How long until puppy likes crate

Just take her to the spot and do nothing — Literally nothing, until she goes. Try extending the time between her bathroom breaks by 5 or 10 minutes. If it still occurs, extend by another 5 to 10 minutes until when you;re taking her outside she goes within a few minutes. But make sure she is on leash so cannot roam off, explore and get distracted. All you can do is take her on leash, not allow her to roam off at all, keeping her by your side until she goes.

Keep the leash VERY short so she really cannot move. Are you removing water a couple of hours before bed, and making sure she has a toilet break and is empty before bed? If so, she should be able to last the night at 14 weeks. I would say her crying — particularly as often as you say at every hour or two — is just to get attention.

Get up once during the night to take her outside for a wee. But once and once only. Ignore all other crying and she will eventually get the message that night time is for sleep. All this is covered in the crate training at night section above and should be applicable.

Hi there. My 4 and a half month old puppy sleeps in his crate just fine. He wakes up a half hour before my alarm and constantly whines. I ignore him until my alarm goes off every morning but he still does this every day.

Is there a way I can correct this behaviour? He definitely gets enough exercise and we take him out to pee pretty late and cut his water off early. Any ideas? So he learns he get released without whining, hopefully breaking the connection. For example if he starts whining at 7am, get up and let him out at for a week or two.

Before he gets to whining. After a couple of weeks, try extending your alarm time forward by 5 minutes every couple of days. So look into doing both of these. So I have a 9 week puppy and I work full time.

Therefore, I have setup a play pen for him, placed the crate inside with the door open, placed puppy pad all around and left toy inside her crate. My question is: Should I play with my puppy while he is in the play pen?

At this point, I am not closing the door to his crate. Yes, of course, do play with your puppy. Spend as much time as possible playing with and interacting with him. When crate training a puppy is it ok to allow the puppy to take naps outside the cage?

It seems that as a puppy he is falling asleep every couple hours specially if we exercise. When I go to sleep or out I do put him in the crate he cries for several minutes but then stops but when I am home I find him him napping outside his crate. Of course! It will help familiarize him with it, build his confidence in it and so on.

But yes, sure, let him sleep out of it too as long as you are there. How do you get a puppy to try stairs without forcing him? This has made it difficult to get him interested in his crate or the stairs or anything like that. He loves his toys, but not enough to really want to try either of those things for any toy so far. I started taking him out every 45 minutes but he never needed to go and would just want to play, so we bumped it up to an hour.

This seemed closer but still too long. Sometimes he will still not need to go potty when we go out and just wants to play or explore. I gathered from reading one of your other replies that when we go out specifically for bathroom breaks, I should not let him walk around and we should just stand there until he potties pretty much. Right now my first goals are just his name, housetraining, and crate training.

Unfortunately our vet is booked out about a month. Let me know if you need any further advice We just brought home a 8-week old male yellow lab last weekend. I wish I was able to get through your helpful resources prior, but just now reading entirely after the 3rd night.

Hoping to train for nights and work schedules. Ideal as we are always crossing with only a few hours max of no one home. Spouse being gone 6p — 8a only a few days sometimes weekends with me home and needing to sleep til 2p or 4p depending on next shift.

We started off with crate in back room of house and doing things properly before bedtime, but woke up to his cries and let out for potty on first night. Tried to tolerate crying for a couple hours and then moved crate to back room of house until 4 hours later waking up for day.

Next night put in crate same place to allow to cry without hearing from bedroom accepting that he will cry at times. Wake up midway to take potty and do so as you advise. Wake up earlier in AM before work to potty, play, feed with mins interaction before placing back in same crate location isolated until spouse arrives home from work. Not too much alone time as she stayed in same area until someone else came over at noon to spend time until wake up at 2. Rest of day good. AM wake up: puppy was crying this time.

Similar procedure as previous morning with 2hrs until spouse wakes up for day, but home all day. Ultimate end goal: Crate trained for nights, isolated to back room during few days each week spouse has to sleep to allow room to play but able to potty train and not having pup cry so she can sleep, especially on weekdays I work and she has consecutive shifts. As adult we will most likely utilize crate but want to allow free roam asap. Your end goals sound reasonable and easily achievable to me.

Dogs are remarkably versatile creatures and will eventually slip into and live along with whatever schedules we create for them.

As long as their needs are being met for mental stimulation, exercise, training, food, water and sleep, they will fall into line with the work, play, exercise and sleep patterns we decide for them. So you should be fine! Lay out a plan, your training strategy, as close to a consistent schedule as you can…and then stick to it! Just stay consistent and yes, your plan sounds ok.

Good luck…and if you do encounter any issues, feel free to check back and ask on anything specific. I have been putting him in his crate everynight the crate is right next to my bed.

He whines a lot and if I go and lay by the crate he will quiet down quicker and fall asleep for a few hours. Should I not be doing this? Will he quiet down on his own? The first night I took him out every time he cried. That was about 4 times in one night.

So his is not in there even 8 hours. How soon should I start moving it? Any advice? I just recently got a golden retriever lab mix. Our first night was kind of an up and down for everyone. I tend to work early in the mornings, but one of the people I live with works in the evenings.

For now I definitely want her to learn that the crate is her safe place to rest rather than under the bed and get her started on potty training.

Ultimately though, thank you a lot for this article. This will help out a lot for both me and the puppy. Being consistent certainly can be hard, particularly when patience is wearing thin after sleepless nights! Hi i have read almost all you review in this website its amazing.

Am bringing hom 40days old lab puppy in couple of days. I have the crate ready for him as per your suggestion. As per your article he is too young gor crate training or to use collar and leash. So it would be helpful if you can suggest me how to handle him till he reaches the rite age for crate training andwhere to put him skeep in the night.

Open place in my bed room or in a crate or in a box.?? Night After reading your website info , we borrowed a crate and put the it next to my bed in my room and set alarm to take her out for toilet breaks — Success!. Night 6 — Moved the crate to the hallway outside our bedroom door where she can still see us and all was ok the first night in this new spot a little crying but after shushing her wrong now I know she quietened down and went to sleep , did the toilet breaks, all good.

Night 7 — It was a warmer night, left the crate in the same spot in the hallyway, but she performed and carried on, whining, some barking but not much we did try and get her to quienten down wrong I know now but when other people are sleeping I guess its natural to do this She was also panting and breathing quite fast I understand the breathing fast and panting is something puppies do when sleeping??

I was worried about her breathing and panting so much I gave her a small drink incase she was thirsty so i sat with her probably wrong thing to do and she dozed off but she never settled into sleep- kept whinging and panting and chewing at the crate. So I moved the crate back next to my bed and got into bed myself.

I have been reading and reading your training notes and I want to get her back in the crate to sleep for the night so I can get her toilet trained ASAP! She goes in and out of the crate during the day so thats all good, its just the night time stressing me out. The nights since she has been sleeping in the bathroom downstairs on her own we sleep upstairs and she has run of this small room bedding on the floor crate is not in there with toys and paper for toileting on.

My goal is to get her back in the crate and take her to toilet breaks during the night again so I can get on with the toilet training, but not sure which way to do it. So do I sleep in another room downstairs for a week or so so he does not hear her whinging and crying and panting etc which I will ignore and gradually move the crate so she then ends up sleeping in the crate without having to be near me how long will this take?

Or can I alternate between sleeping with her in a room downstairs and then the next night I sleep back in my own bed and leave her on her own for the night but still do toilet breaks. Hoping you can offer some guidance. Kylie :. I am finding your website to be very helpful. I currently have a 7 week old puppy that I am trying to begin crate training. I am unable to click on your weekend training link, it just goes to the general website. I tried searching it, but no luck. Yes, the link was broken.

I have replaced with another link to the same information. The link now works. Thanks for posting this simple step by step guide. I have a 16 week old Cockapoo and I felt I was loosing the good work already put in by the breeder. Reading your simple step by step guide, I was able to find the exact point I was at with the puppy and build upon it.

Thank you. Thank you for the ever so useful information and your complete. I feel much more prepared for the puppy we are about to get next week!

I am wondering if it is worth it to bring the puppy to work with me the first week s. How detrimental is this to it feeling safe and comfortable and how detrimental is this to crate training? So I say go for it! Our yellow lab is 18 weeks old and is crated. We moved the crate from our bedroom to the very nearby laundry room after we had him 2 weeks. He sleeps between hrs a night. He cries and screams until we let him out when our alarm goes off at 5am!

We used to get up several times in the night until our Vet told us he can hold his potty longer. We are trying to train him to sleep, or at least be contents, with staying in the crate for hrs a night. Will this happen over time? A dog can certainly hold their bladder for 7hrs overnight.

Their bodies slow down like ours do and they need to potty far less often than they would during the day. Keep up with crate training, perhaps start training him to be happier accepting time alone and in time, yes, things should get better.

I am a dog trainer of basic obedience for the AKC CGC program, a huge dog lover, and a firm believer in crate training, positive reinforcement, etc. I also have a 5 year old male Boxer who is fully crate trained, but allowed to be lose in the house while I am gone at work.

Puppy was so impossible at night that I have allowed her to be lose in my bedroom and she lets me know when she needs to go outside to potty. During the day though, that is not an option because I am at work. I go home on my lunch hour and clean up poop and pee, play outside with both dogs, and do the whole routine again when I come home from the office adding on a full bath due to her being covered in poop. Any advice?? Sometimes a dog or puppy truly hates the crate, it can even go beyond that and they be truly phobic of it.

It can be a real deep seated psychological thing, not just behavioral and sometimes far from easily remedied. Are you in a financial position to be able to hire a professional dog trainer? The situation calls for an experienced hand to assess the situation properly — in person — and give advice that suits you and your specifically.

I rescued an approximately 8 week old lab that was dumped this morning. After getting vet checked we decided to keep her. At 8 weeks though she is certainly ready to eat solid food and should be keen to. What did your vet say? My puppy just turned 3 months old and goes to her crate at night to sleep with no problems. When I leave her in the crate during the day when I have to go to class she makes a huge fuss over it.

She whines and barks very loudly. Train her to spend time in the crate while moving away a short distance, then farther, eventually leaving the room. First for a second, then 5s, 30s, 3 mins, etc. Slowly, slowly, small steps at a time. Long-story-short, we have week Boston Terrier puppies, 2 male, 1 female plus 6 yr old neutered male Boston.

We are crating them and that is going fine. My questions are how do you house break 3 puppies at once? Do we need to use leash every time and take out separately? How long should they be in their crates since it is so much easier to keep track of them versus if they are left out of crates? We live on 30 acres and back yard is fenced. Housebreaking 3 pups at once is going to take some effort for sure!

You need to take them out whenever they need to go, which will quite likely be different for each pup as they have different bodies and mature at slightly different rates. Please read through them as all the answers are in there now. I have truly enjoyed reading your blog and have found it very helpful. I have an 8 week old goldendoodle who has done fairly well being acclimated to the crate and will occasionally go in it throughout the day; however, I have a few questions for you: 1 is it expected they spend each of their naps inside the crate or at least have that as a goal , even with the door open 2 at night when she must be crated and in my bedroom is that an appropriate time to place the puppy in the crate rather than have them voluntarily walk in?

Does it tend to make a difference if the two crates are different sizes, will I have to separately acclimate her to both? So, not always Just minimize as much as possible is the goal. A puppy could be perfectly happy going into a crate in one room, while being apprehensive about a different crate in another room, because to them they are totally different things.

So yes, acclimatize to both. We have are going into our third night tonight with our 8 week old lab. He is very receptive and enjoys being in his crate — this is his den, although I have been closing the door a few times throughout the day without much trouble at night he tells you exactly what he thinks. Being mindful not to react to his cries, during the night should we be setting an alarm to create a toileting schedule to try and prevent any encouragement of his crying?

He is very good at asking out day and night he is from my nephews litter and they have all been very good at toileting from around 6wks which is really helpful but with him being so against the door being closed — which I am going to work on using your plan — I wondered if an alarm might assist in this. The crate is in the kitchen as this is where my sister in law had them in her house as well as outdoor kennel area during day.

He went last night from pm — am this morning , night before pmam then 1am-6am however I wondered if a 2am alarm might aid things. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I advise setting an alarm, yes. Great articles! I am getting a puppy soon, and will take the time to crate train slowly. But what do I do the first few nights about sleeping? Hi, thank you for the best article I have read so far, and I have read a few!

We have a 13 week Golden Doodle and are having trouble with sleeping at night. We have had him for four weeks. The first night we brought him home we tried placing him in his crate at night in the bathroom upstairs. He cried solidly and we felt bad, even though the breeder said to leave him to cry. The second night we put his crate next to our bed and he slept perfectly.

We made sure he was properly toileted etc before bed. We then took him to the vet on the third day to check him out, which was all good, and she said to put him in his crate in the laundry downstairs at night and leave him. So, we did that and he cried again.

We called her to discuss and she said it would take a few days and we should persevere. We have tried for four weeks now and he cries persistently, especially from 4am until we wake at 6. We did try giving him a toilet break at 4am and putting him back in his crate, but it made no difference — he still cried until 6am.

We ultimately are happy for him to sleep upstairs with us or the kids, once he is toilet trained and out of his crate. Can we just move his crate upstairs now and let him sleep with us, as he sleeps through when we do. The rest of the time he behaves beautifully with a mix of time spent by himself in the garden, time spent in the house with us, playing, going on walks etc.

A couple of times a week I take him to work with me and happily snoozes in the crate next to my desk. He is also very good in the car, and enjoys coming with me to take the children to and from activities — he sits quietly on the back seat, occasionally looking out of the window. He is otherwise very easy going and placid — we are just having trouble with him being very alone at night. I would appreciate your suggestions about this.

Thanks very much. We got a beagle puppy when she was 6 weeks old and she is now 11 weeks. I was trying to leave her in her crate for 1 hour or 2 and it was going well for a while but now she cries for minutes until she falls alseep or sometimes she just keeps crying.. After reading your post I thought we may have gone to fast. I tested to see at what point she would start crying and that is when I close the crate and walk away. I was thinking of going back to steps 9,10, and 11 but how many times a day and for how long should I follow these steps?

Also, I am home all day because I just moved and have not secured a job. Mark, I have a 10 yr old playful yellow lab and a newly acquired 6 mo golden retriever. The lab has never been crated, but has been kenneled when we traveled. I am not sure about the new pup as she is a rescue. How would you suggest we do crate training?

Do we do it for just the pup or start crating both of them. We have a doggie door which allows them to play and eliminate outside. Thanks for your response. Bring your dog over to the crate and talk to him in a happy tone of voice. To encourage your dog to enter the crate, drop some small food treats near it, then just inside the door, and finally, all the way inside the crate. Continue tossing treats into the crate until your dog will walk calmly all the way into the crate to get the food.

This step may take a few minutes or as long as several days. After introducing your dog to the crate, begin feeding him his regular meals near the crate. This will create a pleasant association with the crate. If your dog is readily entering the crate when you begin Step 2, put the food dish all the way at the back of the crate. If your dog is still reluctant to enter the crate, put the dish only as far inside as he will readily go without becoming fearful or anxious.

Each time you feed him, place the dish a little further back in the crate. At first, open the door as soon as he finishes his meal.

If he begins to whine to be let out, you may have increased the length of time too quickly. Next time, try leaving him in the crate for a shorter time period. Call him over to the crate and give him a treat. One of the most important things you want to achieve with this step is teaching your puppy to stay in his crate for a certain length of time. You can begin with just 5 minutes. Start by instructing your dog to go into his crate then throw a treat or his favorite toys inside.

While he is inside the crate, stay near and when the time elapses, praise him, take a 10 - 15 minute break and repeat the instruction. This time, though, increase the duration to 10 or even 15 minutes repeating the treat and food incentive after instructing him to go in. You can change things up by tossing him a shorter duration between the lengthier ones e. With your puppy inside his crate, close the crate door and sit some distance away.

Halfway across the room is fine. When the duration elapses, open the crate hand him another toy or treat as a trade for your time away from him. Try to keep their time in the cage under 30 minutes. Your puppy will not always have treats and toys when he is inside the crate. You can start preparing him for the real world by letting him stay in his cage for a few minutes without the toys and treats. Give him the treats and toys, then shut the crate door and leave.

Once he finishes the treat, stay out of sight and delay your return. You want your dog to be fine staying in the crate without the treats, food or entertainment, and this should help you achieve that goal. Note: Only pick safe and suitable toys for your puppy. Puppies can damage their teeth on some toys or even choke on smaller pieces. You want your puppy to grow used to spending time in the cage as quickly as he can while also not rushing him.

Make him use crates in real situations e. Because, if he learns that his whining gets you to bend the rules, he will certainly take advantage just like any young child would. That said, when applying crating in all situations, you want to start with a few minutes or short durations. Build on smaller durations and increase as your pup grows accustomed to being in the crate.

There are so many benefits of crate training for both you and your puppy, and these benefits will be discussed in this section. Like our human babies, our pooches will repeat behaviors they believe are acceptable until you correct them.

Now, with a new pooch, you want to reward and encourage the desired behaviors. It's important to keep two things in mind while crate training: The crate should always be associated with something pleasant and training should take place in a series of small steps. Don't go too fast. Place the crate in an area of your house where the family spends a lot of time, such as the family room.

Put a soft blanket or bed in the crate. Take the door off or keep it propped open and let the dog explore the crate at their leisure. Some dogs will be naturally curious and start sleeping in the crate right away. If yours isn't one of them:.

After introducing your dog to the crate, begin feeding them their regular meals near the crate. This will create a pleasant association with the crate. After your dog is eating their regular meals in the crate with no sign of fear or anxiety, you can confine them there for short periods of time while you're home.

After your dog can spend about 30 minutes in the crate without becoming anxious or afraid, you can begin leaving them crated for short periods when you leave the house. When you return home, don't reward your dog for excited behavior by responding to them in an enthusiastic way. Keep arrivals low-key to avoid increasing their anxiety over when you will return. Continue to crate your dog for short periods from time to time when you're home so they don't associate crating with being left alone.

Put your dog in the crate using your regular command and a treat. Initially, it may be a good idea to put the crate in your bedroom or nearby in a hallway, especially if you have a puppy. Puppies often need to go outside to eliminate during the night and you'll want to be able to hear your puppy when they whine to be let outside. Older dogs should also initially be kept nearby so they don't associate the crate with social isolation. Once your dog is sleeping comfortably through the night with the crate near you, you can begin to gradually move it to the location you prefer, although time spent with your dog—even sleep time—is a chance to strengthen the bond between you and your pet.

If you've followed the training procedures outlined above, then your dog hasn't been rewarded for whining in the past by being released from their crate. If that is the case, try to ignore the whining. If your dog is just testing you, they'll probably stop whining soon.

Never punish them for whining. If the whining continues after you've ignored them for several minutes, use the phrase they associate with going outside to eliminate.