Stop Your Dog From Whining In Their Crate

Welcome back to McCann Dogs. I'm Kayl McCann. In today's video, we will talk about how to

stop

barking or

whining

in the cage. And I'll give you some tactics you can start working on right away. So before we talk about how to fix

crate

barking, we also want to talk about why dogs bark in the

crate

, because there are actually many reasons why dogs bark in the crate. Some of them are very valid and others are just annoying. Many dogs will bark in

their

crate because they are bored because they are not happy enough that they can't just go and do whatever they want around the house.

Sometimes there are valid things like they really have to go to the bathroom or, you know, they need something. For some reason. Before I start addressing the actual noise in the box, I need to make sure that you don't actually need something. So before we figure this out, I'm going to make sure you've had breakfast, which you have. He's had access to water a little bit and I'm here making sure he doesn't have to pee or poop. That way, when I put her in the cage and she makes noise, I can feel confident that I can address it because she doesn't really need anything.

So this is Nico. She is a Whippet puppy. And we borrowed her for today's barking in the crate video, because we've heard that she barks in the crate a lot. We have also experienced a bit of barking in the cage and the first thing is that when I put her in the cage I already realized that she doesn't really like going in it. So I'm kind of prepared for that. I have a little piece of food here and I'm going to convince her to let her come in, but I'm not really going to give her a choice because I want her to understand that she has to come in.

Here we go. She comes in, yeah, good girl. but I'm going to make it happen. I can reward her for that. Now, one thing we notice about her is that she is pretty quiet when we are around her. But if we start having a conversation aside or especially if we leave the room, then she starts to go a little crazy. She's settled now, which is great. but my life is not going to revolve around my dog ​​in the cage. I need to go and do normal human things while she relaxes in the box. So I have some food here.

I'll put it aside. And when you're training this, you just need to look a little busy. Maybe you have

your

box in

your

living room. Like us, maybe you have it in the kitchen, but just do things, but keep your eye on the dog. So if I start moving and she does what she needs to do, I will take the opportunity to praise her. Good girl. Well, calm down. You like that? Good girl. Good. And then I could walk over and leave a cookie in her box. Yes I want it. You can also use praise without feeding, if you want to be a nice, calm, good girl.

And I'm just going to reinforce her for being calm. Since I'm busy. It is very important to remember that when you do this, you are actually focused on what the dog is doing. So it is not good to practice this. If you need to multitask, if you really need to help your kids with something or someone is going to knock on the door or a real life situation happens, I wouldn't recommend training this during that time. You must be very aware to be able to keep an eye on the dog. I specifically came back and chose to reward Nico.

When I felt that she was really calm and collected. So I'm sure I'm reinforcing the right things. So if you have a dog that barks in the crate, I'll give you some advice that could be a game-changer. And that is the location of your box. So when it comes time to have to deal with normal people, things like making dinner and you're like, yeah, good girl. And you know, your box is maybe located in the living room or somewhere away from where you'll spend your time preparing your meals. Now you are putting your dog in a situation where he could practice making a lot of unpleasant barking.

And when we're in the training phase, we really don't want them to rehearse too much. Now, again, we have learned with this dog and she is very similar to many of her dogs, it is better when she is around us. So now that I have to prepare dinner, I made the decision to move the box to the kitchen so I can keep an eye on it. I can go back and reward her. I can address the barking if necessary, but I feel pretty safe. She will be quite settled. Now I will get to the point where I need to practice teaching him that I can't be with you 24/7 and that when you are in your cage, I need to go and do different things.

But when you're working on it, do your best to prepare your dog and make good decisions. And if that means moving the box to a couple different places in the house to make it easier for you, that will help you transition into this a little easier. We always want to look for training opportunities and I'm looking at one right now. She is lying comfortably, calmly and quietly in her cage. So I'll take the opportunity to practice, leaving the room and taking the opportunity to reward her. If she's still calm when I leave now, I can sneak up to the door and listen, but I'll start by, you know, climbing up the door for a moment.

And then I'll come back with the reward. Now I'm going to emphasize the timing part, because we're not going to walk away for 10 minutes and hope it works. We will literally go out of sight for a moment to see what they do. Hey, hey, calm down. So even if I'm not in the room, I communicated it right away. So I spoke even when she couldn't see me, because I want to point out in a second the moment when she made noise. That's why the verbal thing happened immediately. So I can go in from there. Be quiet.

That's enough. Don't worry. Good girl. Well, calm down. Good. Let's talk a little about the dog training aspect. When it comes to timing well and delivering our information when our dogs make noise in the crate. Basically, we have a couple of steps we're trying to follow. Number one is that we need to make sure we use our voice to identify when the dog is making noise within a second of the noise occurring. And again, don't wait until the situation gets worse. To make the dog go crazy in the crate, start with just a little noise. I'm going to point that out with, you know, a word like hush or Hello or something like that.

That's enough silence. Sometimes dogs will simply respond to that, that pause in your voice or that interruption in your interaction with them will cause them to go quiet. That gives you that split second to calmly and positively praise them for that calm behavior. Yes. Well, calm down. Good girl. However, many dogs simply bark or make noise through that verbal reprimand, because they don't really know what it means yet. So the second step is to follow that verbal with some type of interruption, for some dogs, simply tapping the crate will be all it will take to

stop

the noise for a moment.

Hey, hey, hey, stop. Are you OK. While other dogs may need that leash in the crate to, you know, make a more significant alarming noise. Again, we are not trying to scare or upset the dogs by doing this. We are simply trying to distract or interrupt them by making that noise to have a few moments. Sometimes it really is a few moments, a few seconds so that we have the opportunity to then say. Good girl, good, calm. Yes. And start praising the good. And then from there we can build on it. Now I will share with you a professional training tip.

Because there are a lot of dogs that are wonderful when you're in the room and then when you leave, they make noise. The moment you walk in, you know, address the barking, they stop immediately because they're like, yeah. You walked into the room, I'm excited to see you. And you don't really have the opportunity to address the noise at the right time. Another thing you can do is use a long rope that you attach to your dog's crate. Now I have one, I don't have a long tail with me today, but I have two straps that I've put together, which might be useful for you to know.

Basically, you would just clip the leash to the front of the dog's crate. And I would go around the room to the other side, maybe leave the room. Maybe if he was like that, he was sitting on a couch and he was at a distance, you could do exactly the same thing. It doesn't have to be specifically to leave the room. But basically I'll go into the other room and see what happens. And if she makes noise, I can correct it or interrupt it from, you know, outside the room, which means the only time she sees me is when she's quiet.

Then I can reinforce the right things. So I'll sneak away. Look what happens here. Don't worry. Yes ok. Don't worry. What a good girl. Now I don't want to continue correcting her. So I'll leave for a second and then come in before she has a chance to make any noise. So I'm going to wait until she's settled in there a little bit. Good girl. Don't worry. Good. Good. Girl. Good. Don't worry. How nice. Good girl. Any noise. Yes. Good girl. Well done. Time is everything. I need to use a firmer voice when she makes noise. As soon as I see calm, calm behavior, I can use a more reassuring and reassuring voice from there.

Don't keep rehearsing failure for the dog. It might mean that you need to start by being, you know, in your dog's sight for a little longer and then slowly build things up out of sight. But your dog will actually let you know what he is comfortable with based on how he reacts to it. Good girl. Very good. Now that I've had calm behavior, I can start reinforcing it. And again, I'm going to build up the time frame very slowly as she gets more comfortable, I can spend a little more time out of sight, making sure that when she comes back, it's when she's calm and collected.

Now, another great place to use the strap technique is at night. If her dog makes a noise in the cage while you sleep, instead of getting out of bed a hundred million times a night, she ties her long rope to the cage and applies the same technique. So for Nico's owners and you at home, you can consider what type of crate your dog is in. Dogs are largely burrowing animals. Today we used a wire cage, which Nico seems fine with, but there are some dogs that prefer to use a plastic cage instead of a wire cage, just because it feels a little more like a den.

Another trick you can use is to cover the box with a large blanket or sheet, which blocks out all the noise, distractions, and excitement the same way you would cover a bird cage. If you have a wire cage, I suggest putting something on top that extends a little further out so the dog can't pull the blanket through the wires of the cage. If it's a plastic box, it's obviously a little easier. An additional band-aid that you can use as a short-term solution is to put something in the crate to stop the dog from barking, you know, filling it with tasty treats or putting in your dog's favorite toy or chew. bone in there. something that is obviously safe to leave to them, but is a great way to occupy them.

So they know that when they enter

their

cage, they will get a tasty reward. They will have something fun to do. And that helps keep them calm and busy. Nico's owners left her with us this morning. And in terms of actual training time, I've really only been working with her for just under an hour. And you could see from the beginning of the video how much she was barking in her cage until now she's laying there very calm and calm, but you know, the training isn't really over. I haven't completely solved the problem, but it's really promising to see how many improvements she made in such a short time.

One thing I noticed about Nico from working with her today is that she doesn't really have much value in being in her cage or in her cage. So one of the tips she would send to her parents today is to take some time to build more value in the box by playing some fun little games. And if this is something you're also struggling with with your dog at home, I definitely suggest watching this video right here. She will give you tons of tips and tricks to teach your dog to love her crate. If this is your first time here, be sure to hit the subscribe button.

We post new videos every week to help you have a well-behaved four-legged member of your family. In that sense, I'm Kayl. This is Nico. Happy training.