Hi all,

We picked up our puppy on Saturday. He is sleeping in a crate downstairs in the living room at night. I know it's still early days, but he is still crying at night intermittently (and is very loud at times!), and I just wondered if we were handling this the right way? When we do hear him cry, we wait a short while to see if he settles by himself, but if not we go down to reassure him. This can sometimes happen every couple of hours through the night though. Are we right in doing this? Or shall we try and ignore him do you think? I feel awful doing this but I'm also wondering that when he cries he now expects us to come down to him?
I'm also letting him out In the night as well, partly because he has been having diarrhoea. Are we right to carry on doing this once his diarrhoea has cleared up? He does have newspaper in his crate.
Also, if this continues, how long do we stick it out with the crate? Do some dogs just not take to crates?

By going down to reassure him you are teXhing him that by crying/barking etc will get him the attention. Can you not sleep for a few nights on the sofa with him? Or take the crate upstairs into your room and then slowly move him out to say the hallway?
How quickly does he settle down? I would possibly make a conscious effort to wake up around 2-3am and take him out to the toilet, no fussing, praise when he's gone and then put him back into the crate. Could he be crying as he needs the toilet?
Also you could put a cover over his crate, soft music on in the background and use a pet remedy diffuser.
There are so many schools of thought on this. Some do above as I've mentioned and others just leave them. But if he's never been used to a crate before you got him I would at the very least set your alarm mid way through the night to take him out.

My pup is just 5 months old and he was in his crate next to my bed for one week, covered with a blanket but so he could look out the front, when he cried I used to put my hand out so he knew I was there and say "quiet"....if he didn't settle it meant he wanted the toilet....every 2 hours for a few nights.

On the 8th night I put him downstairs in his crate and he screamed his head off and never settled...he hated it and like you I left it thinking he'd get used to it but he never did, the moment I let him have free range in the downstairs room he settled....yes, I woke up each morning to a poo-wee etc but it was a small price to pay.

He is happy downstairs and only goes in his crate to eat or if I'm cooking etc.

Like sue says, put on some low music, a night light may also help.

But he's so young, scared on his own.....I never thought it'd work out but it did, oh and another thing I did was go to a charity shop and buy a large teddy bear....he snuggled up to that and it helped.

Good luck.

Thanks for your replies. He was sleeping in a crate with his breeder so thought he would be ok in a crate here. We also had the blanket that was in his crate at his breeders. However, I guess he was with the other pups then for company.
We don't really want to take his crate upstairs as don't want him to go upstairs full stop in the long term so want to start as we mean to go on. However, I'm not sure if this would make a difference as he cries in his crate when he can see us...hubby slept downstairs with him for the first couple of nights and he still cried. He also cries when we put him in the crate in the day if we are cooking / cleaning etc.
When we first put him in his crate at night he's relatively ok and will sleep. He will then usually wake a couple of hours later. Initially I wondered if it was because he needed the toilet, especially with him having diarrhoea. However, sometimes, he has already wee'd on the newspaper when we come down to him, sometimes he will do something if we let him out in the night, sometimes he will just play when he let him out.
When we do come down to him in the night, we sit next to him in his crate and it usually takes anything from 10-30 minutes to settle him before we sneak back upstairs.
I will be honest, and say we are contemplating letting him have free run of downstairs but feel we need to persevere first. I'm also worried about coming down in the morning and finding that he's chewed everything in sight. Not so fussed about coming down and finding wee / poo as that can be cleaned up.
You have given me some good tips to try though, so thanks for that.

I'm another one who always recommends pup is allowed in his crate in your bedroom. He's a baby who's been taken away from all he's known so far in his short life. My puppy owners have always said it was the best thing they did.It doesn't mean he'll be in your room forever.

My pup never goes upstairs now...he will sit at the bottom of the stairs until I come down.

What about a filled Kong in the daytime when you're in the kitchen and he's in his crate ?

My pup didn't chew anything at all during the night apart from the odd slipper if I'd left around and a couple of magazines.

When Metsi cried during the night, I scooped him out of his crate not saying a word to him and not looking at him, straight downstairs in my arms and out into the garden, then after he'd finished I picked him back up again not looking at him or talking to him, put back in his crate, door shut and back to sleep...he'd moan a bit but I'd tell him quiet and he'd settle again.

I think if you spend time during the night communicating with him either verbally or non verbally this maybe telling him it's not time to settle down.

I'm very new to this puppy thing so can only say what worked for me and others will have other ideas I'm sure.

Annee

> Initially I wondered if it was because he needed the toilet, especially with him having diarrhoea. However, sometimes, he has already wee'd on the newspaper when we come down to him,

With puppies it's like toddlers when they need to go it's now, and by the time you reach them it's too late.  for housetraining your better off setting the alarm so you can take him out to pee before eh has wet.

Pups are easily distracted so you can often end up taking them out and they don't go only to pee as soon as they get back in, persevere and encourage.

Another trick if you don't want pup upstairs to settle him, is to come down let him out, take him for a wee, but ignore him once that is done, be boring, just put the kettle on, make a cup of tea, no eye contact etc.

He should at some point lie down and settle.

My current pup won't sleep or settle in the crate, which I wanted her to, but is quite settled in the kitchen in her choice of 4 dogs beds, doormat or crate (as the other girls go in the kennel to sleep at night), this works for her, and as I'm not great at broken nights any pees etc done at night were just cleaned up, now at 6 months she rarely ahs an accident, usually only after evening walk, when they tend to tank up on water, if I don't see for her needing out before bed (she just stares at the back door) she may pee.

Now you've all mentioned it, I'm wondering if I am stimulating him by talking to him / making eye contact when I'm downstairs trying to settle him - therefore, making him think that it isn't time to settle.
If we did take his crate upstairs, I'm worried we will have the same issues when we eventually bring him back downstairs to sleep. He's a very large breed so we don't want him tackling the stairs, he's easy to carry now but I'm sure that won't last for long!

I would have the crate in your bedroom covered with a sheet/blanket.

The method of being there but boring and ignoring worked very well with one of my puppy owners years ago with a pup that would just scream blue murder when put to bed.  I'd leave the crate open, assuming you have pup proofed the kitchen, much easier to mop floor than clean crate and pup, and also doesn't get into bad habit of dirtying his bed, which will upset him.

One of our pups settled down to talk five each night., she loved hearing voices and soon settled. We did wake up and go down and take her for a wee before she asked! We found this helped and she didn't wet her basket.
Our current boy the breeder slept with litter for 6 weeks so our first few night's  we slept on sofa. After a bad back,broken sleep we brought him upstairs for a few weeks next to us in crate with blanket on. We just said shush now when woke and took him out twice during night for a wee. After a week we moved him onto landing then after week downstairs in kitchen and the first night with a stair gate on kitchen he slept through! Hard at start but they do settle. Keep it to a quick visit outside,praise then back to bed and count z''s.

My most recent puppy (very confident) was crated in the kitchen from the first.  The radio was on on a speech station, and there was low light from the various kitchen machines.  He had a soft toy and blanket with his litter-home smell on it, and I bought him a big (puppy-size) soft toy* to cuddle up to, because he was the first to leave and had always had his siblings to sleep with.  I set the alarm during the night and went down to take him into the garden (on lead, umbrella (over him!) if needed, twice at first, reducing to once and finally when he no longer needed it I phased it out. It was just a calm "lifting" the sleepy chap out, no fuss, a quiet "good boy" when he performed, and straight back to bed and sleep.

He now spends the nights in his own bed on the landing, which is my preferred place for dogs to sleep.  There's not a peep out of him all night.

I would never leave a baby to cry and ignore it.  While he was in the kitchen I left my bedroom door ajar so that I could hear him if he cried (I'm a light sleeper) and go to see what he needed.  I felt it would give him confidence that I was "there for him".  (It used to be the cruel fashion to leave human babies to cry themselves to sleep, it's just as harsh for puppies.)

*I actually bought 3, to allow for washing/mending, and he had great fun play-fighting with them, sleeping on them, etc.

Well we took all of your comments on board. Last night, we moved his crate into the kitchen, but left the crate door open and shut the baby gate that we already have on our kitchen door. We put newspapers in the kitchen so he wouldn't need to go in his bed. We also put a blanket over the top of the crate, a radio on low and a kitchen light on low.
Things were better actually. He still cried initially when we put him to bed but he soon settled. Hubby got up with him around 2am to let him out. Unfortunately, in my husbands sleepy state he forgot to shut the baby gate on the kitchen door so when I came down this morning, the pup had free run of downstairs from 2am (so perhaps the reason why we didn't hear him cry after 2am!). No harm done though, he had only pooed near the patio doors which he would normally go through to the garden, so easily cleaned up.
Not sure if we're quite comfortable with letting him have free run of downstairs yet though so we will see how it goes tonight again in the kitchen...but with the baby gate on the kitchen door shut throughout the night!
Our kitchen is quite small and a crate doesn't particularly fit anywhere, but a small price to pay if it works better for him.

I'm so pleased to read this, what I learnt very quickly was that there are going to be good nights and not so good nights, I had 3 nights of coming down to no poo and only a wee then it seemed to go backwards...anyhow, this is a big step for you and it seems to be having an effect...small steps are part and parcel of having a puppy.

If he doesn't settle every night don't become disheartened, now mine is 5 months old things are so much better.....but only 3 months ago I thought "what the hell have I done in getting him".

It'll all work out....keep us updated please.

Annee

Thanks annee. I do need to keep reminding myself that he is still just a baby and we need to expect the rough with the smooth. But it is reassuring to know that others have gone through similar things and all the advice is greatly appreciated!

Wishing you all lots of luck and best wishes!

I have had pups of your breed in the past, before I started taking on older rescues, and have never had a Newf pup that accepted being shut in a crate! they were fine with the door open but screamed blue murder if the door was shut. I think that the combination of being big wimpy babies along with the strong urge for human company makes it very difficult. I always just left them to roam around the kitchen (puppy proofed of course) and cleaned up if they had an accident although taking them out during the night averted most accidents after a few weeks. The down side is of course that big breeds have bid accidents!! One of mine still has to be taken out in the night and she's 9 now, but had (I think) been kennelled outside in her previous home so has never learned to ask or hold it. It will all get easier for you as pup gets older.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there samsmum. Our pup loves human contact and gets in a bit of a panic if he can't see us, especially if in his crate with his door shut.
Last night was better again also though. Same as the previous night, I woke around 2am after hearing him crying. I went down and quietly picked him up, took him for a wee, said a quiet good boy and put him back in the kitchen and came straight back to the bed. Didn't hear him again until 7. And to be honest, as we now leave the crate door open, I don't think he even goes in the crate.
So I think the combination of not shutting him up in his cage and letting him have the run of the kitchen, as well as being quiet and not allowing much stimulation at night when we go down to him, is definitely working.

Good to hear settling down! If he doesn't use the crate and you haven't room in kitchen why not try a basket or pet bed?  After a month our Cocker slept out crate in kitchen pulling his pet bed out by stair gate! Not used crate since its in garage waiting for next user!

What I also think, being a step ma to a malamute.. is that sometimes these giant hairy breeds get incredibly hot in the night and feel the need to move around to find a cooler spot.. a crate restricts the freedom to do that..

I am a fan.....

> took him for a wee, said a quiet good boy and put him back in the kitchen and came straight back to the bed. Didn't hear him again until 7. And to be honest, as we now leave the crate door open, I don't think he even goes in the crate. <br />So I think the combination of not shutting him up in his cage and letting him have the run of the kitchen, as well as being quiet and not allowing much stimulation at night when we go down to him, is definitely working.

Exactly like My pup (now 6 months), she just hated being shut in, but quite happy on her own loose in kitchen with her choice of sleeping places.

Hope the nights are settling down for you :)

I'm also wondering...would love an update.