Advice on whining puppy!

[charlie_pup]

We got our pup, Charlie, about 3 weeks ago and he is 13 weeks old. We started crate training him from day one and have had an overall success. He will go to his crate on his own and have a nap sometimes. However, the past few days have been terrible. Charlie is whining almost everytime he's put in his crate or left in a room with baby gates up. Charlie's schedule during the week is like so:

7am: Get up, go for pee.
7:15am/7:30am: Breakfast
8:00/8:15am: Go outside for 'business' and play or go for walk (he will either walk or put his brakes on and go nowhere no matter what)
8:35am: Placed in crate with kong toy with yogurt or PB
5:15pm: Get home, let out of crate, go for pee. *sometimes he will have gone pee in his crate, usually not. We are unable to come home during lunch & do not trust a dog walker into our home so this is not an option*
5:30pm: Dinner.
6:00pm: Walk or play in yard

Throughout the evening when we're home, he's allowed in the living room with us or outside if we're doing stuff outside.

10pm: Short walk, business in yard.
10:30pm: Placed in crate.

Now, a week ago, this was fine. He would go right to sleep. Since Sunday, he whines as soon as you put him in his crate and will whine for 20-30mins before falling asleep and now he's waking us up whining at 6am. We've tried waking up at about 2am to go for a pee and he will not go. He will just sit on the lawn.

I am looking for any advice on what to do to stop the whining at bedtime and at 6am. A few weeks ago he would sleep until 7am no problem and wake up with us. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

 

[trini]

Welcome to SN.

Crating from basically 8:30 to 5 is an awfully long time for a little pup to be confined to a tiny area where movement is severely curtailed and mental stimulation is extremely limited...also that is a long time to ask a pup to wait to do his business. Is there anyway to break that time at noon with someone coming home to give him exercise and attention?

Sheltie pups are energetic and I suspect the earlier getting up and the not wanting to go to bed at bedtime is due to a lot of pen up energy and the need for more stimulation both mentally and physically. Herding breeds, developed to be both smart and high energy, are especially needy of exercise and something to do mentally.

If there is no way for a noon time break can you at least use a large doggie playpen with his crate left open in the pen...that way he can move about more and have a selection of toys to play with.

From your schedule it is obvious that you are doing a great job with Charle during the time that you are home. Kudos for that.

Trini

 

[charlie_pup]

Welcome to SN.

Crating from basically 8:30 to 5 is an awfully long time for a little pup to be confined to a tiny area where movement is severely curtailed and mental stimulation is extremely limited...also that is a long time to ask a pup to wait to do his business. Is there anyway to break that time at noon with someone coming home to give him exercise and attention?

Sheltie pups are energetic and I suspect the earlier getting up and the not wanting to go to bed at bedtime is due to a lot of pen up energy and the need for more stimulation both mentally and physically. Herding breeds, developed to be both smart and high energy, are especially needy of exercise and something to do mentally.

If there is no way for a noon time break can you at least use a large doggie playpen with his crate left open in the pen...that way he can move about more and have a selection of toys to play with.

From your schedule it is obvious that you are doing a great job with Charle during the time that you are home. Kudos for that.

Trini

Hi Trini,

Thanks for your reply. We are considering leaving him in the kitchen with baby gates on either side of the door with his (safe) toys and installing a camera to monitor him with. The crate could be left in there with the door open. I am also looking into sending him to doggy daycare twice a week if we can find a good one that fits our budget. Both scenarios would be better then him staying in the crate all day long.

 

[Cindy]

Gavin's puppy set up was this :

I had a galley kitchen that was baby gated off. Maybe 8x4. In the far back corner was his crate. In the front was his puppy potty (wizdog). I left out water and some toys for him.

I was gone for about 8-9 hours a day for work, no coming home for lunch.
He did chew the corners of some of my cabinets and the dry wall when he went through his teething phase. Can't blame the little guy for getting bored!

He got an hour plus walk in the morning with dog park time and similar at night when he was old enough.

 

[trini]

Hi Trini,

Thanks for your reply. We are considering leaving him in the kitchen with baby gates on either side of the door with his (safe) toys and installing a camera to monitor him with. The crate could be left in there with the door open. I am also looking into sending him to doggy daycare twice a week if we can find a good one that fits our budget. Both scenarios would be better then him staying in the crate all day long.

Both ideas are good.

Just make sure there are no electrical wires that Charlie can access to chew if he has run of the kitchen. And, yes, make sure the toys are safe ones as you have mentioned. Some pups will de-stuff toys and swallow the stuffing which can lead to blockages in the digestive track...so better to go with nothing that has stuffing or toys that have noise makers inside them. One of our rescues came to us with a frog toy that made strange noises...I was horrified when another of my dogs tore Mr. Frog apart and inside was a box filled with small sharp metal parts that could easily be swallowed by even a tiny pup/dog and would be extremely dangerous.

Doggie daycare can be wonderful depending on the particular daycare. Visit any that you are considering and watch carefully to make sure you are 100% comfortable with the interaction between the dogs and also the interaction between the workers and the dogs in their care. Make a list of question to take with you...any good daycare personal will be more than happy to answer any questions and let you observe for more than just a few minutes. Sadly not all are well run and a bad doggie daycare can do a lot of emotional damage to a pup/dog.

Also, if you have a reliable neighbor (maybe someone retired and home full time) who is good with dogs and might like to earn a little extra cash...maybe you could have him/her come in to spend an hour or two with Charlie in the middle of each day. One of the people who adopted a rescue from me actually found a full time doggie sitter for the little dog she adopted...she had a neighbor who was home, loved dogs, had one very sweet dog of her own and she was happy to have a dog to "babysit" in her home and be a playmate for her own dog. She charged less for the full 5 day work week than even one day at a standard day care. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

Trini

 

[vickaaayhay]

Puppy phase! I had a whiner/baby gate banger. She sounded like she was dying and when we went to check on her she would stop and stare at us like "what?"
My advice to you is that if it's not time for Charlie to go out yet, and he is most likely throwing a tantrum for being locked up, do not come to him when he's whining! Wait until he calms down, even if it's only for 10 seconds, and then go check on him. He will learn that his humans only come when he quiets down.

The setup with the open crate door and baby gate blocking the kitchen is the exact setup we used ^^
Good luck, and don't worry, things get much better as they grow up!

 

[Shelby's mom]

We too were in the same situation as you when Shelby was a pup. She was such a chewer we could not leave her out of her crate when we were away. And doggy daycare was not open early enough in the morning.

She also started the whining and crying at night to the point I called the vet and said I didn't know what to do. They told us to ignor her. Close the bedroom door, put in ear plugs and ignor it. Do not let her out when she is whining.

Shelby is extremely persistent, and that is putting it kindly. But after a week or so of this she realized that whining and barking resulted in nothing. She is now 5 years old and never ever wakes us up. Even on the weekends when we get to sleep in.

Just hang in there, it really will get better.