# Puppy crate training at night



## vizslababy (Jan 21, 2013)

Hi everyone, we brought our 8 week old girl on Saturday and the last two nights have been ROUGH. Shiloh is sleepy during the day snuggling up to whoever happens to be near her, and will go into her crate during the day to sleep. But nightime is a different story. Both nights she has gone to bed around 10 and woke up at 2. we have taken her out of the crate, outside to pee and back into the crate and she has cried in the crate for 2-3 hours afterwards. Please, any ideas are appreciated. No sleep....  otherwise, she is perfectly adorable. But they weren't kidding about the "velcro dog" label!! )


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## flxstr (Nov 19, 2012)

Patience, patience, patience! It's truly amazing how loud these dogs can be, that such a small dog can make such a racket. It took 5 days before ours would sleep (almost) through the night, and now 14 days later, she's a star at bedtime, and sleeps from 10pm to 5:30am. And even then, she'd prefer to sleep in, and sometimes crawls into our sons bed for another hour or so.

On a humorous note, we initially had a very expensive 'portable' crate for her, but it only took her 5 hours to figure out how to unzip the door (which became 20 minutes once she got good at it), and then 5 minutes to figure out how to climb the 4 foot fence playpen surrounding it. Save yourself the expense, and just buy the big, escape proof 'house' from the get-go, as these dogs are amazingly smart, and very creative.


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## RubyRoo (Feb 1, 2011)

Do a search on the forum on Crate training. You will get tons of ideas on what to do.

To make you feel better, this behavior is common and if you stick to it, it will all work out...eventually ;D


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## nika01 (Nov 27, 2012)

I am not an expert , but I have noticed that my V has learned to to crave human contact. We got him at 8 weeks and he slept through the night after two nights. I think one of the reasons for this quick acclimation is our more or less lack of cuddling , which was very hard for me to do. We didn't allow him to sit on our lap unless we were on the floor with him. So, for the next two months, he went to crate very easily. Then, I gave in and let him sit in my chair with me (my wife didn't approve). He then didn't want to crate easily after a couple of days of that. So, I mixed it up a bit, and only allow him to sit with me in the day or early in the evening, certainly not near bed time. This has seemed to lessen his need for human contact at bed time. Very hard for me to do, since he is the perfect temperature for cold Indiana nights.


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## drew3308 (Dec 2, 2012)

If it is possible, try putting the crate on the bed with you. I did that and it worked very well, I am not in the process of moving the crate to the floor. It will just take some time for them to get use to it. Chevy still whines when I put her in there when she still has some energy, they will eventually get it. Chevy will have to be in there for multiple hours when I move in a couple weeks, they usually tire themselves out with the whining.


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## vizslababy (Jan 21, 2013)

Thanks everyone! I will try the few things suggested and hopefully will have a better night tonight!


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## vizslababy (Jan 21, 2013)

Another sleepless night with Shiloh ...she had a great night on Monday night so I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and then last night...up for hours, howling, whining...we will keep at it, consistency is key. I told my husband about the crate on our bed and he looked at me like I'd grown another arm..that idea is a no go :'(


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## RubyRoo (Feb 1, 2011)

vizslababy said:


> Another sleepless night with Shiloh ...she had a great night on Monday night so I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and then last night...up for hours, howling, whining...we will keep at it, consistency is key. I told my husband about the crate on our bed and he looked at me like I'd grown another arm..that idea is a no go :'(


Hang in there.....I promise it will get better.


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## Aliwebb (Nov 12, 2012)

hi...just to let you we had the same prob with our pup after 2 nites i couldnt take it anymore and with 3 children who needed to sleep i decided to put his crate in my room.he whimpered a bit the 1st nite but i found dangling a arm or leg out so he could see me helped.hes great at nite now he goes up to bed and straight in his crate.im gradually moving his crate further out of the room mainly because he snores terribly some nights!!!!i know its not ideal having the crate in your room but for a decent nights sleep and a happy puppy id recommend it!!x


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## pippylongstocking (May 21, 2012)

Well, I can vouch for the clingy label. My V Ester is one next month, and I am still having to get up to her in the night! She has never been good at going in her crate, always preferring to stay on the sofa cuddled up with her human companions (don't know how she managed to persuade me to let her on there, I have never let dogs on the sofa). She was kind of settling into a routine, then came into season and was really quite poorly as well, so I think this set her back a bit. At times she can have me up a couple of times a night, or just once, but then unfortunately she won't go back to sleep. She had a couple of good days over the weekend where she got up early, but had slept through without waking me. Last night she was up at 3am, and thought it was time to play! The frustrating thing is, if I let her into the lounge, she will go straight to sleep, but that means me being uncomfortable on the sofa, so when I can I try and get her to settle back down in her crate. Sometimes it works. Last night it took an hour to settle her, but I managed to get back to bed until 7am. Perseverance pays! Keep at it. You may get a lot of advice telling you to let your pup stay in your room, but you have to do what's right for your family, and stick to it. Good luck!


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## vizslababy (Jan 21, 2013)

Sucess!!!!! She hsa been sleeping all night for about a week now . Her crate in in our bedroom, close to the bathroom, if she sits up in her crate she can just see us over the foot of the bed and this seems to calm her down. I can hear her "checking" in on us through the night, but she lays back down and sleeps after she has made sure we are still there. She is still a big clingy baby, crying if we wakes up from a nap on the couch downstairs and notices we are all upstairs...ha ha. She just cries at the bottom of the stairs and usually my 10 year old will come down and get the sucky baby. She has no interest in learning to climb stairs?? She is 10 weeks now, is this normal???
Here is a couple of pictures of my Shiloh, she is a looker, if I say so myself


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## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

That's totally normal. Our boy is 13 months now and he does the same thing. Yesterday he took a quick nap in the office upstairs and woke up and we were downstairs and he cried until he decided to come down and join us. 10 weeks still early for stairs, ours didn't start routinely going up and down stairs until about 13 weeks. Happy for your sleeping success!!


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## candi30 (Jan 2, 2013)

Our girl Darby is 10 weeks as well.
Still not sleeping ALL night but her sleeps are getting longer. 
So she still cries a bit at night. Mainly because I think she has to go to the washroom.

One thing she does do is stairs. She LOVES them for some reason. Give her a staircase and she will climb up and down all day. She has no fear! I guess that's a good thing. 

Shiloh is a cutie!


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