Hi everyone, We brought home our gorgeous new fox red lab puppy, Bonnie, 6 days ago. So far things are going a bit better than expected, puppies are amazing!! One thing I’m not sure we are doing correctly is her crate training and would love your advice please!! She loves her crate, happily goes and chills in it with the door open during the day and is sleeping down stairs overnight in it. I wake her up every 4 hours for a toilet break and then put her back in the crate. I can close the door on her and she will be happy, however, this is only when she is a bit snoozy, chilled or fallen asleep elsewhere in the house and we lift her in. When it comes to closing her in the crate when she is more alert she will happily go in and last with the door closed for max 20 seconds with us watching. Then the crying starts !! I open the door in a quiet phase but we don’t seem to be able to extend the time or leave for another room. What’s the best option to help with the next steps of her crate training? Should we be putting her in the crate when alert and let her cry it out for hours?? This feels distressing to me and I don’t want to associate the crate with a negative experience! We didn’t do this on the first few nights home because she was so sleepy she fell asleep on the sofa, we lifted her into the crate and no tears. Thanks for any suggestions! These forums are so helpful for us new puppy parents!! Xx
Hi Emily - welcome to the forum! It's great to have you on board, Bonnie is delicious! I'm sure there'll be someone with experience of this along soon, but in the meantime Pippa's article about crate training on our main site might be of interest Good luck - please come back and let us know how you get on!
Hi Emily T, you have progressed too quickly through the steps of getting her used to the crate. Also read https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/ Jo covers the issue you're dealing with. 4 hours in the crate is too long for an 8-9 week dog. I suggest you aim for 3 hours at the most. Sorry. I know how valuable sleep gets when you are deprived. But 4 hours is way too long. You can move the crate into your bedroom for a few nights while she settles
Thanks for replying Michael & Sarah! As I said in my post she is totally happy in the crate overnight, we did 3 hours for the first few nights and she wasn't crying to wake us up for a wee so we tried a bit longer last night with 4 hours and again she was fine, had to wake her to go outside for a toilet break. It is during the days that is more of the problem. If we try a period of crate time when she is awake and alert she doesn't like the door being closed - its complete opposite to the night time!
We are the same, aren't we?. Until we become old, really old, we can sleep for hours and hours without going to the toilet. When I'm up and moving I go a bit more frequently. It's also that I'm having drinks too, while looking at the world of dogs via the internet. And your puppy drinks during the day too. Your door issue during the day is definitely covered in Jo's article.
