Crate training my lab puppy (Gus)

[Beagle1]

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!

This is it. You train the dog or the dog trains you.

 

[*zap*]

May not be ready to stay locked in all night. Every dog is different. Best would be crate him and let him out BEFORE he starts noise making. Lengthen the time in over time.
My dog sleeps where he wants and knows what quiet means, mostly. He is almost 4yr.
Start obedience training now.
Down, come and place. No pulling if you say 'stay close'.

 

[K9kodi]

Here’s the best advice I can give you since I nor anyone else is w your pup.
Look at the behavior the dog is showing, if it’s behavior you want, give them what they want, if it’s non desirable behavior, at this age, practice negative punishment and remove what it is they want.
Formal obedience training as in longer in duration, more complex and higher expectations, is still a little ways off. Behavior shaping now so formal obedience later is easier is the way to go.

When training dogs I use behavior modification as b.f skinner implies the 4 quadrants of behavior modification. At the age your puppy is at, I would focus more on the negative punishment, positive reward aspect. The dog will show you when they are ready for positive punishment or negative reward.

In anything you do at this age look at the behavior and decide if it’s desirable or not.

I.e whining for attention in crate, if it’s desirable, go pay atttention to the dog and give them what they want, it will reinforce said behavior and make it solidified. If it’s not desirable, ignore it till you get the behavior you want, then reinforce the behavior you want. That’s all shaping is, and more grossly, dog training generally.

Also, the younger the dog the shorter opportunity window you have to reward or correct the dog.

I.e the old wivestale about rubbing your dogs nose in their piss when you come home from work.
People thought it was working bc when they come home if there is piss they figured the dog knew better and would hide. Coincidently: the behavior of actually pissing was so long ago, the dog doesn’t connect the act of punishment w the behavior. The dog was hiding bc they knew if there was piss on the floor when dad came home something bad would happen, they can’t connect the actual behavior of pisskng in the house to the correction. Same goes for rewarding. If your dog sits and you walk away and they follow you barking so you give them a treat, they are being rewarded for barking and following not the sit.

Just immediately reward the behaviors you want and ignore the ones you don’tDesire and you’ll be well on your way.

 

[Axlrod]

So talking to my wife about this, she reminded me of our newest dog- a Karelian Lab doodle mix.
He's 2 now. When we first got him, he was a handful, including crying in his crate at night.

We took him to a professinal dog trainer for a several hour session. On the crate deal, she said to place the crate nextto your bed and when the put cried, smack the top of the crate and say NO! It was only 2 nights, and that pup was good. Still wants to sleep in the crate every night.

 

[BCDJR]

A hot water bottle under a blanket may help some

 

[wymtnpounder]

Squirt to the face with water has worked for me

 

[sndmn11]

@Lil-Rokslider we are adding a puppy in a few months, and the obedience trainer we've used for 20 years sent me these puppy drills. Both URLs are her business, and I think she is in your area.

Crate Training — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Potty Training | Train Effectively Today — Front Range K9 Academy

Discover tried-and-true methods for successful dog potty training at Front Range K9 Academy. Learn the keys to effective training for puppies and adult dogs.

www.k9counselor.com

Trading Up — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Puppy Socialization

It seems like in the last week I've heard the phrase "puppy socialization" a dozen times. Trainers advertise it. Veterinarians recommend...

coloradodogtraining.blogspot.com

Introductions — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

 

[Lil-Rokslider]

@Lil-Rokslider we are adding a puppy in a few months, and the obedience trainer we've used for 20 years sent me these puppy drills. Both URLs are her business, and I think she is in your area.

Crate Training — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Potty Training | Train Effectively Today — Front Range K9 Academy

Discover tried-and-true methods for successful dog potty training at Front Range K9 Academy. Learn the keys to effective training for puppies and adult dogs.

www.k9counselor.com

Trading Up — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Puppy Socialization

It seems like in the last week I've heard the phrase "puppy socialization" a dozen times. Trainers advertise it. Veterinarians recommend...

coloradodogtraining.blogspot.com

Introductions — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Awesome, thank you

 

[Dos XX]

@Lil-Rokslider we are adding a puppy in a few months, and the obedience trainer we've used for 20 years sent me these puppy drills. Both URLs are her business, and I think she is in your area.

Crate Training — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Potty Training | Train Effectively Today — Front Range K9 Academy

Discover tried-and-true methods for successful dog potty training at Front Range K9 Academy. Learn the keys to effective training for puppies and adult dogs.

www.k9counselor.com

Trading Up — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Puppy Socialization

It seems like in the last week I've heard the phrase "puppy socialization" a dozen times. Trainers advertise it. Veterinarians recommend...

coloradodogtraining.blogspot.com

Introductions — Horsetooth Whippets - est. 2007

www.horsetoothwhippets.com

Did you get one of the setters?

 

[sndmn11]

Did you get one of the setters?

Those were English Pointers, and no, he is still deciding which two he wants to keep. All four are slaying it right now though.

 

[Dos XX]

Those were English Pointers, and no, he is still deciding which two he wants to keep. All four are slaying it right now though.

Great. I don't know why I remembered them being setters. Should be fun.

 

[TandKHunting]

Welcome to owning a Labrador Retriever haha. I have raised three of them. 2 chocolates and a black lab. All three were nightmares for the first couple weeks. Now all of them prefer going into their crate at night to sleep.

Not sure if it will work for you, but our black lab had a problem wetting the bed at night even as he got older. We ended up getting a ThunderEase diffuser. It may sound crazy and I was skeptical, but it releases pheromones and completely eradicated his issue. They are cheap, so it may be worth getting one to see if it calms him down. It may not work, but for $25 it's worth giving it a shot. He's away from his litter mates for the first time since birth, so it's going to take a bit for him to get used to the new home. It gets better.

 

[sndmn11]

Great. I don't know why I remembered them being setters. Should be fun.

They are nearly all white, and were little on those videos. I'll see them again on Saturday and see if I can get some new videos.

After a year of talking to 15ish breeders, we are getting a Pudelpointer that the kid is going to try and play NAVHDA games with. It should be born in about 3 weeks.

 

[Ten Bears]

this sums up how our crate training is going with the new pup.. I have never had such a hard headed squealing jerk like this one…

part of the process folks tell me… lol

 

[MarlinMark]

I have an 11 month old Brittany and he's a handful. Crate training was the easy part. He is just a psycho. Fast, jumps, mouths your hands etc. I had 2 labs before him and they were easy compared to this rowdy guy. He's learning and growing. Just puppy stuff, but we have to stay consistent and get to the next phase. Or that's what I keep telling the warden.

 

[MarlinMark]

Teddy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JBrew]

I've never had one that took more than a week. Put crate next to the door so that the first thing they do is go outside to pee. Let em whine for a night or two but after that, they get a hard dose of "no". Good luck w your pup!

 

[Luked]

We have crate trained 2, Both did well with it but it was not easy.
Our older dog is stubborn as all get out being half beagle half border collie.
Our other dog is high energy Aussie.
But both did well with the crate.
Theirs are both in our bedroom at the foot of the bed.
Something else we don't do is call it a crate, its called a house.
We can tell both of ours to go to their house and they walk right in.

Biggest things for us was to make the crate comfortable. And do not give in to the whining. If you do that you become the sub not the master. Its tough to do especially if your a light sleeper. My wife is I am not.
We took ours out to do their business on a pretty set schedule, But it was right outside then right back to their house.

We had more trouble with our Aussie getting him to go out when he needed and not having accidents in our house than anything