I've been poring over threads and advice on what to do about early waking, but with conflicting advice I'm still undecided so thought I would ask here. He will be 8 weeks tomorrow. We've had him crated in the kitchen since the night we brought him home at 7 weeks old. He goes to bed at 9pm, and we've progressed the nighttime toilet trip to 2:15am which is working well. The problem is he's been waking up at 5am, wide awake and ready to start the day. He cries like a banshee and I'm worried about our neighbors who share a wall. So far I've been getting up, waiting til he quiets for a moment, then letting him out to toilet. But the first thing he does is start to romp and play, so he wasn't desperate for a wee etc. This morning I was able to put him back to bed and slept for another hour. I've read that he's crying because he woke up and was all alone and scared. Our other dog is in the kitchen with him but it doesn't make any difference. Advice 1 that I read is to move his crate to the bedroom Advice 2 is to leave him in the kitchen and slowly progress when I go down to let him out in the morning, starting from when he wakes up (currently 5am). Thoughts? Btw, he's very vocal about being crated during the day as well. I've been doing "click for quiet" and I also leave him with a frozen stuffed kong which occupies him for about 5 mins, then he notices I'm gone and starts howling and pawing at the crate door. I guess this all just takes time. Wish I had more experience!
It sounds like his crate training hasn't quite landed, really. Some dogs are fine with being in a crate from the get go, and sleep in them happily from 8 weeks. But it took a lot longer than a day to crate train my near adult dog (at 10 months) and I do wonder how it is that people have 8 week old pups (7 weeks in Bailey's case) in crates from the first day. How about trying having him in a pen, or puppy safe room, and reworking his crate training over a week or so?
I just expected my pup to wake at 5am for a time, it does pass. I also think he goes to bed early so thus wakes early. I used to take mine out into the garden and just sit with him while he had a little play, he grew out of it and especially now the dark mornings are coming in your pup will sleep later. Your pup is still very young.
Have you read the article on crate training from the main site? You have to take it so slowly in the first few weeks, but it's worth it. Brought my girl home at 7 weeks too but I built up day crate time so slowly, as per Pippa's guide. She was up to 20 minutes at 9 weeks and at 12 weeks I pushed it to 1 hour. It took a few weeks of Kong practice for her to get the hang of the Kong goodness, it takes time (and the right filling) to create an addict.
What Kong fillings did you use to start with? I have tried soaked kibble and tuna and cheese yesterday but he only played for a while. I guess could take a few more goes.
I just popped a bit of ham in or some chicken. Or just some cheese spread. Something really easy so he can get it out with no effort, that gets them addicted to the good stuff With regards to sleeping in, you've probs got a while to go for the full nights sleep. Stanley's 20 weeks and it's only maybe these past 3 weeks that I've had full night sleeps from 10.30 - 7am. Now he goes back to sleep for a bit after he's been to the loo and had his breakfast, but 8 weeks is still very much a baby. But he'll get there
Start smelly and not frozen. I used banana and sardines (alternating layers), with a smear of peanut butter at the top to get things moving But even then she wasn't demolishing it in one go, it took a few weeks I think. Then once they've got the hang of it, you can freeze. I'm going to try the soaked kibble with sardines for tomorrow - hope she won't be too disappointed lol.
Yes I agree, I don't think there is any crate training set in at all at this point, or even any "contained anywhere" training. We have the kitchen gated off but he cries soon after I leave. We also have a pen for upstairs but he launches himself at the sides to try to get out. I guess this goes along with his dislike of being carried.
I've read the Handbook and am halfway through the Labrador specific one, but I must have missed the proper way to go about it. I just had a look at the main site and realized the navigation bar disappears once the page loads (on Chrome) so have totally missed all of that! On IE it works so I'll use that. I'll have a look for the guide and follow it religiously, thanks for the tip
I did initially (to make it super easy to slurp out), but now I just mush it a bit in my fingers before stuffing it in.
I have some various stuff coming in today to try: pumpkin puree, bananas, peanut butter. Not sure if these will be smelly enough but I was thinking to try salmon paste next. I dove straight in with the frozen soaked kibble mush in the kong, probably too advanced!!
I never would have thought to use stinky fish if I hadn't read the Kong thread that's stickied here in the puppies forum! Gives the room a delightful "parfum" lol but so worth it when you see them beavering away at the Kong to get to the stinky goodness.
No he sleeps downstairs in the kitchen in his crate. Cried for the first few nights then it was just once up for the loo then just waking up early. We have a baby gate for the kitchen and on the mornings I really couldn't cope because I was too tired I'd just leave him to play in the kitchen and snooze on the couch. He usually settled back down after a while and got a couple more hours.
It does; I don't recall if I've ever mentioned this to Pippa - did you know this, @editor? I still use Chrome, I found that if I scroll down a little and then back up again, it reappears and I can use the nav bar.
I know that too tired to cope feeling! I hope I can slowly get him used to entertaining himself in the kitchen. Baby steps Until then...sleepy pup-mom time
Ah yes, just tried that. A lot easier than switching back and forth to IE Hopefully it can be sorted though for new people, lots of missed good content otherwise :/
