Got a lab pup stayin with me for a while. When he goes in the kennel he will bark for 30mins to an hour before falling asleep. I have tried everything. Retraining him to "like" the kennel(feedin him in it, playin fetch throwin the ball in and lettin him run in and out, ect), ignoring him and letting him bark it out, bark collar, e-collar, nothing has worked. Also tried a muzzle. It seemed to fit him perfectly in the store but he can still bark with it on and he freaks out and wont stop trying to pull it off in the kennel. I will admit I lost my patience and put the e-collar on him and hit him with a level 7 on a shock collar. (it goes up to level 8)I didnt even get a reaction in fact he didnt even take a breath, just kept barking like he didnt even feel it. I know it was working b/c I bit the bullet and tried it out. (damn a level 7 hurts in case you were wondering) Any ideas? nothing comforts him while he's in there. He does the same thing at night if he's outside. Obviously its separation anxiety but he does the same thing if I move his kennel into the same room with me. Almost seems to calm him faster if he's in a dark room rather than in a common area. Any ideas?

My britt was this way, If he's going to sleep eventually, he will get used to it. Probably the best two things to do are

1 play with him beforehand til he's exhausted
2 ignore him when he is put in. Make sure that he's gone to the bathroom, and then it's a game of chicken. If he comes out when barking, he wins, and you reinforced his bad behavior. He'll keep doing this if you keep responding. This took us a little while and a lot of lost hair, but my britt no longer has issues

I had a vet recommended me giving my dog a Benadryl at. Ugly to see if it helped. It did but if it didn't he was gonna give me xanex or Valium for a dog bcause she also did the same thing when it rained even when she was in the house

One of the best ways I have found is putting the dog in the kennel for a short time and you leave the house. They start to get used to it and your not there to hear the barking and crying. Then start to bringing yourself into the picture. It is just going to take patience.

There's a DVD called Crate Games. I can't remember who the author is. It's great and it will help your dog get over it's anxiety about the crate.

I just had a visla puppy come in with horrible crate anxiety and it took a few days but she loves her crate now.

Angie

To all - He got 2 hours fetch, 5 hours in doggy daycare and 1 hour of training in one day. He also spent at least an hour total in the backyard running with my other dogs. He gets plenty of exercise and had to be exhausted yesterday but took him over 40mins to stop barking and go to sleep last night. It does not matter if he's in the crate in the same room with us he still barks, i feed him in his crate, give him rawhide, play fetch, have done all sorts of games to get him to like it, have tried putting him in for short periods and letting him out again but if you let a dog out while they're still barking it just teaches them if they bark you'll let them out and it takes forever for him to stop barking by the time he does he's asleep. I will take a look at that dvd, but all other suggestions have been tried. I've tried some meds but he still barked for an hour before he fell asleep.
Any other ideas?

1. Patience

2. Ear Muffs

I have patience, my neighbors do not. This has been on going for about a year now

if its been that long then get rid of him.....

Who wants a dog with these problems? no one. thats why that is a last resort.

You said he's a pup. All pups ive seen have done the same thing. Hes just not used to a kennel it seems like and he's not used to being by himself. It also seems that when he barks you probably go out and try to make him shut up and that's attention to him. When you put him in the kennel just walk in the house and don't go back out. In a few days he will quit the barking.

sounds like he needs a better collar, or longer electrodes.

Robby

I had the worst issue with my new pup. i went on RTF.com and all the help they gave me was amazing. My pup loves the kennel