[Henldyhl]

I have had my pitbull puppy for almost a week now, and he is about to be 9 weeks old. He is doing good with sleeping in his crate at night, and seems to be doing well with that. The only question I have is about when he is left alone. He seems to whine and howl a great deal when left alone in the crate with no one else in the room. Is this pretty common at this age, and will he get used to being alone in his crate?? Thanks.

[Ebjjrxrd]

I'm sure that someone will come along with an answer to your question. I don't really know the answer because Lugz doesn't make much of a fuss if any when in his kennel.

I think the best thing that you can do is make sure your dog sees his crate as a safe place.

[spapsinee]

Very common. Make sure he is empty when he goes in the crate. At that age he will need to go out to the bathroom about every 3-4 hours.

Should have a nice bed, kong, nylabone and other safe toys in there.

Ignore him and the behavior will extinguish. Worst thing you can do is let him out when he is crying/ howling, this reinforces the behavior and will make it nearly impossible to get him to stop in the future.

Genevieve