crying when alone

Question
hello.i have got a 4 month beagle puppy,i have had him for 4 weeks now and his behavior when he is left alone is not getting any better.ive tried leaving him at short intervals,i brought i door gate so i didnt have to shut him out the room but still crys so bad that the neighbours have complained.i have now brought a crate,i put him in it everytime he is asleep,when he wakes i take him straight outside,let him play for a few hours then put him back in his crate with a kong toy.if he crys i ignore it to a point then i go to him and splash a bit of water in his face and say no ( is that the right thing to do) i was told to that by a man from my local pet store,after a few times he did calm down and go to sleep,i never let him out his crate unless he is quiet,but when he is quiet i let him out and give him a treat.he will not settle at night time and i was up most the night with his crying.am i doing the right thing? and he will learn in time? or am i doing anything wrong?

Answer
Stephanie, I think maybe your routine is messing him up. He should be in the crate >>only<< when you are unable to watch him, and at his age, he needs to be taken out and given an opportunity to use the bathroom at LEAST once every 4 hours. He may or may not be able to make it all the way through the night yet. Some puppies can at his age and some can't.

If he is making noise in his crate, he should not get any attention, including negative attention (ie: telling him to hush or splashing water in his face). He should be completely ignored (unless he has been in there and is crying because he just woke up and needs to go to the bathroom!) until he is quiet, even if it's for just a second. As soon as he's quiet, you should tell him what a good boy he is and then go and let him out.

Some dogs need to be desensitized to a crate, whereas others will figure out that crying doesn't work and will stop that behavior after about a week or two. You've had your little guy for a month and say his behavior is not getting any better, so I would like to suggest that you take a look at the crate desensitization method I have published at http://housetraining.angelfire.com/crate.html

With patience and consistency, he will learn to be quiet in his crate.