@yeshuafollower This is what worked for my puppy. Crate training felt impossibly hard at first when I was sleep deprived but it’s one of the quickest things we trained now looking back. It was really important to me that she slept well in a crate so I was super consistent with it from the first day.
She has had a snuggle puppy since day 1. We only used the heat/heartbeat for I think the first night or 2. That didn’t seem to make a difference for her. But she lovessss that thing and it’s the best money I’ve spent. She still sleeps with it nightly and anytime she naps even if not in her crate she goes to get it. She snuggles up with it like she used to her littermates and I really think it helped that initial adjustment.
She is crated in a different room from where We sleep. We didn’t want her in our room at night so I just never did that and she adjusted fine. A ton of people say they need to see you to calm down but that was the opposite for my puppy. She calmed down when she saw we were not giving her attention for crying. And we had to move the crate to the farthest place from my apartment hallway and neighbor walls because we think that was waking her. We use a sound machine on white noise every night now to help block out any sounds that might wake her up too.
We use a crate cover rather than a sheet. The cover attaches to the crate so it can’t flap around or move at all and potentially distract her. And she can’t try to bite it because it’s fitted. I keep the front of the cover rolled up because I don’t think she would like being completely blacked out but the cover makes her feel safe.
I use a camera so I can see what she’s doing when I hear barking or whining. I have an affordable one from Amazon called Petcube and it does the trick. It was helpful to check on her without having to go in where she could hear or see me. You’ll learn that you can tell when she’s on the verge of settling down vs when she clearly needs to go potty and isn’t going to settle based on how she’s acting in there.
I think the most important thing we did was bring her crate into the living room where we hang out every evening or the kitchen where I work during the day for the first 2ish weeks. She would go in on her own and we would just let her settle there. We enticed her in sometimes with treats but mainly let her discover it on her own. Sometimes we would sit down there beside it so she would get interested in it too. That crate was always an option for her to lie in wherever she was and she got really used to it.
I didn’t set alarms to take her out. The crate divider was set so that she had just enough room to turn around and lie down so I knew she would bark if she needed to go potty and I didn’t want to wake her up when she didn’t have to go out yet. She woke up once a night around 4:30am most nights at first and I would take her out to potty. I carried her from her crate all the way outside and then picked her up as soon as she was done. Never talked to her other than to say go potty. Right back in the crate without her paws touching the floor once inside. I take her water away around 8pm and her last potty is at 10pm. If she had been out within 2 hours and was barking I would make her stay in there. You’ll learn whether she can hold it that long quickly and can adjust your night time potty breaks accordingly. Once you know when she has to go out vs when she’s just whining to get out it helps.
I did a lot of ignoring her barking and whining when I knew she didn’t have to potty. It sucked and felt mean but you have to stay consistent with nighttime is for sleeping. This was harder for my boyfriend because he thought she would never settle when she would really get going and wanted to let her out because it’s loud and frustrating. But they eventually tire themselves out and will go back to sleep you just have to be patient. (Make sure to take off her collar because it’s not safe if they are jumping around).
There were a lot of tears at first due to sleep deprivation and anxiety about being in an apartment. We even got a note from our neighbors about it. But it took her maybe 2 weeks to sleep through the night and now we wake her up in the morning at 7:30 and she’s only 13 weeks old. It felt like this would never happen when we were in the first 2 weeks. Hang in there it will get better and it’s so hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel when you are so sleep deprived!
