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Crying in Crate

Behavioral Issues
  • T

    Hi everyone! Watson is our 1 year old male basenji. We have always had some issues with prolonged whining when he is in the crate, which we attributed to him being a puppy, but he has yet to outgrow these. He goes in his crate on command and always gets a treat for going in, and he eats his meals and sleeps through the night in his crate. Sometimes he does fine and goes in without complaint, but other times he will whine and cry for about 15 minutes, but sometimes up to an hour. This happens often enough that we know it is not because he has to potty or because he is not getting enough exercise, and since there are plenty of times when he does not cry, we know it is not because he is afraid of the crate. Does anyone have any advice on whether this is puppy behavior he will (eventually) outgrow, or if there is something else we should be doing to discourage him from whining/crying? I should add that we never give him any attention while he is making noise in his crate and we only let him out once he has quieted down and remained quiet for several minutes. Thanks for any help anyone can offer!

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    Many puppies will totally forget about house training when they really start to teeth…. so just always go back to housetraining 101
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    I agree. Restart your crate training using small increments of time but also work on this while you are home. That way she doesn't equate the crate with your leaving. The crate/kennel should be a place she wants to go to - feed her in there, put her there with her favorite toy while you are in the room doing something else, give her her treats in there, etc. In fact, give her a treat (or lots of praise) every time she goes in there on her own. Bring the crate into your bedroom at night (even if she doesn't sleepo in it. She should not feel it is a place of punishment but a place of safety and comfort.
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    Because she spent so much of her young life in a crate.. it will be a struggle, IMO, for her to get the idea that it is not an acceptable place for pee/poop… time, I think will reverse the behavior, but I would also say that she will "never" be trustworthy in a crate.....
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    JazzysMomJ
    @luvsmy2bs: Have things gotten any better? Just curios,,,,,,I was reading your post and felt really sorry for you. Currently I have turned my dd's bedroom – thankfully she's away at college -- into a kennel. There is a 6 x 4' ex-pen w/top taking up the entire floor space of her room. Both Jazzy's and Keoki's crates are in there. At night he sleeps okay in that ONLY as long as BOTH crates remain open into the pen. If I close either crate, he flips out. During the day when we have to go out, as yesterday and today, I have to remove all "real" bedding and leave just paper toweling. Yesterday I made the mistake of leaving a small piece of carpet UNDER Jazzy's crate, and when we got home it had been pulled out and torn to shreds. It is obvious that he still wigs out, even in the large pen w/Jazz as today I noticed that the front of his crate {above the door, which was open} has been all chewed up, even though he was not shut in. Still working with the behaviorist; she and the vet are thinking long-term meds may be in order. That is still being discussed. He's going to hurt himself one day if we don't get a handle on this...and eventually dd is going to be home from college; then what? We can't travel with him like this either.
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    SkeateS
    Thanks for the advice. I'll get her into the vet and give your suggestions a try.