Please please please someone make it stop

[goldenlovingknitter]

We have a 2 month old German Shepherd/Black lab mix that is really very sweet and loving.  He cries so much it is driving me crazy!  Does anyone know how to get him to stop?  At least 4 nights a week he will cry in the middle of the night to go out.  sometimes he needs to pee other times he is just crying to get out of the crate.  It isn't a whimper either it starts out low then goes to yelling and yelping.  He cries when he can't find us in the house he cries to get on the couch he cries to get off.  He cries he cries he cries.  Trying to not go to him doesn't work because he will just continue to cry until you go in there.  Any ideas on what to do?  Any suggestions at all will be a huge help.

[queenkofsnow]

Actually, I find that you really have to be tough and win the battle.  The longer he cries and wins, the next time he will cry even longer.  I remember Mike's first couple of weeks...actual ly, the first one.  He would cry in the night, etc, and when I was home..I work nights..he did pretty good cause I didn't let him rule the roost..I was boss...I just said no sternly and eventually I would win. But, when I was working, my son was in charge and he just couldn't take the crying and would let him out of the kennel so when I finally was back at home again I had to start the battle all over.  I finally had a heart to heart with my son explaining that he had to be tough.  He was and then we both won and within a week or two Mikey was contented with his kennel and not more crying.  He will still get anxious when his little buddy K2 is taken for a walk without him....he would have already gone snowshoeing, but scotty legs just don't do very well in deep snow.  But, when he starts the whining I just tell him NO and he stops......you are the boss...remembe r that.  You aren't hurting him by letting him cry.  If he continues to get what he wants by using it he will continue to use it.  Just like a small child.

[goldenlovingknitter]

Thank you so much.  I may have to take a vacation to get caught up on my sleep, but I'm def. willing to do anything at this point.  My poor sunny looks tortured when i go let Ace out to pee.  Sunny looks like please oh please oh please make him stop.  If we don't put  Sunny in there with him he has a fit!  I'd try to save Sunny, but most of the time he paces up and down the hallway if ace is crying and he can't get to him.

[lins_saving_grace]

Grace is a yelper/whiner too.  It's been a long battle, but she's finally calming down.  Hang in there.

[queenkofsnow]

And. by the way...your beasties are precious..so cute.

[goldenlovingknitter]

Thank you!  I hope to have my sanity at the end of the battle, but I won't give up!

[greek4]

If I cave and let Maia out of her cage when she barks, I will be listening to it for a week afterwards.  Maia was tough and would cry like someone was pulling her toes out one at a time but we held strong and she will go in willingly and happy.  I give treats everytime she goes in her cage.  Does he have a tasty bone that he can only chew in his cage, a favorite toy to snuggle, or some music to listen to?

[Kermit]

Just keep in mind your 2 month old pup is a tiny baby! I think it might be expecting too much for him to sleep all the way through the night at this point. I have a 5 month old puppy who has just recently gotten to where she doesn't need to go potty in the middle of the night. It is just a puppy thing. If you think your pup is crying excessively, he is probably testing to find out what he can get by crying. Not like he is scheming or anything, but he is just learning. Learning how to get what he wants and learning whatever rules you setup for him. It's like the two of you are training together.
I definitely recommend that you get a book on positive dog training, maybe something that encourages clicker training. Those books are really really helpful, and even if you don't follow their whole regime you can learn a lot about what is behind your puppy's behaviour. I just bought "the Dog Whisperer" by Paul Owens, and my boyfriend is reading "Clicking with your Dog" and "How to Behave so that your Dog Behaves". I can't remember the authors of those two last ones, but we are learning a lot that we didn't already know and we have had dogs for years!!!

[goldenlovingknitter]

we have a 5 month old golden as well and he sleeps inside the crate with ace because it is the only way we could calm him.  soon though the will outgrow the crate I think we're getting one this week to start the process of moving each of them into their own home.  sunny never cried when we put him in the crate so I guess you can say we had it easy with him.  We let ace out when he cries because I figure he needs to go outside but the other times he doesn't need to go out.  He just walks out and wants to play.  we're having a hard time getting him not to bite he jumps up to nip at our faces and things.  we had the same problem with sunny, but were able to get him to stop before we got Ace.  Well I'll def look into the books you suggested and get some good ideas.  We have Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds for dummies.  LOL I come here and read through the posts and it always provides some great information which is always appreciated! thanks so much 

[Hedda Garland]

Hi,
your little ones are just adorable. You can't expect a two months old puppy to sleep through the night, but one thing you can do is, only let him during a moment of non crying. Do you have a blanket with the smell of the litter or the mom that he could have in his crate?
So far he might just learn that with crying he will get the attention he wants - like kids: better some even negative attention than none. If he does not really have to go, e.g. he just went potty maybe he can cry and you ignore it. It helps to have a regular schedule for time to go out and be in the crate.
If you are looking for helpful books there are two good ones for the beginning: The Power of Positve Dog Training by Pat Miller and Beginning Family Dog Training by Patricia McConnell.
He is young, so it will take a bit but you'll get there. Good luck.

[goldenlovingknitter]

Thank you   We let him out when he cries at first because he wakes us up and doesn't stop crying until we get up and let him out.  We don't expect him to be able to hold it, but it sure would be nice to sleep. LOL  It isn't 8 hours at night its around 11 or 1130 to 330 because I wake up really early for work.  last night he started at 1247 and I put them to bed at 11.  So i let him out he peed again and then put him back to bed when he started to cry.  I'm writing down all these books so I Can go find them LOL hopefully they have them at the library so I can read them all. thanks again!  and no we don't have a blanket that smells like the litter.  when we got him they said he was 7 weeks, but after doing the math he was only 5 and a half weeks old and not really on solid dog food yet.  We didn't realize his age until a week after we had him.  we were puzzled though as to why he wasn't sure about the dog food then we calculated from his birthday and realized he was younger than we thought.  Do you think getting him so young could have anything to do with him crying so much?  He'll be in the living room and sunny will walk into the office where we are and we'll hear him start to whine and walk around looking for sunny.   

[Nina]

That could be the problem, he was taken from the litter too early. We had the same problem with Dilbert and it lasted for quite a while. What we did with him was we put a blanket over him den and we had a set bedtime routine. He was in bed at 10 every night with the blanket over the den and that really helped. And Harley would usually sleep outside his den until he fell asleep.  When he got older he would come up to me at 10pm and wait for me to put him to bed and give him his bedtime kisses. He would still sleep in his den with the door open and wouldn't get up til about 7am and he would come wake me to let him out. I would really work on having a set bedtime routine with him, take him out to potty and then tell him its bedtime and give him lots of kisses and put him in his den. If he whines say his name and say quiet its bedtime, and say bedtime in a really happy voice. It worked like a charm for me.

Good luck and hang in there, it will get better. I'll ask Dilbert to help you out from the rainbow bridge


Nina

[goldenlovingknitter]

aww thanks!  I'll try covering his bed tonight and see how it goes.   He really is a sweet guy just needs a little help is all.  At first he hated his crate, but now he runs to get in it when we tell him go to bed and he gets a treat.   So I know we're making progress its just slow coming.   thanks again to everyone

[princessnmi]

We had the same problem with Pita and she is 12 weeks old now. We have never had to crate any of the dogs except Pita. I guess I've gotten lucky. But Pita would go outside go potty then within 5 minutes of her being in our bedroom (one of the only carpeted places in the house) she would pee. So we started locking her up in the kitchen. We put the baby gate up she has her bed and a couple toys. We tell her its bedtime and put her over the gate. The first couple nites she howled ALL nite, so I turned the TV on and told her to hush and go to sleep. Now I leave the TV on very softly and she has slept through the nite for the last 5 nites without any howling. I think maybe the sound of the TV lets her know shes not alone.

[goldenlovingknitter]

I'm hoping all the tips I got today will help us get Ace to calm the crying a bit. we'll see...