Why Does My Puppy Whine, Cry, and Howl for Hours in Its Crate?
Early Signs of Separation Anxiety in Puppies
If you're like most new pup parents, you’ve probably heard that using a crate in combination with a playpen is a great way to housebreak your puppy and keep it out of trouble.
However, maybe you tried to put your pup in a crate overnight while you slept or in a playpen during the day when you couldn’t supervise them, but your puppy wouldn’t stop crying when you did.
If so, your puppy may be experiencing separation anxiety, a condition similar to a prolonged panic attack that occurs whenever you try to confine your pup or leave their line of sight.
In this blog post, we will discuss the early signs of separation anxiety and what causes it, plus provide you with the first steps to helping your puppy overcome it.
Symptoms of Puppy Separation Anxiety
If your puppy won’t stop whining, crying, or howling for hours when you confine it in a crate or playpen, or if your puppy cries when you leave the room, this is an early sign of separation anxiety.
Other signs may include:
Anxious body language (such as a furrowed brow, ears pinned back, and a tucked tail) accompanied by whale eye (when a pup’s eyes look like they are bulging out of their sockets)
Loss of bladder and bowel control
Chronic stress panting, pacing, or drooling
Destructiveness to the padding inside of a crate or pen
Pawing at or chewing on the bars of a crate or pen.
These symptoms will often appear immediately or within the first five minutes of being confined in a crate or whenever your pup can’t see or follow you somewhere - like when you shut them out of the bathroom or leave them alone to go to work - and may persist for over 30 minutes and never die down.
Your puppy may also be so determined to get out of confinement that it becomes an incredible escape artist that somehow finds a way to pry itself free from a crate or climb out of a pen, possibly even hurting itself in the process!
If your pup exhibits some or all of these behaviors, it may feel anxious about being confined or separated from you.
This is a common condition that afflicts many young puppies known as “separation anxiety.”
What Causes Puppy Separation Anxiety?
Separation anxiety represents an activation of your pup’s innate pack instincts, which you can think of as a natural urge to “stay with the pack” that all puppies are born with.
Since survival in the wild for pack animals requires sticking together, your pup’s pack instincts will compel it to keep an eye on you and follow you wherever you go.
That's why our little furry friends follow us from room to room at home and feel trapped if they are confined in a crate or playpen, especially when they can’t see or follow you somewhere.
How Separation Anxiety Can Impact Your Life
If your puppy won't stop crying in their crate at night or during the day while you're gone, you won’t be getting much sleep and your neighbors are likely to complain. If you work from home, the noise can also interfere with your work day.
To avoid all the fuss, you may decide to stop confining your puppy, a choice that could lead to even more trouble down the road when your puppy becomes an adult dog who can't tolerate being left alone or separated from you when needed.
You may also feel guilty for making your puppy suffer anytime you have to leave it alone and end up having to take it with you everywhere you go or pay for a daycare or pet sitter, which gets costly.
How to Treat Puppy Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety can be treated by:
Creating a routine for a puppy that includes spending downtime in a crate or pen (downtime should coincide with when a pup’s parent is preoccupied with daily activities like showering and getting dressed or plans to be absent from the house in the future),
Helping a pup work past the frustration or distress they feel when confined in a crate or pen and facilitating that they learn to settle down and relax instead.
At Dog Savvy, we call our method of training a puppy to settle in a crate and playpen “doggy decompression” training.
Here are the foundational steps:
Stay Close By and In Sight until Your Pup Settles Down
Popular wisdom suggests walking away and letting your puppy cry it out; however, a puppy with separation anxiety will not calm down under these circumstances, and long rehearsals of this behavior will only worsen the condition.
That’s why the opposite is true: you should stay nearby and in sight to allow your presence to comfort your “baby pack animal” until they can settle down and relax on their own.
If your pup seems upset, you can place your hand on the crate or playpen to allow your puppy to sniff you, which can help to reassure and calm them down.
2. Ignore Your Pup
Next, withdraw all engagement like prolonged eye contact, talking, and petting while you wait for the self-soothing process to kick in.
This means that other than resting your hand on the side of the crate or playpen, you must completely ignore your pup until it settles down.
For some puppies, this can take up to 15 minutes, so you must be patient and wait out their cries, protests, and escape attempts until they finally settle down.
3. Release Your Pup for a Break
Once all protests have ceased and your puppy has fully settled down, release them from the crate or playpen for a 1 to 2-minute break to stretch their legs, drink water, or go to the potty.
Other than escorting your pup to the toilet, try to keep your interactions with them to a minimum during their break, as any amount of attention like talking or petting may rile them up again.
Once your puppy’s break is over, grab some treats and get ready to return them to confinement for another round of practicing settling down.
4. Give Your Pup a Handful of Treats
To help wind your pup down, toss a handful of treats into the crate and playpen every single time your puppy returns inside one.
Swallowing food can help to calm a pup down by lowering its heart rate, plus you can think of the treats as their “consolation prize” for doing something they would normally resist doing on their own.
This also gives your pup something to look forward to, which fosters positive associations with returning to confinement and spending time alone.
5. Repeat the Process 5 Times
Repeat this process 5 times or until your puppy settles down immediately when returned to their crate or playpen.
Congratulations! You’ve just taken the first steps toward teaching your puppy to overcome separation anxiety using a positive and compassionate method!
When you reach this stage, you can work on keeping your pup confined for longer periods and going out of sight in short intervals.
Troubleshooting
If your pup seems upset, you may soothe them by placing your hand on the side of the crate or playpen to allow them to sniff you and make contact with your fingers.
If your pup has had difficulty calming down in a crate before, it’s better to start this training in a playpen where your puppy will have more freedom to move around and walk off any restless energy they may have.
If you don’t have space for a playpen, you can still practice this training by tethering your pup to a piece of heavy furniture to prevent it from following you around the house.
In Conclusion
If your puppy won't stop whining and crying when confined in a crate or pen or when left at home alone, it's likely they are experiencing separation anxiety.
If done correctly, regular downtime where a pup is practicing relaxing in a crate or pen can help it get used to periods of inactivity and separation from you throughout the day.
With patience and consistency, your puppy will eventually overcome their separation anxiety.
Still, it can take 2 to 4 weeks to train them to accept confinement and separation from you, so be patient and make training part of your daily routine.
Puppy Won’t Settle in Its Crate?
If your puppy won’t settle in a crate or cries when left alone, you may need the help of a dog trainer specializing in separation anxiety training.
To book a consultation with our puppy separation anxiety trainer, please click the button below.
Need dog training advice? Book a behavior consultation by clicking here.