OK it's not really that bad, but he just tired himself out from doing this high pitched squeal for the past hour and a half so I sort of have a headache.
95% of the time, Pan is awesome. He comes to work during the day and is fine in his kennel in the van. He's quiet and either sleeps or chews his bully sticks. In the morning he runs to the door by his crate, and after a long walk at work he goes right back to the van and whines to go back in. I take him out on breaks and we go exploring or socializing (I work on a college campus). When the van is moving he stays quiet and settled and he's also doing a good job staying quiet between turns at Schutzhund training. At home he's as good as can be expected in the house. He's into everything but is not a monster chewer and when he has free time there are probably 50 dog toys out. He loves the dog toys so I rarely have trouble keeping him from chewing other stuff. He loves the other dogs and loves playing with them. At night he often gets tired and crawls into his crate in the bedroom on his own. He loves to play outside and goes out willingly (he's not scared or the type of dog I have to take out on lead to go potty). Sometimes he even wants to stay out by himself, which I don't allow but he's not so clingy that he has to be underfoot 24/7. Training is going great, he knows his name, sit, platz, come, and we do some puppy heeling with food lures. Last night he started perch work. Puppy STAR class starts Wed. He's 11 weeks old and so far since I got him at 7 weeks there's only been one day I haven't taken him somewhere outside the house to socialize.
OK, so the ONE problem is that he is obsessed with Nikon and freaks out when he is confined away from Nikon. Nikon loves having a young playmate so I give them a lot of time together, but if I call Pan to me, he comes and he wants to train or play with me. It's not like he blows me off for Nikon. Nikon has earned his freedom and gets to wander around as he pleases but Pan is still on a "schedule" of free time vs. crate time. If Pan is tired, he has no problem sleeping in his crate and this time around I'm doing better at not tip-toeing around the house while the puppy sleeps, he needs to get used to the noises and movement. However if Pan is not tired, he just won't do anything in the crate by himself. He just paces around, whining and screaming, trying to climb out. It's the worse when Nikon is moving around or doing something with me.
I feel like a big meanie leaving Pan in there when he's not tired but I know he's GOT to learn to me in there when other people and dogs are out, it's not enough to just be crated in the van alone or crated at night while everyone sleeps. Am I wrong or is the tough love appropriate here? I do let him out occasionally for potty, and he has chews and a dozen toys in the crate. It's a 42" crate and he's a 15lbs puppy so he has more than enough room even if he's awake. I feel like as it is he gets a LOT more free time and freedom than most puppies especially with what people describe on here. I don't think it's unreasonable to intentionally crate him at times when he's not dead tired, do you?