Hi there, We recently brought our chocolate lab puppy home 10 days ago and she is just over 9 weeks old. We were delayed in our crate arriving so only began the training a couple of days ago. Until then, we were taking it in turns to sleep downstairs with her bed next to us as our room is not puppy proof. We now have the crate and she goes in ok when we pop treats in there but she is not keen on staying in it at all. We built up a little bit of time but she really struggles to be away from any of us and follows us around like a little shadow, bless her. She doesn't cry very often but when she does we do ignore her for a moment then praise her when she stops. My other concern is how long will it take for night time training and do we close the door from this point? The last couple of nights we slept by her but left the door open and we didn't fuss her if she came out, just gave a gentle shush and encouraged her back in (after taking her to the toilet.) We are also a little unsure of how long we should let her cry if she does so. She is under our stairs so it wouldn't disturb the neighbours but we have young children and are worried in case it causes them a lot of disruption. Many Thanks Dee
Hi Denise, Welcome to the forum Pippa has written about crate training on our main site - I hope it helps!
