whining and barking in the crate

[Valerie]

Eka has been whining and barking a lot in her crate lately. And she is crated 99% of the time while indoors cause she is not settled and will chew on something otherwise. It could be she is going into heat again soon, and this will be her 3rd time but it was not like this before.

She is driving me crazy. I'm not enjoying this time. I work from home and feel like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time letting her in and out. Then in the evenings after the kids are in bed the same thing.

I'm not sure of the details of what I should be doing because anything I do seems too R+, or too dominant. Do I respond and let her out cause she has energy that needs to get out and she needs to do that outside? Do I ignore her, until .... when? Do I need to set up and follow a schedule? Or is it better to vary things?

- her crate is in my bedroom, I was schleping it between the living room and my room but that got old really fast. In the living the only location for the crate is near the tv and then it ends up being a big focus in the room. Where is the best place for it?

- I have her on a leash to and from outside. Then, unfortunately, she has to be on a tie-out outside cause we don't have a fence. Is she going insane cause she is on the leash almost all the time outside of the crate?

- I just started trying to open the door when she is calm and resting today. And that's ok though she perks her right up and then I take her outside.

- What if she keeps barking and whining on and on after 5-10 min? Sometimes hearing the dogs bark outside at night it gets her all wound up and the only thing to calm her down is to go outside and then when she comes back in she is able to settle. Or she does settle sometimes if I give her a small carrot. (she loves carrots)

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On the training front, in case it's related, I'm on week 2 of the OM Daily training (even though I have the lessons through week 8.... eeks a bit behind).
- She is really starting to tug. And we are actually doing some fetch-tug. She is sort of getting 'out' I think.
- Her pushing is still all over the place. Still tends to being soft.
- Her heeling is getting better little by little as long as we are in the backyard and she is interested in the food I have.
- Still haven't worked up to a nice walk - we make it from the backyard to the driveway and then she runs ahead to start walking. I'm getting dizzy with the redirection a la LCK walking directions.
- She likes being on the box and does sit, stay, down, as long as I have food she is interested in. She will sit and stay on the ground as well. The down is not as solid but she will if I motion her all the way down.
- I've started having her get on the box inside which she will do. It's a nice redirection from chewing on the first thing she can find. However if I don't give her food she won't stay there very long.


I am feeling frustrated. When will she stop jumping up on everybody, when will she stop chewing on everything? When can she be more a part of the family?

[Lee Charles Kelley]

Hi Valerie,

These are tough questions. No wonder you're frazzled.

I wouldn't worry too much at this point about whether to let her out while she's vocalizing. I think you can manage the question of "not reinforcing" the whining, etc. by giving her a command, such as "wait..." before letting her out. In that way, the release from the crate is the reward for obeying.

However, I have some questions of my own.

First, could you remind me what kind of dog Eka is, and how old is she?

My next question is how much hard vigorous playful activity is she getting every day?

Finally, just to get me back up to speed -- besides using the crate as an energy-management tool (which seems to have increased her whining behavior), what other behavioral problems does she have, and what are you doing to work on them?

LCK

[rudy]

I'm interesting in hearing the answers too bcs Lou has started up with the whining recently - whining while on the box inside or tethered to something when I can't keep my eye on him.

He actually even pooped in the house recently. I'm hoping that this is puppy-reversion stuff as he is healing his old emotional wounds.

But the whining drives me NUTS.

[Valerie]

Thanks for the quick reply Lee, I've been thinking about what is going on and I'll try to post more about it this weekend.

Rudy, yes the whining is like a crying baby I can't ignore it for long.

Thanks!
Val

[Valerie]

I have not gotten back on to answer your questions, Lee. But I am seeing positive things and realized that part of the frustration is that the baby steps I am seeing are really only visible during our training sessions. Everyone else still sees an overexcitable dog who jumps, tries to find something to chew on when inside and requires me to hand feed (aka spoil) her all the time.


What they don't see because it only happens in the backyard during our training sessions:

- she is pushing a little more each week.
- she is tugging so much more now and biting strong enough that I don't have to hold back as much
- she'll play fetch-tug more now

- she gets hungry! I can now train with soaked food without amendments! Though I do use a food with pieces of dried banana and carrots in with the kibble so that may be cheating a bit. And sometimes, not always, but sometimes she'll eat dry kibble out of a bowl! Amazing I know!

- she will stay outside by herself for longer and longer periods of time. In the beginning she wouldn't stay outside without me for longer than a minute. She had to be with me all the time.


So still issues, still not really integrated with the family. And last night she started barking and whining 3 different times during the night. But more on that later. I have to think about it a bit.

[rudy]

Yeah! That's great Valerie!

I'll celebrate baby steps with you!!!!

I think (hope) temperament rehab is like a savings account with interest: it looks small in the beginnig but once the snowball effect starts progress is made quickly!

[Valerie]

Thanks Rudy!

I hope this is like compounding interest because if it's not then we've got a loooooong road ahead of us.