Kivi Tarro hates being confined!

oh my gosh, little waaaaahoooooo's! I am in love.

Kord never made a sound and was sleeping through the night pretty quickly. This mind you is NOT a boast. The little demon would be just fine, but I could find NOTHING to contain his little determined GSD butt from getting where he was to where we were. I broke down and had to buy a crate to get 5 minutes of puppy peace!

When I mentioned it to his breeder I got......."oh yeah, forgot to tell you that the whole litter were escape artists".....sigh....I think I got the ring leader!

Gratz on the pup btw!

corvus

 I guess this is probably totally normal for a puppy. Kivi Tarro is a real sweetie and he's so gentle and laid back for a puppy, but boy does he hate being confined. Well, he's okay with being confined, but only as long as he can see me or my partner. The moment we're out of view, he's whining and howling. I have to admit, his howls are very cute because he puts his little nose in the air and closes his eyes and goes "Wrooooo" like a little wolf. Today we put him in his pen while he had a chicken wing for brekky, and he was fine, but I was there within a couple of minutes of him finishing up to let him out for some play. When he went back in for a nap, he howled and cried for about 20 minutes before he fell asleep in exhaustion. I gave him a Kong to keep him busy, but he lost interest in it as soon as he realised I was leaving again.

Stay in the room with him then while he eats, but resolutely make no eye contact or speak to him.  Read a paper or watch TV.   If he realises he won't get attn even if you are tehre, it will be less of a big deal if you pop out of the room for a few minutes for a drink.... and from there it wont take him long to settle quietly in his own for short periods without needing to see you. 

I bet it's more of a smidge of separation anxiety that all puppies go through than distaste for confinement. When we first had to leave Shadow in the yard (5,048 square feet (469 square meters) of confinement), he, too, would howl and cry and carry on. And, eventually learned that we always returned, often with goodies. After a while, he learned to amuse himself and trust that we were coming back.

Every puppy I've had takes some time to be OK with it. B'asia never did get used to it, but she was older. All the little puppies eventually got used to people moving around and them being confined. It just takes time.

I love Chuffy's idea of ignoring him even though you're there. You should not react to his howls in any way. (They sound SO cute!) I think a video is in order!  

FourIsCompany

I think a video is in order!  

I second that motion. All those in favor say "aye"...

I think 3 areas of confinement is going to prolong the whining.  The dog will get use to one confinement area faster and look at it as a safehaven and secure area.  For me, it only took a couple of nights sleeping with the pups until that safehaven transition took place.

DPU

I think 3 areas of confinement is going to prolong the whining. 

Being a good tv watcher, The Dog Whisperer has taught me that the dog whines because it knows you will come back into the room. So its the dog trying to control you, just leave it to whine even though it will be hard, and it will learn that it will get nothing from whining

He's getting pretty good about the crate in the bedroom, but still hates the pen in the yard. I'm sitting in the yard with him now with my back to him while he rages in a puppy tantrum behind me. Penny is considering moving out. Penny doesn't like puppy cries.

We put him in the bathroom because we're getting a bit concerned he's going to hurt himself on the bars of the crate/pen. He keeps chomping on them and then rolling around so his teeth end up at weird angles. I had to disentangle him yesterday. And also felt sorry for the neighbours .

Anyway, I've got loads to do around the house this week cleaning up after the move, so I was thinking I'd set him up in his crate somewhere kinda central and let him gradually get comfortable with it all. Hopefully. He's been carrying on behind me for, like, 15 minutes, now!

He got to 5am before he needed to pee this morning. At least that makes life easier for us. Penny is still dirty on him sleeping next to her bed and usually chooses to sleep elsewhere, but she's playing with him and let him snuggle with her on the couch last night.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I was still at school when I got Penny, so I didn't have to deal with all of this. I think my mother always just left the puppies unceremoniously and expected them to deal and nothing bad ever came out of that. She didn't ever leave them for more than a couple of hours, though. Ack. Any moment now he'll wear himself out. 

ron2

FourIsCompany

I think a video is in order!  

I second that motion. All those in favor say "aye"...

AYE!