Hi,

I'm new on here, but have been following the boards for ages and learning from your advice already! I've read absolutely everything I can get my hands on - we've been waiting for this little guy for nearly a year!

My pup comes home in 2 weeks time, and we have got a crate for him. I understand that it needs to be introduced properly, so that the dog sees it as his den and loves to be there. I also understand that this needs to be done gradually and rewarded etc.

Where I struggle is the first night.... By my understanding he needs to be in there with the door shut, but everything I read says that you should shut the door for a few mins at a time over several days? I'm confused!

I know he'll probably cry anyway as he's on his own, but do I just shut the door anyway and bravely walk away (til 3am!)?

Your experience would be greatly appreciated - this is my first puppy and I really want to get it right.

Sarah

Does anyone have any advice on this? I am interested as well :D

i wondered about this too when i fetched our kai home 6 mths ago.. so this is what i did (right or wrong it worked for me :D )

kai sleeps in our bedroom,at first he was on the floor for first week next to bed ( area confined) easier as i was in and out of bed every hour or two.
After a week of allowing him in and out of crate during the day ( feeding him in it, putting treats in the crate and putting him in when he fell asleep )
I put crate in our room and put him inside at bed time.door shut. of course kai didnt like this much as he hated being away from me. so put worn piece of clothing in crate covered the crate with a blanket, grabbed a duvet and wrapped myself up in duvet on the floor next to him, after the first week of sleeping really well, i moved further away from crate, by the end of 2 weeks i was back in my bed, with kai in his crate sleeping happily. :)

Thanks for that Jane :D

I can't have him up in the bedroom, his crate wouldn't fit up there anyway. I thought about having him in the kitchen with the crate door open, but then the cat won't be able to get out in the night, and I can't leave the both of them shut up in the kitchen!

I am quite stuck with this :(

what about the lounge then?
at least that way you can sleep on the sofa ;)

edited to add.... you could still use the same method i used  or nannyogg's :)

I suppose it is an option, but then the pup will still have to be locked in the crate from the first night, would he be OK with this, if I was there next to him?

i should think so... kai was.
I called kai to the side where i was and told him bedtime kai lay down with my fingers through the bars gentle stroking him til he settled, if he whinned later i just popped my fingers through again to reassure him i was still there :)

Thanks very much for the advice, I will be taking bits of everybodies :D

It is soooo exciting!!! :D :D

My GSD pup is now 12 weeks (13 weeks tomorrow). About three weeks before I was due to bring her home, I took her crate and a blanket to the breeder. The breeder left the crate open so all the pups could go in and out and get very familiar with it over the next few weeks, and so the blanket could get plenty of smell. By the time I picked her up at 7 weeks, she would choose to sleep in the crate. We drove to get her and brought her home in the car in the crate. She understandably whined a bit at first and quickly settled. When we got her home, my partner carried her straight out into the garden to have a wee wee and a poo and to familiarise herself with the garden and have a good sniff about while I brought the crate in and set it up the front room. For the rest of the day the crate door was left open and she could choose what she wanted to do, and she chose to go in there. Come night time, because our staircase is very steep, we kept the crate in the fonrt room and slept on the sofa in with her for the first 7 nights. At bedtime she was encouraged to go in there with some treats, her smelly blanket that had been to the breeders, her water bowl and some soft toys that had also come from the breeder and which had her siblings and her mum's smell on. She whined at first, quickly settled, and then we got up at 3am and at 6 am for her to go to the loo, and everytime we put her back in the crate she moaned for all of 2 mins before settling again. After the 7th night we went upstairs to sleep but left the TV and the light on for her and ignored her when she whined (keeping with our programme of getting up in the night) after 2 nights we could switch off the TV and after another 2 or 3 nights she stopped whining altogether. She si now 12 weeks and knows bedtime and puts herself to bed, and she never makes a sound. Now we put her to bed between 11:30 and 12pm and she can go until 6am when we get up to take her out, and then she goes back in her crate to sleep for another two hours when we get up for the day. That worked for me, and I hope some of that might help somewhat - I admit I was very lucky to have such a nice, kind breeder who was willing to do that with the crate.

Gosh you where lucky NannyOgg,
my breeder wouldnt have had the room for our crate...:D
The blanket smelling of mum and littermates was the bit i forgot. We were supplied with some vetbed that had been in with mum and pups, when we picked kai up,aswell as 2 toys.

Did try the warm water bottle in crate and ticking clock nearby, but neither worked on kai.
Hopefully you'll get plenty of suggestions and find what works for you very quickly :)

Good luck and enjoy those sleepless nights :D

Thanks NannyOgg :D

I don't think we would be able to leave the crate at our breeders, it is a good idea though :D

Thanks everyone for your help!
Natalie - It's nice to know I'm not the only one struggling!

It's going to be difficult to have his crate upstairs as we've bought a full adult size and we're going to block a bit off while he's little - it's going to look so comical!

I think I might put him up one end of our lounge/diner and kip on the sofa (just a few feet away) until he's happier. It's less of a walk to the back door in the early hours too!

This is something I have saved as I think it is a good alternative to crating from the very beginning, it worked very well with our latest addition and is a tried and tested method used by his breeders.

The thing to remember with your new pup is that he/she has never slept on their own, they have always had either their mum or their litter mates there so it is very scary when they have to start sleeping by themselves.

The method we used was to get a cardboard box, with tall sides, place a thick wedge of newspaper in the bottom and cover with a blanket or piece of vet bed/fleece. We found this box useful when bringing Idõ home too, and we still used it up until a time when he wouldn't fit into it and began to learn how to ride in the car with the big girls!
The box is placed next to your bed, or settee (I slept on the settee in the living room for 3 weeks after we got Idõ as it meant I was a very short distance from the back door for when he needed to go outside.)
If he was at all unsettled during the night I simply dropped my arm into the box and he snuggled up instantly. If he still seemed unsettled then I'd pop outside with him for a wee and then put him straight back in the box. Remember not to talk to him, unless it is to praise for 'toileting'.
Take him outside as soon as he wakes on a morning, this was around 6.30am with Idõ because he was used to having breakfast at 7am!

When we thought he was more settled at night, ie going from 11/12 at night til 6.30/7am without going out then I cut away the front of the box and put it inside his crate, which he had been used to going in and out of during the day since we first got him.
By now he knew the box meant 'sleepy time' and we had no problems with him settling in it and for the past 6 weeks or so he has no accidents at night, and he now asks at the back door when he needs to go out, which is the whole point I suppose!

This method is very kind to the puppy, with our last pup we had her in a crate from the first night and she howled the house down, but there was nothing we could do as she we knew she had to learn to accept the situation, I still got up 3 or 4 times during the night to take her out and it worked but I found this method is far nicer and we have still ended up with a pup that is settled at night, it just meant that we got some sleep too!

I hope this helps you, don't hesitate to ask me for more info if you don't understand something.

Emily :)

I like the sound of this!
I'm already feeling so sorry for my little guy, I'm going to feel dreadful taking him away fom his mum and all 9 brothers and sisters, even though we know we'll give him a great life! It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive home for him too - so it's a lot to happen to him in one day and I really didn't want to make his day any harder.
Better get plumping those sofa cushions........!

I really like that idea aswell Emily Rose :)

Will have to get hubbie to bring a nice box home for him :D In fact, I could use the tray that is in the crate under the box so nothing would seep through the box at all!

I think we will do this, thanks very much :D :D

Glad you like the idea, and it does work..well it did for my little man :D Just to add, I also got one of those round hear mat things, got it at PAH, about £20. You out it in the microvave then it had a fleccy cover to go over it, then I wrapped it up again as it was quite warm. This was particularly useful when I started taking my arm out of the box, I would leave it in at first(be prepared for stiff shoulders the next morning!) but gradually put it in to settle him then took it, slowly, back out.
PM me if you have any questions, now or when the new little bundles of joy arrive :)
Emily

I have seen them and wondered if they are any good, I will look out for one next time we go to PAH :D

I bought one of those read for new pup - just thought I'd test it out, and it's been in my bed with me for the last three nights!!!! He'll have to fight me for it now!! I'd really recommend it, it's still warm at 10 the next morning, no re-filling bottles in the night!

The heatpat I got is a vet one - you shake it to activate the heat and within 10 minutes it is warn and will say warm for around 20 hours. To de-activate you just seal it into an airtight container/bag and it will cool right down. I had to find something that didn't need a microwave as I don;t have one!!

My puppy is 13 weeks now.  For the first week, he slept in his crate, with vet bedding and a smelly old blanket I'd left with his mum and littermates, and I slept near him on the sofa.  I put him to bed at 11.00 p.m. after letting him out to go to the toilet.  I threw some treats in the crate and he went in and I shut the crate door.  The first night he made a big fuss at first, (and I felt very guilty!!) but I spoke to him quietly to reassure him and he went to sleep.  He woke a couple of times in the night to go to the toilet outside, and I put him back in the crate.  After a week, (and lots of people telling me to leave him or he will never get used to being on his own!) I was worried I wouldn't be able to hear him upstairs to get down in time to let him out (I didn't use paper, or 'wee pads' in the house) so I bought a baby monitor.  This is brilliant, but he stopped waking up in the night after that anyway, gets in his crate on his own about 10.30 p.m and sleeps through till 6-7 a.m. Hooray! I was beginning to feel (and look) like I had newborn babies again!!