Best place for crate training?

[nayjo12]

Hello all,


Here is the history behind my question. My wife and I just purchased our beautiful rottie boy this past saturday. He is 7 1/2 weeks old. So far his temperment is very mellow and very submissive. He sleeps alot and loves to play. My wife and I had both heard from various sources that for the first few weeks crate training should be done in the bedroom. This way a tighter bond will be formed between puppy and us. So we dutifully set up the crate in the bedroom and have slowly started getting our boy used to the crate. This past sunday we both had to leave the house for aprox. 2 hours so we put him in the crate and he whinned a little but once we left the room he was fine and content to play with is toys in the crate. But at night, when we are both asleep on the bed, he can see us in his crate and howls and yelps his head off all night long. My question is first, should we be crate training him in the bedroom to begin with? Second, if we do move the crate to a different room will that break the bond between us? Third, would it help if we feed him in his crate so he associates more time with his crate?

Thanks for all your help

Nathan

[Leader]

Well, here goes my opinion at least:

I don't think it makes much difference where the crate is the problem is that the pup is alone and whines to get your attention. Don't give in and don't talk to him too much. However at 7.5 weeks he's much too young to go the entire night without going potty so maybe he whines to go out.

You can leave on a radio or tv or cassette to help him, or a ticking clock so that he doesn't feel so lonely.

And yes feed him in his crate at least once a day so that he realizes that it's a good place to be. It may take a few months, but eventually he'll go in there himself when he needs to
You can also try a great treat.

Leader

[nayjo12]

Leader,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your insite. I was just worried that by not having him in our bedroom that he might not bond as tightly with my wife and I.But maybe that is just a crazy idea that somehow got stuck in my head. Its funny thought because if he is not in the bedroom there is a definite difference in the amount of whinning and howling. I think it's that out of site out of mind thing.

nayjo12

[Emme]

Em's crate was never in our bedroom and she too would whine and cry all night. We would run downstairs and wait for a moment of quiet before letting her out to go potty. Other than that we would simply let her cry. Make sure that your taking him out for potty breaks. I also found that if you are using a wire crate that a blanket thrown over the crate may also help. We had the crate in the middle of a room, but found that her behavior changed when we backed the crate into a corner and covered all but the front with a blanket - more like a den I guess. We also didn't coddle or talk to her when in the crate - especially when she was crying. I wish you lots of luck and patience!

[spidey]

I do think that it's better to have the crate in your room, myself. This is a very young puppy who's never been alone before, and I think the time to teach him to spend a night by himself is later. One of the advantages of having the crate in your room is to help the bonding, another is that you can speak to him when he gets upset (ideally, you have the crate close enough that you can stick a finger through the bars to reassure him) - I think it's unreasonable to expect him to cope with being in a new house AND alone for the first time AND in a crate for the first time AND everything else all at once, and this is a perfect time to teach your puppy that you are a reassuring presence who is good to be with (which has many other benefits, including training). There are times for being tough, but I don't think this is one of them, and I certainly don't think being tough should come at the expense of what's reasonable for the puppy's age. Emme is right that you should be getting up every hour or two (regularly) to take him out, whether he asks or not, the fewer times he messes in his crate, the easier it will be to housetrain him. Enjoy him :) .

[Gretta]

Initially we had Gretta’s crate in another room because we thought she would cry more in the bedroom.

The first time she actually slept with us was during a trip up to my moms. She did fuss and whine when we all turned in- even when we put a sheet over the crate so she couldn’t see us. By chance we found that if we made snoring noises and slow steady breathing like we were already asleep- she would settle right down (of course she would still whine in the middle of the night to go out, but this made going to bed easier).

I know it sounds really odd, and I’m still surprised that it worked so well- maybe she’s just a goof-ball?
:D

Cori

[Malakai]

Our rottie got used to sleeping in the crate in about two nights. I guess we were lucky. He made all sorts of noise the first night, and we made it a habbit to take him outside every 3 hours or so no matter what (even if he was sleeping) for the first month or so. Gradually that time got longer until we could leave him overnight without needing a bathroom trip. His crate has always been downstairs in our living room, and he has never slept in our bed room. The bonding issue is an important one, but spending a significant amount of time with him will build this bond no matter where you do it. Quality interaction with you outside of the crate is better than any night in your bedroom sleeping.

Also, here's a word of warning from our own experience. Put the crate where you want to keep the crate, and leave it there for good! Our boy (who is now 1 1/2 years old) sleeps/eats contently in his crate with no protest. However, the few times we have experimented with moving the crate to a different room it's like starting all over again (with the whining, barking, etc.). Make the crate a safe, happy, and predictable place and you can't go wrong.

[nayjo12]

Wow, it only took two nights for your puppy to adjust to his cage? I wish that we were that lucky. It has been 5 nights now and he still whins most of the night. I get up every three hours to take him out for a pee break and then back into the cage he goes. Last night i put a sheet over the cage and that helped a little but there was still alot of whinning. I hope he adjusts soon because i am not getting alot of sleep with all the noise! Oh well i guess some dogs take longer to adjust than others. The funny part is that since he is up most of the night As soon as i leave for work my wife says he lays down on the rug and is out like a light. Sometimes she will put hin back in his cage asleep so that when he wakes up he gets used to sleeping there.

[Malakai]

Originally posted by nayjo12
Wow, it only took two nights for your puppy to adjust to his cage?

He may not have adjusted in two nights, but that's how long it took for him to stop whining/yipping and go to sleep. Here's what we did...

The first night of our crate training (which admittedly was not his first night in our our house) we made sure he had already gone to the bathroom outside and we put him in the crate. We turned off all the lights, went upstairs, and waited. He made all sorts of noise barking, yipping, etc and we just ignored it. We let him outside about 3 hours later but he didn't go to the bathroom. Then we put him back in, went back upstairs, and again waited. He yipped endlessly while we tried to get a little sleep. When it came time for his next bathroom trip, he had already made a pile in his crate. We thought to ourselves "great, this crate thing isn't going to work" but we cleaned everything up and decided to try it one more night. That next night, he yipped for about the first 30 minutes to 1 hour and then slept. We continued to let him out every three hours or so and he would always yip for a while when we put him back in. He didn't pee/poop in his crate that second night, and by the third night he wasn't yipping anymore. For the next year and a half he never again peed/pooped in his crate unless he was truely sick which has happened once. Can't blame that one on him...

Keep in mind that we had been exposing him to the crate for a few weeks and we continued to give him time in the crate during the day when it was light and we were around. We would also feed him in there and give him treats/toys in there. Making the transition to sleeping the night in there only took us about two days, and it has become a life saver.

And on a different note, when he eventually outgrew his first crate we opted to try letting him free for the night. He was so upset about not having his crate that he ran in and out of the dog door all night long and never slept. It was almost neurotic. When he opted to chew a hole in our drywall one early morning we decided it might be best to buy a new, larger crate. We did, and he loves it :)

[ilove roxy]

When we first go Roxy she was 8 weeks. She too did not spend her first days in a crate, but with in her 1st week @ home I started her slowly getting acquainted with the crate.
I tried to feed her a meal in the crate, but she would not touch her food...I really wanted her to associate good things with the crate, so I got a few of her favorite treats & tossed them into the crate. It worked like a charm! I did this a few times a day. I then moved on to closing the gate & sitting right outside of it talking to her in a clam voice, and yes she hated it! I would only leave her in there for a few minuets & then let her out. We then mover to longer & longer intervals...I too found that putting a towel over the crate made her calm down quicker.
Every night for the first month or so before we put her to bed she went outside to do her business. I would then get up @ 2am & take her outside to again do her business.
Now Roxy loves her crate!! There have been times when we have let her sleep in our bed & she tosses & turns all night. When she goes into her crate she is out like a light!! Don't get me wrong if she had her way she would sleep in our bed every night!
It is so hard to hear the crying! It broke my heart, but I knew it came with the territory.
By the way, we still have to give her a treat when she goes to sleep. It has just become part of her routine:D

[tugger5000]

Agree to all above... It took about a week and a half for the Dobe to adjust to the crate. You can usually tell if it is a whine to go out or whine to go potty. If you take him out to go potty, be sure not to coddle him or anything. Just take him out, "Go Potty", treat/quick praise, put him directly back in his crate.