Crate crying

[dnddreamer]

My 9-week old puppy is still crying terribly when ever I put I'm in the crate. When I got him 5 days ago...it became quickly apparent that he doesn't like to be crated. I've tried putting the crate on a bed, putting a piece of my worn clothing in the crate, tried to make the crate a fun play by putting toys in it and playing with him through the crate, and lastly tried moving the crate in varies locations throughout the house to see if he likes one area more than another.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or is it just going to take time?

[Shalva]

I am posting two articles with regards to housebreaking and crate training..... keep in mind that these articles are written for my breed so replace retriever with your breed. Also keep in mind that I dont know what breed you have but small breeds are notoriously hard to housebreak for an assortment of reasons but this will get you started. the first article is on crate training and is the one that I give to my puppy people when they leave with their new baby.... the second article is on housebreaking and goes hand in hand..... hope this helps.



Crate Training

Every puppy needs to learn to Relax in a crate. This is important to a puppy’s future. It makes stays at the vet much easier, whenever they have to be confined for medical reasons. It is also necessary for traveling or if you need to board your dog away from home. It’s important during the destructive chewing stage that is likely when your pup hits several months of age. This stage can last until age 2 or so and with flat coats, until they are much older. Another critical time where a crate is needed is during any transitions, and times when you cannot watch your puppy every second. So it’s very important that your new puppy learns to relax in their crate.

When a puppy is trained and reliable in the house which can take quite a long time with a flat coat puppy, the crate may be used while you are away to keep your house intact and your puppy safe. Regardless of whether you choose to continue using your crate throughout your puppy’s life or not, it is very important that they are used to their crates.

Usually it works best if you crate your puppy in your bedroom, and yes, close to the bed is fine. In the bed is not, not for the puppy that is going to go through so much transition as it rapidly matures over the next year. If you want your dog to share your bed, wait until after puberty to try that. Make sure that the crate is far enough from the bed that you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to find that your puppy has pulled and is eating all of your blankets inside the crate. It is amazing what a puppy can manage to pull through those bars. I should add that you don’t have to put your puppy in your bedroom. None of my dogs as puppies were in the bedroom, they were downstairs where the noise was muffled just a little, and where when they needed to go out, they had ready access to a door.

Crate training is also a great way to housebreak your puppy. Dogs do not like to soil where they sleep. Puppies are exactly the same and most puppies do not wish to soil their sleeping area. This makes crate training an excellent tool to teach the puppy that they can hold it and that they need to go outside to potty.

The first thing that you want to do is make sure your crate is sized properly. I buy crates that will accommodate my dog as an adult. I want my adult dogs to be able to relax and stretch out in their crates. However, an adult sized crate is way too big for your average puppy. There are many ways to make a crate smaller. I have packed the back of my crates with cardboard boxes…. As the puppy grows I remove some of the boxes. Newer crates come with dividers that can be moved allowing the puppy more room as he/she grows. In a nutshell, you want your puppy to have enough room to sit, stand and lie down, that’s it. You don’t want your puppy to have room to pee on one side of the crate and then move to the other side of the crate to sleep. This is a studio apartment we are talking about here, not a condo.

Now your puppy is not going to be pleased that you have infringed upon his autonomy and his god given right to run throughout your home and pee upon the furniture. It is highly likely that he/she will pitch a fit in the crate. You will want to go and cuddle him and console him and assure him that you will never again put him in that nasty “cage”. OK, two things, get over the “cage” issue. A crate is not a “cage” it is your puppy’s space, his very own space. This means that nobody is allowed in your puppy’s crate except your puppy. This also means kids are not allowed in the crate, as much as you might like to crate them at times, get them their own crate. Second, turn around and walk away. Do not, and I repeat Do not succumb to the screaming. You can do this! You are the human, and you have the power to ignore a pitiful wailing puppy.

The worst thing that people do when they crate train is let the puppy holler and scream for a long period of time and then when they are on their very last nerve, they let the puppy out, simply because they just can’t stand it anymore. STOP, don’t do it! You will teach your puppy that persistence pays off. He will learn “gee, if I scream for a long time she lets me out…. Sweet!”. If you are sure that your puppy doesn’t need to go out (i.e. He pottied five minutes prior to being put in the crate) then let him/her yell. When he is quiet for more than a second because he is taking a breath, then you can let him out. Your puppy will rapidly learn that he can come out of his crate ONLY when he is quiet.

I find that night time is a little harder. My two flat-coats created quite a stink in their crates for about the first two weeks that they were home. They screamed, they cried, they body slammed the crate, and it was hard to tell at midnight and at 1am and 2 am and 2:15 am and 2:30 am (you get the idea), if they had to go potty. I would get up periodically and let them out and they thought it was wonderful to be outside chasing lightning bugs at 2 in the morning. I was not quite as pleased. You have to use your judgment. A puppy IS going to have to go out during the night, that is a fact of life. You have to use your judgment about the need to take them out during the night. I generally pick up all food AND water at 7 pm. They go out to potty at around 9 before I go to bed. I can be pretty sure that the puppy is ok for at least 45 minutes. If they are still screaming and I start thinking “hmm I wonder if they have to go out?” I take the puppy out, ON A LEASH. I don’t care if the yard is fenced, I don’t care if it is safe. It is not playtime, this is potty time. If the puppy does not “go” within say ten minutes. Back into the house and crate he goes. You can only hope that at some point your puppy will cry themselves to sleep. The key is that as badly as you want them to be quiet, no matter if you have a meeting at 8 the next morning, let them yell. Don’t yell back, don’t coddle them.

There are people who feel that if you are home your puppy should be out with you. I don’t entirely agree with this. Your crate should not be overused of course, but there are times when it is impossible to watch your puppy every second. If it is one of those times, then the puppy needs to be in his crate. I can also say that after a week of my flat coats pitching a fit every night in the crate, I started crating them more during the day. They needed to start getting used to the crate, and I needed to get some sleep. The more they were crated during the day, the faster they got used to their crates and the easier life got.

It can be very difficult crate training a puppy. It is heart wrenching to listen to this baby scream and cry, but it is the best thing that you can do for both you and your puppy. Now I have five dogs, two are 5 years old, one is 4 and one is almost 3 and another is 18 mos. There are 3 crates available and most of the time, the doors to the crates are left open and yes the dogs do go in their crates to relax. I can train one dog and the others can hang out in the crates without being stressed. If they see the nail clippers, the first thing they do is run to their crates; they know I won’t pull them out of there. The crates have become their homes and it works out the best for all of us.

HOUSEBREAKING (this is a seperate article) but I posted them both together as there is alot of overlap.

Crate training is also a great way to housebreak your puppy. Dogs do not like to soil where they sleep. Puppies are exactly the same and most puppies do not wish to soil their sleeping area. This makes crate training an excellent tool to teach the puppy that they can hold it and that they need to go outside to potty.

The first thing that you want to do is make sure your crate is sized properly. I buy crates that will accommodate my dog as an adult. I want my adult dogs to be able to relax and stretch out in their crates. However, an adult sized crate is way too big for your average puppy. There are many ways to make a crate smaller. I have packed the back of my crates with cardboard boxes…. As the puppy grows I remove some of the boxes. Newer crates come with dividers that can be moved allowing the puppy more room as he/she grows. In a nutshell, you want your puppy to have enough room to sit, stand and lie down, that’s it. You don’t want your puppy to have room to pee on one side of the crate and then move to the other side of the crate to sleep. This is a studio apartment we are talking about here, not a condo. If your crate is too big you will find that your puppy will have no qualms about peeing in his crate.

The other thing you need to know is that your puppy’s bladder is not fully developed until he/she is approximately five months of age. This means that there is no possible way that your puppy can “hold it” all day while you are at work. That having been said, it is important that you make arrangements for your puppy during the day. Some options might be coming home for lunch to let your puppy out, a pet sitter, or doggie daycare (this is what we did, and it was a great relief to know that my puppy was taken care of during the day and was getting great socialization at the same time). The easiest way to figure the time a puppy can “hold it” is one hour for every month they are old. This means at 8 weeks when your puppy comes home, he/she can only hold it for approximately 2 hours. I WOULD NOT recommend setting your puppy up with a place to potty in the house such as in a kitchen or bathroom or paper training, or wee wee pads or any other such manner. I would teach them right from the start that there are NO acceptable places to pee in the house. Your housebreaking will be much easier if they learn from the start that potties are done OUTSIDE and that’s it. There are a few exceptions to this rule and they have nothing to do with the size of your dog, rather with how many floors up you live and how long it takes to catch the elevator. With a small puppy an accident on the linoleum or a tile floor is not a big deal. I would suggest that you don’t want your 60 lb. flat coat thinking that it’s ok to poop in the kitchen. Those poops are a bit harder to clean up.

One other thing to think about is food and water. I would feed your puppy relatively early in the evening. This gives him/her time to eat and drink and have it go through his/her little system before you go to bed. All water (especially water) should be picked up no later than 7 pm, your puppy will not die of thirst (assuming you are not feeding him/her jalapenos) between then and the next morning. Again, this allows your puppy to go out before you go to bed and not be up all night having to pee. Keep in mind though that at the beginning it is very likely that your puppy is going to have to go potty at least once during the night.

I find that night time is a little harder. My two flat-coats created quite a stink in their crates for about the first two weeks that they were home. They screamed, they cried, they body slammed the crate, and it was hard to tell at midnight and at 1am and 2 am and 2:15 am and 2:30 am (you get the idea), if they had to go potty. I would get up periodically and let them out and they thought it was wonderful to be outside chasing lightning bugs at 2 in the morning. I was not quite as pleased. You have to use your judgment. A puppy IS going to have to go out during the night, that is a fact of life. You have to use your judgment about the need to take them out during the night. I generally pick up all food AND water at 7 pm. They go out to potty at around 9 before I go to bed. I can be pretty sure that the puppy is ok for at least 45 minutes. If they are still screaming and I start thinking “hmm I wonder if they have to go out?” I take the puppy out, ON A LEASH. I don’t care if the yard is fenced, I don’t care if it is safe. It is not playtime, this is potty time being on the leash allows you to restrict their movements and hammer home the idea that we do not play outside under the stars. If the puppy does not “go” within say ten minutes. Back into the house and crate he goes. Keep in mind that potty time and play time are two seperate things.... if you decide that you want to go to play..... then go out to potty on the leash go back in the house and then go back outside for play time after waiting just a few minutes.... you want puppy to understand that potty time is potty time and play time is play time.

There are people who feel that if you are home your puppy should be out with you. I don’t entirely agree with this. Your crate should not be overused of course, but there are times when it is impossible to watch your puppy every second. If it is one of those times, then the puppy needs to be in his crate. You need to watch your puppy ever second that he is out of his crate. If this is hard for you then you can also try the tether approach. Take the puppies leash and attach the puppy end to the puppy and loop the other end around your waist or on a belt hook. Now you and your puppy are attached. There is no excuse to not notice when he is circling ready to pee or poop in the house. The more often you can catch your puppy before he/she has an accident, the faster your housebreaking will go.


I would suggest reading the article on crate training, and that will explain the ins and outs of why you want to crate train and how to do that.


There are some things that you need to know about housetraining:

1. NEVER EVER EVER rub your dog’s nose in it. The puppy will not understand why you are doing this. They will not make the connection between peeing in the house and having their nose rubbed in it.
2. If your puppy has an accident it is not your puppies fault, it is your fault for not supervising him closely enough. If your puppy is out running around the house you have to be watching him like a hawk. If he is allowed to have accidents in the house uncaught then housebreaking will take longer. If you find a puddle in the house but you did not catch your puppy in the act, forget about it. Your puppy will not make the connection between an accident that happened ten minutes ago and you yelling now!
3. Never clean up accidents in front of your puppy, this seems like a silly thing, but moms and dads do not clean up after naughty puppies. Go get your bottle of cleaner, put the puppy in his crate and then go clean up the spot. I would also recommend using something like natures miracle (available at most pet supply places) to spray on the area after it is cleaned. If the puppy can smell that they have peed in a particular spot previously, the chances are that they will do it again in the same spot.
4. If you catch your puppy in the act, then a sharp ehhhhh ehhhhhh or NO is enough, pick up your puppy and bring him outside to the specific spot that you want him to use as his potty. Let him finish his potties and then tell him/her what a wonderful puppy he is and how could you possibly deserve such a wonderful puppy.
5. You can teach your puppy to pee on command. I say “go potty” or “hurry up” repeatedly until they go. Then I tell them how wonderful they are and we go in the house. Over time your puppy will learn what those words mean.
6. If you are planning to let your puppy out to play after going potty, go back in the house and then let your puppy out. You always want your puppy to understand that potty time is potty time and play time is play time. Going in the house first and then back out gives the puppy very clear signals about what he should be doing.
7. If you want your puppy to go to a specific area then bring your puppy directly to that area every time he goes outside to potty. Your puppy will learn to go to this area.
8. Take your puppy out every time you see him circling. Puppies give very clear signals that they are looking for a place to potty. Look for those signals.
9. Every time your puppy wakes up from a nap, take him/her out immediately.
10. Be patient, your puppy is a baby and has only been on this planet for 8 weeks, which is 56 total days alive. He/she is a sponge right now and is learning every day if you both work together you will accomplish housebreaking without trauma to you or your puppy.

[buddys my pup]

when our old dog dayzi (before she past)would whine we started to put her in there a little bit at a time for say 10-15 mins about twice or more a day and we gave her treats so she knew it was an ok place this worked for her. the first couple of nights she still whined but not as bad it was better but it just takes so time,we also left the tv on low so she thought people were in the room with her and we laeft a night light with her.

[TribalRats]

You have been given good advice, just don't give up. Never give in tot he pup when it is whining or you will reinforce the negative behavior.
Crate training is a life savor, though it is hard to do sometimes. Good luck.

[Shazz]

Well, I did the unthinkable..........I followed your article as much as I could last night. My puppy went into her crate fine, (well I placed her there while she was 3/4 asleep,) she knew where she was, but was too tired to care. That worked well for the next couple of hours, then it was time for her toilet break, that went well too. On putting her back in the crate she howled screemed fussed for what seemed forever, but was prob 5 minutes. She slept for another 2 hours, then started to fuss again, so then we had another toilet break
Still with me??
I am still not clear on how many times this happened , anyhow I know it was about 4.30am she was making a huge noise AGAINso i put her in my bed so I could get some .
Today I feel hungover and thinking to myself I have blown it now!
Have I???
Last night was very similar, except I didn't put her in my bed.
Have I set this crate training back? Please help me, I am exuasted, as I also look after my husband who has MS and in confined to a wheel chair (that makes another story) Sophie getting used to his chair!!
Sorry this was so long.
Cheers
Shazz

[Shalva]

to answer your question... yes you have set it back but its a hard thing to do but if you have to decide if crate training is important to you. I have to say that I feel its very important for an assortment of reasons... health and safety being one. However, if you take her out of her crate when she screams and let her sleep with you, you will teach her to scream and scream and to be persistent......

I have found that while it kills me to have babies in their crates during the day, the more time at the beginning that they spend in their crate the faster they get used to being in there and the easier it is to deal with the yelling.

Start again..... you can do this.... I know you can.... and I understand the need to get some sleep I really do... anyone that has crate trained a puppy knows how hard it is... but the stricter you can be the faster it will happen..... she is going to have to go out during the night.... I would probably go to bed at ten and set the alarm for midnight.... then take her out again around 3 and then up at 6 is generally what happens.... but remember she is a itty bitty baby.....

I can't tell you that when I was trying to crate train cuinn that I ended up in tears one night strictly from sleep deprivation.... I got up and slammed downstairs in tears thinking I just cant do this.... and cuinn pooped in his crate anyway.... its hard work but you can do it.... however if you are not going to stick with it then give up now because you can end up creating a monster....

chin up....
you can do this
good luck
s

[Barrett]

I bought a good set of ear plugs and I set my alarm to get up and take my pups to go potty. I set the alarm for every 3 or 4 hours, depending on the age of the pup. They learned quickly that I wasn't going to come and let them out when they cried and in a matter of days the crying stopped. For the day time I used a puppy play pen to contain the chewing / pooping machines when I was cleaning, running errands...etc. For my littter trained dachshunds, I put a litter box in the play pen. The play pen was in the main room of the house so they could see me. On the nights that my pups refused to sleep, I put a frozen stuffed kong in the crate to keep them entertained while I got a few hours of sleep before the next alarm went off. For each month the puppies grew ( after 3 months of age ) I added an hour between potty times. Two hours before bedtime I played and ran the puppies hard to tucker them out. I also put a chew proof heating disk under the covers to make the crate warm and I turned the tv or radio to the weather channel or classical music for constant back ground nosie.

[Shadowkins]

I truly feel for you, I know it's tough but you got awesome advice and let me tell you persistance works.
Just an anecdote... when I first got Shadow, my son was quite young...so anyway the first week when we would put the pup in the crate he would cry and cry. As if that wasn't bad enough, my son would cuddle up with me and cry and cry cause the pup was crying. Good grief, almost drove me to drink, both the pup and the son had a good set of lungs!!!
Good luck , we're rooting for you!!

[Shazz]

Thats funny now, but I bet that was hard work?

OK...I am gonna try again..

Thanks
Shazz

[Shazz]

I am almost too scared to say this but we had some success last night. Sophie slept in her crate for 4 hours and then I took her outside.
She screamed when I put her back in, but only for about 10mins. Then she gave up.
I think that is a big inprovement.
One prob I still didn't get much sleep, waiting for her to wake up
I am feeling a bit better now, about her training

[Tiffany0204]

Yeah, you go through things a million times, then all of a sudden BANG! they get it. I remember holding my breath waiting for Gizmo to not freak out with being left in the crate.

Once he was settled and asleep I was afraid to MOVE for fear of waking him and getting him going again! I'm glad he's used to the crate again. Oh! Another thing I did to associate the crate with good things, is that I feed Gizmo inside his crate. Door is left open, and I started with the food dishes in front of it, then right inside the door, then slowly moved them backwards until he was very comfortable eating in there.

[Shazz]

Oh!! I know what you mean about not wanting to wake them.
I wanted to go to the potty myself last night, and was to scared to move... silly in the light of day!
I was worried about the neighbours complaining about her screeming, but they haven't as yet

[Shadowkins]

Hey! good for you, Shazz! Glad to see things went well...it takes time but you're doing great.
I understand not wanting to move, in an effort not to wake them...makes me think of a new baby ( human ) who finally sleeps through the night..LOL..you don't dare breath in case you might wake them.
Thanks for the update!!!

[Shalva]

am so glad to hear that you had some success.... bravo to you and yes I know about not wanting to move ....shoot I was so angry at my husband once for getting up to use the bathroom..... HOLD IT darn it.....

but the pups have to learn that too I guess.
congratulations you did it!!!!
S

[TribalRats]

Wahooo!! You're on your way! You can do this...remember the little engine that could and chant his mantra over and over...."I think I can I think I can...."