Petunia, The Screaming Chihuahua

[laurelfla]

Hi, everyone!

Well, my husband and I finally got a dog, something I have been dying to do since I left home for college! The first two days were heaven. I enjoyed every minute, and she was so sweet and meek and funny. Well, eeeaarly Tuesday morning, the dog found her voice (that was after night 2). And I thought, she is hungry, because we could not get her to eat the afternoon before. So when it was time to get up, she ate and I didn't think any more about it. Well, every night it has gotten worse. I expected crying, a little anxiety, etc, but the dog actually screams and bites the cage door and shakes it up and down. The last two nights, she has done #2 and made a mess in it. I don't know if this is caused by the anxiety or is just lack of control over her bowels, but she's done it when I've left the house, too. I get up twice during the night to let her out, and she pretty much always does #1. I can say that she is doing a fabulous job with housetraining; she's even asked to go out twice this week! It is just something about that crate. Now she howls every time we put her in there, and like I said, the last three days or so, she's messed it up and also gone absolutely crazy in there. She weighs 1.5 pounds and is 8 weeks old, but turns into a monster!

Can anyone help me? Is this normal? I feel like it gets worse every day instead of better. I'm not going to give in on letting her out of there at night, because that is where she will sleep. (Sleeping with us is not an option.) I had a SnugglePuppie in there with her the first couple of nights (has a heartbeat and heater and had the scent of mother/littermates on it) but I have no idea if it worked or not. Last night I didn't put it in with her because she''d made such a mess the night before. She screamed (I say screamed because it sounds so awful, it's not whimpering or crying) literally all night, off and on. When we put her in at about 10:45, she started, then stopped about 15 mins later. I think she fell asleep. I woke up at 1 and she was still carrying on. I took her out, then put her back in and at 3:30 when I woke up again and took her out, she was still making that racket before and after. And I don't think she stopped after that until we got her out this morning at 6:35.

I know she is very young and all this is new for her, but the way she goes berserk in there made me want to ask if you dog people think this will get better! Thanks in advance, and sorry for such a long post!

[Jestgar]

I have nothing to offer, but I love her name

[Lisa]

The title of this thread made me laugh out loud!

[dandelionmom]

She's such a little baby that you might be expecting too much from her at night. At 8 weeks, most puppies still need to be brought out every few hours (and maybe fed). She'll outgrow this really soon but right now it is necessary. Good luck with her! I foster chihuahuas and just love them! They can be hard to potty train though so you need to be really good about bringing her out often!

[MaryJones2]

LOL! The best advice I've received from our trainer is that it's much easier for you to learn to speak dog than to teach your dog to speak human. It's not a natural instinct for a dog to mess in their crate so my guess is something is going on with the schedule or the environment. Small puppies will mess in their crate if they have too much space. Try blocking off the crate so that she only has enough room to turn around and sleep comfortably. You can give them more space as they grow and learn to use the crate.

Small puppies can't hold anything for more than 3 hours in a crate and max 45 minutes of houshold roaming time and usually can't make it through the night without going out until they are about 3 months old. The schedule I use is to feed the puppy, take it outside and encourage it to pee and poop. If the dog does not pee and poop after 15 minutes outside bring it back in and put in the crate for 15 minutes and try again. If he pees and poops then reward him with play for 30-45 minutes. After you finish playing take him back out and let him pee and put him in his crate. They'll usually sleep for a couple of hours. If you do this right before bedtime they'll sleep half the night. Also, if you get a Kong and put peanut butter in it they'll stay busy trying to get the peanut butter out and forget that they are in a crate.

The important thing is to never let the dog play until he's done his business and never punish them for pooping in their crate. Puppies just know they have to go right now and don't understand why it was wrong. Most of my dogs have a very clear I have to do something whine and you'll learn it over time.

This method requires a lot of work for the first two or three months but it's absolutely worth it when you have a good dog for 15 years. I've raised quite a few puppies and the last few have had less than 3 accidents in their life so I'd like to think this process works...

One other thing. I had one puppy that hated the hardsided plastic crates and would get extremely anxious. We put him in a wire cage crate and he didn't have any issues.

I hope this helps. Keep us posted.

[whitball]

You really need to have the vet see your puppy. We bought two german shepard pups in October. The owner certified that they had been wormed and vaccinated. OUr pups did the same as yours. Cried, whined, etc. We took them to the vet and found that they were not wormed. They were very ill, had a horrible case of worms and were very under weight. It took weeks to get them healthy again. We crated ours and bought them each a stuffed animal. The animals became their litter mates and they slept with them for months. Pups are alot of work. They need to be taken out every few hours. Try not to feed them before bed time. Hope this helps.

[laurelfla]

Thanks for all the replies! (Petunia is here in my lap as I type.)

I was trying to give so much detail in my original post that I think I obscured my actual concern, which was the noise in the cage. I fully expected to have to take her outside to potty multiple times a night, and I would never punish her for going in her cage. I was just concerned because she seemed so stressed out.

She was examined by the breeder's vet on Friday, dewormed and declared parasite-free... but our vet, who saw her on Tuesday, said that her scooting behavior could indicate maybe a tapeworm. However, they said there was no point in testing her, as she was too small/young for treatment. <sigh> I can't wait until she is a little bigger and we can be sure! But if that were the case, would she only cry at night? During the day (when she's not sleeping) she's very springy and happy. She has even asked to go outside a couple of times today! Petunia, the wonder dog! She is so cute. I wanted to put her as my avatar, but the file size limit is so small and my pictures are so big, I don't know how to do it.

All that said, last night was sooooo much better -- she whimpered here and there but nothing like the night before. Yay! Thanks again for all your replies!

[jerseyangel]

I'm happy to hear she did much better last night! Petunia sounds like a real cutie

[laurelfla]

Just wanted to report that it's getting a lot better! (I think) She whines mostly in the morning now, because she wakes up raring (sp?) to go way before we are ready! Other than that she whimpers for a few minutes after going outside each time during the night but then quiets down. It is so much better.

And the housetraining is going excellently. As long as I supervise carefully when she wakes up from a nap, she doesn't really have accidents in the house.

She has really been enjoying snuggling on the couch... but don't worry, I have been watching Cesar and I only give affection at the appropriate times! haha.