Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
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We have Winston's crate in our room about 3 feet away from our bed. He can see me, but I'd have to get out of bed to be able to touch him or let him out of the crate. He's actually slept fairly well in it from the first night. Of course he would wake up during the night but at 11 weeks and 2 days he slept from 10:30 to 4:00 a.m. last night. That's the longest stretch yet. He used to wake up at 2 and 4 pretty consistently give or take 30 minutes.
He however has been having separation anxiety when we leave him in his crate during the day and leave the room. He's fine as long as we are in the room. We are working on it using a method that involves ignoring him not talking or looking at him but coming back into the room so he can be reassured that we are still there.
What we do is that I have him settled in the crate and then get up and leave without speaking or looking at him. I go out for 10 seconds, he starts to yelp or whine and so we come back in but do not look at him or talk to him, and once he settles just a bit I leave again for a bit longer. I am talking 15-20-30 seconds. Eventually what has happened is he has settled and fallen asleep which has allowed me to to be out of the room for a bit.
Today is only day two of this, but he slept in the crate in our room for over an hour with nobody in there. It's progress and we'll take it.
We are finding on the recommendation of several trainers that it is also best to have others( husband and kids) etc ignore him when they first come into a room, whether returning from work or an outing etc. They take a seat and then once he's not jumping up or trying to get their attention any longer, they call him to them and greet him and give him some love.
Granted we've only been at this new method for two days, but the changes we are seeing are very encouraging, which I was feeling very frustrated earlier this week.
Congrats on your puppy and I hope you find something that works for your family as well.
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