Crate Training Question

[2ndratecaller]

Alright guys.....I need some help on this one. Me and the wife are a little over a month in with our new GSP. she is 13 weeks old. From the day we got her we have been crate training her. have a crate that is scaled down with plywood to fit her. we have been feeding her in her kennel since day 1 so she can relate it with somewhere good. We have never put her in there when she was in trouble. now at this point i would say that she is crate trained, she will kennel when told and has absolutely NO problem riding in the kennel in the truck whether its in the bed of the truck on short runs to the park or in the back of the cab on longer trips. when in the truck she gets in and immediately lays down with no problems. Now when its time to go to bed for the night that is a completely different story. when put in the kennel at night she starts whining, the whining soon turns to loud annoying barking, and the barking eventually turns to "i just treed a coon" baying/howling. the first time she goes in it usually only lasts 5-10 mins. Then somewhere between 2-4 hours later she wakes up and starts whining-barking-howling again. if its been long enough we let her out to pee she comes back in and gets put right back in the kennel - proceeds to whine-bark-howl again for 15 or so mins before finally falling asleep. most nights, if she gets put to sleep at 10ish she will wake up between 2-4 go back to sleep and wake up for good between 5-6:30. I have no idea what we are doing wrong....is this normal? its starting to get pretty exhausting. if this is just part of owning a new puppy just tell me to shut it and i wont bother with it. Just have had a few buddies with GSP's who have said they were sleeping thru the night after a week or so. also another quick question. How long should she be able to hold her bladder? I work nights and wife works days so we have some awkward schedules sometimes. not so much in the beginning but here lately she has been peeing in her kennel when left in there for any time over3-4 hours. its not every time so im thinking it may just be excitement either when she finally hears someone coming or when she is barking while no one is home. sorry for the super long post guys....thanks in advance for the help

Pete

[BigShooter]

Crate training - Start the overnight training as soon as you get the pup. Live with the whining & howling for 2-3 days until it quits. The longer you wait to require them to stay in the crate all night the harder it is to accomplish. Some folks place the crate by their beds so the pup can see and smell you but the pup still has to learn it gets out on your schedule - not its schedule. Remember though, they have to be allowed to potty frequently when they're very young.

How long they can hold their urine is kind of an individual thing. The most important issue is to withhold water before crating. Watch what they drink & if they drink a lot of water 40 minutes- an hour before you put them down, make certain they empty their bladder before being crated. At three months lots of pups will hold their urine for significantly more than three hours. Unfortunately it's a bit of a vicious circle the more accidents they have in the house the greater the tendency for them to have more accidents.

Some people have said they should be able to hold it an hour for every two weeks of age. I have never found that schedule to be very reliable from pup to pup.

[aulrich]

My new guy is not giving too much noise at night in the crate , though I do have to "encourage" him into the crate. I didn't feed him in the crate the first day or two, so I am recovering that negative impression. He is a little nosier after the 2:30 am pee this is his first week with us he is only 8 weeks, I'll try pushing him to all night between 12 and 14. The first few days of normal weekday at work we have had he goes about 4 hours (I have a kid come home from school for lunch). At this point no in crate accidents.

The rule of thumb I was told was 1 hour per month of age "more" if sleeping. So the day time I am pushing it a bit, but there is nothing to be done, other than leave him somewhere he can pee.

I do need to do more short car trips, so he get use to them and associates them with going somewhere fun. the trip home he was great but the first in town drive he was pretty yappy. The not realling likeing the crate probably affected that.

[2ndratecaller]

Yeah so the thing im wondering is if we should just leave her in the crate at night...should we try all night? we have been setting an alarm and getting up to let her out about 4 hours after putting her in. sometimes she is sound asleep and sometimes she wakes up 2 hours after we put her in. we have tried everything from crate in the living room, crate in our room, covered crate, uncovered crate. right now she is in a crate covered with a blanket in the living room. I think im gonna stop letting her out in the middle of the night to pee as at almost 14 weeks she should be pretty good...i think (correct me if im wrong) if she pees in the crate then so be it. sooner or later she will learn to hold it if she doesnt want to lay in her own pee all night i guess. the thing that is getting me is the whining-barking-howling.....dont know why she does it (maybe she is just vocal) she has been in the crate since day one with no setbacks.....she shouldn't still be barking/howling at this point as we have had her over a month

[Swagg]

Ill be honest i went with the crate by the bed thing. it worked perfect. the first few nights if she would whine i would just drop my arm down there to let her know i was close. after that if she would see me get into bed she never made a peep. I never did the food in the kennel thing either i feed in the kitchen. There also shouldnt be much punishing going on. If something happens its your fault for not watchin a pup. just like a small kid. to this day she has no problems going into her kennel. She is just over a year now and she somehow managed to weasle her way into the bed

[JIM K]

turn on your radio on soft music.
i dont do the bedroom thing .
i put a pup in kitchen in kennel, no way i want that noise waking me up.
up until 12 weeks, i set alarm for 2 am and take pup outside to pee and right in to kennel and on with radio.

showing TOO MUCH attention to puppy can maKE them want to be with you all the time.
i try not to show too much attention .like no playing before bed etc.
only playing outside.

[RoostersMom]

Each pup is different, but I would never expect a pup to go more than an hour per month of age when they're small. I also wouldn't leave them in the crate until they "learn to hold it" overnight. If she needs to go, she needs to go. I wouldn't necessarily wake the dog, but I would keep her kennel where I could hear her moving around if she wakes during the night so I could let her out. As for overnighting her, the longer you make the dog "hold it", the more likely you are to cause a UTI. They are no fun!

Every accident she has in the crate puts you backwards in training. You're training her that she can pee in the crate, you're letting her get used to sleeping in a dirty crate..... not a positive in my mind. Some dogs that have been forced to live in their messes never learn to keep a "clean crate." I'd do whatever was necessary to keep her from ever urinating in the crate.

As for the crying, howling, it sounds like she's not tired enough at bedtime to really crash. I would up the exercise in the evening and give her a cool down period of an hour or so before bedtime that was calming. I'd also take her water away during that hour to encourage her to fully eliminate before bedtime. More exercise can solve a ton of problems. I'd also make sure she was crated some during the daytime when you are home - I'm not sure if you do that or not. It will help her to realize that she doesn't get to be out all the time when you're around.

[JIM K]

all good info. make crate SMALL. so they dont pee where they sleep.
get up at 2am and go out to pee until they are around 12 weeks or so .after that i can go from 11pm to 6am on toby my lab .
but i take water away at 7pm and outside at 11pm.

i also use word OUTSIDE everytime i take him out.

[dgromrie]

We had this exact same problem with our beagle pup when we first got her. What we ended up doing was putting her crate somewhere with hard floors such as the kitchen, then moving anything comfortable to sleep on away from the crate so if she wanted something comfy to lay down on she had to lay in her crate on her bed. Then we took her leash and anchored it to the crate and hooked it to her collar. We left the door open and went to bed. She didn't freak out like she had been because she didn't feel trapped, she usually barked for about five minutes and then went in her crate and went to sleep. After about two weeks of this, we followed the same routine, but after she layer down and got comfy we went in and closed the door. Since then we have been able to kennel her and close the sl ow with no problems, some nights she might howl for a couple minutes, but she wouldn't be a beagle if she didn't. As far as how long they can hold it at night, the rule of thumb I follow is 1 hour for every month of age plus one more hour. So since your pup is three months old, he should be able to hold it about 4 hours. This should be followed until they develop full bladder control at around six months, then they should be able to hold it all night. Hope this helps.