Young puppy crate training advice

[poiuytrewq]

Puppy is 8 wks old and rediculously loud, like no puppy I've ever heard!
I have a crate with bedding in and have a play pen with paper (crate in in play pen) as I've been told he's way too young to really hold his bladder or bowels for long yet so shutting him in the crate is a no no.
However he go's insane yowling and crying if I put him in the pen at all.
I'm not going to leave him long but need to go to the shop and walk my other dog, later need to do horses etc.
do I just pop him in and ignore the noise? (And hope my poor neighbours can ignore it too?)

 

[poiuytrewq]

He's ok if I leave him out in the kitchen with the other dogs but obviously just pees everywhere

 

[TGM]

When our puppy was that age I had a normal size metal crate but also a small plastic crate with a handle which could be carried, used in a car etc. When I was first introducing puppy to the crate I would pop her in the plastic one for short periods of time and have her besides me in the house (so if I was working on the computer she would be on the floor beside me, etc.). Then I would extend that to popping out of the house for a short while. I think if the first time you confine them (whether that is to a crate or a pen) and you immediately go out, it makes them link being crated with an anxious time, which is not what you want (particularly if you are taking the other dog out as well). When you have put puppy in the pen before, have you stayed nearby or gone off to other areas of the house? And have you removed her from the pen because she was making a fuss?

 

[poiuytrewq]

We first tried confining him when we were at home, also tried and gone out (always another dog around)
It seems he only stops crying or howling when im either directly focused on him or am still, like I just was preparing dinner and he's asleep on my feet!
Obviously we had it easy with our 3 puppies in the past!!!
We have taken him out when he got v distressed, not the best I know but he'd been going a long time with no sign of calming down and we have a terraced house with paper thin walls

 

[CAYLA]

As TGM said, the best way to tackle the issue is to reward him by being in your company but within the crate. The more he is out of the crate and with you the more he will associate being in it and you not there as a negative.
It's just positive trickery.
Closing the door is perfectly fine. He simply needs releasing to the toilet by the hour and if he is left longer then you can place paper in the crate for him and simply lessen the space for the paper as he grows which will teach him to hold until released rather than do it in his bed, the crate needs to be small though otherwise you will make the job of toilet training 10 times worse. If you Pm me an email address I can send you my puppy guide to explain in greater detail how to do it step by step.

 

[Hemirjtm]

Just sharing my experience with our new puppy.

She was just 8 weeks when we got her and I said form the start that over night she would be sleeping in her cage as I meant to start the way I would go on. (Our old dog slept on my bed as would destroy metal cages to get out of them...) The first night she howled for about 45mins, the next night it was about 30, then next about 25...and so on until a couple of nights ago when she pretty much just wined for a minute or so. She started off in a small plastic cage with a handle so she felt safe. But now she has a big one with the smaller one inside which I will take out once she gets too big for it.

She knows that her cage is a "safe" place, and every time she goes in her cage on her own and lies down she gets a tiny treat so that she knows it's a good place. At night she goes outside to the toilet, and then when she comes back in she goes straight to her cage and waits to get her "bedtime biscuit" - a puppy dentastic and then I close the door, and she will finish her dentastic then wine for a minute or so until she realises that I'm not coming back and she then sleeps through the night and only wines about 6.30/7am which is when she hears me get up.

So in 13 days she has gone from being a howling puppy to a few wines. She has a towel to pee on overnight as obviously this is to be expected but she only had a N°2 accident the first 2 nights, and when she had a bad tummy a couple of days ago.

We are lucky that we don't have carpet as the toilet training during the day is taking time, but she is getting there. Just yesterday she started to ask to go out, or she will run to the front or back door. Sometimes she doesn't quite make it but she is starting to know where she should go to go outside

I think the key is routine, and not letting them know that you are worried about the howling/whining. I could be wrong here, but this has worked for my puppy!

Do you get on with your neighbours? Could you pop round and just talk to them about the puppy, and let them know it won't be for too long? Just so that you don't upset them?