Ok I need more advice with my pup

[slcjess]

so, I've posted before that we recently(ish) adopted a 3 year old shih tzu mix. Things have been going great with him... Until bedtime. We reintroduced the crate to him, which I know he has slept in before with his previous foster.  He has a water bowl that attaches to the side, his favorite pink blanket, and his chicken toy that he loves. We waited to close the door until he was going in on his own and just chilling in there without us telling him to.  He seemed to know exactly what the crate was and what it was for when I set it up the first time. Every night, we get a dental bone and his chicken, I tell him to go to his house, and he runs in. I close the door, tell him I love him and goodnight, and go upstairs. Then, he starts barking. And keeps barking. All night. For the last 2 weeks. I know he can sleep in a crate and is ok with it. We have tried putting a blanket over his crate, he pulled it through the holes of his crate and shredded it. Everyone tells me to give it time and he will get it in a few days, but that doesn't seem to be happening. I'm at my wits end, I have no idea what else to do. Help? 

I mi should add that the reason it's so important to me that he sleeps in a crate is because we have started ttc, and I don't want him crawling/sitting on my as of yet unborn spawn. I also like the idea of him having a 'safe place' to go when the baby/toddler stage gets overwhelming to him; he has a hard time with kids sometimes. 

[dr.girlfriend]

Sorry, two weeks seems like a long time for him to not have adjusted. On the other hand, is your unborn spawn going to be crawling around after bedtime? It doesn't seem likely. I don't quite see the connection between the dog being confined at night and the hypothetical baby. How about leaving the crate door open at first?

[slcjess]

oh sorry- I should have clarified (I wrote this right before I went to bed last night so I was really tired, lol). If hes not in the crate he will come sleep in our bed, (we can close the door but then he spends all night trying to break the door down :/) and I assume at some point, I'll be having the baby in my bed too, that is where I'm concerned about baby trampling, because he doesn't just stay in one place, of course. Lol.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 7, 2015 12:17:32 GMT -5 slcjess said:

oh sorry- I should have clarified (I wrote this right before I went to bed last night so I was really tired, lol). If hes not in the crate he will come sleep in our bed, (we can close the door but then he spends all night trying to break the door down :/) and I assume at some point, I'll be having the baby in my bed too, that is where I'm concerned about baby trampling, because he doesn't just stay in one place, of course. Lol.

(This is in no way a recommendation of what you should do, but this is what happened with us in case it helps):

Our dog was a puppy with no prior crate training, and she howled all night when we crated her at night.  We lasted two nights before we gave up.  At first she was sleeping in bed with us, but then my husband had a (minor) surgery and he was nervous about having her stomp around the bed.  We have a house where all the living areas are downstairs and only the two bedrooms and bathroom are upstairs, and I kept the baby gate brackets installed at the bottom of the stairs thinking we might need them for the puppy.  :-)  At first we closed the baby gate downstairs during the day and just let her up last thing at night (I moved my son into our bed and my husband slept in his bed).  After a few days, she would fall asleep downstairs, and we would leave the gate open and she'd come up at some point during the night.  Then, she just stopped coming up.  On New Year's Eve I was worried she'd freak about the fireworks, so I even carried her upstairs to my bed at bedtime.  She stayed for a few minutes and then took off downstairs.  :-)  Now we just leave the gate closed and she sleeps by herself downstairs.  IDK if it's something about her in particular, but she definitely did much better being free and alone downstairs than crated and alone.  If we were all upstairs withouth her she whined at the baby gate for a little while the first few evenings, but gave up after about 10 minutes.  Nothing even close to the full-night howling she did in her crate.  We got her in November-ish, so this all happened in the course of about 2 months, from when she was 10 - 18 weeks old.

Tl;dr -- if he's not destructive, maybe he'll do better having freedom and just being barred from your room.  :-)  You can also try those tricks of hot water bottle in crate, stuff that smells like you, etc.

[dearprudence]

Can you move the crate into the bedroom. My guess is the big problem isn't the crate, but the location.

[slcjess]

dr.girlfriend- we tried a baby gate, and just like with the door he spent all night trying to break it down by slamming into it :/
and then went on a poop-fest in my living room. lol.

dearprudence- the reason we have him downstaris is because he was still barking up a storm in our room, but I know his foster kept his crate downstairs, so I was hoping replicating that would be more.. comforting? familiar? (it may not be sound logic, I admit. I haven't slept a whole night in over 2 weeks. Logic is no longer part of my world. haha)

ETA- thank you so much for your suggestions. 

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 7, 2015 13:55:52 GMT -5 slcjess said:

dr.girlfriend- we tried a baby gate, and just like with the door he spent all night trying to break it down by slamming into it :/
and then went on a poop-fest in my living room. lol.

dearprudence- the reason we have him downstaris is because he was still barking up a storm in our room, but I know his foster kept his crate downstairs, so I was hoping replicating that would be more.. comforting? familiar? (it may not be sound logic, I admit. I haven't slept a whole night in over 2 weeks. Logic is no longer part of my world. haha)

ETA- thank you so much for your suggestions. 

Good training for baby!

The other thing I was thinking, is to start almost as if from scratch with intensive crate-training -- e.g., giving him a steady supply of treats in his crate, rewarding him when he's quiet, and then letting him out when she is quiet and *never* when he is complaining.  Practice door open at first, then door shut, then you in the room, then you out of the room for a little bit at a time.  Maybe if during the day he gets used to staying quiet in the crate with the door shut, and you out of sight for increasingly long periods of time it will feel less like punishment at night.

[slcjess]

Jan 7, 2015 14:01:35 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Jan 7, 2015 13:55:52 GMT -5 slcjess said:

dr.girlfriend- we tried a baby gate, and just like with the door he spent all night trying to break it down by slamming into it :/
and then went on a poop-fest in my living room. lol.

dearprudence- the reason we have him downstaris is because he was still barking up a storm in our room, but I know his foster kept his crate downstairs, so I was hoping replicating that would be more.. comforting? familiar? (it may not be sound logic, I admit. I haven't slept a whole night in over 2 weeks. Logic is no longer part of my world. haha)

ETA- thank you so much for your suggestions. 

Good training for baby!

The other thing I was thinking, is to start almost as if from scratch with intensive crate-training -- e.g., giving him a steady supply of treats in his crate, rewarding him when he's quiet, and then letting him out when she is quiet and *never* when he is complaining.  Practice door open at first, then door shut, then you in the room, then you out of the room for a little bit at a time.  Maybe if during the day he gets used to staying quiet in the crate with the door shut, and you out of sight for increasingly long periods of time it will feel less like punishment at night.

I guess I will probably have to do this.   we did this a little when we first got the crate, but maybe not as much as we should have since he has already been crated. I'm so frustrated because I KNOW he knows this. He just wants to torture me. Haha.