Crating Puppy in Apt

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sgtfrog

Forums Regular
Hi There,

My wife and I live in South korea and were in our late 20's. We brought home a sheltie puppy last weekend. We bought her from a Pet store ( i know i know ) but we didnt want leave her there. My wife LOVES herding dogs and we decided to bring this one home.

Milli is about 15 weeks old and has a Blue Merle coat. We quickly found out a few days later that she was sick. We were in and out of the vet office for a few days but she seems to be doing GREAT now. She was diagnosed with the Corona virus so she had some severe vomiting and Jet spray diarrhea. HOWEVER a few visits to to the vet and some medication completely cleared that up.

After having her for 1 week shes 99% potty trained indoors with puppy pads ( i hope i dont jinx myself by saying it). I would love to potty train her outside but unfortunately we live on the 13th floor of an apt complex and also Milli hasn't had all her shots yet so we cant bring her outside. She's a BITER and loves to bite our socks and legs. Those baby teeth are like needles. I hope she grows out of it hahah. I started to teach her some tricks like Sit and laydown. She's doing those pretty well if i have a snack.

With all that said, I'm having some problems getting started on the crating. The biggest issues are my neighbours. We cant just let the puppy cry it out until she falls asleep in the crate. Theres no way... The neighbours just dont understand ( we've talk to them.......)

Milli has no issues with her crate. We feed ALLL her meals in there. She goes in and out eating , sniffing around. I put random treats in there soo shes constantly going in there to check. We've never forced her in there. She's quite comfortable with the crate until We try to close the door. That's when she freaks out. I tried crating her little by little increasing the time in there but eventually she just goes bezerk. I dont want reward her by opening the door and letting her out when she goes crazy But after having a few neighbours come and complain... I've put off the crating until i can figure out a way to do with without her freaking out....

An other issue is she doesnt want to sleep in the crate even with the door open. She prefers to just sleep on the floor in the corner somewhere. She also seems to hate to sleep on anything "comfortable". She seems to prefer hard floor. I took out the comfy pillow from the crate and just put a towel in there but that didn't change anything. Even on the floor if we put blankets of pillows in the spot she likes to sleep in she will just move them and sleep on the floor haha.

Any suggestions on crate training her in an APT? Also suggestions on having her sleep in her crate day or night ( door open)? Again , she has no issues with the crate and goes in and out on her own will all throughout the day to sniff and check if theres any food or treats. I would love it if the crate was a "safe" zone for her.

THANKS

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First off, hi and welcome :smile2:! Secondly, Milli is beautiful...The others here will have far better input and suggestions then I would but I wanted to give my tiny two cents worth!

Since you bought her from a pet store, chances are, the history, (where she came from, how she was treated, where she slept, ate, drank, did her business, the parents) is probably dubious. Therefore it might take some time for her to adjust to a "normal" life with her new family.
 
for her biting your socks and legs: most sheltie's will not grow out of this on their own. it's a natural behavior for them; she thinks she is "herding" you. when she goes after your feet and legs, stop walking, stop paying attention to her, don't play with her or touch her; just ignore her for a few seconds until she stops biting (if you're not moving or talking or touching her, she should find nipping your feet pretty boring at that point and stop). after she stops biting, you can pay attention to her again. if she starts nipping again, ignore her again until she stops. so on and so forth. shelties are smart; she'll start to get the idea.

as for the crating, you may try giving her treats as you slowly increase how much the crate door is closed? like maybe start to close the door, and if she is calm, treat her for having the door partly open. and slowly (over days), as she does well being calm, increase how much the door closes. the first time you fully close the door, quickly treat her (before she flips out) and then let her out of the crate. then slowly increase the time she stays in before you treat and let her out.

you could also try filling a kong with something tasty and giving it to her in the crate (fill it with peanut butter, yogurt, canned dog food, etc... and freeze it, so she'll have to work at it for a while to get all the food out).

you could also try covering the crate with a blanket. some dogs are calmer if they can't see what's going on outside the crate.
 
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Another thing you can try is to play with her both physically and mentally until she looks like she wants to sleep. Starting with the crate in the room you are in tell her it's "time for bed" and give her her yummy kong in her crate. Once she is asleep, quietly close the door over. If you can, try to do crate training when others around you, ie the neighbours, are less likely to be retiring for the night and will be better able to put up with a bit of noise. Do not speak to her in any way if she is crying, yapping etc. It is considered an interaction by the dog and will reinforce the crying and barking. Try to get her out of the crate before she starts up again so she doesn't connect screaming = release. Take the crate out to the car and travel around with her while she makes noise. Sing to yourself, "I can't hear you". Be patient but consistant.
 
What a beautiful little pup!!

I wish I could help you with your crating issues. Of all the Shelties we've owned (six total), one of our blue merle's Zoey also has a fit when it's time for us to leave and she has to go into her crate. She's 2.5 years old and still it's an issue. We too have tried everything, but nothing has worked thus far.

As far as sleeping arrangements, our guys sleep with us in the bed. I know that's not for everyone so leave it totally up to you, but at that young age perhaps he's just lonely.

One thing you could try is an X-pen. They come in various heights and sizes, have no tops or bottoms and hook together to form an safe, enclosed area. Zoey seemed to be comfortable with hers for months, but now she just views it as another crate. Geez...

Living in an apartment building is difficult when you have a pup that's crying. I truly hope everything works out for you both.
 
Your puppy is beautiful!!

When my girls were puppies I used an ex-pen with their little puppy crate inside the ex-pen. I never shut them in the crate just left it there for them to use like a bed. All three of my dogs are very comfortable with crating now. If they think I'm leaving they run and get into their crates.

It takes a while, but it's so nice to have crate trained dogs. I especially love it when I take them to obedience trials. They are so relaxed in their little safe crates, they can fall sound asleep even with all the distractions of the other dogs and people around.
 
As Megansmom said, it may be what she has been through at the pet shop that's making it difficult for her to cope with closed crate door. I don't live in an apartment so can't really tell you what would work but this is what I did with my puppy when we got him trained to sleep in the crate. I'd get him to go in on his own then close the door for about 1 minute to start. Tell him to sit and reopen. Repeat this for a few times then increase the time he stayed inside with closed door. If Milli is really scared of the door closing you'll probably need to increase the time with the door closed slowly and in small increments.

As for sleeping on HARD floor. I think that's normal since that's how my puppy Mozart sleeps. It was pretty cold at the time when I got Mozart so I lined the crate bottom with towel just as our breeder has suggested. Well, he pushed the towel to a corner and slept on the other corner. Same thing in his playpen, I had it lined with a blanket, he would rather sleep in the plastic container where his pee pad was (after ripping out the pee pad of course). In the end I just give up. Towel and blankets are part of his chew toy not something to sleep on.
 
Hey,

Thanks for the suggestions.

Milli no longer "freaks" out when i close the door but she does whine alot when inside the crate. She definietely doesnt like it in there. I've been crating her 30mins-1 hour in the afternoon a few times over the last few days. Usually when were having supper or lunch. I'll keep doing this to get her used to.

We still cant crate her at night because she'll wake up the neighbors. Not to mention Her crate is in our room because there's no where else to put it. I really wish she would just go to her crate during the day and or night to sleep in it with the door open. Perhaps overtime. At the moment she prefers to sleep on the floor under my wife's makeup desk OR sleeps in my office when I work. Which is no problem, I just let her be.

I wonder though, I work at home. I have a room setup as my office. So I do have alot of time to "watch" her. I dont feel good putting her in her crate just to put her in there. I suppose it's training But should I crate her even though I have the time to watch her? If I'm at the computer working Millie tends to just lay down in the corner and sleep causing no harm or trouble to anyone. Should I crate her anyways?
 
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