Crate Training w/Mayson during the day

Good Evening all, I'm pretty sure I know what 90% of your responses are going to be, but I just need to ask...

So, we have Mayson, our now 10.5 week old pup. We have 2 different crates that he is using right now. We have a small crate in the bedroom for nighttime sleeping. He has never had an accident in this crate. He is now up to about 6 hours of continuous sleep at night. If we take him out at night for pee or poo, he goes right back in that crate. Last night I took him out at 3:00a (after going to bed at 9:00p) and he peed and pooed. Put him back in the crate and he fell asleep. He woke up around 4:00a a little fussy and whiny and I told him to go back to sleep, which he eventually did until we wake up at 5a. All is well with that crate and those arrangements...except for it's a small crate and he will probably out grow it in another 2-3 weeks.

We have a large (or size XL) crate that is down in the main room of the house. It has a divider to make it smaller. Murphy, our now 4 year old, used this crate exclusively. We never had Murphy in the bedroom. He was down in the main room since day one.

Here's another key piece of info, my husband works from home. Plus, he just started this job on January 2 so he's still "new" and needs to bust his ass...all while taking care of the puppy. So, we are trying to development our routines and crate time with Mayson. Sometimes he goes in there and barks his head off, sometimes he goes in there and sleeps for 2 hours. I've been coming home early from work by 4p because by that point Mayson is hungry and ready for dinner...and taking about 1 day off a week to help my husband out.

I seem to remember crate training so much easier with Murphy, but I'm guessing a big portion of it had to do with no one was working from home at that point, so I think he got used to the crate pretty quickly and if he did cry and bark, no one was around to hear it.

So, here are my questions:
How do I transition Mayson out of the small crate at night and into the big crate out of the bedroom?
How do we work on better crate training and quiet time during the day while DH is trying to work from home? I know this is a tough one, because they are dogs, they want to be with their humans!

Any advice, or even just sympathy that it will get better will be appreciated.

Thank you in advance!!!

Where is Murphy during the day? During the times you want to crate Mayson?

Is the routine the same on the times he goes in and cries and the times he does not?
Does he go in with something yummy?
Did you desensitize to the crate (feed in the crate, put high valu stuff in there, etc.)^

As for moving Mayson to the large crate overnight, I'd wait until he seems able to sleep through without a potty break from bedtime to whenever you normally get up anyway. That varies from dog to dog. We got Chase at 9 weeks of age and he started sleeping through the night within probably 2 weeks. We got Lark at 12 weeks and she slept through the night from the start except for a day or so when she had diarrhea and because she was in the crate in the bedroom, I could hear her start whining and got her outside before she let loose. Had she been downstairs where I couldn't hear her, we'd have all been very unhappy in the morning.

During the day, what would you say the typical routine is for Mayson and your husband? Are they in the same room? Does Mayson still get a meal at lunchtime? How much exercise time is Mayson getting during the day or is it mainly just potty breaks and back into the crate? Do you have an area where Mayson could be penned in, like in the kitchen using baby gates, so he doesn't have to be in the crate yet he is safely confined? What is Murphy doing while all this is going on? It sounds like you've modified your work schedule to try to help accommodate the new pup and your husband's job, how flexible is your job or how long are you going to be able to come home early-ish and take days off before it's back to your previous routine? Hmmm, looks like we have more questions than answers at the moment... just trying to see where things might be tweaked.

And I think we need another photo of Mayson about now. :amuse:

My husband and I both work from home and worked from home when we got Thor at 8 weeks old. We crate trained him. The most challenging thing was making sure he received NO reward when he was crying or whining. A reward could be as little as getting a glance at one of us. When he was fussy we would close all the doors between the living room (where the crate was) and our offices. We wanted to make sure he didn't get to see us or hear us. Since we are both home all the time it was important for us for him to understand alone time so he wouldn't develop separation anxiety issues.

Hardest part was that we had to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen, so I had many delayed cups of coffee thanks to that whiney pup. :) If he was in his crate and being quiet, when I'd walk through the living room I'd casually toss in a treat.

It worked, he stopped whining after only a week or two and he's been able to be left home alone, even out of the crate, since 6 months old.

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Originally Posted by MightyThor

My husband and I both work from home and worked from home when we got Thor at 8 weeks old. We crate trained him. The most challenging thing was making sure he received NO reward when he was crying or whining. A reward could be as little as getting a glance at one of us. When he was fussy we would close all the doors between the living room (where the crate was) and our offices. We wanted to make sure he didn't get to see us or hear us. Since we are both home all the time it was important for us for him to understand alone time so he wouldn't develop separation anxiety issues.

Hardest part was that we had to walk through the living room to get to the kitchen, so I had many delayed cups of coffee thanks to that whiney pup. :) If he was in his crate and being quiet, when I'd walk through the living room I'd casually toss in a treat.

It worked, he stopped whining after only a week or two and he's been able to be left home alone, even out of the crate, since 6 months old.

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LOL I think i would have found a way to bring a huge thermos of coffee to last me in that situation ;)

Hi everyone, Here are a few more details. We send Murphy to doggy Day care 3 days a week. When Murphy isn't at doggy day care, he used to sleep on our bed during the day, now he is so annoyed by the puppy crying that he has been going downstairs in the office with DH.

We feed every meal in the big crate. He is now trained at meal time to run into the crate and sit and wait for his food. He gets treats whenever he goes into the crate. For awhile, once a day he would get a Kong w/PB but he would usually start crying after he finished it, and my husband was guessing he needed some water after the PB. There hasn't really been great consistency about when he cries or not. Sometimes he will last 2 hours, sometimes he starts crying immediately and will cry for 30 minutes. This morning he had 2 hours of solid play, or training, or outside time before we put him in the crate...and he still cried for 30 minutes. Finally calmed down and then stayed in the crate for another 90 minutes.

DH office is down in the basement, but it is essentially directly below where the large crate is. There is a vent right next to the crate so I know Mayson can hear DH whenever he is talking on the phone, which is fairly often. I think we need to move the crate to a different part of the house to prevent that aspect. I have considered the idea of an ex-pen, but I don't want to give up on the idea of the crate. Would it work to continue doing crate during the morning, and then ex-pen in the afternoon??? Or would that just be more confusing?

Sigh, I wish I could be home because I am the more patient parent, and I know how much patience this requires! Keep the suggestions and questions coming, I greatly appreciate it!!!

Thanks,
Tracy

Here is the sweet and innocent boy:
https://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...pscxxbaqga.jpg

I would personally leave him in the bedroom as long as he is crated. Dogs don't like to be exiled away from their humans, generally. Maybe your last dog didn't mind, but for some it's fairly torturous and creates issues in the long run. He is also very young and needs to be able to communicate with you that he needs to go out for a awhile still.

Provide puppy with mental and physical stimulation and don't keep him crated for more than a couple hours at a time. If the puppy is barking, his needs need to be met. Unfortunately puppy doesn't understand about jobs and paychecks and stuff. :) Can your husband work two hours, spend time with puppy, work two hours, spend time with puppy, etc. on a schedule until you get home and on the days you work? Can he work from another location? Perhaps he can add an hour at the beginning and end of his days to help compensate?

I listened to Sara Stremming's podcast on crating puppies and she had a lot of good thoughts on the subject. Look up Cog-Dog Radio, Episode Seventeen, More Puppies.

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Originally Posted by Murphy030813

Here is the sweet and innocent boy:
https://i1346.photobucket.com/albums/...pscxxbaqga.jpg

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Oh yeah, that's totally adorable!!!!!