We've a 9.5 wk old lab, brought home from the breeder at 8 wks. We had ordered a crate but it didnt arrive in time and so the first nights he slept without. I slept on a mattress on the living room floor and he slept somewhere around me, getting up and wandering in the night. He whined when he needed the toilet at night. Crate arrived after a week. He ran in right away and napped there by his own choice - perfect. He has no fear of it and happily goes in through the day but we don't close it. We are on holidays from work until he is 10wks old so we just take him out through the day - we've had a few pee accidents in the house but they were our fault. At night we are now crating him. But I can't see any benefits. He sleeps on the floor after dinner, wakes hiilmself about 8pm. Outside for toilet. Plays or chews quietly and sleeps. About 10pm wakes again for toilet and right back to sleep. Wakes at midnight for same. After the midnight toilet break we put him in his crate. He wakes anytime between 3-4:30am for the toilet. Back in until 6am. We are taking turns sleeping on the sofa right now but it's getting to be too much. Last night he woke at 1:30 and I needed to take him out and then he missed his 4am pee. I'm not seeing how this crate is of any benefit. If he wakes us up when he needs the toilet anyway, how does the crate help? I only work PT but there are a few times weekly times that overlaps with my husband's work. Pup will be home alone 2-3x per week for 3hrs MAX. So we have gated the kitchen and he will be there in the day. MY QUESTION - is there a reason he NEEDS to be crated at night? Why can he not just be in the kitchen overnight? If we have to set an alarm to get up and take him out of his crate at 2am and 4am, can we not just leave him in the kitchen and take him out from there? What benefits are we getting from the crate overnight? If he can't hold his bladder then he is going to whine to get out of his crate, which to me teaches him to whine to get out of his crate. I accept there will be accidents on the kitchen floor but there are going to be accidents on the kitchen floor in the daytime too so....? We are so sleep deprived and can't keep our heads straight on this. Thank you.
There is absolutely no need to crate him if he's OK just in the kitchen. The benefit of crate training is that puppies don't tend to think of a house, or a room, as their "den" in those early weeks, and so that means they're more likely to toilet when they need to. A crate gives them a space they don't want to dirty so it can help with making toilet training quicker. It doesn't teach them to whine when used properly, but if you're happy to clean up the wee and poo in the kitchen until he's clean through the night, then that's fine. I do think it's worth persisting with crate training just for future - if you travel with your dog, it's often easier to crate them in the room overnight. And if your dog ever needs to be on very restricted movement (for example, after some surgery) then if he's already used to being in a crate, it will be less stressful for him at that time. But other than that, no, you certainly shouldn't feel you HAVE to crate him overnight
Welcome to you. I had a pup who hated the crate. Our kitchen isn’t puppy-safe so I got a puppy pen with a bed at one end. She was fine in that .
Hi, and welcome to the Forum, from me and Cassie, who's nearly 2. Like snowbunny says it's totally your choice. I'd never had a crate for previous puppies that I'd had, and didn't get one for Cassie until I'd had her for a week, like your puppy she took to it straight away and I never had to formally crate train her, once her bed was in that was it, it was her place. She quickly accepted sleeping with the door closed. But at night I didn't close it when she was tiny, preferring to clean up after her in the morning. She was clean and dry over night at 12 weeks. But I do agree it's useful for them to get used to the idea of being in a crate, in case they should need to be in later life. And it was useful when she was younger knowing that she couldn't cause havoc in the house when I was out !Or somewhere to go when over excited ! But if you have a puppy proof area then that should be fine.
My dog slept through from a very young age, but when I tried to decrate her overnight at 9 months old it was a complete fiasco - she got the midnight rowdies, chewed the wall/doors/skirting, and peed on the floor. Plenty of people are fine not crating, but if you've got a chewer it's essential!
I too tried a crate overnight, but it didn’t work for us. We decided about 2 weeks in that she could sleep in our room. For a few weeks she slept on her bed on the floor, eventually ending up on our bed. From day 1 of doing this she slept through from midnight until 9am. She is now 4.5 years old and sleeps with us still. During the day when I was at work she was crated (2-3 hours) slowly built up from 5 mins. She was happy in her crate for the morning (watched her on webcam). We decrated her when she was 5 months old, initially in the kitchen, but within a few months had the run of the house. She’s never chewed anything so we had no qualms about leaving her out. It comes down to personal preference.
For me it really depended on the individual puppy as to how helpful the crate was in house training. My first boy started sleeping in the bed with me at about 10 weeks old despite my efforts to follow all the crate training directions to the letter. I found he would tell me when he needed to go, never wetted the bed and it was just easier to have him next to me and take him out when he told me he needed it. However, the usefulness of crate training goes way beyond the house training aspect. This is why I trained my two puppies and *95% of my fosters: (1) being able to either pop out of the house, into the shower, or have a good sleep without worrying that your puppy is wandering the house and getting into something that could harm him or your house (so for example in the kitchen gnawing on baseboards, cabinet edges, door jams, etc.) (2) sets them up to be happier campers in the car (3) makes possible future health-related crating less stressful. *I learned this the hard way when my foster fail had a TPLO. I'd never crated her as she was just so good, so I didn't know she had such a phobia. Third day after TPLO and being in the crate 100% but supervised,and after doing several short tests of leaving her 5-10-15 minutes at a time with no incidents or visible distress, I ran to the grocery store for 30 minutes. Came home to blood everywhere - she'd broken or pulled out most of her teeth trying to get out. I still feel so guilty about this and she's been passed for 10 years now. Horrible experience and one reason ALL my fosters now get crate trained, even if they don't really need it. (4) is a good tool to help quickly calm down a hyper/bitey dog - if he learns that going into his crate for 10 minutes with a Kong is a positive thing, it's a really good re-set button. I discovered this last year when I had a nutty little Bodeguero (type of Spanish Jack Russell) foster who would go into insanity mode when he got too tired. NOT as punishment, just a chill place that gives dog and human a little breathing space. Saved me from murdering him a couple times, which would have been a real shame because I loved the little sausage head.
Thanks everyone. We end up about 10pm every night rethinking it and over thinking it. I will talk to my husband about it agan tonight. Everything you read basically leads you to the conclusion that NOT crate training your puppy is bad, and yet it's not sitting well with us. I think I just need confirmation that doing something different is not going to be negative for my dog!
As others have said it is entirely up to you whether you crate or not. My 11 year old who came to us at 5 months never had a crate - I have never heard of crates. However when doing some preparation for our now 15 month old puppy, we read a lot about crates and got 3. A small one for the car which also came in handy in the sitting room as our older dog didn’t take well to the puppy and we used it for small amounts of time when we were getting them used to each other. The second one went in the kitchen and I found it invaluable. It was her den and she loved it. We would put her in at meal times and eventually when the crate was gone, she takes herself to that spot automatically when we prepare food and sit down to eat. The third replaced the second as she got bigger. We went camping twice last year and I felt more relaxed having her in the crate at night. All 3 have gone now, as has the baby gate. I think it taught her boundaries as well as being her own space. Probably if she had been an only dog we wouldn’t have bothered.
For sure not, they were never heard of when I was growing up or when previous dogs I've had were puppies. They all grew up into perfectly happy family members. That's why I didn't get one for Cassie straightaway, but I am glad I did for all the reasons others have stated. At nearly 2 I can't remember the last time she was in the crate, she now has her kitchen bed where it was, I can't actually say it's been put away, it forms a useful barrier round our shoe rack -- she's not still not above lifting a particularly smelly shoe or investigating those that belong to guests
Not at all negative, do what works for your dog - they really are all different. I’ve had pups which hated the crate with a passion. Yet Tatze, at five years old, still has her crate and cries if I don’t shut the door at night!
Merlin hated his crate and pen with a passion at night time. He would go in there happily for food and treats, and would even trot in there in the evening and lie down for a snooze, but by 4:00 am he would bark, howl and whine - and this went on for six weeks until I became afraid he was going to injure himself trying to get out. Eventually we caved in and just put his bed next to the older dog. He then slept through. Given the choice, I would crate train a puppy - but there really are some who just hate it.
I’ve never used a crate. You just need to be aware that many puppies do chew what they shouldn’t (even when provided with lots of chew toys) so make sure anything unsafe is removed or blocked off and be prepared for some damage to skirting boards, doors etc.
Hattie hated her crate so we put it away when she was about 6 months, she had freedom of the downstairs and never chewed anything apart from the wooden babygate but then she didn't go upstairs - weird When we got Charlie our rescue dog at 9 months old he chewed anything he could get hold of so I put the crate up, he went in no problem, slept when I had to go out and slept happily through the night, not a peep. We got rid of the crate when he had grown out of the chewing stage but the crate was invaluable and saved the contents of our house Like @Karen I would properly crate train my next puppy, unfortunately when I got Hattie 10 years ago I hadn't heard of such a thing I know better now. x
It's entirely up to you and what suits your puppy and your house. My two still use their crates - I had never used crates until we took over one of my son's dogs, complete with crate. I then wished I'd had one for our lab Penny, who surreptitiously chewed the backs off the books on a low bookcase in our dining room! It's also good to know that when a puppy is left for a little while it can't come to harm by chewing worse things, eg electric cables. If your kitchen is puppy-proof, then that should be fine. However, as @snowbunny has said, using a crate may help with toilet training. It's also useful if your dog needs crate rest at any time because of injury/illness, as he will be less stressed because he is used to using a crate - although we hope you won't need it for that reason! I've also found it very useful for mine when staying away from home, as they are used to sleeping in a crate so, again, it's familiar in a strange environment. I think I would err on the side of yes, crate training is a good idea - but it's completely up to you.
I have never used the crate as a toilet training aide, it's purely a safe place for my pup when I can't be there to supervise - particularly important for chewers.
The weird thing is, Poppy LOVED her crate and puppy pen, so we assumed Merlin would be fine with it too... But no, he wanted to lie RIGHT NEXT to Poppy.
We put him in the kitchen last night and he slept 6 hours! Woke at 5:30 to go outside and came in and slept another hour! In his crate he was waking every 90 minutes. I'm hoping it is the same tonight!!
We used the crate from the beginning. He has two crates, one upstairs in our bdr for sleeping and one downstairs for when we have to leave to go somewhere. He is now too big for a barrier since he can knock them down, and we cannot yet leave him in the house free since he's deep into teething and is chewing everything. When we travel with him, we have to crate him at night or he could chew the motel room apart before we even knew what he was doing. Now he loves sleeping in the crate at night. We cover it to make it a den, and he starts asking to go to bed at 8 PM. He's doing that right now. But I won't let him go up to bed until he poo's again which won't happen for another 90 minutes or so(we keep a pee/poo chart by the door). There are so many circumstances where the crate is necessary. Visiting friends he needs a safe place to be while we all go out to dinner. I'm sure not going to leave a puppy running free at a friends house. And then there is the cat in our house. And then there is leaving him in the car at a restaurant. Having him in a crate in teh Subaru Forester, means he won;t chew the seats apart, and with it covered, no one can see him in the crate in the car. There are just so many circumstances where its so so so convenient for us and protective for him.
