Hello everyone,
I hope that this concern can be answered, as myself and my girlfriend are exhausted from this new Basenji puppy we have gotten. Now first things first, she is 8 weeks old and her name is Waffles. She was picked up Saturday Jan. 21st and brought back from Michigan to our apartment in Chicago.
Now onto the important and worrying facts that we are witnessing:
Last night she went insane every hour or so, which to our knowledge so far has been in smaller increments compared to any of the other nights we crate her. She tears up her puppy pad every time now, and she peed on one of her plush toys last time instead, albeit the only time she has peed on something besides the pad in her crate. The crate she is living in at night and 2 times a day while we are at work on weekdays is 30"L x 21"H x 18"D, and is covered on top with a blanket for it to be more "den like." I believe from what I'm seeing on the forums that we need to use the divider we got with the crate to make it smaller at her age?
We have to leave her in the crate on weekdays while we are at work from 9am-12pm, I come home at 12 and let her out/play/feed her and return to work at 1:15ish. I return again at 5pm to do the same thing, so she is in the crate no more than 4 hours during the day. Now at night, we put her in around 11pm, wake up at 2am to let her out once, and up for good at 5am to play/feed/let out until we go to work at 9am. We cannot tell if she is shrieking because she's insanely upset, or because she has to use the restroom. Our thoughts are separation anxiety….
We have tried feeding her treats and Kongs with cream cheese (we found she LOVES that) to lead her inside, but once she's about 2 feet from the cage she won't go any further. Should we start feeding her in the crate with the door open so she gets comfortable? Should she sleep with us in the bedroom on the floor at night so she isn't crated as much in a 24 hr. period?
HELP!