I'm distressed about a potential crate issue we are having with our 16-week old yellow lab named Charlie. We introduced the crate slowly and positively to him, and although I wouldn't say he loves the crate, he has been falling asleep soundly there since the first night home. He's also pretty good about taking naps in there during the day- he won't put himself down for a nap, but if lured in with a treat, he settles down quietly or with 1-2 mins of whining before falling asleep. Here is the issue- he will usually nap in there for 1-2 hours, and upon waking up, he will cry. Since we heard that young pups shouldn't be crated for long periods, and also in case he needed to potty, we usually took the crying as our cue that crate time was over soon. BUT we would ALWAYS wait until he quieted down before approaching the crate. Usually 20- 60 seconds of silence at least. From what we had read everywhere, it seemed like that was the recommendation given over and over again- that as long as you wait for a moment of silence, he would not associate the whining with getting out of the crate. In fact, we heard that letting him out when he becomes quiet was a good way of teaching him that quiet=out of the crate. Well we think he has indeed learned that quiet=out of crate...but I think the clever boy has also learned that barking/whining FOLLOWED by silence is what does it. More often now he will cry, quiet down for a min, cry again, then quiet- and on and on. Also, if I am upstairs and he cries, if he hears me get up and start walking around, he immediately goes quiet. It's as if he's like "great, my cries got mom's attention, now I just have to be quiet to be let out" So I think we inadvertently taught him that whining gets him out of the crate with the extra step of a bit of quiet time following the noise? We don't want the association to become stronger! What should we do? My ideas are: 1) Start to wake him up from naps/in the morning BEFORE he wakes up and cries. So for naps this would mean waking him up after maybe 45 mins since he usually naturally wakes up between 1-2 hours of sleeping. We didn't do this before because we wanted him to sleep as long as possible (he needs his naps and doesn't settle very well outside of the crate on his own!) So if he slept for 2 hours- we thought, great! But maybe we need to cut them short for a while to prevent the crying starting? 2) Or should we start leaving him in the crate for LONGER periods of time e.g. well beyond his cry/quiet cycle e.g. over two, three hours until he has completely gone back to sleep? Any advice is appreciated- we want to nip this in the bud, as he has this week starting crying a couple times during the night whereas before he was quiet, and does not need to potty. Thank you!
Hello, my friend has a 2 year old lab now and I asked her how she did daytime crate training, she said she would close the door then once he was asleep she would quietly open the door so when he woke up he could just get out. You could give that a try
Firstly, try teaching him to go in the crate on cue. Release him out with “ok” or your release word - then cue him to go in again. Click or verbally mark as soon as he goes in and reinforce in the crate with several treats before you release out. Emily Larlham (kikopup on YouTube) has several great crate training videos if you search. It’s important to play these “in and out” training games with the crate because they help build the positive association with the crate rather than it being about getting shut in there. in terms of the whining, either (or both) of your ideas are good. It depends on your routine the rest of the day and how much physical/mental exercise the pup is getting as to whether to reduce or increase the crate time.
