Puppy Advice (merged)

frankie55

We've given up on fastening her in the crate at night as she just cries around three ish, she now does her thing and goes back to bed in her crate without waking us up

Hintza

Raksha wrote: »

A young pup physically can't hold on for more than 4 or 5 hours or so, keeping them in a crate/cage for longer than this will just teach them to go where ever they are...........

I agree with you that they can't last that long. But they don't like being too near their mess and will improve over time and it tends to speed the process up.

suki1964

frankie55 wrote: »

We've given up on fastening her in the crate at night as she just cries around three ish, she now does her thing and goes back to bed in her crate without waking us up

Shes waking you at 3 because she doesn't want to mess her crate.

This is the idea of crates

Pup wakes up needing to go toilet, cries to alert you, you get up, let pup out, praise and then pop back to bed no fuss.

Rather like a child

Pup learns a lot quicker that toilet in the house is a no no.

Crates are not for locking a pup in day and night and thinking it can hold on till it suits you. Pups have tiny tiny bladders and just because you dont let it out doesnt mean it can hold on - you should give it a try yourself

shoppaholic_returns

Do not give up on the crate, our first few weeks with a crated pup were fun, but it really works, they dont like to soil the crate and you can expect to get up in the night with a young pup,his bladder isnt properly developed to hold urine for a longer time. we used to find that limiting water from say 8 at night was also good, for the tiolet training stage. it works the crate thing, so id persevere

*niptuckfan*

hi all thanks for the tips, he had a really good first night, went to bed back of 11 (in his crate) all cosied up....he cried fo 5 mins and then was zonked...we heard him at back of 2 whimpered for 5 mins then asleep again...we got up with him at half five did toilet had breakfast played fo half hour then we put him back to bed for an hour....again 5 mins whimper and he was off....he has done well with the paper alhtough somtimes misses so i will definately make up a solution to have...All in all for first day i am very happy and think he is too!

supermezzo

Do you noramlly get up at 5.30? If not, it moght be an idea to delay his breakfast for a while, rather than feeding him as soon as he gets up, else he'll get up earlier and earlier and earlier.......

frankie55

I don't think that I explained my puppy's nocturnal habits very well. If I lock her in her crate at night, she cries, around threeish, and wakes us and we get up and out her in the garden etc, however if I leave the door open. she gets up and goes across the conservatory to the door she se for access to the garden and uses the puppy pee tray and paper which is placed there for her. and then goes back to her crate and back to sleep in the warmth of the livihg room. My husband gets up at 5.30, for work and takes both dogs into the garden for play and fun, takes the adult dog for a walk and then gives them breakfast and again into the garden. Both dogs then snuggle down for another couple of hours. I'm disabled so getting up in the middle of the night is a real problem and I accept that this method may take a little longer to totally toilet train a small pup, however, she is so clever that she s now tellihng me when she wants out during the day/

Stephb1986_2

We got our black lab 8 years ago now she's still as cute as ever! when we first got her as a pup she wasn't house trained either we put some news paper near the back door to mess on and she did it! They are very clever dogs tbh, now she knows to tell us when she needs to go out by running to the back door

What have you called him?

Steph xx

Milford_Cubicle

I've also got a young black Lab puppy. I'm finding www.labradorforums.co.uk to be an absolutely invaluable resource, especially as it's breed specific.

You'll find if you crate train him, that if he's 8 weeks or so old that he should be able to go at least six hours without needing to go out. Our girl (almost 10 weeks old) now quite happily has a pee at 11pm ish (was 20 to last night) and will be settled all night until about 1/4 to 8. This is our routine. Getting your puppy into your routine rather than working around them helps them to respect you and acknowledge you as 'pack leader'. It's not going to happen straight away, doing things slowly is the key to success. Good luck with him, he'll be a delight for you

*niptuckfan*

good point guys yes we are not normally up at that time but were obv concerned about toileting....do you think i should get up let him toilet then put straight back? this morning he was so happy to see us we played a while before going back to bed for a bit..tnhanks for the link i will def look at that....he is such a wee cutie and is still sleeping a lot just now so im enjoying the rest in between :L