Crating Advice Please

AmyMay

AmyMay

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So new puppy is settling really well. We have a crate, which she's happy to go in. But not so happy if you close the door.

I'm afraid I've fallen badly at the first hurdle and slept on the floor with her on the first night (she did sleep for a few hours in her crate but woke for the toilet and it went downhill from there). Last night I slept on the soffa with her. She slept from about 10.00 till 2.30, when she needed the toilet. All good - I took her to the toilet, was very quiet about it all - and then she slept with me on the soffa until 8.00. She went straight to the toilet when I took her. So all in all much better.

BUT I know I'm going about it the wrong way, and I just need some advice on crating and how to go about it properly, with the least stress for Daisy. She seems to be on a four hour cycle for tneeding the loo, so obviously I will continue with that over night - getting up and taking her by setting my alarm.

I just want to get it right!
 
Lovely choice on the name :D

Don't beat yourself up!

Have you made the crate into a "cave"? If you want to sleep next to the crate, so be it, just make sure any activity at night is very boring, pop her back into the crate once she has been to the toilet. Bichon's just want to be with you - at all times! - enjoy :)
 
I’m sure others will advise better than me but we had the same problem with our new one and a friend of mine recommended a bedtime stuffed Kong which has been a lifesaver for us, along with a blanket with the scent of us and the other dogs on it to snuggle up to.

He gets his Kong just before the lights go out and by the time he’s finished everything’s dark and quiet so he just settles and we don’t hear him then until morning unless he needs to go out.

He seems to be fairly happy with that routine, so much so now that if you go upstairs he’ll go and sit in his cage just in case he’s getting one!
 
I'm sure Cayla will be along shortly to give you her expert advice! But in the mean time, this is what I found helped with our puppy. Firstly, make sure you don't only close the door of the crate when you are about to leave pup. Have sessions when you shut her in but have her next to you - so perhaps next to your chair when you are working on the computer, for instance. This way they don't make a negative association with being shut in and being 'abandoned'. Secondly, I don't think you have made a mistake sleeping on the sofa next to the crate for the first few days - must be very distressing to be a young pup used to sleeping with mum and litter mates then taken to an unfamiliar place and left to sleep alone at night. If you don't want to go 'cold turkey' and just leave her on her own downstairs, can you start to move the crate further and further away from the sofa each night? Or place crate just outside your bedroom door, and every night move it a bit closer to its final desired position?
 
TGM said:
I'm sure Cayla will be along shortly to give you her expert advice! But in the mean time, this is what I found helped with our puppy. Firstly, make sure you don't only close the door of the crate when you are about to leave pup. Have sessions when you shut her in but have her next to you - so perhaps next to your chair when you are working on the computer, for instance. This way they don't make a negative association with being shut in and being 'abandoned'. Secondly, I don't think you have made a mistake sleeping on the sofa next to the crate for the first few days - must be very distressing to be a young pup used to sleeping with mum and litter mates then taken to an unfamiliar place and left to sleep alone at night. If you don't want to go 'cold turkey' and just leave her on her own downstairs, can you start to move the crate further and further away from the sofa each night? Or place crate just outside your bedroom door, and every night move it a bit closer to its final desired position?
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As above ^^^ it's never really a fail if you remain with the puppy or vice versa take it to bed with you on that 1st scarey week aslong (as the puppy still remains in the crate) :) that's the key. Positive association and a big of trickery with the old black out blanket for when the puppy is ready to go it alone (unbeknown to puppy) lol.

AMYMAY I have cleared a few pm's, if you send me an email addy I will send you a guide (as it's rather long) for a PM. :)
 
I followed Cayla's plan, but did have puppy with me for 2 nights, then crated him next to my bed for a few nights. he cried before sleeping but only for about 2 nights. i then put the crate downstairs and slept on the (very huge) sofa for a few nights so he was used to being down stairs but i was still in the room. then went back to bed after that! I do have another dog though next to him in another crate.
I also have him in it in the day for periods of time whilst I'm in so it doesn't always mean he's being left.
when he 1st cried I felt bad. now he's 15 weeks or so i can see he's being a monkey! I learnt to ignore him quick (after he had settled here for a week)
 
Daisy ♥♥

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You are much nicer than me! We just shut pup in a comfy crate by the Age, shut all the doors between our bedroom and the kitchen and left her to get on with it. We have had her 10 days now and she sleeps beautifully, as she did after the first night. She is in it from 10.30pm to 6am and hasn't messed in it once.
During the day she goes in it when left (never for any length of time) and is quite content and happy in it.
 
When my terrier arrived she was an indoor dog for the first year and I used a wicker washing basket on its side so it was like a deep warm cave.
She slept in it for about an hour, then cried and was taken to bed with me, where she slept right under the covers by my feet.....just for that night. Then the next...then the next.....and every night for the next 8 months until OH came along and was so appalled at my furry water bottle that she was banished to a sleeping bag on the floor.
She's a big girl now and chooses to sleep in a heap with the other dogs in the barn but I still wake up some nights and wonder where the dog is for the first few seconds!

I don't think that letting the dog sleep with you when it's tiny and lonely is a fail :) I don't know if its good training practice but mine turned out ok.

She's BEAUTIFUL by the way!! :)
 
Sweet! I think I would just have to get the hardened heart a bit as we did in the 'old days'! Lol. Crating is handy if you make it the 'nice place to be' throughout the day. If she is alone then I would maybe be tempted to give her a ice teddy to curl up with for comfort to be honest. Ok, so the first few nights may be ok with you staying giving her some comfort but, I think if you continue for too long like that you're just making a rod for your own back.
 
Clicking alarm clock and hot water bottle is the key. Never crated I let mine sleep where they are happiest which is where they are warmest. Never had a problem with house training or chewing. But if you want to crate then a hot water bottle and clock will help give comfort to the pup.
 
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