Help please, at the end of my tether.

[CAYLA]

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For a puppy I would make your cage much smaller, its far too large for such a tiny baby. They like to feel secure in their den and they wont if it is far to big.

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Agree with this..it is always better to start smaller then increase the space, even if like suggested above you make it smaller with a plastic bed fitted into it and use a cover to darken the cage and give it a smaller mre enclosed feel.

 

[madmuppet]

We have just recently got a puppy.. We have her in a cage when we are out.. she was the same as your pup when we got her. they all do that.. lol.. Stick in there. its hard for them leaving their mum and moving into a strange house and they are trying us out. My pup cried at night, she was in the spare room and wouldnt settle at all, we moved her into the living room and shes fine now.. she sleeps all night with her teddy and runs around when we are in playing with the adult dogs who arent in any cages and playing with her toys.. when shes older she wont be in a cage.. when she is tired she will actually go into her cage and sleep.. We leave the cage door open all day so she can go into her cage and get a drink etc.. keep going with the cage, its safer for your puppy to be in her cage when your not in rather than chewing your house. at least till shes older. good luck.. she will be worth it all the effort i can assure you. x

 

[_Libby_]

QR- try not to stress. It sounds like Puppy is just testing you out, and missing her friends.

When you mention her barking at 5am, what time was she out last thing at night? It may just be she needed the loo
I got a 2 yr old badly toilet trained dog and she couldnt be left longer than midnight to 5am at first but is now fine.

I'd persevere with what you are doing now, if you do stop crating her you may end up in a worse situation if you need to start crating her again and she becomes even more stressed about it.

My little dog howled when I left her alone at night, during the day she is fine. I have to admit I caved and put her bed in our room, we havent heard a thing from her since, she is small though and I know I was probably lucky she didnt chew up my room or become even more attached to me.

 

[Louby]

Hi, thanks for all your great advice.
The nights arent quite so bad now but then we have giving in to him a bit mainly for the sake of the neighbours. We even had a 7.15am the other morning which was great. We arent going to bed until midnight in a hope that he will sleep a bit longer.

I know I should start a new thread but he is very clingy and howls when left alone even when I go to the loo! and I wonder what I should be doing or can do to help him when we need to go out without him. Tomorrow I am looking at a horsebox and we may be an hour or so and Im just dreading leaving him alone as I know he will howl. I know I shouldnt worry too much about my neighbours but I just cant help it. He will be put in his crate with toys, treats etc.

 

[Bess]

Could you put the crate in the back of the car and take the puppy with you, give him a walk while you are there? As I said in my previous post I now have an 18 week old cocker spaniel pup, and an 8 yr old black lab.

A friend has lent me a transporting crate which the pup goes in (that crate stays in the car) and I take both dogs with me to the yard in the mornings, ride and then walk the dogs. (He was used to that routine with his breeder who also has a horse where I keep mine.) Then home for lunch. Why not do the same with yours tomorrow?

I also have found small vegetable chews at a local pet shop, they are shaped like a toothbrush and only cost 15p, the puppy has one of those a day and it lasts him ages. I would give him one of those when you leave the room and he'll get more used to you being absent when he's occupied with something else.