I am really hoping somebody can help me out. I have a 12 week old Malamute. We picked him up on Saturday from the breeder. The thing is, is that at night he howls and screams the whole time. We have a baby gate across the utility room and in there we have a large crate for him to go in. The utility room is a reasonable size. At night we put him in there, he doesn't use the crate but I always leave it open for him. As soon as we walk away he starts. I have tried leaving the window open for him so he will be cooler and last night, I left a radio on so he had some background noise. Nothing has worked. If anything, last night was even worse than normal. After a little while he got better but around 2am he started again. For a puppy he is extremely loud! I went downstairs and put him out to go to the toilet. When he came back in I went back to bed but he started screaming again and this went on all night. I am really stuck for things to do. I leave him in the utility room because he is not housetrained. If I was to let him roam the house, he would probably be ok but we cannot do this. Could this be a separation anxiety thing? We picked him up when he was 12 weeks and I know that after 8 weeks, they tend to bond with their littermates. Could this have something to do with it? We also have another dog but I do not leave her in the room with him at night.

I would really appreciate any advice with regards to this.

Thanks
Charlene

Hi Charlene,

I'm certainly not an expert but I have aquired two new puppies this year so I guess I would qualify to give my experience.
My first pup(mini poodle) was 8 1/2 weeks old when we brought her home. I originally I tried to put her out in the kitchen in a pen with papers and her crate inside open much like your set up(mostly because I didn't want to have to get up and take her out for potty). Well, she cried loudly and all night. We did this for about a week until I finally decided to crate her in my bedroom(closed crate) close to my bed so that I could stick my fingers through the crate when she would start to cry and unless she had to go out she would stop. Eventually, she would only wake up when she needed to go out and now she is now 9 mos and is as quite as a mouse until I get up(no matter what time) to let her out.
My second is 5mos(got her at 12weeks) and put her crate right on top of my other in my room. Followed the same method and she now sleeps through til 6:00am but does like to come in my bed at that point and fall asleep for another hour if I let her.;)
I hope that helped a little, good luck!

Hi Dappa,

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention before that he also screams when I leave him in the utility room when I cannot supervise him. For example, at the moment I am upstairs so I have left him in the room with his crate and tugsy toy but he is screaming. I am really at the end of my tether. My other dog was never like this. She was so good when I left her but he does not like being left. I should try the crate in my bedroom though, anything just to get some sleep!

Thanks again
Charlene

Charlene , we had this with our Malamute ..they are not like any other breed ;) As I said to you before , they ARE very vocal :D We gave up trying to leave our Mal in a crate or kitchen in the end ..we had 6 weeks of NO sleep at all (well okay ..a bit) and decided to leave him in the living room at night ..that sorted him out

As I said before , feel free to email me if you need to

Melody :)

My shelby did the same thing to the point of getting laryngitis so I decided before she blew a vocal cord to crate her while I was at work as well. This solved the problem. It seems to me that she was not secure enough in the pen.(just guessing of course). My new pup stays in the pen in the day and is fine so go figure. Shelby was also very mouthy and a leash puller(I've posted here for advise myself for these and other issues) both of which she is much better with now. She was certainly more work but she's a love!
They are all so different:0

what we did with our staff on her first night is to put a ticking clock hidden in the bed with a cudley toy about the same size as her with a heat source under the bedding eg heat pad,an old water bottle ect
1.the ticking clock-this is like the mothers heart beat
2.heat pad-this will be like the warmth of her mother and siblings
we never heard a peep out of her!
we did that for about two weeks until she settled in and we never had a problem with crying
hope you get it sorted and get a good nights sleep! lol !

I feel it is often best to start off with the pup in ones room and then gradually move him downstairs as he gains confidence. I know people will say that the dog will then expect to stay with you but i have not found this at all. What does happen is that the pup starts to feel less stressed, less lonely and starts to feel confident, and is therefore better able to accept the move downstairs after a few weeks.(I slept downstairs for a week or so when we did this so the change over wasn't too abrupt. )

Malamutes are very "persevering" and i would suggest changing the set up somehow to suit you both better :)

Re the howling when you are upstairs etc, it may be that he has been taught that being noisy does eventually get a response. Try never to go to him when he does make a racket but wait for a few second#s quiet and then return, and gradually build this up so that he only get "returned to" when he has been quiet and not when he is yowling his cute little head off.

If you try this and he gets worse, this is a response known as the "extinction burst" and shows believe it or not that you are getting there!! Normally dogs will then learn to stop because the racket gets them nowhere with no human response - UNLESS for some reason they find it self rewarding!!! :D

Mel and others are the Malamute guys and i would follow their advice if you can :)

Lindsay

At his age he's possibly entering the 'fear impact stage' which mother nature provides pups with to ensure their survival as they become more mobile - stops them wandering too far and doing really stupid things.......However, it can mean that a pup entering his new home at this stage (rather than the 8-12 week window which is more normal) finds it even more traumatic than normal :( I'd agree with Lyndsay, your pup will find it easier to settle if he doesn't feel alone - then once he's discovered that there isn't anything to worry about, you can start to teach him about being on his own.......