A little story about my dog Nigel and how I'm dealing with his behavioral issues. Firstly, I did not get Nigel as a puppy; he was about 2 years old. His training took alot more attention than I suspected. One day, I caught him sucking on my blanket. Sucking on blankets is usually one of the signs they were taken from their mother too young. My solution to this was to give Nigel his own blanket to suck upon so he leave mine alone.
Another problem I've dealt with is the crate. When I first got Nigel, crating was not an easy task. I tried crating him alone and he would whine and cry like a chicken. He did not want to be alone. So at night, I put his crate where he could see me hoping he wouldn't feel alone. He did not even stay quiet for two minutes--he cried and scratched at the door. I tried to ignore him, for a little while, then I had to cover the crate. Still this did not work, so I crated him with "Pudgie" who is my other dog. They did not know each other very well at the time. They fought a little but not to the point of breaking the skin. They learned to like each other and now get along quite well.
Crating Nigel with Pudgie was one of the best things I could have done. Pudgie gave Nigel company and it taught him that the crate is not a bad place.
Nigel also has separation anxiety. He has fear of me leaving him alone. Yelling and scolding his "chicken cries" did not change his actions. I tried playing a radio softly for him, but this did not work right away. It did, however, take time and patience. Pudgie is helping Nigel to get over the separation anxiety. There is medication that could be used, but I feel there is not need for him to be on it right now.
Over the past year, I have been working on his training and he seems to be improving by the day.
