Ferberize my puppy?

[Pattty Oehrlein]

Quincy (11 weeks) has been home with us for about 2 weeks now. Shes sweet, very very good with going outside on cue, sleeps in her upstairs crate overnight with one break when I take her out at about 3:30am. However, I cannot get her to do the crate during day without barking and crying.

I try and put her in for few hours a day to get her ready for when I need to leave her alone for a few hours ( I work pt outside the house) - I have arranged for a pet sitter to come in for two hours when Im at work, but she will still be alone for two hours in her crate. Today I put her in and went for a walk around the block and then sat outside to listen, and she is still barking. The minute she sees me she calms down a bit, but still whines. I stay in the room with her in the crate and load it up with all sorts of fun chewy tasty treats but she still wants nothing to do with the crate during the day.

Is this like ferberizing a baby?- do you just bite the bullet and eventually she will stop barking? She is such a sweet puppy, and it kills me to see her so worked up and panting loudly.

Any suggestions- I need to go out on Friday and the pet sitter will be in but I feel horrible to leave her alone for the two hours.

thanks!!!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

When Quincy starts teething you may want to try filling a toy with fat free yogourt and freezing it as the treat when you leave.  Most dogs LOVE yogourt and the cold helps with the teething pain :)

[Pattty Oehrlein]

starts teething, ha, ha - thanks for this idea, I filled her kong with yogurt and froze it, she was in heavan for a good hour. GREAT idea, DK has so many, I try and get on and browse everyday as I learn all about doodles and raising a puppy.

[Adina P]

This strikes a chord because I just ordered Ferber's revised addition a couple weeks ago for sleep training my 5 month old :-)  I think the difference is (although I know you didn't really mean 'Ferberize") that with a baby you're trying to train them to fall asleep on their own and go back to sleep if they awake during the night--it's not so much about crying as much as breaking the association between NEEDING to be rocked/nursed, etc and sleeping.  With a pup you just want them to accept their crate and quit barking/yipping.  It's not about sleep at all. 

I think you've gotten a lot of good suggestions.  He might just take a bit of extra time to learn to chill in his crate.  However, if he continues vocalizing like this and seems in distress you can correct it so he knows A) She heard me and I don't have to keep at it, B) it WON'T get me what I want and C) It will get me stuff I DON'T want so I better hush.  Barking and whining is a bit self-reinforcing in that the more they do it the better it feels so the more they do it.

To correct it you can yell out a deep, firm, serious "QUIET!" (or whatever word you want to use...dogs don't speak English so you are defining words for them as you go) the SECOND the noise begins and then march on over to her crate and give it a firm shake or bang on it three times to disrupt the noise puppy is making.  Initially you might think "YIKES! She's just a pup...how is she supposed to accept his crate if I create little earthquakes for her while she's in there.  Won't that frighten her?" 

Not if you are consistent.  If you are consistent he will connect the dogs between HER barking and the coming of the earthquakes.  Cause and effect when puppy is in FULL CONTROL of the effects does not a fearful dog make.  If you ignore the yipping she'll just think you didn't "hear" her and she'll be more stressed. Correct the yipping and she'll accept quicker that this is just the way things are and she'll learn she has to keep quiet and that in itself will reduce her stress some too (again because constant yipping reinforces constant yipping and stresses her too--like this loop of stress).

If you decide to do this be sure she doesn't have to poo or pee so she's not forced to do something unfair.  Also be prepared to spend 10-15 minutes on it and go back as many times as it takes so that the cause-effect is consistent to her and she KNOWS she can control it the earthquakes.  Always use your 'quiet' command or word the INSTANT she starts-- that will mark the precise behavior you are trying to stop.  And then give the correction.  It's important to mark it because if you happen to be 10 seconds away from her and you hear her bark but can't correct it immediately she still knows what the correction is for 10 seconds after she started barking.  Otherwise it will be just random to her.

Good luck...With time she might be fine with her crate no matter what you do.