Hi everyone!

First, sorry for the very long post, but I've been looking up several forum posts all over the net on this subject and have read several answers that I'm unsure of everywhere, so I just want to give as much background info as possible.

I'm new both to this forum and to dog ownership. I just recently got a lovely little female GSP pup and she's adorable! She's also amazingly quick to catch on - in about 2 weeks she knows to sit, stay and to come when called (okay, that last one is more once out of two times, we're not sure she knows her name yet). She even already prefers to pee outside, and hasn't had an accident in a week or so, even in her crate at night. Anyway, the point is, she's a quick learner. She was born Sept. 16th.

My problem is she whines every morning to get out of her cage, and sometimes at night when we put her in to sleep if she's feeling particularly awake. We are a little confused as to what to do. We don't want to train her to whine to get out of the cage, so we ignore her until she calms down, and only take her out then. But some mornings it can take up to an hour, and I hate to see my little Melli Beese's feeding schedule delayed so long.

I doubt it's separation anxiety, or else then it's in the last stages. She's very good with being in another room than us. Sometimes if we play fetch with her and she gets tired of running after the toy she will already take it to another room to chew it on her carpet. She sleeps through the night, and when she does whine before sleeping, it's only for a minute or two. She doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and whine. She does, however, scratch the bottom of her crate when she gets bored. She also scratches during the day, when the door to her crate is open. She just walks into her crate and starts scratching.

So, the solutions we've looked at and are unsure about:

1- I know we have to get her used to sleeping all night, so I was wondering if I should or shouldn't put toys in her crate. If I put any, I'm worried she will keep doing what she does now: sleep most of the day and play with them loudly at night. If I don't put any, she wakes up in the morning and wants attention.

2- Ignoring her whining so she doesn't learn that it works, which means sometimes she will tay in her crate much longer than she should, or get up earlier to take her outside, but then she whines anyway because we've gone back to sleep and she feels it's unfair that she's back in the crate. We want to make sure she sleeps 8 hour nights eventually as an adult but don't know how to gradually get her to do so.

3- I'm trying to tire her out during the day, but here again I hesitate. She's very young (about 9-10 weeks old) and so I don't want to over-exercise her and cause any joint problems. But then again, whenever I make her exercise, she just naps a while after and then gets up and she's ready to go again! I bring her to the dog park, on long walks, I even brought her in the countryside and walked her off leash because I knew she'd be too scared to leave us (and indeed she was following our everyfootstep). She gets lots of exercise, stimulation, socialization. Enough to tire any pup out. Still she doesn't make it through the night. And still I am worried that I am overworking her.

She's been whining every morning since we got her. And scratching at night. It's driving us crazy, it really is. Please, don't think I'm a bad owner or anything, I can handle the whining for some months still, but I just want to make sure I do the right things to make her snap out of it eventually, and not become one of those dogs that whine all their lives.

Thanks in advance for the help I know I'll find here! And a great day to all of you.

Mo

Thank you both for your great advice!

So we tried it yesterday night. I got my boyfriend up (good boyfriend, goooood boyfriend) at 4:30am to get her out to pee. She did whine for 5-10 minutes when she was put back in her crate in the middle of the night, but something tells me she'll grow out of it and understand it's sleepy time.

I'm also making a point of moving her to her crate when she's sleeping during the day, and not letting her play with her toys in her crate. I just take her out, put her on her out-of-the-cage carpet with her toys and close the crate. Then when she gets tired and starts to nap, I bring her to the crate and leave her in with the door open. I'm hoping in time she will learn to associate "crate = sleep" and "day carpet = play". If that doesn't stop the scratching at night, we *have* gotten a water bottle. Here's to hoping I won't have to use it.

Again, thanks so much for your great advice! I'll keep taking her out at night and post an update to let you know if it worked.

Now, to tackle the next problem: she eats her first 2 meals of the day but won't touch the third unless hand fed! I'll try making her work for it, i.e. timing an evening walk right before mealtime. If that doesn't work, I'll post a new thread.

A great week to all!

 When my pup came home at 8 weeks, I placed a futon on the floor next to her crate and would occasionally put my hand near the front gate when she cried. I also said "quiet' and shhh. After five days I moved back to my bed and kept the crate about ten feet away not facing the bed and when she started to cry I reinforced the quiet and shhh. 

During the day when I needed to work I would start her out with a kong with 4-5 pieces of food and put a small amount of peanut butter on the rim of the kong. This kept her busy for quite a bit and then she settled down. By 11 weeks she readily goes to her crate and I still use the kong and "quiet" is rarely needed.

She is also fed 3x per day and sleeps through the night. At first she tried to get up and I gave in a few times, however i decided i was going to sleep until my usual 5:30 awake time and she has been fine.

Enjoy