leave them with him.

A tired dog cannot sleep if he whining lol

[elegy]

Bean doesn't whine, but he screams. Covering the crate has helped a LOT. If he's the type to eat the blanket, put a board on top that is big enough to hold the blanket out from the sides, and then drape the blanket over that.

I feel your pain. Oh how I feel your pain.