# 8 weeks and nighttime crate training



## HardyFam (Mar 10, 2021)

We recently welcomed our little Winston into our family! He is absolute Vizsla perfection and our whole family is completely smitten.

His crate is in our room and at night and usually he goes in without protest. He sleeps about 4-6 hours, and wakes up whining and wants to go outside to use the restroom. My issue is that he wants to PLAY at that time as well. He is 8 weeks old and I'm not sure what is expected of him at this age.

*Do I play with him or put him back in his crate and let him "cry it out?" *

His crate is in our room and he will whine for 30-50 minutes before giving up, and my husband and I both have interrupted sleep. When I try to play with him before putting him back in his crate, I have found myself falling asleep in our living room and waking up hours later on the sofa (or the large dog bed ) with our pup cuddled up with me. While I adore these sweet moments with him, this is not sustainable for us!

Advice appreciated. Thank you!

{Picture inserted below because who doesn't love seeing cute Vizsla pups?!}


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

you are very lucky, going into the crate without protest and 4-6 hours sleep from a puppy at his age is great. plus he looks gorgeous, so keep posting the puppy pictures please.
unfortunately, there will be period of insomnia for you and your husband, but it goes away luckily. and yes, no playtime after potty, just praise and back to crate. it has to be on a consistent manner so that he learns that this is the rule ( i fully understand the falling asleep on the sofa with the puppy situation, been there myself with my first pup).


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Remember you are training the puppy not the other way around, it’s an easy trap to fall into and I have many times!


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## HardyFam (Mar 10, 2021)

Gabica said:


> you are very lucky, going into the crate without protest and 4-6 hours sleep from a puppy at his age is great. plus he looks gorgeous, so keep posting the puppy pictures please.
> unfortunately, there will be period of insomnia for you and your husband, but it goes away luckily. and yes, no playtime after potty, just praise and back to crate. it has to be on a consistent manner so that he learns that this is the rule ( i fully understand the falling asleep on the sofa with the puppy situation, been there myself with my first pup).


Thank you! He’s a sweetie!

I took your advice and put him back in his crate immediately after I took him out and he whined for just a short while and slept on until morning. Each night has gotten progressively better and last night he slept from about 10:00 to 7:30 without waking!!! 🙌🏻 (We are all quarantined bc my son has Covid so we are sleeping in later than usual... normally we are up by 6:00 for school.) If I had waited a day or so, I wouldn’t have needed to post in the forum! 😉


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## John N (Sep 11, 2020)

HardyFam said:


> Thank you! He’s a sweetie!
> 
> I took your advice and put him back in his crate immediately after I took him out and he whined for just a short while and slept on until morning. Each night has gotten progressively better and last night he slept from about 10:00 to 7:30 without waking!!! 🙌🏻 (We are all quarantined bc my son has Covid so we are sleeping in later than usual... normally we are up by 6:00 for school.) If I had waited a day or so, I wouldn’t have needed to post in the forum! 😉


Lucky break for us that you didn't wait to Post!


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

From 10-7:30 for an 8 week old?! That’s pretty amazing , didn’t know that was even possible. Lucky you!


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