Dog help!

[tacit]

Who knows dogs? I brought home my pup today. He's very cute and playful, and is doing fairly well with the housetraining... but he's mounting me! He's only 8 weeks old, so it can't be hormonal. And I put him in his cage - which he was fine with while I was in the room - but as soon as I'm out of sight he whines and barks and howls. Which is more of a problem than the mounting, as it's driving me crazy. Mounting I can deal with - lots of judicious ignoring til he stops. Is the howling inevitable? Do I give him ten minutes to see if he shuts up, or should I be preventing this behaviour in some way? Act or react?

The cat, on the other hand, is an angel.

The dog's making my ears bleed. Will be patient. Will. Not. Panic about taking on a puppy when I really don't know what I'm doing. I read books and all... but the learning curve is steep!

Help me obi-flist! *headdesks*