Crate/toilet training

Feral_Moon

Hi everyone, sorry for yet another newbie thread asking advice but I can see some people here have lots of experience and knowledge

Trying to crate train / toilet train new pup and I'm worried I'm not doing her justice. I have the crate in my room and encouraged her to go into it first day which was fine but I didn't want to close her in immediately as she becomes distressed when I do so I've been leaving the door open. Trouble is she's been coming out and sleeping on the hard wooden floor next to my bed.

I've been getting up every hour or two to take her outside to toilet and she's been very good the past two nights and now knows what "go wee wee" means. Tonight however, I've slept slightly longer than planned (flagging a bit on the third night) so she's had an accident. I don't mind, it's my fault. But I'm thinking that perhaps if she was contained in her crate until I can take her out, it might prevent future accidents.

How do I get past the crying/panicking stage when I close the crate door? I was hoping to do it gradually but maybe I should have been tougher the first night. I so badly don't want to let her down

yorkshire_terrier_owner

First off, how old is she? The bladder isn't fully developed until 16 weeks, and at that point they should be able to go through the night. Even before 16 weeks, they shouldn't be needing to go every hour in the night.

Crate training. It really shouldn't take long to crate train. Build it up. Use treats to encourage them in, encourage them out. Then shut the door and reward quiet behaviour. Then open door. Then shut door and walk away for a few seconds. Reward. Then for a few minutes, reward etc etc.

At night, if pup cries when you first put him/her in, tap top of cage gently and shush them. Repeat. Do not give in to crying - you teach the pup that crying gets results - in allowing him/her out of the cage when they've cried has rewarded the behaviour. Make a big fuss when you first take them out of the crate when they have been quiet = reward the behaviour you want.

Feral_Moon

Thank you :A

We think we started out with too large a crate and she was panicking when shut in it. Today we've got her a smaller one and she's happily taken herself off to bed in it twice now and not made a fuss when the door was closed when she woke up. We let her out immediately and she seems quite content.

I think I was feeling a little despondent due to the lack of sleep last night but I'm far more positive today and we have a good supply of treats, natural chews and appropriate toys to help keep her occupied. I'm hopeful she will remain crated for 2-3 hours at a time tonight to allow us a little more sleep.

She's only 9.5 weeks (GSD) so it's very early days yet and we've not had such a young puppy before so it's a very steep learning curve. I know all the hard work we put in now will hopefully pay off though. We intend to take her to puppy classes in a few weeks time and she's already meeting lots of people, cats, chickens and a few well-behaved dogs belonging to family and friends. Overall she's extremely well-behaved so far

catkins

I am certainly no expert as, despite having had over 13 dogs in my married life, it is only my present dog that I have crate trained.


Me and OH got him at 9 weeks and had a small size crate for him. We were lucky in that his breeder had crates in the room he and his mum and littermates were in so they were not a new thing to him.


He cried the first night we got him and we ended up sitting up cuddling him but after that he slept in his crate. What we did was take it in turn to sleep on the settee with the crate next to us as we did not want pup in our bedroom. If he cried or whimpered in the night we could reach through the bars and stroke him and speak quietly to him to reassure him. Most times he went back to sleep, if he didn't it almost always meant he needed the garden.


We gradually moved the crate further away from the settee and after a couple of weeks he was fine downstairs on his own in his crate.


During the day we would leave the crate door open and sometimes pop a treat or toy in there. When pup went in we would praise him but never close the door. He soon took to going in there to sleep during the day.


He is 2 now and still goes in his crate quite often of his own accord. Certainly if he is not feeling 100% he goes in there so obviously sees it as a safe place. He takes himself in there when we eat and when we are obviously getting ready to go out even though we don't usually put him in there any longer when we go out.

Feral_Moon

Great success last night! I put her in the crate around 11.30pm and she settled very quickly, just a few minutes whimpering which I ignored. I set my alarm for 3am and she was ready to go out for a piddle then. A good long one too!

I put her back in the crate with very little fuss, just praising her for toileting, and she quickly settled again. She woke me up around 6am crying so I took her outside to toilet and she did a number two. She's had breakfast and taken herself back off to bed in the crate but I've left the door open for her as I'm now up and around. Really, really pleased with her progress :j

catkins

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Great success last night! I put her in the crate around 11.30pm and she settled very quickly, just a few minutes whimpering which I ignored. I set my alarm for 3am and she was ready to go out for a piddle then. A good long one too!

I put her back in the crate with very little fuss, just praising her for toileting, and she quickly settled again. She woke me up around 6am crying so I took her outside to toilet and she did a number two. She's had breakfast and taken herself back off to bed in the crate but I've left the door open for her as I'm now up and around. Really, really pleased with her progress :j

That's great. Sounds like your little girl is getting the hang of toilet training and getting used to the crate.

Feral_Moon

catkins wrote: »

That's great. Sounds like your little girl is getting the hang of toilet training and getting used to the crate.

She's amazing, learning so quickly. She's not had an accident in the house for several days now and is happily sleeping through the night with just a single toilet break around 3-4am. I've also started training her to be left alone in the crate for short periods during the day whilst I disappear from the room. The first time she cried and howled a little, bless her, but I waited until she was quiet before going back into her. Yesterday I left her for 40 minutes without so much as a whimper :j

Siberianski

we found with our guys doing everything too make the experience of the crate positive will help

ie feeding them in there, giving them treats in there if they go in for a few minutes chill out time. Personally i would not have the crate in your bed room the crate is there personal space where they can relax, your bedroom is yours.

Try a nice heavy guage blanket too go over the crate when you pop them in. A decent vet bed for them too and toys in there will help.