Help with Crate training and sleepless nights

wajxn02

Hi I have a new 8 week old pup and have a crate for nim to eat and sleep in. I am finding night times increasingly hard.

For 5 nights in a row, the puppy has slept only for 2 hours maximum and cries, this I don't mind if he needs the toilet etc, but he is now crying as soon as he goes in his crate, and goes beserk if I get a cheeky chance to shut the door.

I am sleeping down stairs so I can hear his cry as I won't upstairs and he tends to race away from the crate when I open the door to sleep by me on the sofa, he now has also started to jump up for late night cuddles, to which I haven't sucumbed too.

Due to tiredness I am losing patience, and the puppy is sleeping in the day !

Does anyone know of a good source of information I can buy, download or borrow ? Or is there some good advise out there ?

Should I just go to bed upstairs and perservere ? He just gets in such a state if he's in the crate and the door is shut or if I am not near. Please help.

Goldentouch · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject:

If you look in the puppy section of the forums, you'll see that many other owners are in the same position as you when first starting to use a crate with their young puppy.
Persivere and continue with it.
Remember, ignore his crying whining or barking. Never go down or comfort him when he does this. Simply ignore it.
I wouldn't even be sleeping in the same room as his crate either as personally, i think this makes the crying worse.

I'd suggest leaving him in his crate, setting your alarm for around 2/3am, getting up, taking him for the toilet, then putting him back in the crate and going back to bed.
If he becomes difficult about going back in the crate or faffs about, put on his lead. No farting about or carry-ons. It's toilet then back to bed. Thats it.

If you persist with the ignoring, it will get better. The puppy will relise he is receiving no attention from his cries and will eventually give up.
As he gets older he will sleep longer.

happyinyournappy · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:06 pm Post subject:

We've just been through this ourselves - got Crusoe at 8 weeks, and put him into a large crate he can grow into. He's now ten weeks old and has, for the last 3 nights gone through the night (till 5 am, 6 am and 7 am) having taken him out at 10 pm ish and then put him to bed in a small puppy size crate (which we've had since Wednesday) so he has no room to do his poos and wees, but enough to get up and fidget when he wants to; you have to make sure they have enough room to lie straight out. He even chooses to go and climb into the crate in the day for peace and quiet and sometimes he chooses to lie just outside of it in his 'area'. The first three nights (in the big crate)we had lots of whining (for about two hours at 2 am one night) and still got up to wees and poos in one end of the crate (we gave him paper at one end, and it was invariably messy) but we started giving him a warm hot water bottle wrapped in an old jumper (which the breeder scented with his mummy) and even left the radio on for two nights - these things seemed to settle him, but you need to stop them after a week or two so he doesn't get really dependent on them - C now has his jumper without the hottie in the little crate wiht him and once we're sure he is happy going through the night and as he seems to grow out of the puppy crate, we'll move him back into the big one. It seems really hard, but you'll be surprised how quickly it can work. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a small crate, but I guess you can pick one up on ebay if you don't want to have to invest in another crate.

The breeder told us the same as goldentouch - ignoer the cryin in the night - it's actually easier to sleep through than when my 17 month old wakes up as she's doing three times a night at the moment! Evil or Very Mad

Hope this helps Wink

Topseyt · Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:43 pm Post subject:

I agree with the other two. Ignore the night time crying. Get yourself and your family some ear plugs if you must!

Night time toilet visits are business only, with no play. Back to bed straight away afterwards, whether he likes it or not. Resolutely ignore any protests, or you might end up teaching him that vocalising like that brings rewards (i.e. you coming to him each time). Then you might end up in a vicious circle of it.

Don't sleep downstairs. Go to your own bed. If your pup is still too young to be expected to get through the night without toilet visits then set your alarm for about half way through the night to get up and take him out. Make sure too that you took him out last thing at night before going to bed yourself (perhaps say between 10.00pm and 11.30pm).

I realise that the above advice is much easier to follow if your house is detatched and your pup therefore cannot disturb the neighbours, but it really is worth trying to follow it whatever your circumstances.

Good luck. Here's hoping for better nights for you soon.

Helen.

sue51 · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 3:12 am Post subject:

Clover screamed the place down the first few nights she was with us Sad

unfortunately I am not as strong as some of the others, and did spend time alongside her crate. Then my parents had the wonderful idea of letting my other lab perform this lovely task Very Happy

and it worked a treat - now Clover will sleep there irrespective of whether Hally is there or not - although I try to make a point now of them sleeping in the same area at night Smile

I feed Clover all her meals in the crate and have tried to make it a cosy comfortable place to be - although she will not go in there out of choice - preferring my other dogs blanket during the day - but two minutes whimpering and then she will happily lie quietly in there - whether sleeping or not - letting us know if she wants the toilet (very definitely different tones for attention and toileting) - but it does get better.

If you can be strong, it will resolve itself quicker - we had hell with our first dog, and gave in to it (I didn't use a crate) - and we ended up walking around like zombies while she was quite happily sleeping in the day Twisted Evil

but even that eventually (and suddenly) resolved itself Very Happy

Jubato · Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:19 am Post subject:

If you have an object of yours that smells a lot like you (e.g. old shirt that you've worn all day), you might put it in with him. Wendy liked to put her muzzle the one I put in there the first few nights.

baj · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:48 pm Post subject: whining at night

I have only just joined your site, but am constantly looking for advice! We are going through a few problems with a couple of rescue boys. I won't go into too much detail, but whining and shaking(separation anxiety), was a main problem. We have managed to stop the shaking through the night and whining, but it starts again at 4.30a.m. I let them out, just in case, then go to bed. Then the panting and whining starts again. I now sleep downstairs with them because they are disturbing my children, who are still very young. How can I over come this problem? Someone said"do not sleep down stairs". I do not want to, but am concerned about the kids?! Sad

buyme2blue · Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject: I know what you mean!

My just 8 week old puppy was obviously from the same breeder as she sounds the exact same! I keep hearing that they should love the crate, but my pup gets very distressed and end ups pooing within a few minutes and then this distresses her even more and if left she smears it everywhere! i feel awful leaving her in there but I need this to work! I am now feeding her in the crate and putting her in it when she falls asleep during the day but with work impending she is going to have to be in it for 4hours during the day. Do you put half bedding and half a toileting area? Please let me know if you have success, it can't come quick enough for me!