Since going on vacation and messing up my pups routine, he has been behaving very poorly. How do I fix this?

Hi,

I desperately need your help on how I should train my Sheltie, Koko. When we first got him, he was only 8 weeks old; and now he is 11 weeks old. We gave him crate training from the beginning, exactly like you suggested on how it should be done, and Koko learned it well and fast. Eventually we started to let him out on a leash in the kitchen and started training him to give us a "sign" when he needs to go out by sitting in front of the door. It worked out well, and he hasn't had any accident since then (but the crate training is still running, because we don't completely trust him yet).

However, we went on a vacation for a week with Koko, and everything just went down hill from there. While we were on vacation, we had a completely different schedule than normal. Everything and every routine was different from day to day during the entire vacation, and he took it well.

But when we came back home (8/2/2008), the real problems started:

1. Barking: Koko used to NEVER barked much in the mornings before, unless he didn't get to finish his business outside and we brought him back in too soon. However, since we came back from our vacation, he barks A LOT when he is inside of his crate in the mornings. He has been barking at 5:30 in the morning, even AFTER he has finished his business outside. He would bark, wine, and scratch his crate for 5-10 minutes none stop. If we ignored it like you suggested, he would kept on going until he is tired; but after he rested for couple minutes, he would start all over again. But the weird thing is when he is inside his crate DURING the day, he doesn't bark much at all. Maybe a couple times here and there, but barking is not a problem during the day. But for some reasons, barking has become a big problem in the MORNING.

We have tried to ignore it, talk to him only when he is calmed, cover his crate with a sheet, or asking him to stop when we can't take it anymore (this is our last choice, and we try not to use it), but nothing is working very well. I don't know does it have anything to do with the fact that he just got a new crate (8/4/2008) that is much bigger (36" x 24" x 26") than before, he is still in our vacation mood, or is there something else that we don't know about him. But we are running out of patience and ideas, and it is VERY annoying to hear and deal with his barking at 5:30 in the morning every day.

2. Biting his leash: Koko has been biting his leash since the day we got him, and I've been doing what you have suggested - say "no" and shake it out of his mouth. No matter how often we've done that, he still continues to do that. During our vacation, he was sitting on my lab with a leash on in the car, and I don't know when it happened, but after I got out of the car, I noticed that Koko had broken his leash! Then again, after we came back from the vacation, one day we left him in the kitchen with a leash on while we were eating in the living room, he broke his leash again! So I don't know what to do, because we've been correcting him not to bit his leash whenever we see him do it, but he does it anyway no matter what we say - which bring me to another issue on "punishment!"

3. Punishment: I know that you say not to use his crate as a punishment, but if I cannot punish him by putting him on a leash (because he bits and breaks his leash every time), then I don't know how to punish him anymore! So one day in a desperate situation when he kept on biting his leash, after telling him not to bit his leash many time and he completely ignored me, I took him his leash off and put him back into his crate (because I can't watch him and correct him every second). Then, after he's been quiet for 10 minutes, I took him out his crate and put him on a leash again. Once again, he started biting his leash. But this time, I told him NO, and I took all his toys away instead of putting him right inside his crate. Then he started biting his leash even more and started barked at me! So I got so angry that I put him back into his crate. Then, I waited for him to be quiet for another 15-20 minutes, and I took him out again. Then, I started to notice that when I told him NO, he stopped biting his leash. But it only worked because I punished him by using his crate. So I don't think I'm doing it right, but I'm desperate and running out of ideas on how to train him.

I've bought 3 DVD's from you: Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months, Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet, and Basic Dog Obedience. I have watched some of every video, but I haven't finished watching them all because they are very long. So I don't know is there something that I am missing from the videos or is these something else that I need to know. Because I'm running out of patience, and I don't know how to train him anymore. So please help! I am desperate!

Thank you very much for your time and all your help. I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Ariel