11 week old puppy yelps/screams/hollers when left alone...

[elaineyau]

Is this separation anxiety? When left in her crate, be it whilst I go into the next room or to bed upstairs, she shrieks/yelps and generally sounds as though she is being murdered. I gave her a chew toy and after 5 mins of loving it and playing jump/catch/fetch with it, it was like she'd had the dog version of catnip - she threw herself around the crate like a mad thing and then started screaming. She screams when crated for around 30mins every night - this is the about the only consistent thing she does!

I worry I show her too much love - when I am at home she is rarely crated, choosing to spend 90% of her time at my feet or on my lap. She is my little stalker.

She will pee/poo in her crate at night before I can get to her - she gives no warning, but she will whine after the fact! She has no schedule whatsoever...she can pee/poo 2 mins after eating or 2 HOURS after...She will go on a 20 min walk every night before bed, but do nothing. As soon as she is back indoors, she will pee. Occasionally she will pee outdoors and when she does I celebrate...but she looks at me like I'm crazy! Because she so rarely pees outdoors, I can't believe she can associate the outdoors part with her peeing...

Yesterday she started biting. Sigh.

Any reassurance that she will grow out of the screaming, and learn to eliminate outdoors consistently would be much appreciated - I feel like the worst owner ever.

[MrFinnegan]

some puppies take longer to learn to go outside, just be patient and keep up the positive reinforcement. Reinforce the good behavior with praise, and just keep on cleaning with the bad behavior. My puppy had problems with the crate, question for you, is the crate covered? with say a blanket or something? If i put my puppy in the crate without it covered so he could see around, he could never get comfortable and would act like you are describing, but as soon as i threw a blanket around all sides of the crate except for the door, he calmed down, not one more sound, and went to sleep. Since then, no problems. How big is your crate? It should only be big enough so the puppy can move around and lay down, so that way they won't want to defecate where they sleep. Also, never respond to any barking, make your puppy learn that the only way it will receive attention is by being calm and quiet. Good luck!:D