Please help… our 5 month old puppy hates being in his kennel when we are out of sight. We are at our wits’ end

[curiouschristian82]

My wife and I recently adopted a 16 w/o goldendoodle. He was weened from his mom at ~8 weeks and spent the remaining 8 weeks with his biological brother.

Once we got him home, he was eager to learn everything about the house (including the kennel) and has been great with potty training and fairly good with learning various commands we are teaching him (sit, come, heel, off, place, etc).

We have his kennel in our bedroom and lock him in there at night when we go to bed. He will whine slightly for 2-3 minutes before going to sleep and is great through the night. He almost never wakes us up by barking, whining, etc.

The issue is when we leave the room or the house while he is locked in his kennel. Once my wife and I are out of eyesight, he goes bananas by whining and barking. We know that he continues for at least 30 minutes (the longest we’ve let him go while we’re home).

If we leave the house, we return home to find him completely frantic- whining, jumping on the door of his kennel, usually pees when he sees us (if he hasn’t since we left), and he’s just eager to get the heck out of his kennel.

He has pooped in his kennel once (recently) when we were gone for about 2 hours.

I understand that goldendoodles are typically “velcro” puppies, but this has been a real pain point.

• He is 25lbs
• He is the only dog in the house
• His kennel is 42” x 29” (long x wide)
• We have a “mattress”, a chew toy, a stuffed toy, and a blanket from the breeder that we leave in his kennel.

Is there any advice that anyone can offer? Anyone had a similar experience?

Please let me know if any additional information is helpful and I will add it to the post.

Thank you!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@curiouschristian82 Start leaving the house 10 min, 15 min, etc to get the puppy used to you leaving and every time you come back give a treat. Try to feed him in his crate as well, just basically associate the crate with all good things. My shepherd mix still whines in the crate when we leave but it’s seldom and she loves her crate during the day and night when we are home

 

[curiouschristian82]

@imagebeastmarkbeast All great points. We will definitely give it a try! Thank you!

 

[gtr1963]

@curiouschristian82 Something that worked for us was a routine. I’m always the last one to leave in the mornings for work so I do the exact same routine daily in the mornings and if my husband and I will be gone for any amount of time and they’re Alone. I turn on a lamp and turn on the radio (we’re in a condo so this helps block out hallway noise) tell them to get in the crate, close the door and give them a small chew stick type treat and flip off the main light and tell them goodbye be good I love you see you later.

I know it sounds crazy but it works! We have used the same routine for crate training them and we only got whines for 4/5 days and they would stop after ~1hr (I watch the puppy cam haha) we don’t crate them at night (I type this with a dog using my pillow as a bed and my head as her pillow) , only when we’re gone.

They’re now 1.5 ish years old and I still do this and I noticed that they’ll eat the treat and go right to sleep if I do it. And if I don’t do it, I hear the whines as soon as I shut the door and it takes them forever to settle.

 

[cogitatio]

@gtr1963 I've actually done this, and it works. I went so far as to put cartoons on so there wouldn't be any loud unexpected noises from the TV and placed him where he could see the TV.

 

[washburn]

@curiouschristian82 I also give my pup (8mo now) a Kong with peanut butter/plain yogurt/pumpkin in it (spread on the inner walls and not mixing much). I freeze it so it lasts longer.

I'd give her a lick pad but she'd eat the whole thing probably.

Mostly pumpkin, then yogurt, then PB.

 

[charbely]

@washburn Exactly this. I had the same crying issue with our Mastiff mix puppy, but a Kong with PB did the trick. Now he’ll get in his kennel without crying any time I tell him to, even without the Kong.

 

[gtr1963]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yeah we leave ours open when we’re home and they love to sleep in it

 

[likedanielsang]

@curiouschristian82 Sounds like it could be isolation or separation anxiety. It’s totally possible to (kindly and patiently) train your pup to be less panicked when left alone, but make sure to find a trainer who specifically deals with this issue. We did an 8-week training course with ours when he was a puppy, and now he’s is totally fine by himself. (I’ll admit, we don’t use a crate anymore, at the trainer’s advice.) Feel free to DM me if you want more info!

 

[curiouschristian82]

@likedanielsang Thank you! I had never heard of a canine specialist that deals with separation or isolation anxiety. We will certainly check it out!

 

[recoveringbaptist]

@curiouschristian82 I have this same issue with my 7-month old teddy bear (Shih-Tzu, Bichon Frise mix) he’s fine going to bed in his crate that’s in our bedroom; he doesn’t even whine anymore & will lay right down. However, we are unable to leave the house with him in the crate — he literally barked at the top of his lungs for 30 solid minutes on the puppy cam before we came home.

I didn’t have this issue with my first puppy, a chihuahua terrier mix. From the beginning, her crate was always in the living room — I didn’t want me waking up to use the bathroom or staying up late to affect her so since day one, her place had always been the living room.

My boyfriend bought my new puppy for me so he wanted to crate in the bedroom but I’m going to insist on relocating it to the living room to try to disassociate his crate with all of us being or sleeping together.

Any ideas anyone else might have, please share!

 

[curiouschristian82]

@recoveringbaptist We haven’t tried moving his kennel out of the bedroom and to the living room, it is worth a shot!

 

[suzy999]

@curiouschristian82 Yeah definitely try crate training in a more central area of the house. That way you can put him in there randomly throughout the day and get him more used to it.

 

[chiropracticcenter]

@curiouschristian82 Ah, another unsatisfied golden doodle owner lol. I wish they would stop crossing the two breeds so often. Golden doodles are not a standard breed and the cross is unpredictable and usually leads to behavioral and/or mental issues. The stubbornness of the poodle mixed with the recklessness of a golden retriever makes for an unbearable puppy. I don’t have much advice for you unfortunately, they’re notoriously hard to train. My best advice would be find a board and train program that specifically deals with anxiety if you are unsure how to handle to situation or feel like it’s overwhelming. But the good news is golden doodles can get better at that 3 year mark when they kind of become adults. It’ll start to calm down in a year or so but won’t really be better until it gets through the terrible twos (thanks to the golden retriever).

 

[washburn]

@chiropracticcenter When I used to petsit, besides crusty white little dogs that were seldom house trained, goldendoodles were my least favorite.

 

[curiouschristian82]

@chiropracticcenter Thank you for the advice and insight

 

[freedomusa]

@chiropracticcenter i must be in the minority that is obsessed with golden doodles, though i will probably never own one because i only adopt. but no doubt, i find them unbearable puppies and excellent adults.

 

[chiropracticcenter]

@freedomusa You love them because you haven’t owned one

 

[enoch27]

@curiouschristian82 Stress chew toys helped with ours

 

[curiouschristian82]

@enoch27 Worth giving a shot, thank you!