# crate at night vs day time



## john_wi (Mar 3, 2009)

Hello all.
I am a new owner of a 10 week old male Vizsla.
I have had him one week now, and have some questions and concerns.
After reading previous posts, I still have some issues that I want to throw out there.
Being a new dog owner I am learning along with my pup, and hopefully I am getting some of his training right. I didnt do a good enough job in first few days of introducing him to his crate. When we brought him home, he would willingly nap and play in his crate. I fed him, played with him, and try to keep most activities surrounding his crate, but I never closed the door on him until bedtime. 
Now in past two days he has been getting progressively worse at behaving while caged.
I live in southeastern WI, and have been getting him outside more and more doing my best to wear him out. He will now sleep in evening in whichever room we happen to be in, but when we go to bed and try to crate him he wont have it. Now to the point that we have to physically put him in there.
One good sign was that he seems to settle himself down quicker once locked up. I would say that he barks and whines for an average of 15 minutes. He is crated during the day, with a break after 4 hours. he is in there from 8am to noon, and from 12.45 to 3.15. He seems to suffer more in the crate during the day than when we go to bed at night. Now today during his lunch break, scratches were noticed on his nose. I really hope that he isnt hurting himself trying to get out.
Any suggestions on what I can do to calm his nerves? A morning routine to settle him down?
I feel so bad for the little guy, he just wants to be by our sides.


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## tbone13 (Apr 24, 2008)

my advice would be that if you're going to crate your dog during the day, you do not crate him at night. even though puppies sleep ALL day 7-8 hours during the day and then again at night is too long to be crated.

the one caveat to that rule is that obviously you need to establish a strong base with him about how "the night routine" goes. in other words, keep crating him at night so he understands the whole "we sleep at night" thing and "we only get up if you need to go outside to pee"

once you feel like he gets it and he's sleeping through the night or only waking you to go outside, then you can stop crating him. we have a 5 month old pup, she's been crated since 8wks, she's just getting to where she doesn't cry in her crate when we're going out. 

she would cry all night long, once we tried letting her sleep on a dog bed instead of the crate she slept like a baby. (there were a few accidents, but all in all it worked for us)


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## john_wi (Mar 3, 2009)

Thanks for the advice.
He seems to be doing a little bit better as far as the crying at night.
Maybe when he has fewer accidents we can trust him to be uncrated at night.
I am new to all of this, first time dog owner. I don't like to hear that your dog still cries at 5 months, but its assuring to know that we may be on the right track.
I will just keep up a routine and hopefully continue to see improvement.


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## 1notenough (Sep 6, 2008)

John wi I have grown up around dogs and now in my early fortys.Never befoer have i ever crated a dog,but now with these two vizslas I found a new way to train.It works great.I only crate them when we leave the house for more than twenty minutes.they have crateas to rest in during the day when we are home and at night there is a dog bed upstairs in my room.I would say now at eleven months there hasnt been an accident for four months and I have only had them since they were three months.


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## john_wi (Mar 3, 2009)

He is really coming around. Gave him a crate in the bedroom for night time and he has not made a sound. He also sleeps through the night. I was shocked, he went from needing to go outside twice a night to sleeping all the way through until I wake up literally overnight.
Since he still goes to bathroom inside the house periodically I cant trust him outside of the crate all night. Once he gains my trust in that respect, I plan to let him just sleep in bedroom uncrated.
Thanks for words of encouragement and advice...he is starting to come around.


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