Hello all! I am hoping you guys can give me some advice on my situation
   We brought our puppy home last Saturday, so we would have him a week this weekend making him 8 weeks old! when we brought him home he explored and explored the crate as well to start crate training. Sunday I started training him with the crate, we played some crate games and he was getting the idea of what I wanted. But during this week it has been very hard, as soon as the door shuts on the crate he gets very anxious and nervous and literally starts screaming like he is dying...which he is not. and he has pooped in his crate while he is screaming! I feel so bad but I know he will get used to it and see that the cage is his safe place. He eats all of his meals in his crate with the door open and he sometimes will go lay down in his crate and plays with his toys... Sometimes. if he falls asleep outside of his crate for a nap I will slide him into his crate and while he is still somewhat awake I close the door and he goes back to sleep. Mind you I do keep a cover/blanket over the crate to make it a little darker and cozier.
 when we are playing crate games and it gets to where he does everything I ask and I would go to shut the door while I am sitting there, he is ok for about 15 seconds and then he goes absolutely nuts.. and I am still sitting there at this point. I don't know if I went wrong somewhere or if I should just keep doing what I am doing till he gets the hang of things? Thank you for any advice that is given!

I don't see where you are doing anything wrong. He's just being a brat about it. lol. He is okay with the crate, just not with not having the freedom to leave it on his terms. It's a waiting game of tough love. Give him something that takes time to work on when you close the door. Rather than letting him lay in there with toys and the door open he gets frozen kongs and chewing things with the door closed so he is busy with the door closed. A week isn't that long in the grand scheme of things. I have an adult dog that just started to learn crating and after a week he was still digging at the bottom of the crate feverishly. And that's an adult dog that isn't dealing with the loss of his litter on top of learning rules. Make sure your crate is sized properly also. You don't want it too big. Only large enough for him to stand up and turn around. Think of it as a bed, and not a bedroom.

Thank you! I will definitely try the frozen kong!

When Koda was first getting used to his crate he would scream unless I had the TV on (or any background noise) and a light blanket over his crate so he couldn't see out. Then after about a week I was able to leave the TV off. He still has his brat moments but if I cover the crate he chills right back out.

You should also look into getting him bully sticks, they are a major win in my house.

When Meeko came home, the first night in the crate he was fine (he was overly tired) but the second he screamed all night. My boyfriend and I decided to put him him in his crate and sit outside of it for a while, whenever he was quiet we both gave him lots of praise and pets but as soon as he made a sound we stopped and didn't look at him. After 20 minutes he got the idea, he hasn't given us a problem since!

I did what most everyone says not to do, including my own breeder. I slept outside the crate for about a week. I got Kohdi at 9 weeks and his first night, we were both exhausted...we had been on the road for 9 hours and we got home late. When I put him in his crate, he did the usual whimpering and I got my pillows and blankets and plopped them down by his crate, he watched me, then I laid down and he came over and laid next to me, I put my fingers thru the crate openings, gave him a few scratches on his head and we both fell asleep. Second night, same thing, and by the third night, he was fine. I'd wake up if I heard him moving around, so I'd get up and take him out to go outside and potty, then back in his crate and back to sleep. I did it for about a week, even though he was good by the third night, I liked that I could get him outside to potty when he needed to. Kohdi suffered no ill effects from my doing that, he doesn't have seperation anxiety or anything like that, he's actually a very well adjusted dog, so while its advised against, I have zero doubt that I did it "wrong". When I got Mishka, I did the same thing, only Kohdi slept by me, and the crate too. When I had my past huskies, I had smaller crates, so I just moved the crates into my room at night at bedtime.

We just got our 6 weeks old pup, and we are crate training and she will not stop screaming, whinning is not a big deal but the screaming is driving us nuts! We also live in an apartment. We do not give in and go tell her to be quite, we are trying to do it right, but it is so hard because we don't want to disturb the neighbors with her screaming! What can we do to help soothe the screaming? Is it separation anxiety?? I need some advice as first time Husky pup parents.

I crate trained a 6 yr old foster. Cold turkey. It was not pretty. Took me about a month, I think. He ate the back wall of the crate. Yowled, screamed, elected the tray completely out. Dragged the blanket covering the crate inside and shredded it. He's fine now. He gets something every time he goes in. Either a meal, his meal in a kong plugged with peanut butter. If he's in the garage crate, he gets a bone if we're going to be gone long enough (if not, he'll be guarding his bone and won't come out. If it's long enough, he's eager to come out.)

apnorris wrote:

We just got our 6 weeks old pup, and we are crate training and she  will not stop screaming, whinning is not a big deal but the screaming is driving us nuts! We also live in an apartment. We do not give in and go tell her to be quite, we are trying to do it right, but it is so hard because we don't want to disturb the neighbors with her screaming! What can we do to help soothe the screaming? Is it separation anxiety?? I need some advice as first time Husky pup parents.

Hey apnorris!

I live in an apartment to, and can totally sympathize on your concern for bothering you neighbors. I was very lucky with Echo who was very comfortable interacting with his crate from day 1, however he did have ++separation anxiety when I locked him in there and left. Here's what I did at the beginning for nights...

• Have a comfort object (i.e. sweater, large stuffed animal) near the crate. Echo peed on everything I put into his crate so I just put a large stuffed animal near his crate
  
• I slept on the couch near his crate at the beginning where he could see me at a ~3M distance
  
• I slowly started moving the couch away, to the point where he could only see my head, sometimes he would whine, so I would lay beside the crate and then creep back to the couch after a couple of minutes
  
• After about I a week and a half of the above I went back to sleep in my bed...he would whine occasionally and had to do the whole lay beside his crate for a couple of minutes and creep back into bed
  

Eventually after 2 weeks he was solid. During this time, you kind of have to anticipate when your dog whines for the sake of whining or if he actually needs to go out to potty. You kind of just know after awhile. Difficult to explain =P. In an apartment, you kind of have give in and tend to him when he screams at night cause you don't want to get a complaint, so that may have set you back a bit, but I fully went tough love on him during the day...A screaming dog sucks during the day, but much better than at night Here's my day routine...

• 2-3 training sessions daily of just luring him into the crate, closing it and walking away...starting with a couple of minute sessions >>> 30min to 1hr sessions...
  
• I usually let him scream up to 15-20 mins, but if he doesn't settle than it's probably something more than just separation anxiety (i.e. he actually needs to potty).
  
• The moment he calms down, don't rush and open the door, let him be quiet for at least 5 mins then click or praise him a lot with treats and let him out...
  
• I taught him the "kennel up" command early so he knew to walk into the crate let me lock the crate and he would get a treat
  
• Teach "down" early. When in the down position, I find the dog is in a calmer state of mind, and can't bark/whine as aggressively as if he's on all fours pawing at the crate...etc...
  
• I would lock him in the crate and ask him to down repeatedly treating & clicking him each time he did it...eventually doing it at a distance...
  
• I found if I asked him to down when he screamed/whined he would stop at least for a moment...eventually he just learned to be quiet in the down position and it might get him treats
  
• I always made sure he was "down" before I let him out of the crate
  
• Always treat only when he's laying down in the crate. (i.e. when he goes into the crate at night I always like to give him a bedtime treat, but only when he lays down)
  

Hard to explain all this in just one post, but i did a combination of all of these things, and he does well in his crate now at night. I find he still whines a bit when I crate him during the day and leave the house, but it only lasts for a minute and he settles. He also still whines when I crate him and I'm doing things (i.e. cooking, cleaning, etc...) in front of him...at 5 months now...it's still a working process =P...but at least i can sleep for 9 hours straight at night without him bothering me =D.

Treats, Praise, Use a clicker, Make sure he stays down in his crate, and don't give into his whining! =D

Good luck!

Very nice second post, very informative and I should hope, very helpful!

And thanks for telling us where you are, while I realize that "personal privacy" is a real issue, it can sometimes really help if we have some idea where you are.

Thanks aljones! =D Been wanting to contribute my experiences with my puppy for awhile here...just haven't found the time...At 5 months, I can finally get some more me time on my days off...

P.S. The "down" command was really the key part in crate training my husky. I forgot to mention when I mean "down" I mean COMPLETELY down...head MUST to be touching the floor. I don't treat or praise otherwise. Tough love

Stubborn little guy.  Sleeps like a champ in the crate at night.  Willingly goes in the crate at times to lie down during the day.  

Shut the crate door during the day however and all hell breaks loose.  Whines for a whole 2+ hours until I distract with noise to get him quiet for a brief praise and then out to pee again. We have had a single poop accident that was entirely my fault (broken pipe was leaking in the basement and I was trying to prevent a flood and pup got stuck a little longer than intended).

Doesn't matter if we went out and played for an hour.  Peed/pooped before going inside.   Gets a frozen kong of peanut butter/kibble, gets a milkbone.  Has the radio on (or off) and the crate covered or open.

I will "break" him but what I would give for a time machine to move forward a week or so.