# Crate training



## akc0804 (Jan 13, 2016)

Hello Everyone,
We just picked up our 8 week old girl, Scarlett, 3 days ago. She's really sweet. 
I was wondering about the crate training. She sleeps a lot! She'll play for 20-30 minutes and then sleep for 2 hours I take her out and play some more and then she sleeps. Now, at night she cries all night long. I take her out at 11 pm then put her in her crate with a treat and she cries. Then I take her out at 1:30 am and 4:00 am and 7:00 am and treat her again. But even in between all this she's crying and believe me it sounds awful!! It's loud as **** and sounds like someone is torturing her. She is tearing up her bed too. Putting her in our bedroom is not an option. My husband won't have it. She's now in my kids playroom where we spend a good bit of time during the day so it's not like she's banished to a basement or anything. It's only been 3 nights. Is this just a thing that she will eventually get used too? She will go in the crate on her own and I've praised and treated her for it. Also today I wore her out and had to place her in it for about an hour as I had a physical therapist come to my home to help me with some knee issues and she wailed the entire time. Never laid down never took a nap and bit and chewed up her bed. I give her toys as other options but it seems she prefers to chew the bed. So, do I just stay the course and ignore her or what?


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## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

What you're experiencing is totally normal. The first time I crated Lua so that I could take a shower, I ended up running out of the bathroom with shampoo in my eye because Lua was making the kind of sound that made me think she got her jaw stuck in the wires or something equally horrifying. Needless to say, when I got to her, she was merely sitting comfortably in her crate safe as can be while wailing her head off. 

My advice is to first get rid of her bed, and just use towels or old blankets that you don't care about getting destroyed for now. She can have the bed back when she's used to the crate. Second, just ignore her screaming for the most part. Earplugs help. But be sensitive about it as well... she is just a baby after all, and she just moved to a new place with new people, unfamiliar smells, and no mom or littermates. If you feel like she needs some emotional support, by all means, comfort her. But I think the majority of what you're experiencing is normal behavior when getting accustomed to a crate. If you search the forum for crate training, you will find a vast library of people's travails about it, and many of them will say exactly what you have about the crying all night. 

Just one tip: if you do decide she needs some love while she's crying it out in the crate, do NOT take her out while she's crying. Wait for her to stop, even if it's just for a minute or a few seconds. If you take her out while she's crying, she'll learn that crying gets her out of the crate.


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## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Let me try to be simple here and we can talk more if you need to. She seems to be doing quite well for a newbie.

1) 8 week old need to go out, on average, about 2x/hr..even at night...at least for the first month-6 weeks. Sorry. She's complaining partially b/c she has to go potty. When you take her out, scoop her up, carry her to the designated potty area, put her down, tell her to go potty, and tell her that she's a good girl, good potty! Do not give her treats..it starts the whole digestive process...and do not give her too much attention..although a smooch or two is irresistible. You're working on training and self soothing, and too much coochie cooing and treats reinforces the screaming and minimizes the true lessons here. She will learn to trust you b/c you're getting up at night and taking her out makes her feel better, no treat required.

2) The crate is not a punishment or a way to separate her, it is her home. Make it a good thing by feeding her in there (3x/day) with the door open, put treats in there randomly during the day for her to find, along with new toys and USA made rawhide swizzle sticks or chips. Figure out when she typically crashes, and about 5 minutes before, put her in, close the door, and let her fall asleep naturally there, maybe even open the door so she can exit when she awakes. She (and you) need to experience the crate as OK, and she needs to tolerate separation from you. You have to tolerate the complaints, do not let her out (unless at night for potty, see above) until she's quiet. I also like a bath mat, they fit nice, they're soft, safe, and they do not slip around.

3) 8 week olds are really small babies, who in addition to that are undergoing the most massive transition of their lives..leaving their mom and their sibs and their home and going to you and yours. And, she doesn't have the maturity or experience or training to grasp any of it. If that picture isn't quite dramatic enough for you, recall that dogs are pack animals and are not wired to instinctively live for any period alone. 
So, leaving her in a crate at night, in the dark, all alone is very frightful for her...at a time when she is already so vulnerable and undergoing so many life changes. 

Keeping her in a room far away only adds to this. Not everyone wants the dog in bed with them...mine have always slept with me, FWIW...but not having her in her crate in your room is something you might want to reconsider, at least until she settles in and gets a sense of things. If not, you have to tolerate the screaming, eventually they stop when they either figure it all out, or just get used to being that alone.


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Everything you are going through is normal. Just one point- if your puppy is like our girl has always been- bedding or towels of any sort will always get trashed as Dharma is a nester. She still at almost 3 years old occasionally has accidents(due to occasional digestive upset) in her crate and mashes the bedding into that. Dharma will nest into any blankets or towels anywhere and likes to be covered up and with her people all the time.


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## Oyster (Mar 7, 2016)

I know I'm late to the party, but would love to know how you did!?!?! 

I had a similar experience and the crate just kept getting closer to the bed... with my hand inside of it... 3-4 weeks of getting up every 90-120 minutes to go out, I think I was pretty insane and after our 12am potty break one night I passed out with her in the bed. We woke up together at 8am the next day. I almost cried, I was so happy.  And now I'm perfectly happy to have the cuddle partner in bed. She won that battle by changing the hearts and minds of her opponent. 

ANYWAY, I'm always interested in stories where it was a struggle but you won through... (in my defense, I think that's the only test of wills I TOTALLY lost)


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