Crate training. UPDATE: Biting and growling in nonplayful way. pg 4

[Why and Dotte]

I just went through this about two weeks ago

My little guy cried forever, he sounded lke he was dying and disrupted life and worst of all he was right next to my bed.
I sat next to the gate shoved him in one or two times a day and loved on him a LOT (feed treats if thats something you do), he eventually found out that I wasn't always going to leave him alone every time, I would come back eventually and his crate was comfy after all.
He loves it now and every night goes in at 9 (by himself) then I come in at 10

he'll spend a whole day in his crate if he has to.

Good luck!

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for all the help. Last night I decided not to be so passive since she was running me down. I put her in to sleep and she slept an hour then woke up. I took her out to potty but she didn't do anything. Upon putting her back in the crate I noticed she had already peed. I've noticed she has a habit of whining for one second then peeing. She will try to hold her poop though. Then she wanted to play but I was so wore out and had to get up very early that I finally decided to leave her to cry which she did. She cried all night during every hour. The longest she went without crying was a half hour. She was so happy to see me in the morning that she kept running out of the crate from her food dish to find me then run back for another bite of food. I waited till she was quiet before going to the crate in the morning. I didn't see the Kong toy at the store today so I'll have to find it elsewhere. They did have one shaped similar to a bone that you could put treats in but it had such a small area that she probably wouldn't be able to get most of it out and would be hard to clean. We may possibly try to put the crate in our room tonight since my husband doesn't have to work tomorrow. She doesn't mind falling asleep on our floor as long as we are near by. She is afraid of everything including her own farts. I did buy her a harness today so I can take her for short evening strolls once she gets use to it. I'm hoping that will wear her down faster. I'm going to try to keep her busy closer to bed time so she doesn't try to take a nap before bedtime. I'm going to cover her crate also to make it more secure feeling. One other problem I'm having a hard time getting her to stop doing is biting way to hard. If she bites hard we say "Ouch!" real loud but that doesn't seem to work to good. Yesterday I was able to get her to quit chewing on the shoes by clapping my hands while saying a firm "No" to her but today she was being stubborn and it wasn't working as good.

 

[taraann81]

Congrats on the new pup!

Ignore the behaviours you don't want.

Also I personally wouldn't be using a halter on a bulldog, they often teach dogs to pull.

 

[arabianequine]

I say "no bite". but they are teething that age and bite and chew on everything.

 

[Morgan7782]

I wouldn't teach the puppy no bite.. They need to learn Bite Inhibition, which means they know what amount of pressure to use or to NOT use. If you teach a dog not to mouth at all, they will bite playfully and could do some real damage. So you want to allow mouthing to a certain limit, so the puppy learns what amount of pressure to use without causing harm.

 

[reveriereptile]

I don't mind her biteing to a certain limit but don't want her to bite to hard. As far as why I used a harness instead of collar is her neck is so wrinkled that I didn't know if a collar would bother her neck. I'd like to get a collar at some point to use and put tags on. So far when I tried the halter earlier she didn't do to bad. She mostly stays under or near my feet. I have to do the shuffle waddle to avoid stepping on her especially in the house. She will probably get out of that though once she isn't as afraid or accidently gets stepped on.

 

[SillyChicken]

I wouldn't move the crate in the bedroom unless you plan on keeping it there. Keep it where you will generally need to keep it so it doesn't confuse the puppy. Consistancy is best so the dog knows what to expect. Once he gets older it won't matter so much. He'll just start whining again once you put him back out in the hallway.

I think you're trying too hard. Keep it simple and consistant, and he'll learn quick.

You could try one of those rolled leather collars. It's thinner so it will be more comfortable around his neck and skin folds.

 

[arabianequine]

Quote:
and how exactly do you do that?

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
and how exactly do you do that?

Bite inhibition is normally taught by the siblings of the puppy in the litter. It's one of the most important things a dog learns before 8 weeks of age and is one of the main reasons you shouldn't ever buy or adopt a puppy prior to 7 or 8 weeks old. The siblings teach the puppy how hard it can bite. If the pup bites too hard the other pup will scream and the play ends. The puppy eventually lears how hard it can bite and still have the fun times roll.

You can do the same thing with your puppy. Scream loudly and sharply and end a play session if your pup bites you. The issue here is allowing bites and how hard. I am in the middle of this. I think some mouthing during play is ok **at first** to allow YOU to learn how to do the scream and end the play session immediately. I also think that this lesson needs to be within the first four to five days after the puppy shows you his/her true personality and then there after it is NOT appropriate for the puppy to put his/her teeth on you at any time.

So the first few times the puppy mouths you is to teach you timing of your scream and disengagement of your play time. After a few of these the pup will start getting the message and you can, with in a couple days, be completely intolerant of any mouthing behavior.

 

[reveriereptile]

I'll look for one of those round collars. She is starting to do better with the crate whining. She takes more breaks inbetween the whining. My husband has been playing with her when I'm ready for bed so I can get some sleep when she isn't ready to sleep yet. We have been bringing her into our bedroom during the day. That's the main place we usually are at since with live with his parents and have a/c upstairs. We are both allergic to her but are trying to work around that. I placed a soft bath rug on our bedroom floor for her to lay out near the a/c. That has worked good since she will lay on that most of the time instead of my lap when she is in our room. Trying to get her use to not needing a lap to fall asleep. Since my husband is playing with her more it is helping so she isn't so strongly attached to just me. She goes up to him to play and want to cuddle now also. He isn't as good with potty training her though. Needs to take her out more. We may get some of the moisturizer pet allergy shampoo so whenever we do have to bathe her I can use that. Going to start vacuuming more. We are still working with her biteing. I've been saying "Ouch!" louder and move my hand away (not jerk away though). Is there something safe to put on wires that tastes bad to help with her wanting to chew wires? We keep as close of an eye on her as we can but sometimes she will run up under something before we can catch her and bite hold of a wire. I know that I could hook a leash to my pants so she is close to me but I'd rather not do that since most of the time she don't leave 5 feet from me. She will go into the kitchen to get a drink and then come back though. I'm worried about it more when we have small cousins come out to spend the night incase they look away or not know there is a wire around that area. She is a bit stubborn to try to get her to let go of something. Right now I say "No!" real loud and put one of her toys in front of her mouth or if she doesn't let go I have to put my finger in her mouth (not to choke her) to get it out. A lot of times she will take the toy and then drop it and go back after what I just got her away from even if I take her across the room. She is getting a little more better with leaving shoes alone but I still have to take the lace out of her mouth if the shoe has one. With wires though I want to get her out of that habit faster for safety concerns. Another thing I'm wondering about is I looked at her vaccination book but can't tell when she is due for her next shots. Is it 10-12 weeks for a english bulldog? I'm going to ask about monthly heartworm chewables (don't want to risk the shot form just incase she reacts to it) and flea meds when I take her for her next shots. I'm debating on microchipping or not.

Forgot to mention that we can't pvc the wires due to the locations since the house is old and doesn't have many outputs. So we have drop cords to reach areas and we can't cover the surge outlets.