Feeling guilty about crating puppy for his 16-18hr sleep time

[happycamper843]

I have a 5mo puppy who sleeps in his crate for about 16-18 hours a day and I’m starting to feel so guilty for how much time he’s in there. He’s on the 1 hour play and 2 hour sleep schedule except he gets 2 hours play in the morning/evening. I’d love for him to start napping outside his crate, but he will only settle for 15-30 mins max. He’s a golden and has a lot do growing to do, so I want to make sure he sleeps well. Also that he doesn’t get over stimulated/tired.

Recently I took away his playpen which was attached to his crate. So he’s just sleeping in his crate now. He used to move back and forth between the crate and playpen because he liked the cold floor. I feel so guilty putting him in his crate now. He has an xxl crate so he can move back and forth between his comfy bed and tray(he likes to move back and forth when he gets hot/cold.) He just stands there and watches as I walk away. He doesn’t cry, he settles down well and sleeps, but a part of me feels like I’m caging him. He’s starting to know when it’s nap time and gives me the sad puppy eyes because he doesn’t want playtime to be over or to sleep. It’s so hard not to give in.

Update:
Thanks for the advice everyone. I’ll still do bedtime and maybe a 1-2 reinforced naps, but I’ll start easing up on how often he does his naps in there. I work from home, so I’ll keep him out when I’m not in meetings(I don't have them often, maybe a few times a week). I also have 2 cats who are adjusting so he doesn’t have free roam of the home or my office yet. I generally bring my laptop to work with him in the livingroom and my office happens to be my cat's safe haven right now. As of right now, his schedule is(unless we go on an adventure somewhere, he gets less sleep):

7:30-9:30 play, eat, walk 9:30-11:30 sleep 11:30-12:30 play 12:30-2:30 sleep 2:30-4:30 play, hang out outside, training 4:30-6:30 sleep 6:30-7:30 eat, play, walk 7:30-9:30 sleep 9:30-10:30 relaxing play 10:30 bed time

I’ll take out some of those periods of sleep during the day and let him try and ease down. It was recommended to me by my vet to do a sleep schedule since he’s got a lot of growing to do and wasn’t resting enough. But I can start easing him out to see how he does

Another update:
I'm seeing some people ask me why I crate my puppy if he's so mellow and well-behaved outside it. He's only mellow and well-behaved when he's properly rested. As of right now with his sleep schedule, he plays great, doesn't bite much(if at all), doesn't get into trouble, and doesn't chew clothes/blankets. He does wonderful on walks and around other people. However, if he takes short naps or does not get enough rest, he does start to become bitey, barky, growly, and overall unhappy. He does know the calm command and follows it perfectly when he's well rested. Once he hits his over-tired point, he will not listen to commands and high-quality treats don't even work, they make him worse. I brought this up with my vet who recommended I reinforce nap time with a crate and ensure he's getting at least 16 hours so he's not overstimulated or tired. Since doing this, he has been absolutely incredible. I have been and will continue to reduce crate time. Although he will still get 1-2 naps and bedtime in there, I'll ease him into sleeping outside it. As he grows I've already noticed an improvement on his overtired behavior. He's getting much better with it, but change doesn't happen overnight. He's still a baby with a lot of training and growing to do

 

[nicolegriff]

@happycamper843 I feel like you need to introduce him how to sleep out of the crate. I personally dont feel it's a good life being in a crate that many hours a day, and I have seen many behavioral problems in older dogs that are in the crate for too long of amount of time. (I am a vet tech who has worked in ECC for 12 years)

 

[thesensorystore]

@nicolegriff Can you explain a little more? My husband and I are going through the struggle of crate sleeping vs non crate sleeping. Or pup will never voluntarily sleep in his crate (he’s 5 months old) so we have to put him in the crate for naps and bedtime. When he sleeps outside his crate he seems extremely unrested and is just a terror to be honest lol

Is it better for dogs to not take all their naps and sleep in the crate?

 

[theohpilus]

@thesensorystore we put a baby blanket on where our puppy fell alseep most of the time, so that when he was asleep we could pick up the blanket and put him in the crate.

We didnt lock or close the crate, but he still stayed in there because he was tired. IMO, a tired dog is an easy dog. Tire them out before nap time, then put them in the crate with the door open. This allows them to choose, some dogs are crate dogs and others arent.

 

[thesensorystore]

@theohpilus Aw that’s so cute

 

[nicolegriff]

@thesensorystore I threw up a list somewhere else in this thread about the patients ove personally seen who were crated excessively

 

[thesensorystore]

@nicolegriff Thanks I will look for it

 

[chase1635321]

@nicolegriff I also agree with this!!!!! I have an almost 7 month of golden who wouldn’t relax outside of his crate until I had to just let him finally figure it out. My golden will sleep in his crate if I put him in there, but letting him figure out how to relax outside of his crate has been a godsend. He only goes in his crate if I need to run errands or I’m not home. He now sleeps in bed with me and it’s awesome!!!!

 

[hansbiblebeliever]

@chase1635321 I have a 7 month old golden aswell but he never settles on the bed with me i am not sure if he isn’t rlly used the bed but whenever I bring him up to my room he is always looking for something to do even if I had just taken him on a walk he just never really chooses to sleep so did u do something for ur pup to start sleeping in the bed or will it just come with time?

 

[chase1635321]

@hansbiblebeliever It took several weeks for him to realize that the bed was a good place to chill, but it will come with time!!! When we go to bed, most of the time he lays on the floor and then eventually comes up to bed sometime in the middle of the night, so I get to wake up to cuddles!!!

 

[asen]

@nicolegriff I agree, I always encouraged my puppy to sleep outside of her crate from when I got her. She will choose maybe once a day to nap in her crate, normally when I eat. She will nap on her bed or on my lap otherwise

I did have to rock her to sleep for a while but it worked

 

[tropicalbaby]

@nicolegriff Thank you for saying this. I am honestly floored how many people on here recommend crating a dog for the majority of the day. I have only ever used it for when I leave the house (I work from home) and at night. Otherwise I’m watching the puppy. It’s crazy hard work the first month- but after that I have a pretty well trained pup who follows me from room to room and is overall easy.

My 7 mo old puppy hasn’t needed a crate at night for 2 months, and she mainly acts like a relaxed calm adult dog. I fully believe that’s because she wasn’t forced to live in a crate her entire young life.

 

[john146wtl]

@tropicalbaby It’s to protect the dog and not everyone can work from home.

 

[tropicalbaby]

@john146wtl I get that. I really do. Though I do think that if the plan is to crate the puppy 8-10 hrs a day, then another 8 at night, it’s best to get an older puppy or adult dog that won’t need it. There are also alternatives- you can give them a room/pen- so they can play with toys, move around a bit while still ensuring they are safe. Or dog daycare, pet walker, etc.

But OP works from home, and many are still encouraging it.

 

[john146wtl]

@tropicalbaby OP is doing absolutely nothing wrong. Is it a different method than you’d take? Clearly. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

 

[neld1]

@tropicalbaby I work from home and I had a playpen to which the crate was attached with the door open. I crated him at the beginning during the night to help him learn to signal that he needed to go out. Eventually I left the door open and he free roamed his playpen. He’d fall asleep outside of the crate and eventually move into it. I have the crate only now to give him a darkish container place to sleep in if he so chooses.

 

[dduc996]

@nicolegriff Like what

 

[nicolegriff]

@dduc996 These are all things I have personally seen in hand, but the list varies in severity but here it goes:

1. Hyperactivity when outside of the crate, and then the O are confused why their dog has a harder time to settle outside of the crate.
2. OCD behaviors (this one varies a lot)
3. Excessive chewing
4. Excessive digging
5. Tendencies to be uncontrollable at vet appointments (this goes hand in hand with #1)
6. Aggression when being handled (this one was purely the dogs who have had to stay hospitalized almost resented going in the kennels)
7. Excessive pacing in and out of the crate
8. Muscle atrophy (I'll try to find the study)

 

[mikea92]

@happycamper843 When my pups were small, the only time they were crated was at night or if I had errands to run. Other than that, they napped outside their crate on a bed in the livingroom. Now that they are older, I don't crate them at all.

 

[ali89]

@happycamper843 It always cracks me up reading these comments, you all realize that 16 hrs isn’t consecutive and is likely just overnight sleep + 2/3 crate naps? I mean damn my pup sleeps 10 hrs overnight which is the bulk of time already

My guy is five months and can settle out of his crate but not everyone is so lucky, a lot of it comes down to the dog’s demeanor I’m sure.

Plus none of this permanent! No one here is getting a dog to keep it in a crate through adulthood so I don’t know why people are assuming that.

The way I did it was give my guy a chance to settle for a nap. If he started nipping on the couch or was just grouchy overall I got a treat and let him settle in the crate for his nap. He’s gotten better as he grows up with that.