Pros and Cons to crate training 9 week old puppy

[lyssarae83]

@dnl123 I like your name and I like your attitude.

 

[jenndiver09]

@katrad2011 Crate training now doesn't necessarily mean you won't get to sleep with your dog in your bed later.

From our experience, crate training gave us a great option that we can lean on when we have maintenance or other workers over and need our pup quiet and not underfoot as well as a place to have him sleep when he's too wound up to settle down if there's a guest or we're the guests somewhere else (pop up travel crates are a godsend). We had our guy sleep in his crate every night until he was 8 months, then started to leave him to his own devices overnight to see what he did; he opted to just sleep at our bedside, just outside the bedroom, or on the living room couch depending on his mood and has not destroyed anything or had any accidents since he'd already learned to hold his bladder overnight for months.

On the other hand, I know his littermates have been mostly not been crate trained and they're also doing fine (though there definitely have been some random "why did you pee on the bed I thought you were housebroken???" moments for all of them). I think the only big difference is that the ones with no crate training get hyper/antsy when they're put in the crate indoors for any reason.

Ultimately, what works for you works for you, but if your dog has several weeks of sleeping in the bed with you before you start then I wouldn't expect to be able to crate train her without significant overnight trouble going forward.

 

[shantaedavis]

@katrad2011 my puppy was an angel the first three days too and by day 4 i bought a crate because she turned into a well…maniac at times. i thank the crate and enforced naps now every day

 

[onceawaretwiceempowered]

@katrad2011 The crate isn't a be all end all thing. Plenty of us never crate. You do what _you_ want to do. And given she's probably not crate trained yet, crating her at night is not a good idea imo. Crate train during the day, and always make the crate a nice place. I don't like when people just put their dogs in a crate, let them whine and cry until they give up. Imo that's not crate training.

Crate training takes time. And remember, separation training and crate training are two separate things to train for.

 

[lyssarae83]

@katrad2011 I find crate to be a great tool. She only goes in when she sleeps. When she goes in there, she is already bit sleepy.

For her, it's like sleep hygiene. Only sleep. She has warm water bottles to snuggle to, a heartbeat rabbit, a chew cheese stick, an old t-shirt and a blanket. She doesn't sleep as deeply in her play pen.

The crate is great for me and I thjnknkts great for her.

 

[angeliqueg]

@katrad2011 I always start puppies in crates next to my bed for the first few months. Especially the tiny ones since they are notoriously hard to potty train. But then after a few months I stop using them once they prove they can be trusted. It’s temporary and they really don’t mind it.

 

[abugah]

@katrad2011 The crate also keeps them safe. ESP a tiny dog like a chihuahua that can fall off a bed or be rolled over on and crushed. I’ve also seen far too many posts of people waking up in a sea of pee or poop to be confident enough to trust a teeny tiny baby who’s not house broken and has no bladder control

 

[thecyclingcrusader]

@katrad2011 Crating is not necessarily for sleep. We crate train our dogs for when workers have to come in the house or after surgery. But they always sleep in bed with us

 

[burningbush84]

@katrad2011 I do not crate my 6 month husky mix at night, I used to for the first 2 months or so till eventually just leaving the crate door open all the time , I must say he was pretty vocal in the beginning and my wife and I thought we would never get any sleep but by the 3rd day or so the crying stopped and he accepted this is where I am sleeping , after about 2 months I began leaving the door open and just give him the chance to see what kind of destruction I'd Wake up to but to my surprise there was none , so from there I just left it open and he's still doing really well , mind you access to the kitchen and bedrooms is still blocked for him even at night I am glad I crate trained though as he really does consider his crate his safe place and even goes in on his own at night even though no one forces him to go in and the door is open and that's where he goes when I need to go out and no one's home or when he just begins getting destructive or over hyper during the day even though he's been playing in the backyard for hours and has gone on a hour long walk, we use it for forced naps as for him the change in his behaviour I find is he is over tired a lot of times . I would definitely crate train it will take a lot of worry away when you need to go out and he will feel safe as well.

 

[katrad2011]

Just a lil fyi- seems like some people think I won’t be training her at all just because I was iffy on the crate over night after hearing so much mixed info online and in person.
I appreciate all your opinions it was exactly what I was looking for!
Rest assured I am training her. She’s a smart lady and picking up commands quickly. I do plan to train her to be comfortable in a carrier/car seat for outings separately to being comfortable in the crate while she’s home alone. And I also am not naive enough to think she won’t turn into a crazy puppy any day now. For now she’s still calm and I can update when she turns wild if I change my mind on having her sleep w me overnight

 

[archangel54]

@katrad2011 If the long term goal is not to have her in a crate and it’s working without one now, I think it’s a no brainer. Congrats!