Hi all, Been reading threads for a while but first time post... We have a new fox red labrador, she is 9 1/2 weeks, we picked her up at 8 weeks. She has been generally great, but because of that as i move to the next steps we want to make sure we don't set her back. First the positives: She sleeps in her crate through the night (the breeder had her used to this before we got her), whining for perhaps 3 minutes or so initially then sleeps right through. She has picked up sit, lie down and go to bed. She has been virtually dry in the house - no accidents after her first 2 days (was never her fault, just us missing her signs). Now to the question/concern: We have taken 2 1/2 weeks off work to be with her and settle her into her new home/routine. We both work full time but have changed our hours so someone will always be with her. We are structuring our days similar to what they will be on our work days. My concern is she needs to get used to being left alone and locked in her crate for 1 or 2 hours whilst we take calls/leave the room. Our current set up is a playpen with open crate. She will whine for between 1-50 minutes when left in the pen during the day (90% of the time she settles in 5 minutes, just when she gets overtired and freaks out!). We always make sure she has been to the toilet, had play time and is not hungry. She likes to nap in the pen itself, but if she's tired she puts herself in the crate eventually. She has all meals in the crate with the door shut, she doesn't notice until the meal is finished. I let her out shortly after (just before any whining - say 1 minute) She is getting bigger by the day and when left in her pen she can nearly jump out (and its a metre high), so i would like to start putting her in her crate for when we need her to "time out". Then we can gradually phase out the pen as it will shortly be useless anyway! My question is, how best should i approach getting her used to being in time out and left in the crate to chill out? Our plan was: Get her settled in her pen but not asleep (give a kong or similar). Leave the room and gradually build up the time i can leave the room from there. THEN start locking her in her crate and doing the same process. My biggest worry is she is so perfect at night and i dont want her to start hating her crate and be worse at night. Or should i just try with the crate straight away? Any top tips?
Hi foxred, welcome to the forum Take a look at Pippa's detailed guide to crate training over on our main site, I think it will help!
I had a playpen for my Sophie where she stayed in another room when I worked from home. I had a problem with her whining, barking etc for the first few months when I would leave the room. Like you, I didn’t want to use the crate for time out because she did so well in it. I tried a few things. I actually got a second crate and that was her time out crate. That made her bark more. So I actually got a really tall sturdy metal gate and used that instead. I used the pen as her time out too and it worked ok. When she was quiet in her pen I would click and treat and say “good quiet”. I also gave her regular naps in her good crate at scheduled nap times. I never thought I’d say it but at 6 months, I got rid of the playpen and at 7 months got rid of all the baby gates! Now if I leave her alone she goes in her crate too and lives being in there. But during the day, she roams the house and honestly doesn’t get into too much I think because I used that playpen to keep her out of trouble, plus she comes into my office and just lays at my feet!
