I think I have a claustrophobic puppy (16 weeks old). I have been working with my puppy to get him crate trained for weeks now. He hates it, he will cry and bark for hours when he is in it. I read every blog and tried literally everything. I made the crate a positive place, gave him treats in it, fed him in it, worked up the time gradually, never took him out when he was crying, put in a shirt with my smell, gave him a Kong filled with peanut butter, gave him bully sticks, got him a snuggle puppy (has a heartbeat, warms up) got him a DPA diffuser, took him out for big park play sessions in the morning and at lunch, put him in the crate when I was at home, next to the bed....etc. you get the idea, I tried it all. We then moved him to the bathroom where he would have more room. He still barked in the bathroom, he would not play with his toys or lick his Kong, we know this because we have a Skype account set up to watch him while we are at work. I heard a suggestion that he could have separation anxiety or that he could be claustrophobic. I didn’t really think that this could be true, I tend to think that people and dogs are over diagnosed but today my fiancé and I decided to experiment. Atlas sleeps on the floor of our bedroom at night since barking through the night for weeks got old and he has only had one accident in the house since we got him. We decided to leave him in there while we were at work. Then suddenly in the bedroom he is fine- plays with his toys takes naps no barking all day long! This is the first time that he has ever gone all day long without barking. Could our dog really be claustrophobic? Is it just the room that he is in (more comfortable in the bedroom?) Every person on every blog out there says it is horrible to leave a 16 week old puppy out of the crate but if he does not have accidents and does not chew/destroy things is it really a problem?
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