First pup question

[Dan Thiem]

I just want to say how much one of those "Buster Collars" seem to humiliate our 8 year old girl. She was chasing rabbits out on our farm and a piece of tin sliced her pretty bad. Well she wouldn't quit licking on the stitches the vet put in. We had to put the lamp shade looking thing on her. Man, at first she was really disoriented. Bumped into everything. Almost pushed me down the stairs once. I couldn't wait to take it off of her but the minute I did she went right to the licking and nipping on the cut. It really made her act like she was being punished when she wore it. All she would do with that collar on is mope around with her head hung low and tail in between her legs. Makes a guy feel bad.

[Dbl]

I used the smack the kennel method and said "quiet" and it worked great for me. It only took about 1-2 weeks and the dog has been no problem since. Dog doesn't bark much except at the doorbell and I just have to say "quiet" and that is it. I put an alarm clock on top of the kennel for about a month. Seemed to work well. The kennel was kept in the family room upstairs so that I could hear the dog from my room. After about 4 months the dog was moved to the basement with no problems and he is more than happy to kennel on command and stay quietly until he is let out in the morning. Everyone has their own way, this happened to work well with my dog. Good luck.

Dbl

[TMan]

Here is my new hunting partner with my other hunting partner. Since you all seem to have a handle on this crate/kennel training, let me ask you this:

Do you get up in the middle of the night to let the pup out to pee? I did last night at 1:30 and again this morning at 5:30 when she was stirring around. She went immediately each time out side and came back in and crated well, except for about 10 minutes of barking and whining. Can a pup stay in the crate all night without peeing?

[moderation]

I don't think there is anyway a pup can go all night without peeing. It takes a long time before they are able to stay in all night.

I have raised three pups in the last 22 years and they all needed papers to pee on at night.

I didn't have ours in crate at night, but I did build a small kennel in the basement. A 4x6 by 4' high plywood area that they would stay in at night and while we were at work.

It was always lined with papers and would have to be changed when we got up or got home.

Whenever they were restless or whatever we let them out and they would go (and get a treat when they came back in)

You can't expect a puppy to go all night without peeing.

[2 DA GILLS]

I think it really depends on the pup. I got my pup a few weeks ago at 8 weeks old. In just about a week of crate training, he was staying in his crate from 9:30-10:00pm until 5:00-5:30am without needing to get out.

One night I thought I heard him making noise at about 3:30am and went to let him out. He was sleeping and just looked at me with confusion when I opened his crate door. He would not get out of the crate and just laid his head down and went back to sleep. This confirmed to me that he is fine in the crate until 5:00 am.

[Granny]

TMan,

Nice looking pup!

My wife and I had a nice weekend to spend with the pup. She is pretty quiet now at night and she lets us know when its time to go potty. I think the dog is training us more than we are training her. Man does she sleeps alot during the day! I picked up "Family Dog" by Wolters and there is some amazing info in his books! I think Wolters needs to write a "Fishing Dog" book .

Granny

[TMan]

Hey Granny - Glad to hear its getting better. Are you still keeping the crate somewhere other than the bedroom? Last night was not nearly as good as the first for us. She barked and whined for over a hour before settling down for 2 hours and then waking up and barking again. Kind of like torture only getting about 4-5 hours at 1.5 hour stints...oh well we signed on for the whole deal, good and bad.

She goes in the kennel without any issues and just a "Kennel up" command but she sure doesn't settle easily yet. I've got a night light and I have her toward the foot of the bed so she can see me. I need to make sure she is WAY more tired tonight before I kennel her up.

Thanks to all for your postings and helful hints on this subject. I've read a few books prior to entering this endeavor, since the last puppy I had was when I was a teenager, and they offer many helpful hints or options for going about all types of training, but I think the personal enecdotes you folks offer and the interactiveness this site presents are more helpful.

Tackleman

[Granny]

We kept her in the basement and she has gotten used to it. She won't go into the kennel by herself yet. She is starting to fetch for me a little so we are having fun with that.

One thing that I have to figure out is what kind of treat she likes. We have bought a couple different dog treats and she won't eat them? Do they make a pizza treat . I gave her a little crust of pizza and forgot to take her out to go potty afterwards. She left a little mess for us, but that was my fault and lesson learned.

I will second the great information posted!

Thanks,

Granny

[Bushwacker]

TMan,

Great looking pup. It looks like you have a happy little co-trainer to help out too! When our pup was young she would have to go about once a night for the first couple weeks and then after she was a couple months old, she could go 8 hours in a crate without any problem. One thing that you want to make sure of is not giving her any water or food right before bed. Now we have water out for her all day and it is no problem at all.

Granny,

Believe me when I say that there will be a time coming up very shortly when you will be thinking does this dog ever rest? We have all these cute puppy picts of Libby where she is sleeping on a lap or on somebody's shoes, it is tough thinking she is the same dog. Now I swear if I would have a stay awake longer contest with her she would be days without sleep as long as somebody was in the room with her! I wish I had 1/10th that amount of energy.

[TMan]

Hey all. Just an update on my adventures. I put a 4X4 pen in the basement with some papers and attached the crate with the door open to the opening to the pen and have her blanket from her momma's house with some of her toys in there. I ran her ragged before bed time and she didn't make a sound as I put her in the pen and said "Kennel up" which she followed to the tee and curled up in her crate and fell asleep until about 2:00 when I heard her whine/howl a couple times, which is how she sounds when she wants to go out, so I went down and brought her outside where she pee'd and [PoorWordUsage]ed on the "Go Potty" command I've been working on with her. I gave her a very small treat along with verbal positive reinforcement and we went back inside and she kenneled up and after about 3-4 mintues of a little whimpering she fell asleep until I got up at 6:15. Oh what a good nights sleep compared to Sunday! It was a night and day difference in experience.

Granny - I use Science Diet puppy treats. I break them into about 4 pieces and give just one little piece for reward and she likes it a lot, but it ain't pizza.... Give those a try if you haven't.

Bushwacker - nice fish - did I see you asking about Metro area Musky spots last year? If so I assume you found some.

TMan

[Bushwacker]

TMan,

Thanks for the complements, that beauty came of the rocks in less than a foot of water on July 4th last year. No, I wasn't asking about metro spots, I'm an outstate guy now and am about half way in between the Alex/Miltona area and the Brainard/Mille Lacs area as those are most of my normal fishing holes. Glad the pups getting used to her new pad. Wait until she climbs out of the 4'x 4' kennel the first time It took ours two days to get out of her 3 foot high 6'X6' kennel. My dad was out doing something in my garage and was going to look in on Libby through the window when we were away at work. There she was on the other side of the house just hanging out on the couch(which she wasn't allowed on at the time) looking out the door with her tail wagging when he looked in. It was pretty funny, you have to love labs!