New puppy and crate/housebreaking

[Cami]

Try working on desensatizing (sp?) your pup to the crate during the day. Make it fun/rewarding to get in the crate. Give the crate a name, (we used condo), get them to go in after a treat or a favorite toy and praise them. Keep the door open. After they are used to the crate and associate it with something positive start closing the door for seconds at a time, increasing the time spent in with the door closed....baby steps. I think it is always a good idea to give a treat EVERY time that they go in the crate. My girl always got two biscuits and expected it. She would go in turn around and wait for her treat. I would occasionaly hide treats in the condo that she would happen upon and I still do it to this day even though we don't use it anymore, anytime she finds a treat in there she acts as if she has hit the jackpot! Make sure they are good and tired before bedtime. It will get better with lots of patience, but remember that they will have to go out during the night to go potty.

 

[tcarlisle]

When she cries we take her out for a potty break and if not I put my hand down by the door. But still she cries.

You are inadvertantly reinforcing the crying. When she cries, you take her out. She has already trained you

I don't recall the age of the pups, but I would venture a guess they are young enough that expecting them to get through and 8 hr night without a bathroom break is not realistic. Also, I venture a guess that expecting 8 hrs without human contact is also not realistic.

So, the bad news is that for the time being, you are going to have to get up in the middle of the night to provide these things :(

But the good news is that you can do these things without reinforcing the crying

I would estimate they need to go out twice per an 8 hr night. So rather than wait for them to cry, and respond to that -- proactively set your alarm and wake them at those times to go out and give them some human contact.

You have to get up anyway, so at least make it productive and shape their behavior into what you want.

As they get older and it is reasonable to expect only one potty break in the middle of the night, then change your schedule ot get up and take them out at 4hrs after bedtime, then after 6hrs, then after 7hrs, then 8hrs.

If you have a waking/bathroom/affection schedule that is realistic and is meeting the needs of the pups proactively, then you can ignore their attempts (crying) to get you to do these things on their demand.

It will be much more challenging with two of them.

 

[riaxray]

This is soo hard !!!!

I never knew how difficult it is to have a new puppy. It is harder than babies !My babies slept through the night and are easy compared to the pup. Can anyone tell me when she will grow out of this or if I am doing everything completely wrong, I feel like a bad puppy mommy. She whines and cries every night. All night unless I am holding her. I took her out last night at 12am, 2am, 4am, 6am. And she still has accidents on my floor. I have a crate in my dining room, which she hates. And I also can leave her in the kitchen which is safe and blocked off from the rest of the house. She is sleeping in there now. She seems fine with sleeping during the day. Oh I hope she will grow out of this soon, cause I really need some sleep. Am I supposed to ignore her extremely loud crying?? How long should I ignore it. If I keep going to get her everytime she cries will this continue forever. Do I let her pee in her crate. I am sooo new at this.

Ria

 

[Hs'ing Mom]

Having a pup in the house is definitely hard!

When I brought my Chloe home, I had to set the clock every 1 1/2 hours to let her go outside to potty outside because she physically couldn't hold it very long at all. Add that to a small baby and a 2 year old toddler that was still getting up all during the night........I was exhausted. (I'd get the pup to sleep, the baby would wake up. I'd get the baby back to sleep, the toddler would wake up. Get toddler back to sleep, the dog would wake up.) BUT, we made it! It took about 6 weeks or so but we made it through! (very sleepily, I might add!)

As far as potty training, give it time. My Chloe is almost 8 months old and we are just *now* getting to the point where I can trust her not to go in the house. It'll happen, give it time. Just stay patient and consistant. That's the key!

 

[MikeAM]

I feel your pain

It took my pup about 2 months to finally stop whining in the crate at night. Eventually she stopped though. I think over that 8 week period as she saw that I was checking on her every 3 hours or so and that i would be there to let her out to use the bathroom she began becoming more comfortable with the crate. Now she knows when I take her out at about 10:30pm to use the bathroom when we come back in it's time to go in the crate. I tell her "Crate" and she goes in. I give her a couple of treats for doing good and she lays down and goes to sleep. Unfortunately I haven't been as good training her on how to walk on a leash, that's another story completely

 

[arkelanor]

I feel so much better now...

Thursday, past midningh. My first night with my puppy. After going in his crate at 10, without much fuss, he waked up at midnight and cry for a bit. Me and my husband said "let's ignore him for a couple of minutes to see if he relaxes by himself", we had place newspaper in half the crate and a bed in the other half. After two minutes, the crying and howling was worse, and when we came out, he had pooped not only thorughout the newspaper, but all around his bed, his paws and his legs.
We wanted him to stop crying before letting him out, but the scene was too sad, so after 10 seconds of silence we had to go to the sink and wash him. Clean the crate, the bed, and take the trash out.
At this point, we thought we were the worst puppy parents until we open the forum and found all these great advices and stories.
Now he's back asleep, this time on a pillow next to our bed, and our alarm clock is set for 1:30 when we will wake him up for his next potty break.
I'll let you know if this worked tomorrow.
Thanks for your advice, guys!

 

[riaxray]

Life is GOOD !!!

I am soo happy. Dora was very good last night. I think the crate idea is outta here for us. She really hates it. Last night I set her up in the kitchen (which is where her and her momma and siblings used to sleep at her old house) we turned on the radio to easy 101. She had her towel , her stuffed bear and her newspaper by the door. I highly recommend the music ! I took her out around 3 am to piddle and again this morning at 6 am. I hope she continues like this cause life is much easier with sleep. I would like to post some pics in my gallery but I can't seem to figure it out. I am gonna do a search to find out how and then I will put in some Dora pics she is sooo cute.

Thanx for all your advice,

Ria

 

[arkelanor]

Success!

Congratulation, to Dora. And to you for being a good momma.
My trick also worked. This is how it happened:
1:50 am, we woke him up and took him out for 10 minutes. No pee, lot’s of whinning and asking for warmth.
2:01 am, we brought him inside.
2:02 am, he peed on the carpet. Clock set for 4 am.
4:00 am, took him out. No pee, just a sad look of "why did you wake me up? It's so cold in here!"
7:30 am, It worked! He woke up looking at us. Clean bed, clean carpet. We took him out and he peed on the newspaper! Success! Let’s see if it works again tonight.
Today, throught the day, Shadow has been on the crate once for half an hour -a half hour of crying and whining- but as soon as he goes quiet, we let him out and we take him to relief himself... without a problem.
I love this board, fullof good advices and nice people.