Sleep. Or lack thereof.

Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
At 2am this morning I quit. 4 hours of howling from 10-2 (rest breaks for the toilet) - kids were sobbing with tiredness.

so we came back in to the living room and he launched himself on the sofa... looked at me as if to say come on please?

And I just went to bed.

Got up at 6 and there was a wee on the floor but no destruction...

He wins. I give up. It’s been 6 weeks now and he still hates the crate.
 
SwampDonkey

SwampDonkey

Some do, you do what's best for you all. He goes in his crate for you it's a safe place for him to stay so that's parts ok. Just do what you need to to sleep. You're not giving up he's not winning it's just living together happily. You're great with him he's a lovely chap xxx
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
Do some dogs just never take to it? He is just so amazing at everything I try and teach him apart from this.
He literally just won’t have it.
 
SwampDonkey

SwampDonkey

Karen with Merlin found he couldn't settle at night. She just let him sleep with her old dog in the end. I had my 2 dogs before crating was well known they both slept in the kitchen until the were less destructive then they just slept on the sofa. One size doesn't fit all. Rory had to be crated for ages because he just ate things like washing machines. He on the sofa now he's more sensible,. I tried to crate him when we were on holiday and it was a definately no way so I didn't bother.
 
Xena Dog Princess

Xena Dog Princess

Location
Wellington, NZ
Oh man, I'm sorry that it came to that. But if it works for you then that's what matters. Hopefully he won't be destructive, but you can cross that bridge when you come to it. Where does Leo sleep? Does he want to sleep with him?
 
Jen

Jen

I think some dogs get it straight away, some dogs take a while and some dogs never do.

Stanley was definitely older than Maslow by the time he accepted the crate. He was about 18 weeks I think, but I did loads of work with him through the day in it - leaving him for a few seconds & building up the time. He seemed to click with it during the day & night at the same time.

I personally found Stanley didn’t start destroying things until he got his adult teeth. His Puppy teeth weren’t strong enough to do much damage so it wasn’t as fun. When the adult teeth came in the skirting boards, door mats & cushions took a hammering. But it was quite a small amount of damage really.

I think crate vs no crate is just a personal preference. If he’s happy and you’re happy - no one has won. X
 
M

MaccieD

Leanne said:
Do some dogs just never take to it?
Click to expand...
Some dogs simply hate being enclosed in a crate regardless of how positive /force free/ reward based the training is. My mentor has a dog that absolutely detested the crate and became extremely distressed with the door closed or if left for a few seconds and her training couldn't have been any better.
Sometimes it's not about 'giving up' or 'having the dog win' it's about finding a better way for you all.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
T
MaccieD said:
Some dogs simply hate being enclosed in a crate regardless of how positive /force free/ reward based the training is. My mentor has a dog that absolutely detested the crate and became extremely distressed with the door closed or if left for a few seconds and her training couldn't have been any better.
Sometimes it's not about 'giving up' or 'having the dog win' it's about finding a better way for you all.
Click to expand...
he enclosed bit is Maslow in a nutshell. If he’s left to his own devices he will curl up sound asleep anywhere. As soon as you try to ‘make him’ by putting him he just barks. And barks. And barks.

I swear my ears are still ringing!
 
M

MaccieD

@Leanne Not sure how you've been crate training but what you could try is leaving the door open on the crate and throw in a few treats for Maslow to find, even put a kong in there or feed him his dinner/breakfast/lunch in the crate but don't attempt to close the door. At night I would just try to work out the most suitable sleeping arrangements for all of you. Trying to deal with a puppy is hard enough when you're not tired, let alone if you are - it should bring back memories of babies and toddlers ??.
 
edzbird

edzbird

Location
Isle of Man
It's all about working out what is best for YOU and YOUR dog. And yes, of course Maslow gets a say in how he likes to sleep, why shouldn't he? So don't think in terms of him "winning", more that you've both come to an understanding. We've never crated any of our adult dogs. I don't know if they were crated in a previous life, but it's not for us - we just don't have the room.
 
Leanne

Leanne

Sniffer Dog
Location
Shropshire, UK
So just an update really.... we are now at 16 weeks.

Biting is now minimal... will still mouth but barely any contact... even when excited :D(y)... still chews your clothes, especially trouser legs but absolutely manageable!

Sleeping is.... well... he will now happily go into his crate for bed, no howling, no barking.. occasionally a whinge of about 5 minutes... still wakes up at 5:15 on the dot and will not go back to bed... interestingly though yesterday he woke at 3am and I was in a state of horrified fear that he thought it was up for the day.. but nope... did a wee outside, came back in and went straight back to his crate with no theatrics. This to me reinforces that it’s not that he can’t go back to sleep, it’s jusy that at 5.15am it’s morning! I’ve decided for the sake of my sanity that 5.15 is now acceptable... especially as he’s rather cuddly in the morning and is happy to snuggle on the sofa.

This week I have taken the attitude of he is a baby, I need to enjoy him not constantly try to improve stuff... remarkably he has taken to this like a duck to water and has been ridiculously settled in the house. Lots of calm and settled behaviour...

Of course now I have committed this to the internet he will be up all night screaming like a banshee and will eat the carpet or something.

All in all we are in a good place! 4 months appears to be a lovely stage :love::love: I even told DH yesterday that I would like another pup st some point.

He’s still recovering from that comment :ROFLMAO:
 
Boogie

Boogie

Moderator
Location
Manchester UK
5:30am is becoming our default ‘morning’ too. It won’t be long before they are sleeping longer. My two older ones don’t even open their eyes at that time!

:)
 
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