# First time owner question: crating at night?



## Netty (Jun 21, 2013)

For those of you who remember, I posted a thead asking for breeders in the UK a few months back. All went well and we're now bringing a beautiful Rosedale Doodle home next week!

The only problem we're having is what to do with the puppy at night. We definitely want to have a crate, but after hearing horror stories about puppies who are shut in their crate for too long before they're ready, I don't know if it would be ok to lock the door all night long. Especially since an 8 week old puppy probably won't be able to stop itself from going to the bathroom all night and I really don't want to force her to pee where she sleeps. 

It would be great to hear how you guys got past this stage - should we get up to take her out in the night, or would this stop her from learning to sleep all night long? Is it ok to shut the crate door on her so soon? 

And in case anyone wants to see the little girl in question, here she is at 7 weeks: https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1098364_239046292909241_883761833_n.jpg


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## Ashley (Aug 9, 2013)

We have had our puppy for six weeks and have shut the crate door from the beginning. We used to get up once or twice during the night, usually she would let us know by crying. 

For the past three weeks or so she makes it through the night from 11-7ish. We take her in the bed for a bit in the morning after her 7am outing.

When she was getting up in the night she went right back to sleep without any fuss. She also used to cry at the very beginning of the night for about five minutes, but that was only for the first week or so. She has been really good with her sleeping habits, biting not so much. Lol!!

Also, her crate is very close to our bed which helps a lot too I think.


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## Jayded (Apr 5, 2013)

I had mine in the crate in my bedroom with the expectation of taking him outside during the night to pee. The first few nights I took him out three times, it gradually decreased to him sleeping through the night, I think by the second week. I don't remember exactly, it may have been third week. 

Sent from my Galaxy S ll


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

So adorable. I started out waking up every 2 hrs then added 15 min each day. I didn't want them to have accidents in their crates. But I also was at home during the day and could nap as needed for the first few weeks.


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## dio.ren (Jan 18, 2013)

She's adorable!! When we got Molly she was 8 weeks old. She was only 3lbs so very tiny! Her first night I had her in a tiny cat carrier which was perfect for her. It fit on my nightstand and she could stand, sit, turn around in it and lie down. Her first night she whimpered a bit but she was right beside my head so I would stick my finger in the crate door and she would lick it and then quiet down. I had a toy in there and a towel that I had slept with for a week to put my scent on it.

Her first night she cried really loudly once so I took her out and she pee'd and poo'd and then I put her back in. She cried for a bit but put my finger in and she was ok in a few minutes. At 5am I took her out and she did her duties and then I put her back in and she slept til 8am. She has been great in her crate since we got her not one accident in there!

I have always closed the door still do. She goes to bed at 10pm or sometimes 11pm and I get her up at 7:00-7:30am. She never cries in there.

I have had a good crate experience some people don't guess it depends on the dog?? Just make sure that it isn't too big or then she will use it as a bathroom.

Good luck with your new puppy!!


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## Sumes (Aug 3, 2013)

Hi, we've had our 8 week old boys for nearly a week now and have used the shut crate at night since day 1.
The crate is in the lounge downstairs and they go in between 10.30-11.30 PM and settle straight away.
I then get up when I hear them through the baby monitor which is usually around 3ish to let them go to the loo then straight back in the crate without any fuss.
We don't hear from them again until around 7.30 AM.
The crate is left open all day and they can go in and out as they want to so they know it's not a bad place.
Our crate is quite large for when they grow so we block half of it off at night and so far only one accident when I slept through.
I have to say I think this has worked so well because the two of them keep each other company so we don't have them pining for us as much.


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## RuthMill (Jun 30, 2012)

It all depends on the pup. Some will sleep right through, like our new pup has done. She didn't need to toilet in the middle of the night. We got up with our older girl at 3.30 for the first two weeks.


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## Faybee (Jul 30, 2013)

What a beauty! She looks just Betty. 

We have had Betty for 8 days now and have crated her from first night. I will summarise each night 

Night 1: Cried for an hour (agony) set alarm to get up at 3pm to let her out, she only did a wee and was traumatised being put back in crate, woke up in morning at 6 to poo smeared all over

Night 2: Cried for 10 mins, didn't get up in night, poo in the crate again 

Night 3: No crying, didn't get up, poo in crate

Night 4, no crying, didn't get up, poo in crate

Night 5: no crying, didn't get up, poo in crate (starting to get very frustrated at this point!)

Night 6: No crying, didn't get up in night, dry crate (hurrah!) 

Night 7: no crying, didn't get up in night, poo in crate (I went out for night and OH fed her all the new food, was gradually putting her on it so gave her an upset stomach) 

Night 8: no crying, didn't get up in night, dry crate again (yeah!) 

I hope this helps, I was panicking so much but they just have to learn and it could take a while xx


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

I agree with you Nettie, I have always thought it horrible to leave a puppy in a crate with its pee or poo! The trouble is if you get up to them in the night for them to relieve themselves they don't want to be left alone again. 
I went to bed as late as I could and got up as early as I could and never had a messy crate. I also put the crate in my room which made my pups calm and tranquil as they were never lonely.


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## Netty (Jun 21, 2013)

Thanks for all the brilliant advice, it seems like closing the crate and blocking it off are the way to go. I suppose I'll just have to see what happens with getting up in the night, since there are so many different experiences! I'll try getting up once or twice a night if she cries to begin with and I'll see if it disturbs her sleep pattern too much.


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## Jayded (Apr 5, 2013)

Netty said:


> Thanks for all the brilliant advice, it seems like closing the crate and blocking it off are the way to go. I suppose I'll just have to see what happens with getting up in the night, since there are so many different experiences! I'll try getting up once or twice a night if she cries to begin with and I'll see if it disturbs her sleep pattern too much.


I found with Ringo, (once he got used to the crate) that he would whine for a few seconds after I brought him back in, but that was it. Mind you, his crate was in with me, although across the room, not near enough to touch him or anything. I don't feel like it disturbed his sleep any more than needing to pee in the first place. I never woke him up to take him out, but waited for him to cry.


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## Netty (Jun 21, 2013)

Jayded said:


> I found with Ringo, (once he got used to the crate) that he would whine for a few seconds after I brought him back in, but that was it. Mind you, his crate was in with me, although across the room, not near enough to touch him or anything. I don't feel like it disturbed his sleep any more than needing to pee in the first place. I never woke him up to take him out, but waited for him to cry.


Ah, that could be a problem for us. Our crate will be downstairs since we won't be allowing the puppy upstairs at all. We just bought a guide ot raising a puppy which advised us to keep the puppy in one of our bedrooms at night for the first week. Maybe that's something we should think about?


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## News up (Jun 7, 2013)

Your puppy is fab, we went and chose our pup from rosedale doodles last Sunday - it was a lovely experience!! We don't collect ours until 3rd sept so will be really keen to hear how you get on!! Who were your pups parents? Our were Honey and Arthur )


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

"We just bought a guide ot raising a puppy which advised us to keep the puppy in one of our bedrooms at night for the first week. Maybe that's something we should think about?"

Lots of us have done exactly that and it has worked well.


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## Jayded (Apr 5, 2013)

Netty said:


> Ah, that could be a problem for us. Our crate will be downstairs since we won't be allowing the puppy upstairs at all. We just bought a guide ot raising a puppy which advised us to keep the puppy in one of our bedrooms at night for the first week. Maybe that's something we should think about?


or maybe a baby monitor? Ringo was in my room for 6 weeks, we moved him into the kitchen temporarily because I had surgery and my son was going to be taking care of him while I was out of action. The kitchen ended up working well, so we've kept him there, but it's right next to my bedroom so he wakes me up if need be. Like last night he woke me up at 2 AM. Very unusual for him. Turns out he was dying of thirst! He drank a full bowl of water down without stopping. It has been extremely hot here this past week, and even with the A/C, I guess he didn't get quite enough before bed. Poor baby.


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

They are very individual as to how well they settle, we decided we would use a crate and leave pup downstairs, lucky for us it worked well but I think I would have tried to talk OH into allowing him into our bedroom if he hadn't settled after a few nights. We are lucky as the crate fits under our stairs, we were able to put a board up to block off an extra area so we could leave the crate door open and there was just a little space for him to go outside of it if he needed to go in the night, we left a puppy pad there and decided as he didn't need to mess in his crate we would use tough love and not go down in the night. First night he cried for 10 mins then quiet, about twice more during the night he cried for 5 or 10 mins. when we went down about 6.30 he had done a pee outside of the crate. 2nd night he cried for 10 mins but then quiet all night, again a pee outside. 3rd night cried for a couple of mins then quiet, after a couple more nights we noticed he had stayed dry so we started shutting the crate door, no problems - never poo'd in the night. We were really lucky I know - mind you we needed that sleep to cope with his mad moments during the day!


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## AliAlfie (Jul 29, 2013)

Netty said:


> Ah, that could be a problem for us. Our crate will be downstairs since we won't be allowing the puppy upstairs at all. We just bought a guide ot raising a puppy which advised us to keep the puppy in one of our bedrooms at night for the first week. Maybe that's something we should think about?


Our boys don't go upstairs at all either, so we have had the crate downstairs from day 1. We use a baby monitor to listen out for them. They've only been home 9 days (8 nights.) We had to let them out for the loo once a night for the first 6 nights, and the last 2 nights they've gone through til morning. Oh yes, and we've had just one single incident where they had a wee in their crate. I know its early days but we decided to do it this way to suit us, and I'm hoping that as they get older they will continue to go through the night without needing a comfort stop, and at that point we will be really glad we stuck to our guns and didn't move them to our room. (btw, Our boys are 9 and 10 weeks old.) That said, I know LOTS of people on here are very happy to have their poochies in the bedroom with them, so its really a case of what suits you.


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## SamRinde (Jun 10, 2013)

Netty said:


> Ah, that could be a problem for us. Our crate will be downstairs since we won't be allowing the puppy upstairs at all. We just bought a guide ot raising a puppy which advised us to keep the puppy in one of our bedrooms at night for the first week. Maybe that's something we should think about?


We let Frankie sleep in our bed with us from night one (we got him at 9.5 weeks). He hasn't cried once (although it is sometimes annoying when he "digs" in the sheets to find a good spot) and only had one pee accident (after my OH gave him more chicken broth/water than Frankie could handle). He usually sleeps between our pillows (or on our pillows) or between our bodies.

I understand this doesn't work for everyone, but we are fine with it. It does get annoying if we want ... alone time... but there are ways to work around it. Frankie loves his crate and will sleep in there if we give him a kong before we put him in there, but we do that when we are at work so we didn't want to do that at night as well. Plus, some of the best belly rubs happen in bed. Hopefully when he is big enough to jump on and off the bed, he will feel comfortable taking naps up there.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

Moving them to bed with me works out as we have plenty of space and they don't wake up anymore during the night. The other part iLife about is that since they are at daycare while I work and they fall asleep fairly early, having them in bed means I get to cuddle with them while they are sleeping. But mostly so I could get more than 3 hr sleeps at a stretch. I think whatever makes everyone happy and settled is the perfect solution for you.


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## Sumes (Aug 3, 2013)

Our crate is downstairs and has been from day 1 a week ago - they've settled really well and we've just had our third full night sleeping through. 
We have a baby monitor plugged in so can hear if they need us which works well.
In fairness though, having two is probably helpful as they do snuggle up and comfort one another.


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## Netty (Jun 21, 2013)

News up said:


> Your puppy is fab, we went and chose our pup from rosedale doodles last Sunday - it was a lovely experience!! We don't collect ours until 3rd sept so will be really keen to hear how you get on!! Who were your pups parents? Our were Honey and Arthur )


They're really lovely there, aren't they? We spent a full two hours (MUCH longer than we should have, I felt awful once I realised) playing with the puppies and the people there were happy to sit and talk to us for the whole time. They seemed to really know what they were doing. Arthur fathered our pups as well! I don't remember the mum's name, but she was a beautiful deep-brown spaniel. They were both so relaxed and friendly, I'm sure their puppies will be wonderful


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