Puppy temper tantrums?
We have a 5 month old black lab… we’ve had her for 4 months. She’s crate trained and knows quite a few commands. We bought her a new (bigger) crate cause she’s getting bigger. Well, the first week she was fine… but the last two nights she’s started whimpering and whining about 30 minutes after we put her in the crate at bedtime. And she starts again really early in the morning. She didn’t do this before, and she’s been taken out to ‘go’, so there’s no real reason for it. What’s the best way to deal with this? All the puppy training videos/books say to ignore the whining or you’ll just teach them that they get what they want by misbehaving. But we can’t sleep! Help!
She is already fixed. And she’s slept through the night before so I know she can do it. My husband gets up really early for work and takes her out, so we’re not asking her to hold it for too long.
Well, you’re right, if you take her out you’ll be teaching her that she gets what she wants by whining.
What I’d try is make sure she gets LOTS of exercise in the evening – a good, long walk, play ball with her, and to keep her mind exercised, do some simple obedience with her. Labs are very intelligent dogs and highly trainable, so keeping her mind active would also help her at this age. Make the lessons short, do several things for a few minutes each, make sure she gets lots of praise and/or treats and both of you have fun. She’ll probably calm down a lot better (at least at night) if she’s tired out mentally and physically.
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