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We finally picked up our puppy this past Friday and are enjoying our first few days as puppy parents. For the most part, she has been wonderful. She pretty much came pre-crate trained and loves going in there on her own. We made it the entire 7 hour car ride home without an accident in the car. And she's only had a handful of accidents in the house so we have her on a decent routine. She's also somewhat decent at sleeping through the night. She seems to be able to last about 5 hours as we are going to bed at 10 and she wakes up at 3. While there have been no accidents, she starts whining that she has to go out. From there, she then wakes up and whines about every 1.5 hours after that until we finally wake up completely at 6.
Our question is how should we handle this whining? I know that we should try not to react immediately to her whining so we wait to let her calm down and then get up and take her out. Should we do this? Or should we respond as soon as she starts whining? Should we try to wait her out a little bit to train her to hold it a little longer? She's only 9 weeks so we don't know if that's the best thing to do right now.
Also, since both of us work and we will want to train her to stay in her crate for several hours during the day (eventually), we would like to keep her crate downstairs and let her sleep in it during the night (we currently carry it upstairs every night to put it in our room). Is it too soon to do that? Our vet recommended to start with whatever our plan is as soon as we can to get her used to it. Eventually, after she's been completely housetrained, we wouldn't mind having her come back upstairs. But while she's in her crate, we'd like to keep the crate in the same place and get her used to it. With that in mind, if we do leave it downstairs, should we still plan on waking up at 3 to get her out or should we come down later with the hope that she can start training her self to hold it a little longer?
Thanks for your help, any advice would be appreciated!
she's hungry. are you expecting her to go that long without eating? how long has she been weaned? Don't tell me. I don't want to know. She's 9 weeks old?
Right now, she is hungry, lonesome, cold, whatever. She will eventually do what is expected because she will mature. You will think you trained her. You are missing a chance to be more than her owner.
Congrats she is beautiful Since she is so young I would suggest maybe taking her out when she starts whining, but each week doing it less & less until she makes it through the night. Make sure she is warm enough as well. I would not suggest feeding her or leaving water in her crate throughout the night.
by the way... looking at the photo really quick, I thought it was someone's naked backside with the leg bent with the lower leg tucked under. Doing a double-take, I now see it's a knee... someone sitting x-legged. LOL
Congrats she is beautiful Since she is so young I would suggest maybe taking her out when she starts whining, but each week doing it less & less until she makes it through the night. Make sure she is warm enough as well. I would not suggest feeding her or leaving water in her crate throughout the night.
Oh the eternal struggle to get puppies to sleep at night. It’s one of my least favorite puppy raising challenges, but one that can be fairly streamlined if you stick to a good routine. We’re picking up our next little bundle of fluff this Saturday, so I’ll be in this mode myself.
Set a fairly routine bedtime for your pup. Many dogs thrive on a set schedule, puppies included. Make sure the final meal for the night is given at least a couple of hours before bedtime so the pup has plenty of time to go out. I’m a fan of a pre-bedtime play session to burn off any excess energy before going to bed. Take the puppy outside for a potty break, and let him or her spend some time in the yard to encourage a quiet, relaxed wind-down from the playing. Make sure the pup goes potty for before heading in.
Turn off the TV, computer, whatever else might be on and give the pup a command you use only at bedtime. My dog’s know the phrase, “it’s time to sleep,” but whatever you want to use is fine. Turning off the lights and TV and whatnot, in conjunction with the command, helps the dog recognize that lights out means quiet time. I personally prefer to keep my pups in my crated in my room, so that I can hear them and immediately take them outside in the middle of the night. If you prefer to keep her downstairs, that’s fine too…but make sure you can hear her to avoid accidents.
5 or 6 hours is quite good for a pup at 9 weeks, so she’s doing well so far. Take her out as soon as she whines around 3 to go outside, then it’s right back in the crate. As hard as it might be, I don’t pay attention to a fussy puppy after a nighttime potty break. Not to say I don’t listen to what they’re doing, but I don’t give in to the whining and wait for them to settle down and go back to sleep. Puppies have a much different sleep schedule from other dogs (and people) and may feel ready to get up and play, but staying quiet and keeping them in the crate reinforces that it is not time to get up yet. From the sounds of it, she’s only whining twice in the 3 hours between 3 and 6 am, which is pretty quiet for a young pup. She’s doing well IMHO.
If you don't want to teach her that whining = getting let out of her crate, you need to set an alarm for a little bit earlier than her normal wake up time. This way we prevent the whining in the first place. So if she seems to be whining around 3 a.m., set your alarm for 2:45 and let her out for a quick potty break. Gradually set the alarm time later and later.
If you don't want to use an alarm, there really isn't much harm in letting her out when she whines in the middle of the night, as long as it is just for a boring trip outside to potty and then straight back to bed.
As her bladder develops, she'll be able to hold it longer and she'll start sleeping through the night. Any time I've had a young puppy I've always planned on waking up once in the middle of the night to let them potty. Just part of owning a puppy.
I absolutely think she should be sleeping in the bedroom with you. Pack animals, particularly babies, sleep in the company of their pack, not isolated.
Human babies don't sleep through the night until they're about over 12 lbs and the "night" can be 5-8 hours. It could take months for a human to do that and they wear DIAPERS.
She lost her entire family, security and her bladder is not in control She's too young for that.
Here's another point of view and the difference between doing the work in conjunction with a cage versus thinking the cage will do the work for us: Warren Eckstein: The Case Against Crate Training.
My son slept on the floor with our puppy and held a gumabone in his mouth and they both fell asleep. And he took him out every four hours, and when the dog woke up and if he was "awake" in went the gumabone again. For a LONG time, I don't even remember how long. It was good for the puppy and the kid learned something about compassion, responsibility etc. Even on school nights. Obviously this is not exactly safe for small dogs or large people who might hurt the dog by mistake. I'm not exactly "against" crates but I object to it becoming a "guarantee" that a dog is going to behave mechanically especially from a baby.
That dog used his gumabones/nylabones 24/7 for the rest of his life, as a soothing tool, stress reliever, and playing tool, etc. First thing when I walked in from work instead of the normal nonsense all excitable, he'd run and chew his bone LOL. THEN we'd go out.
Last edited by runswithscissors; 07-01-2013 at 12:45 PM..
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Since she is so young I would suggest maybe taking her out when she starts whining, but each week doing it less & less until she makes it through the night. Make sure she is warm enough as well. I would not suggest feeding her or leaving water in her crate throughout the night.
Obviously this is not exactly safe for small dogs or large people who might hurt the dog by mistake. I'm not exactly "against" crates but I object to it becoming a "guarantee" that a dog is going to behave mechanically especially from a baby.
