Questions about crate training my new puppy

nicoled

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#1
I just brought home my new puppy Friday evening. She is just shy of eight weeks. I actually have two questions. The first one is about overnight potty breaks for my new puppy. For the past four nights I have been putting her in her crate and when I hear her crying I take her out. However, I read that you should never take the puppy out of the crate when they are crying or barking and that you should wait until they quiet down. So my question is should I be taking her out everytime she wakes up crying, should I ignore the crying or should I be trying to get her up and out before the crying starts? I don't want her to get the idea that every time she crys and barks I will take her out, but how do I know when is the right time????

My next question is the placement of the crate. For the first three nights, the crate was in the bedroom. After talking with the vet, we thought we would try to leave her in the family room. About an hour after turning in, she started crying and barking and we moved her back to the bedroom. I know that I am caving into the barking and crying and that is bad, but should we stick it out and let her cry and hope that she will eventually stop.

Is she crying and barking to let us know she has to go potty, because she will not go in her crate, or is she going through separtion anxiety or is she trying to sucker us in to taking her out of the crate.

I know this is a bit long, but my husband and I can really use some suggestions! Thanks in advance!
 

aelizilly

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#2
Well, to start with, it might be a good idea to get your puppy a stuffed animal of some sort, to keep her happy while in the crate, maybe she is lonely (if you don't already have one).

I would advise you to keep her in the family room, that is what I did with my Beagle when I brought him home @ 6 weeks. I was fortunate as he has slept through the nights pretty much since day one. For a few weeks there, I would set my alarm for about 2-3 am and get up and wake him up and take him out to potty, so I was waking him up and he wasn't waking me up. I can't imagine your puppy needing to go potty more than once in the night, so long as she is not having a lot of water close to bedtime. That is another thing I do, is after dinner, we cut off the water, since he is not outside playing or doing anything strenuous which would make him thirsty.

Good luck to you and I hope this helps!
 

Mordy

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#3
i would definitely let her out if you can distinguish that she really does whine to go potty and not just for attention. telling you that she has to "go" is something you definitely want to acknowledge and it can make the whole house training process easier. if you can't determine what the reason is, it's better to take her out before she starts crying.

i'd also put the crate in your bedroom and not the family room - keep in mind she has just left her mom and littermates and came into a completely new environment and may feel lonely and insecure. there is nothing wrong with keeping her closeby, if you want her to sleep in a different spot later on for some reason, you can always get her used to that after she has settled in. dogs are pack animals tho, so i wouldn't deprive her of close contact during the night.

for some extra information, please check out http://www.dogscouts.com, click on "helpful info" and then "puppies: start them young" and read through the articles they offer. it's a really great site. :)
 

moxiegrl

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#4
marneo...why not just start a thread and post all those sites instead of dragging up year old threads where the OP's probably arent even here or going to read them? JMO
 

moxiegrl

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Thanks Renee....It was really bothering me every time I went to the "new posts" I was looking at posts from last year? lol
 
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#7
We've had our puppy for almost two weeks and have two crates, one in the bedroom and the other in the family room. Otto loves the one in the bedroom and settles down immediately. He sleeps for about 6 hours, which is great for us. In the a.m. he whines a bit and then I get up and rush him to the front door. As for the other crate, he hated it at first, but we put a blanket over the top and sides and now he settles down fairly well, esp. if we leave the room. I also recommend a blanket over the bedroom crate. We like our dogs to sleep in the bedroom with us, so that crate will stay there until he's older.The Monks of New Skete recommend banging the door of the crate hard if the dog is barking and whining; that helped for us. Only had to do it twice. I let him out when he's quiet and had enough rest (1-2 hrs).
 

mlee

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#8
Does putting a blanket over the crate really help? We got Peyton when he was seven weeks old and now he's 16 weeks. We've had good success with potty training (four full days without an accident and he has gone to the door and whined every time he needed to go!) but we're having trouble with him waking up during the night. for a while he was only waking up once, around 3, but lately he's been getting up 3 or 4 or more times a night between 10pm and 6am. We've tried playing music and ticking clocks and take his water away at night but it doesn't seem to help. We only take him out maybe once or twice each night and tell him to lay down the rest of the time but i don't know if this is what we should do. We live in an apartment so it's not really an option to let him keep crying at 4AM. Any suggestions?
 

Goobiedogs

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#9
I have just potty trained two pups in the last 1.5 years. This is what i did after reading many many books. Pup sleeps in crate IN YOUR ROOM. Dogs want to be part of the family. If you are ok with this, then absolutely let the dog stay in his crate in your bedroom. Doggies dont want to be alone at night, esp pups. I understand what youare saying about the crying, and taking the pup out of the crate while crying. In this instance, I have ALWAYS taken the pup out right away, despite the crying. For me, it was more important to potty train than worry about quieting a pup down.

What we did was when our pups were holding it through the night and large enough or safe enough, we started letting them sleep on our bed with us. Once you do this, I warn you, they will never want to go back in the crate at night. But once they hold it all night, that is ok for many of us. We keep our bedroom door closed, and they for some reason never left the bed until we woke up. They also never peed or pooped on our bed or the floor in our bedroom. Oh and we have doggie stairs they can use to go up and down off the bed. But as pups, we were afraid of them falling off so we taught them how the use the stairs first, and they got the hang of it so IF they did choose to get off (never) they at least knew how.

You may ask (I know i did) how will I know mydog can now make it through the night? For us, it was about 11-12 weeks old that they did this. I did not allow water or food for a pup after 9pm (maybe a small sip). And our older dog was so funny, when I would go to wake him up in the crate at 4am, he started refusing to get out!!! He rolled over and looked at me, like leave me alone lady! And I told my hubbie, THIS DOG DOESNT WANT TO GO OUT! He surely let us know, he didnt need it anymore. Also, if you keep the doggie in teh crate, keep him/her close so you can hear the cries and know, they mean business. Do the right thing for the pup and take it out, dont worry about taking out and fostering crying = being let out. Enforce that during the day or when you KNOW the pup doesnt need to go, and is just being fussy or wanting to be let out. My younger pup stopped crying at night, and didnt wake me anymore, that was how I knew she could hold it longer and didnt need 4am potty breaks.

I did most of this based on books I read, although opinions will vary. For us, it worked. Now we still use the crates for when we will be out since my younger dog still has an accident while playing. But never more than 4 hours in teh crate for us, and they always have water in their crates and safe toys and blankies.

Hope this helps. If I can help you anymore, let me know. I would be glad. These were our first dogs, and we were pretty lost too! Thats why I read many many books.
 

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