Moving Puppy's Crate

[renae]

Murphy will be 16 weeks tomorrow and we are still having a horrible time with night time whining. His crate is out in the kitchen right now. Last night, he was walked at 12:15 but was still up at 1:20 barking and whining and going nuts. I finally gave in and took him outside because I'm worried he'll wake the kids who have to be up early for school. After he went out (no talking, no playing, simply out then right back into crate) he barked for 45 minutes. He woke again at 3:30 and did the same thing. At what point to I ignore this behavior? Also, do you think I should move the crate into my room during the night then back out to the main room in the house during the day? I'm desperate for sleep!

[Tamara & Giada]

WOW, I feel for you :(( none of my dogs ever did that. After they cried and I reassured them and if they kept up I did the penny can and that worked the first time with all my dogs I've trained. Try it and if it doesn't work I would deffinatly put the crate in your room. I also ran a fan or the dishwasher when I put them in for the night and a light sheet over for cozyness. GL....hope you get sleep soon and the poor puppy too.

[Adina P]

YES! Try the crate in your room...I think he's just lonely and wants to be near. Does he do OK crated in the daytime when he can see you?

[renae]

Yes, he does well during the day. Obviously I don't know what he does when I go out but typically I'm not out for long 1-2 hrs at most. The fact that he does pretty well in there when I'm home (sometimes a whimper here and there) makes me think he is lonely.

[Liza, Halle and Finn]

Try putting an old T-shirt or something in his crate for him to lay on. But first wear it around the house for a while so your scent gets on it. That may work, but if not, you probably will need to move him into your room for a while. We have just added a 2nd doodle to our household. She is 13 weeks old. We have her crate in our room, and she doesn't cry at all at night while we are in there with her, but when she is in that room all alone...watch out! She sounds like someone is trying to hurt her!!

[Debbie and Thomas]

I feel for you. This must be hard on you and the family. I would try anything at this point, and lots of people move the crate to their room at night. My brother had this problem with his new lab pup. Nothing worked. The dog cried all night long - he finally gave in and let him sleep out of the crate. He slept on the floor by his son's bed like an angel!! He crates him during the day while he is at work with no problem I am not sure that this was the right thing to do, but it worked for him. He is 5 1/2 mths old now and is crated during the day when no one is home and sleeps out of the crate at night. My brother is a single father and just COULDN'T STAND THE NOISE ALL NIGHT any longer he said.

[Karen & Lucy]

Absolutely, put his crate in your bedroom and right beside the bed. That is what I did with Lucy and that was because the first night I had her crate in the dining room and she whinned and barked, the second night we took her to camp and I put her in our bedroom, for no reason, and she slept all night. She was in our bedroom from then on. I had her crate on my side of the bed and if she stirred I would put my hand down on top of the crate and she would go right to sleep. They just need to know your are near. Try it, I'll bet it works

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

There are a few things I would try, putting a blanket or something you wore in the crate with him, keep his crate in your room at night, and if he whines in there than I would try giving him a soft reassurance you are there...if it continues cover his crate and give another reassurance and if that does not work, than I would use the shaker can filled with pennies or small stones...with a stronger command to "quiet". Hannah use to love a blanket and if you told her go lie on your blanket she wouldn't get off, she hated the plastic type crate, both Hannah and Honey love the wire type crates and no problems with either of them.

[Kai Doodle (Kathy & Keith)]

Kai sleeps upstairs in our room in his crate. He goes right to sleep and doesn't even move if one of us gets up to go to the bathroom. I have crate trained a few dogs now and I think the adjust much faster if they are in the room with you. They can see you, hear you sleeping and smell you so they know they aren't alone. Good luck! Hope you get some sleep tonight!

[Nancy Sunderland]

Ditto! (Way to go Manor Lake puppies!)

[BetteB]

I would move his crate to your room. Be strong and absolutely ignore him if you know he doesn't need to go out. It will be hard, but worth it. If he's gone out for a potty break before bed, he should be able to last until morning. You could try putting something that has your scent on it in his kennel, too. He just needs to know he's near you.

[Stella]

Because of allergies we couldn't let either of our dogs sleep in the bedroom with us, they have to sleep downstairs. Our first puppy cried so much and so loud for the first few nights we had him, but we just ignored him. We set an alarm for taking him out during the night (same time every night) so he learnt that no matter how much noise he made we didn't come. Lying upstairs listening to him crying in the kitchen was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. We got him a comfort toy that we could heat up in the microwave so he had something warm to cuddle up to, you can also get ones with a heartbeat in them so he thinks there is another puppy in there with him. Luckily for us, he gave up after only four nights. Our second puppy was a lot louder and more persistant! It got to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore and we let him sleep in the living room with our other dog - I decided sleep was much more important than cleaning pee or poop out of the carpet!!

All of the other advice given here is great too. I just wanted to let you know what we did seeing as we couldn't bring the crate into our bedroom. Good luck!!

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

I have a crate in the kitchen and a crate in the bedroom for Harlow (got tired of lugging a crate up and down the stairs every day). The crate in the bedroom did wonders for stopping the crying in the night.