Am I too late for crate trainig?

Hi everyone, I know I have started lots of new threads, but you guys have helped me alot. SO here's my new question. Today is day 4, and Tidus has slept in my living room, the thing is I didnt have a crate before I got him so on day 1-3 I slept with him on my couch...well now he thinks the couch is his bed and I can't convince him that the crate is his place to sleep. I DONT EVER want to force him in there, but I also don't want to always sleep on the couch and not on my bed, what can I do?

Put him in the crate, and don't let him out even if he cries. He'll get used to it, and will grow to love it. It's not creul, all my books say to put them in their crates even if they don't like it at first.

If you're going to use the crate, just know that it's going to take Tidus time to get used to it. No dog likes it from the start because they want the freedom to go where they want to. Put him in the crate with a toy and maybe start out with it in your bedroom or near your bedroom so he can see you. He will be crying and putting up a fuss to see how long it takes you to break and let him out.

Yeah, don't break and let him out. Otherwise he'll just keep crying even more to get out in the future.

yeah well, I was thinking of putting him in my guest bathroom, for 2 reasons: 1) Its the best place right now since I own 2 grown cats and they don't like him nipping at thier tails, and 2) It is a little further from my bathrrom which is connected to my room...

Am I wrong? , I dont want him to be in the far bathroom but he just gets so loud it breaks my girlfriends heart and mine too and ends up getting his way. At least in the far bathroom I can somewhat drown him out until he decided to play with something else.

Also, how long should a puppy be in a crate? I planned on putting his crate in the bathroom with other toys, food and paper so he can eliminate, and leave him there over night for about 8 hrs...but my girlfriend thinks it might be too harsh since tonight will be day 1 of crate training and 8 hrs is too long. She wants to try 3hrs then bringing him to bed, and eventually increasing time lenght over weeks...any suggestions?

I don't think your girlfriend has a good idea... Teach the pup to come to bed with you, and he will cry everytime he isn't. At night, they sleep, so 8 hours is fine, just get up when he gets fussy in the morning and once or twice during the night to let him out to pee.

I don't agree with leaving the pup a place to eliminate inside either. If the crate is the right size, he shouldn't pee in it anyway, so you can just let him out a few times a night so he doesn't have to hold too long. Keep in mind that for every pee he does inside, on papers or not, it will be harder to housebreak him afterwards.

so i usually go to sleep about 12...im a college student...so I should wake up like evry 2 hrs or so to let him out thus I wake up @ 6-7 and let him be. But when I go to school, wouldnt putting him back in the crate be too long since im in school for 8 hrs. during the day.

Also, if I shoudlnt be rewarding paper potty's what should I do if he does?

You can crate train him, but do it gradually. I'd feed him in there and leave the door open. Leave his water in there too, so that's the only place he eats and drinks. Have some toys in there and let him come and go for a few days without shutting the door on him. Then after he's had some exercise and he's tired, try putting him in there and shutting the door for a while. Don't open it for him if he cries, but wait till he is quiet. Always give a command and a treat when he goes in and never associate it with punishment.

Teach him to go potty outside only. Take him out often and praise when he goes outside. Don't punish for accidents because it's not his fault. You need to watch him literally every second that he's loose in the house. Preventing accidents is the best way to teach him. You don't need to wake him to take him outside but be ready the second he wakes up, after eating, drinking, playtime etc, every half hour to 45 minutes otherwise. There are other threads with good potty training info. Do a search.

Four hours is as long as a pup should stay in there at a time. Also, in general, excessive confinement is not good for a pup. They need your companionship, training, and stimulation which they can't get if they're in a crate all the time.

It is helpful to have the crate in your room with you at night.

On a lighter note, I don't know what breed of puppy that is, but it sure looks like a pug mix to me. Good luck trying to keep a pug of any sort off the couch for a nap LOL!!!!!!!

On a more serious note, it's never too late to crate train if it's done the right way.

LOL! He IS terribly adorable. I'd have a hard time not keeping him on the couch with me. LOL.

Thanx he is a Puggle, that new breed mix og a pug & beagle...he is cute...I'm still not sure if leaving him in the cage for 4 hrs, in the night will help. I guess within 4 hrs he should tire himself out and sleep, and if he does I guess his reward would be to sleep in bed with me...hmmm gotta thin about it.

Edit:::another thing I have 2 cats and they roam free do you think him being able to see him if i put him in the living room in his crate will bother him...since they will be running around and him in the crate???

I recommend that you teach him how to be comfortable and confident in his crate first and then later...down the road if you decide you'd like him to sleep with you in bed, he can do that, but still be accepting of the crate. I don't think he'll mind seeing the cats roaming around...it might stimulate him for a while, but then again...it will help him get use to them being around and soon he won't pay too much attention to them.

He's very cute Where did you get him?

A local puppy store here in Orlando...he was a little pricey ($400 for a college student) but I think he will be a great addition to my zoo...um... i mean household...lol

He is very cute. I would definetely not allow him to sleep in your bed just yet though. He needs to be crated until he is housebroken. We made the mistake of letting our lab sleep on the bed with us one night before being completely housebroken and we woke up at 2 am to her peeing on the bed. He will get used to and love his crate soon enough. Just give him treats when he goes in and toys too. Make sure you NEVER send him in there for punishment or else he'll think he's bad if he goes in there. Crate him for meals, sleeping, and after he goes outside and potties. Also don't put any blankies in there yet, atleast in my opinion, because puppies will look for absorbant stuff to potty on (carpet, grass, blankets, a bed). So if you put a bed in there for him he will most like pee on it if he gets up to go in the middle of the night. I'm not saying NEVER put a bed in there just don't put a bed in there just yet (atleast until he can go all night continously). Make sure any mistakes are cleaned up with an ammonia free cleaner too so that it completely removes the smell. For the cats they could cause him to bark and stay away in the middle of the night if he sees them out having fun and he's stuck in his cage. So either put the crate in your room or in the other room you have talked about. I prefer to have my pups sleep by me for the first couple nights then around six months they are allowed to sleep crated in our room agian. Around a year I think I will give our lab a shot at sleeping in our room uncrated and see how that goes and if it goes good for her than we'll do the same with our standard poodle puppy.

Having the crate in the bedroom provides you easy access when you have to get up in the middle of the night and take him out. You can also soothe him when you first put him in it. When Chi was very young she would wimper a bit when I first put her in to "go to bed". I slept with my arm hanging over the side of the bed and my fingers through the crate door (I think I may have permanantly damaged my shoulder doing this), just that little bit of me there with her calmed her down significantly.
If I were you I would make sure that you really tire him out with play and take him to potty (make sure he does it BEFORE you put him to bed in his crate. Chances are he'll fuss but it won't be long if he's tired and knows that you're at least close by. He'll wake you up when he needs to go potty during the night, just make sure that you take him straight out to potty and then straight back to the crate. Consistency is the key in my opinion He sure is a doll though Good luck!

well last night was his first night. and I decided not to leave him the whole night I gave him a 2 1/2 hr session. When I woke up...no thats a lie I didnt sleep...when I thought the time had run out, I went to check on him (he is in my living room) and it seemed he eliminated in his crate (#2). Well Im pretty sure that was upsetting to him, so i cleaned it out, took him outside for a little potty run, and brought him to bed. He slept the whole night next to me no stirring.

Seems to me he has already figured out how to work you. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with him sleeping with you if you are a light enough sleeper to take him out to go potty when he stirs. Our 1st one was crated until she was about 7 months and then we allowed her to sleep with us, the next 2 lived their entire lives in crates so that didn't go over well, they ended up sleeping on the couch and then eventually our bed. The 4th one well he was crated about a week and since he was a pet store puppy he felt it was o.k. to pee and poop in his crate. We then moved him to a puppy proof room with piddle pads and he did a little better but I have to be honest, he ended up in our bed by the time he was 3 months old and he's been there ever since. Only once did he have an accident on our bed and that was my fault for not getting up with him, now that he's 5 months old he sleeps from 10:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. without even moving.

Not trying to be mean or anything, but pet shops aren't the greatest places to get pups from. They get their puppies from puppy mills. Check out www.stoppuppymills.org for more info .

Just so you know, we didn't purchase the 4th from a pet store, someone else did and then didn't want him after only a few short days when they realized how hard a puppy was... We stepped in and offered to foster him but ended up keeping him. We know all about puppymills.