Noisey Girl

[Guest koopathegreyt]

My fiance and I adopted Lavender about a month ago. I'm in need of some tips and pointers. We have renamed her Koopa. She responds well to her name, comes 75% of the time when called and has learned quickly that if she needs to go to the bathroom to wait by the door and we will take her out. She is not very affectionate but has grown comfortable enough to cuddle on the couch with us.

The problems Mike and I are encountering are when we are not home or trying to sleep. Koopa has separation anxiety. I have read a lot about what to do. She has plenty of things in her crate when we are not around. She has a Kong stuffed with treats, a bone with PB in it, a tshirt freshly worn by me etc. She will lick what she can out of those items and then become quickly uninterested. The issue here is her howling. Once she is done getting the yummy stuff out, she starts with a slow whine, eventually turning into a consistent howl. When you hear it, it sounds like shes being hurt. Our neighbor, who has been very patient with us and Koopa has told us she can hear Koopa whining and howling often in the day. This was also happening when she was in her crate in the living room at night. We brought the crate in our bed room to see how it would work out. She whined/howled for the first couple nights and eventually was okay. The problem we are running into is that we have moved her crate into the living room again. She gets up anywhere between 5-12 times per night to re-situate herself to get comfortable. She will shake off, and spin around in her crate, then lay down. This has become very bothersome to myself and Mike in the night, to the point that we are becoming sleep deprived from being woken up so often. Currently we are not ready for her to be out of the crate at night for fear that she will have an accident during the night.

Mike and I are growing frustrated because it appears like we are losing sleep and spending money to keep her occupied and happy but it's not getting us anywhere.

Please feel free to respond with any tips, tricks, pointers, anything that you feel will help us as adoptive Greyhound parents.

[krissy]

Sorry, I was a little confused from the post so correct me if this isn't right.

 

She was better when she was in the bedroom, but you moved her back to the living room because she was getting up and turning around in the middle which was noisy. I assume now that she's in the living room she's back to whining and howling?

 

Dogs like to sleep with their people. Crates can be noisy if the dog is getting up and turning. It's much quieter without the crate. It can help to take the tags/collar off in the crate so you don't have metal banging against metal at least. You could use an x-pen instead as an option. It would give her more space so might be quieter, but hopefully not so much space that she would have an accident.

[Guest koopathegreyt]

Greyaholic-

 

First, thank you for your speedy reply!

Yes you have it correct. I believe soon we will have a trial run to see if she can last the night without an accident. Using an x-pen is also a good idea.

[locket]

Sounds like Jack when we first got him! We had always left him out of the crate at night, but restricted his access to the house. He could only roam in the bedroom, but guess what? He never even moved away from his bed. Eventually we gave him full access to the house, but unless he has an emergency, he never gets up.

Our second dog is different. He wakes up around 4 and roams as much as he can, so we block his roaming access with chairs in our doorway. You can also close the door or put a baby gate. Chances are she will not have an accident if she can last the whole day while you are away and if she is house trained. Let her prove herself!

As for the howling, we were committed to using the crate, but obviously Jack felt differently. To the point where it actually became dangerous for him as he got out of the crate. I had videotaped everything. Once out, he explored the house on his own and settled on his bed waiting for us. We never put him back in the crate. And he doesn’t howl anymore. It did take us almost 3 months to get to that point! We tried the following:

- Alone training (have you done any? Search the forum!)
- DAP collar/diffuser (I recommend, it helped a lot here!)
- Country music
- Free-roaming (Eventually what worked)
- No fuss when arriving or leaving
- Kong (15 minutes of delay before the onset of the howling)
- Exercise (a good 45 minutes of walking before you go, tire her out!)

Our second dog? No separation anxiety. But he is not alone Good luck, let us know!

[palmettobug]

Johnny absolutely did not want to be crated at night from the get go. He was muzzled and baby-gated in the bedroom, since I have cats. Daytime crating lasted a couple of weeks more, then he refused to go in and ran back to the bedroom. I muzzled him until I was confident he would not bother the cats (and of course gave them escape routes).

 

He has a comfy bed both in the bedroom and the living room. If he has to go, he'll start to pace and I'll hear him. We've only had one accident, he had some diarrhea at my parents' house, but that's been it.

 

I'll second Cynthia up there, just wanted to share my experiences.

[greysmom]

Unless she has given you a reason to suspect she can't go all night, then I would just let her sleep in you room, out of the crate. If you want/nee to keep track of her, you can put a baby gate across the door, or get a long training lead and loop it around your wrist at night. That way, if she starts to roam you will know right away.

 

Ditto for the crate during the day. Locket above has excellent suggestions - Alone Training (do it - no substitute for it), more exercise before you leave (lots more), and considering leaving her out of the crate. Unless she's soiling her crate during the day, OR unless her SA causes her to lose control, she will probably not have accidents in the house while you're gone. You can baby gate her into a cleanable space where she's comfortable if you really want to, but she'll be *most* comfortable in her normal space on her normal bed.

 

Time and patience are your best allies. The dog you have right now is not the dog you will have in 6 months. Her personality will change and blossom as she becomes more familiar and settled into your home and routine.

[GeorgeofNE]

I get that you were probably TOLD to crate her, but think about it. I presume you work (most of us do!) so she is in the crate all day, and you also expect her to sleep in the crate?

 

I'd howl too.

 

A healthy adult dog can easily make it through the night without having to go out, and it sounds like she is housebroken. I would start with letting her sleep where she wants at night.

 

Crates are meant to be a temporary thing (except for those dogs who really do love them, and in households where there are multiple dogs and safety is an issue).

[KickReturn]

Yup to much of the above. Koopa should be on a dog bed in your room with you during the night. Close your door or gate the opening. If she whines offer her a quick turnout. She should sleep through the night in no time.

 

At some point she will certainly be able to handle having the run of the house during the day. Build up to it by starting with a room or two with areas of concern blocked off. Then expand room by room to include the rest of the house.

 

If Koopa does have an accident it not a big deal. Just clean it up with Natures Miracle and continue to praise her when she does her business outside. Eventually she will view the entire house as her kennel and will certainly not want to do her business in it.

 

All of this assumes that Koopa gets a really good walk before bed. If not then I am not sure how useful my advice is. Never tried it without a good walk.

 

Biggest mistake I ever made with a dog was following the advice to crate at night or when I left the dog alone. As greyhound owners we should be aware that some dogs should never be crated. If the dog goes into any sort of distress in a crate, other options should be tried.

Edited November 1, 2016 by KickReturn

[Guest koopathegreyt]

Thank you to everyone who replied. We have successfully transitioned Koopa to sleeping on her own bed on the floor in our bedroom at night.

[palmettobug]

Awesome!