# Crying in crate during the daytime - how do I establish a routine?



## wirebrained (Nov 7, 2021)

Hi all,
First time dog owner here  I've had beautiful 10 week old Barley, who is a wirehaired vizsla, since Sunday afternoon (48 hours). First night she cried in her crate next to my bed for about 15 minutes before sleeping through 11.30 to 4.45am - she awoke and I let her out to potty at this point but couldn't get her back down to sleep for the howling. Last night she settled immediately and I inserted a toilet break at 2.30am which seemed to allow her to sleep in total 11pm-6am. I was quite pleased with this, hoping it continues!

I work at a local animal hospital and will take her to work where she will be kennelled on the ward like other staff dogs. In a way she won't be alone as the ward is busy with patients and staff, but she will be apart from me for at least 2 hours at a time and needs to be content entertaining herself/sleeping in the kennel on the ward. My days vary a little but generally 10 hours 4 days per week with no night work, as I mentioned I will be able to attend to her every couple of hours, and there are kennel and nursing staff around at all times if I need to ask a cheeky favour.

I'm struggling though to establish a similar routine at home, especially with taking naps in the crate. I return to work on Friday for 3 days, so have tomorrow and Thursday to help ease her into it. I live alone in a first floor flat, currently our routine is really haphazard because I'm not sure how long she should be awake vs asleep. Given a choice, she will nap on me or on the floor at my feet, which is understandable. I've bedded and covered the crate, she has her heartbeat snuggle puppy and a yak chew in there. We've had multiple kong sessions with the door open which she loves, and will willingly follow a treat in there. Most kibble is used for training, but the remainder of each of the 3 meals is fed in the crate, and she doesn't mind the door being closed as she eats. She is willing to sit to come out of the crate.

I'm trying to aim currently for 1 hour awake (potty time followed by play outside or inside, maybe some basic training, cuddling, chew time on her mat at my feet) followed by 2 hours asleep. Then repeat, with 3 meals per day (pottying at either side).

But I am struggling to get her to nap in the crate, I make sure she's pottied, had a drink, had some activity, and then made calm with some gentle petting before she goes in. She goes in with a kong, which entertains her for a while. But then she cries/yells and digs when she goes in, and takes quite a long time of sitting with her and rewarding quiet moments before she finally goes to sleep. Because it's such a palaver and stress we've only had 3 crate naps so far, ranging 45-90 minutes. The rest have been on her mat, on me, or on my brother when we went to visit him yesterday afternoon. But they're haphazard because she always seems to be watching me with one eye and will awaken at the slightest disturbance.

She made the same demanding yelling sound when she was first restrained with a lead (I have her tethered to me or near me when she's out of her crate to help me minimise the accidents), and when restrained with her harness/belt in the car, both of which eventually settled when it didn't get her anywhere. She yelled too when she couldn't get to me or out the bathroom when I took a shower this morning. So is this demanding behaviour I should not entertain or is it fear that could escalate?

I'm torn between just keeping on putting her in the crate on schedule and allowing her to fuss for 10-20 minutes if needs be (which is what my siblings and parents did with their babies in their cots!), or doing something different to prevent crate fear/separation anxiety. What could I do different? Is it reasonable to expect naps/down time of 2 hours duration?

I live alone and work, so while I have time to dedicate to my puppy, it's important she can be okay with being without me for periods at work, and while I run errands at home. Your help would be very much appreciated, I'm new to all of this! Thank you!


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## Viktor’s Dad (12 mo ago)

Hi there, I could have written this post! Viktor is now 16 weeks and we’ve managed to get him on the 1 hour of activity followed by 2 hours in the crate schedule you describe. Actually we hit 2.5 hours for one stretch yesterday.

A few hints from our experience:

- We make sure that at least 1 and ideally 2 of those activity sessions are energetic. Viktor doesn’t have the attention span to chase a ball more than a few times but give him access to other dogs and he will play with them until we pull him away to head home.

- Sometimes you just need to listen to it. We found that leaving the room so he doesn’t have an audience helps. As long as I know he’s empty, exercised and had some cuddles during the day, I let him whine it out.

- His crate endurance goes down over the course of the day. If I can get 2.5 hours in the morning, he starts stirring after 90 minutes in the afternoon.

- After his Kong, he tends to dig and fuss a bit more. Not sure why, maybe because it’s the afternoon.

- We have also been practising leaving the house, with him seeing us come and go. We started with 5 min and built it up day by day. This has built his confidence with the crate.

It sounds like you are doing the right things and it’s just a matter of letting her get used to it.


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## wirebrained (Nov 7, 2021)

Thanks so much for this, it's a huge relief to hear from someone doing the same thing! I will stick to it and add in those leaving practices you mentioned. Well done on your progress with Viktor, I hope he continues to improve for you!


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

You have a pretty good baseline with already sleeping thru the night. And the fact that you will be able to attend to her while at work is a dream. She will learn your routine and will go along with it, right now you have had her only for a very little time and she is still in settling phase. 
Now if we could just see some pictures


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## wirebrained (Nov 7, 2021)

Thanks for your reassurance, it's really put my mind at ease that we will get there and that I'm not doing wrong by her! She is a serious cutie, although I'm biased 😊


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

She is only 10 weeks old , still a baby!  It sounds like you are doing everything right to set up a schedule, just stick with it. There will be crying and whining, etc all normal. She will adapt as she learns to settle. It took our girl Ellie a long time to get it right. We did 2 , 2 hour crate naps per day from the start. For some weeks she would occasionally decide to cry and bark for an hour each "nap" time before settling. Of course never give in to this behavior. Eventually your girl will learn the routine and will settle waiting for her break/fun times. As she gets older I would figure out a schedule that would involve an off-leash outside play time mid-day or so, perhaps like lunchtime. She will need to stretch those legs to really be able to settle for the rest of the afternoon.


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## wirebrained (Nov 7, 2021)

Genuinely thank you, I really needed the reassurance that she will whinge and it's ok to stick it out! Today's crate naps happened after a shorter period of crying so I think she is improving. The hospital is next to a large riverside public green so a lunchtime walk will be standard once she's vaccinated and ready 😊


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## LJMBanner (Jan 24, 2019)

wirebrained said:


> Hi all,
> First time dog owner here  I've had beautiful 10 week old Barley, who is a wirehaired vizsla, since Sunday afternoon (48 hours). First night she cried in her crate next to my bed for about 15 minutes before sleeping through 11.30 to 4.45am - she awoke and I let her out to potty at this point but couldn't get her back down to sleep for the howling. Last night she settled immediately and I inserted a toilet break at 2.30am which seemed to allow her to sleep in total 11pm-6am. I was quite pleased with this, hoping it continues!
> 
> I work at a local animal hospital and will take her to work where she will be kennelled on the ward like other staff dogs. In a way she won't be alone as the ward is busy with patients and staff, but she will be apart from me for at least 2 hours at a time and needs to be content entertaining herself/sleeping in the kennel on the ward. My days vary a little but generally 10 hours 4 days per week with no night work, as I mentioned I will be able to attend to her every couple of hours, and there are kennel and nursing staff around at all times if I need to ask a cheeky favour.
> ...


Here’s a suggestion:
Look up The School of Canine Science and purchase the online course “The Puppy Lab”. That will help guide you on an excellent path forward.
good luck!


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