Crate training my lab puppy (Gus)

[Lil-Rokslider]

I need help from some of you who have done more of this than I have. We've had Gus for 7 nights now, and he's doing really well for the most part.

He started out with a lot of crate anxiety, but he's getting over that and settles quickly in the crate IF I'm sitting there with my hand next to the crate so he can sniff it, we cover the crate with a blanket, and he's got a sound machine next to the crate. He lays down and settles after a couple minutes, and then I can leave and get in bed. (The crate is in our bedroom, but covered with blankets, so he can't see us.)

He's waking up almost exactly every 1 hour, all night long. When he wakes up, it starts with a whine and then turns into a frantic yelping/ barking. He won't settle/ be quiet unless I go sit by the crate and put my hand where he can sniff it. Then he settles quickly again, and goes to sleep for another 1 hour. I take him out to go potty every 2-3 hours.

The lack of sleep is starting to wear on my wife and I. I know he capable of going 2-3 hours between potty wakes, so having to get out of bed every 1 hour to settle him seems unnecessary. We're thinking about moving the kennel into our mudroom, and just setting a phone alarm for every 2.5 hours to go let him out. My primary concern is creating more kennel/ separation anxiety by moving him to a room away from us where we can't hear him barking. Is this a bad idea?

I'd love to hear any advice. We've been doing crate work during the day, and feeding meals in his crate. He'll walk right in for meals and treats. I wouldn't mind even waking up every 2 hours to let him out. But every 1 hour is catching up to me. He's lucky he's cute.....

 

[DB29]

I had the same issue with my GSP pups… I’m a softie and started letting them sleep in the bed. They would only get up 2-3 times a night when in the bed. I kept crate training during the day and while gone from the house.

Somewhere around 6mo-1 year I went back to making them sleep in the crate. Once I knew they were capable of making it through the night without needing the bathroom and they were older and understood commands better it was much easier to crate training during the night.

I’m sure this is terrible advice but I will add…sleeping with a puppy is awesome!

 

[Chase0109]

I’ll give you my take having raised one bird dog puppy and getting ready to raise a second. So obviously I’m no expert. But other bird dog trainers I look up to gave me the same advice.

Sounds like you’re doing great with your daytime crate training! As for the nighttime crying, I would move his crate into the mudroom or the garage at night. Just get up every 2.5 hours and let him out. He’s gonna bark and scream and cry, but he has to learn that that doesn’t do any good. If you ignore him, he will settle in to a routine and stop doing that if he doesn’t get reinforcement.

But if you get up every time he starts making noise and give him the attention he’s looking for that just reinforces the idea that crying and making noise makes you appear. So inadvertently you can train him to cry at night. As difficult as it can be, it’s better to set the ground rules early that sleeping in the crate at night is his solo time (other than potty breaks, of course).

It’s a necessity for puppies to be extremely adorable……….. otherwise they’d never survive to adulthood lol.

But once you get past this stage and hunting this fall, it’ll all be worth it!

 

[Axlrod]

I have always said, if puppies weren't so cute, dogs would be extinct.
Worst crare training i ever had was my yellow lab.

 

[Oregon]

Yep. If they weren’t so cute they’d be curb stomped!
I’ve crate trained 8 dogs. All took to it readily except 1.
Hated the crate. Whined like crazy.
He became a garage crated dog. It was about a month before he came back inside the house after giving up being anti crate.
Set alarm every 3 hours to take him out back.

 

[MountainTracker]

Our pup lab needed to go out about every 2-2.5 hours initially, he’s 8 months old now and can go all night. He will put himself in his crate at night for bed before we tell him. My first lab did what you’re describing, what I did was take one of my shirts I had been wearing and put it in the crate with him. That seemed to help calm him down a lot. I’ve never feed my dogs in there crates only bc I don’t want them to expect it every time they go in. My current lab pup is a chewer so if we need to crate him during the day I’ll put a Kong toy in there to keep him occupied. Those first months are like having a new born it can be rough.

My problem with my lab is he is not good on the leash, something I’m working on, my last lab took a lot of work also, they are both males uncut.


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