Hello all I'm new to this forum so please bare with me We have a 9 1/2 week old lab pup Bea. She's been with us for 9 days now. Since night 2 she's been in her crate - to begin with in the lounge with one of us on the sofa then into the kitchen on her own from night 4. She whines occasionally in the night but settles with a reassuring shhhh from us. She also whines to go out to the toilet around 3am which is fine. She will also settle back to sleep afterwards until around 5-5.30am which is also fine. Although we look forward to that changing! We both work full time. I've had the week off work with Bea and due to return on Monday. I've been periodically crating her during the day while I'm in the house, she enjoys the kong I give her and when she whines I don't let her out until she's quiet then reward with a treat. She can manage 20 minutes quietly. Then she howls, barks, cries the house down!! It's so loud I can hear it from outside! She goes in with an empty bowl and bladder and at her usual nap time. I have talked to my neighbours who are very understanding and asked them to bear with us whilst we crate train her. But this situation cannot continue. Fortunately my parents are retired and going to spend time with Bea each day until she can hold her bladder long enough to go 4 hours at a time in the crate and be let out at lunchtimes. I had a golden retriever puppy who barely fussed in her crate so this is a real shock to my system, which is probably naive of me. But I am desperate for any suggestions or advice that experienced lab owners can offer. We would be happy to buy a pen to put the crate in so she can have more space if needed. Thank you very much in advance
I'm not an experienced owner as our puppy is only 14 weeks old but we have found a puppy play pen very useful as it provides more space than just a crate. At first we put the crate inside the pen, leaving the crate door open during the day and closing it at night. Last week we took the crate out the pen and during the day she sleeps on a piece of vet bed in the playpen, with toys and water etc. And at night I put the vetbed in her crate.
How many hours a day is she in the crate? I would not crate my puppy for more than three hours - A DAY. Now, I worked from home. And, after the first night I no longer shut the crate door but we did put the open door crate in our gated kitchen and left him in there. Many, many times he needed out every 20 minutes or less at that age, to potty. Especially if there was something going on in the house or outside that he could hear or I had been playing with him. As said above the greater space allowed by a pen (which we did for a previous puppy) seemed to give them more to entertain themselves. Caution if you gate in a room, they can wreck rooms and really hurt themselves. We were lucky, nothing wrecked, but a pen might be safer.
Some puppies just don't settle in the crate at all and get on much better with a pen arrangement. Others just scream to be let out because they want to be with their humans - understandable. Just wondering what happens if you leave her and go away for a short spell - a video cam can be a useful tool. She may just be playing up because you are there. As a working parent, I crated Lilly when she was younger, and sometimes this was 4-5 hours, which is longer than ideal, but we were blessed with Lilly being a calm dog (on the whole) and one who just loved her crate. May have been the early association with Kongs. Trouble is they are all different. Have you read the crate training section on the main website? http://www.thelabradorsite.com/crate-training-your-labrador-puppy/
