Thanks for the tips, Stephan. If/when the dog gets up, is that a prong collar type of correction that I should be giving, or just repeating the down command?

I am assuming, by your post, that the only time your pup is in the crate is at night(bedtime). If this is the case, then your pups association with the crate has not been a positive experience. Initially, as with sits, downs, coming when called and walking on leash, consistant exposure in teaching the behaviors will allow the dog to learn that a request has meaning. She should have frequent, yet short, periods in the crate while you (the leader) engages in normal activities around the house. If she whines or barks during this isolation period simply walk away (out of sight) and return only when she has become quiet. Up until now she has learned to ingage you by barking, to come to her when she is unhappy in the crate. The exercise should be worked at different times of the day when you are present. She does not come out or receive any attention unless she is quiet. Be patient, success is not a destination, it is a journey. By not responding to her calling out to you she will learn that there is an alternative behavior to achieving her goal. That goal is you, no food or toy rewards needed...you are the reward.
If you want instant gratification...use the bark collar. If you want to build a meaningful relationship wih your canine companion...I agree with everyone else...continue teaching and practicing obedience fundamentals.

Food for thought...A LEADER should INITIATE and a FOLLOWER should REACT.

Good luck,
Jasmine Skala

Jasmine, you are correct, she is only in the crate at night when I go to bed. During the day she is outside in her kennel while my wife and I are at work. That's one reason I don't put her in the crate more often, she doesn't have much free time to begin with. I don't let her out while she is barking. As soon as she hears my footsteps upstairs, she stops because she knows I will be there soon. Maybe I shouldn't even get up from bed until she's quiet?

Eric,
your statement about not getting out of bed is your cure to the problem...by getting out of bed to appease her you reinforce the fact that she is leading you to let her out...any attention becomes the reinforcer to her annoying behavior. I say again...be patient. My clients, that have had the same issues, put their puppies on the program that I suggested to you and within 48 hrs. to one week (depending on the humans committment) the pups became quiet while in the crate. Here again, they taught the pup that the crate had meaning by teaching them to go in the crate more than just at bedtime. Do not feel bad about teaching her to go to her crate even when you are home...the exposure will teach her to become comfortable with her special room.

I understand your point, but the problem is that eventually I HAVE to get out of bed to go to work.

If the dog starts barking at 3:30am and continues until 5:30am, she is going to get let out because I have to get up at 5:30am and feed the dog and put her outside before I go to work. So the dog probably thinks that she is being let out because she is making a racket.

Last night I put her in the crate at 10:30, and she started barking at 1:30 in the morning. I wasn't going to wait and see if she stopped before 5:30, so I put her outside. I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before, and I wasn't going to follow that with only 3 hours last night.

She barks because a) she wants to get out of the crate, and b) she doesn't like to be by herself (she doesn't bark like that when I am close by, she only makes some soft whining sounds). I don't see how putting her in the crate MORE is going to make her want to get out any less. Maybe you can explain that a little more so that I can understand the concept.

I need to sleep. If there is a way that, in my free time in the evenings between 7pm and 11pm, I can do something with the dog that will make her stop barking within the next couple of days - I would LOVE to know what that is. Do I put her in the crate for 10 minutes every hour or something? Excuse my skepticism, it sounds like you have a lot of positive experience with a method that has worked for you and your clients, but I just don't see it happening.

In the meantime, I am going to order the bark collar. If the patience method works by the time it arrives, then I can send it back. If not, then I won't lose more then 3-5 more nights of decent sleep. So if you could give me some more detailed techniques to try, I'd really appreciate it. I don't WANT to use the bark collar if I don't have to.

Eric,
What I think that Jasmine is trying to say (correct me if I am wrong Jasmine) if you let your pup out of the crate EARLIER than you planned on letting her out to feed, potty etc then you are reinforcing the 3-4 hour time on her and not the required 6 hour time. I went through the same thing with my pup and he realized soon enough that barking wasn't going to get him anywhere until I was ready to get up. If you allow your dog to be removed from the crate before the 6 hour night time sleep then she will always wake up wihtin 3-4 hours to be let out and will continue to bark and whine until you do. Dogs have internal clocks and can estimate time and therefore will begin their barking every night at around the same time until you let them out. Depending on how long this has been going on it might not be an easy fix but opening the crate after 3-4 hours only reinforces her barking. Hopefully you'll get this problem solved and you'll be able to get some sleep. Good luck!!

Karen,
I cannot correct what you clearly understand.

Jasmine

Eric, I feel for you. There are few sounds more irritating than that of a barking dog (something that I wish my neighbors would figure out.). I believe they've done studies on it, and found that barking dogs were on the very top of the list. For some reason, little dogs are even more irritating. Hopefully, you'll get the bark collar and wonder why the heck you didn't order the dang thing months ago.

In the meantime, it sounds like you're being outsmarted by a dog! If it were me, I'd keep the crate in the bedroom so my dog could be with her packmates, lessening the likelihood of barking as a way to call out to packmates. I'd also just go ahead and set my alarm to take her out in the middle of the night for a potty break before the barking begins, give her a brief chance to stretch her legs, then put her back in. Just bite the bullet and do it. It's not like you'll be losing any more sleep than you already have.

She does not have the ability to understand that you want her quiet for a specific set amount of time (i.e. 6 hours vs. 4 hours, until 5:30am vs. 3:30am). Dogs' awareness of the passage of time is limited; each minute equals "forever" to a dog, which is why we train a long down by slowly increasing the time rather than in one step.

Her barking has a reinforcement history that will make it difficult to extinguish simply by ignoring it. She will try harder and harder to make it work since it has worked in the past, meaning that she will bark louder and longer before she finally gives it up because it doesn't work anymore. You may have already noticed this when you tried to outlast her before. That's why I would just prevent the behavior by being proactive, and do so for a long enough period of time that the quiet gets more reinforcement than the barking has.

She will learn that she doesn't HAVE TO bark in order for her needs to be met.

Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, you can then set your alarm later and later, in small increments like five minutes at a time. For example, the first couple of months, get up at 3am to potty her. Then set your alarm for 3:05 for a couple of nights. Then 3:10 for a couple of nights, then 3:15, then 3:20, until, over the course of time, your alarm is going off at 5:30am, and the dog will have been quiet the entire time. You will be outsmarting her for a change.

Hopefully the bark collar will work and you won't have to do that. But if for any reason, such as she learns to bark through it, or make noises that don't set it off but are nevertheless irritating, you might consider doing as I've suggested.
Best of luck to you, and here's wishing you some uninterrupted sleep! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Eric,
Skepticism is understandable...you and your pup have not experienced a positive outcome regarding this crate thing.
Having said that, you stated in your last post that she started barking and you did not want to wait until 5:30 so you let her out side...she won that conflict...paws down. Remember, she knows your weak points better than you know hers. I understand that one needs sleep, that is why I have suggested that you do crate work while awake...during your everyday activities. Any whining or barking while in the crate should result in you removing yourself from her sight. Do not reappear until she is quiet. After this exercise has been successsful for short periods of time you can then work on extending the time away before reappearing. You choose the time frame that she is expected to remain in the crate...but ya can't teach while trying to get sleep...way to frustrating for you...great opportunity for her to train you.

Jasmine

Thank you all for your comments. I see now that I have allowed the situation to get out of my control and into the dog's control. I should have known better than to allow that to happen.

I think I've finally gotten an understanding on the crate training that I need to do...Jasmine, I like your suggestion to leave the room when she starts to make noise. That will make her see that what she wants (me letting her out) becomes LESS probable and farther away when she makes noise. It seems like a good idea, as it will negatively reinforce the noises, which will work in conjunction with the positive reinforcement of silence (returning).

I can do this every day and during the weekend. While this training is going on, I'll start using the bark collar at night so that I can get some sleep. Hopefully before too long she will be trained to the crate well enough to not require the collar.

What do you think? Sound like a good plan?