Hi there Firstly, what a great site and forum! We have had our lab now for 11 weeks and trying our up most to crate train him but seems to be going slower than other people’s experiences. For the day, I am using the technique of sitting by the crate, being in the same room, same house before leaving for short periods. At night time, even though he is tired it requires by husband or I to sit by the crate from anywhere between 5-15 minutes for him to settle (same for his toilet break at night). If we leave before he is asleep he gets very noisy and whines or barks. We don’t mind doing this for now but don’t want this to become a regular expectation as he gets older. Has anyone else found this and does it get better with age? I appreciate he is only young. Any advice great appreciated.
Sounds like I went through similar with ours. I am no expert but I can tell you from my experience that at first the only way I could get Elsa to sleep was to stay at the crate until she was and then slowly and quietly close the crate door then sneak away. If she woke she would cry and howl and not really settle. At first when Elsa was 8 weeks I felt so sorry for her and her cries felt like she was missing her mum and siblings so I spent a lot of time sitting with her to try and calm her. As the days and weeks went on though I started being a bit more forceful about leaving her and accepting the crying. This was hard. And my wife was actually better at making me do it than I was who would more easily give up. If Elsa had been out for a wee and poo in the middle of the night and I knew all was ok then I left her and tried to ignore the crying on the basis that I know all is ok and she needs to learn. At times she cried for 30 to 60 mins but this does improve. now Elsa is 12 weeks and I do not sit with her at all when she goes in the crate. If she is a bit active then she will cry a bit. If she is tired and ready for bed then she will even take herself in there. I think perseverance and being brave to leave her is the key. Oh and good earplugs! I don’t use them normally so I can hear her if she genuinely needs me but if she is acting up when I know she should be fine then the earplugs help to not feel so guilty. It’s good for them to learn to self soothe after all!
When you started the night time crate training did you have the crate next to your bed and gradually move it to where you would like him to sleep? If not then he might just be lonely or scared as he has never been on his own, remember with his mum he has her and his siblings to cuddle into at night. Might be worth moving the crate to be next to the bed at night and gradually move it back.
Our puppy used to be like this in his outside pen after he had been for a wee. I liked to leave him for a few minutes so he could get used to all the sounds. I started off sitting next to the pen and then every day moved a few cm’s further away. Over a few weeks he got used to me being further away until I could wander off. Maybe you could try this with moving away a little bit each day from the crate?
