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Crate - First few nights at home....

My Wesley

Well-known member
I'm getting conflicting advice from two different books. I'm trying to figure out where I should keep Wesley's crate the first few nights at home.

The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel book (A Kennel Club Book, written by Juliette Cunliffe) says:

"Puppies whine. They whine to let the others know where they are and hopefully to get company out of it. Place your pup in his new bed or crate in his room and close the door. Mercifully, he may fall asleep without a peep. When the inevitable occurs, ignore the whining: he is fine. Be strong and keep his interest in mind. Do not allow your heart to become guilty and visit the pup. He will fall asleep." And.... "Puppy's first night can be somewhat stressful for the pup and his new family. Remember that you are setting the tone of nighttime at your house. Unless you want to play with your pup every night at 10pm, midnight, and 2am, don't initiate the habit"

The Training Your Puppy magazine (Topic Volume 3, 2nd edition) says:

"There are two important tules of crate-training:
1. Don't place your puppy's crate in the garage or in a room where it can't see you. The puppy will feel abandoned, and will bark or howl until you show up again, making it an extremely long night, as well as delaying the cratetraining process. During the daytime, put the crate in the room where you spend the most amount of time. Come nighttime, move it into your bedrooom. That way your puppy will feel secure that you're nearby. If it whimpers during the night, it probably means potty time. Take your puppy outside without playing with it, and it will go to the bathroom and go right back to sleep in its crate. If it frets again, tell your puppy that you're right there and it will settle back asleep.
2. (Not needed for what I'm asking about) "


So please help! I personally agree with the magazine.
 
We did the second - we kept Willow in a crate by our bed, and when after a few hours of sleeping, she started whining, we took her out, went outside and then put her right back in - no play, nothing but potty time so she wouldn't get it in her head that this was how to get out and play. It was a long couple of weeks, but the time between potty breaks got longer and longer until she was sleeping through the night. We managed to get through this with only one accident in the crate ever -we don't even know when she did that, we think it might have been during the day.

Krista
 
I've actually gone along with the hard hearted method (made easier by my deafness), and I've found it to work. Then again, both of mine were 10 weeks plus, so I'm not sure I'd have been as firm with a very small puppy.

Mine are the opposite- they settle beautifully alone in their crates, but if they see me moving around they howl to be allowed out.
 
Our cavs sleep in their soft-sided crates in our bedroom. I love the sound of their breathing and sometimes snoring :lol: at night.
 
Both of mine worked fine by being crated in the family room away from me. I think you just need to see what works for you. Neither suggestion is "right". "Right" is whatever works.
 
I've always opted for the closeness route. Like Cathy said, I enjoy hearing their breathing. Likewise, I think it's probably a comfort to a puppy to hear us breathing as well.

When my Golden was still crated, we started with his very large crate in the dining room away from us. He began having behavior problems during the day; he was very mischievious and obviously something was up. Our trainer suggesting moving him into our bedroom because she felt he was lonely at night and was trying everything to get our attention during the day, even if it was negative attention. :roll:

We moved him in and his daytime behavior improved just about instantly. Since then, I've not put a puppy or dog out of our room at night. I don't like to be lonely, and I'm pretty sure puppies and dogs don't care for it either.

That said, you must go with your own instincts on what will work best for you in your home with your puppy. I'm sure you'll find your answer once you have little Wesley at home with you! :lotsaluv:
 
i kept brady in his crate in my bedroom at night. he wasn't really one to cry though. during the day i moved it downstairs so i could let him out right away if i had been out during the day at all. when brady would cry at night i would ignor him until he stopped, then took him out to go potty. i only really had to take him in the middle of the night for maybe a week. after awhile we started to let him sleep in the bed with us. i love having him snuggle next to me. and i figure dogs are happiest when they are doing there job, and a cavs job is to be a compainion. :) brady will usually wake up and start to wake us up around 6:30, but i'm usally starting to wake up by then for work anyway. it's annoying on the days that i get to sleep in though. and for some reason he always goes to my boyfriend and tries to wake him up before he goes to me even though i'm the one that takes him out in the morning and then feeds him. strange. maybe he knows that i tend to ignor him sometimes in the morning and if he bothers daddy, daddy gets mad that he was woken up and then tells me to take him out. it's harder to ignor him. :)
 
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