Day 10 - Unclear communication

Today's mission was finding a way to get Tera to understand that crying and howling will never get her what she wants. The past few days I have tried to do so through verbal corrections–empowered by a physical correction in the form of a firm tap on the crate. It was becoming clear that this did not work at all, it also just got me worked up and angry. This was counterproductive– she did not understand what I wanted from her.
I am still not sure if it is early stages of separation anxiety or more of a "I want out of the crate" tantrum, the outcome should be the same: whining will never get you what you want, and the approach is broadly the same.

Tough love

My approach today was to just let her cry it out and eventually she should realise that it is pointless. This morning, when she was howling in my bedroom when I was making a cup of tea downstairs, a few seconds after she stopped howling, I came in the room and rewarded her for being a quiet little lady. Before taking her downstairs I practiced with this some more; I would stand outside my bedroom and count to 30. If she was quiet for that time, I would go in and reward. If she would start to cry, the count would reset. I will keep this up for a few days, see if that makes the difference that it should.

I also decided to let her use the 'permanent crate', Amano Iwato, from now on when she is downstairs– I was sick of carrying the temporary crate downstairs everyday with Tera in my other hand. Besides this, she is getting bigger and bigger. My estimate is that at the end of the week she won't be able to sleep upstairs anymore. This has its upsides and downsides. A downside I have to work out, is that it is harder to figure out if she needs to use the toilet in the middle of the night. I don't really feel like setting my alarm, to be completely honest. Last night I had to go out twice, simply because I did not trust her behaviour. I hope that tonight it will be only once at the end of the night close to the natural time that I should wake up. I will see how it goes when the time is there.

The initial transfer to the new crate was exhausting– for me, that is. She would not settle and continue to cry, even if I was around 2 meters away from her. At a certain point I gave up and lay down next to the crate– success: she fell asleep.
During the day, I did get the feeling that her tantrums keep getting shorter. Time will tell, though.

Adventuring

Today I decided to take a gamble with socialisation: get in the car for a short drive to the garden centre and go watch people and traffic go by. This went better than expected. A few whimpers in the car, but nothing nearly as bad as earlier this week. We watched people and cars go by for a good 15 minutes and we went home again.

You are getting sleeeeeepy

I do not know what exactly was the reason; it could have been the roomier crate, for example, but after she fell asleep in the crate for the first time, she seemingly has been sleeping a lot better than the last few days. It was about time.
As part of crate training, I want to make her crate more fun. She stopped going in there by herself, and she wants to go out once I put her in there. Once in she is fine, but I think it will help greatly if I Make the Crate Great Again (MCGA?)

Obedience

I need to pick this up more; in between sleeping and going to the bathroom, I should put more effort into this. She is smart and often willing to work. I should make use of this. Due to her growth, I really need to get a move on with teaching her 'heel', since I cannot keep picking her up all the time.

Socialisation

Today's trip showed me that things are possible. Doing more obedience is nice, but this is essential– opportunity windows are closing. I will go back to the garden centre tomorrow to watch more cars, people and shopping carts go by. I will try to make a printed sign that says something like: "In training, please ignore". People just want to touch my dog, and it will become a problem. I also need one of those vests that reads something similar.
If she does well at the garden centre, I will try to take her on a slightly longer drive or see if I can find a petting zoo nearby. It is way too early for the town centre, but a nearby 'forest' for a few minutes could be fun.

How did you solve your dog's whining? Did you struggle long with it?
What fun things did you socialise your dog with?