# 11 month old still yelling in crate



## katy13 (Apr 29, 2014)

Howdy,

My 11 month old V has been doing great with training except for her crate. When it is only my husband and I she is fine and quiet when in her crate and goes there willingly when we tell her crate up, but when we have people stay over, she is just like she was at 8 weeks old when we brought her home. I know it is because she is excited and wants to be around the guests, but I do not know how to correct it. Its one of those unfortunate things where we can't really follow the let her cry it out because of our guests. Plus there is no consistent training because it is only with guests or even when we have dogs over that we are caring for a weekend or so. 

P.S. we did try letting her cry it out once and she went on for hours, and we got a lot of flack in the morning from guests. :/ 

We always end up hugging her in our bed for hours until she finally gives up and falls asleep, but then she is up and ready to go at 4 am, which on a normal day with only my husband and I she gets up at 7 and is lazy all morning after a good run. So not only is having guests exhausting as it is, we have a pup that only lets us sleep a couple of hours because she is just too excited. 

Any other suggestions? I just feel like that by now we should not have an issue like this.


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## chilithevizsla (Apr 2, 2014)

Ignoring isn't an appropriate response anyway as it doesn't help the dog deal with the situation, she may stop whining at some point but that means she has learned that whining doesn't get a result so she'll still be stressed about it. What you need to do is redirect that energy to something positive.

What happens when guests come over? From your post I can only assume guests are super exciting and she gets lots and lots of attention which is great but she needs to learn to be calm around them also and this might be why she find it hard to settle when they're around.

I'd recommend going on a nice long walk and then put the crate in the same room as the guests, get her to go in the crate and slowly release treats to her, this will teach her that it's appropriate to be quiet around guests instead of always excited and over her threshold.

You can also do the same in your bedroom at night. Get her to do a lot of mental work before bed and then take her up at your normal time and settle her in bed/crate with the treats or a kong. If she wakes or gets excited again redo the process, probably doesn't seem like an appropriate time to train but it's better than listening to her whining and will make her more comfortable with the situation.

This kind of training should actually work instantly when it comes to stopping the behavior but it will be reliant on the process for a while, just slowly reduce the amount of treats you feed her and the period of time for her to settle should reduce.

All the best

Chris and Chilli


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