Part 3—Crating Your Puppy at Night

Tired little angel

*Keep in mind that these are only training tips. What works perfectly for nine out of ten puppies may not work for the tenth. If the training tips you’ve read here are not working, your puppy may have some separation anxiety, or just be slower to adjust to change. Stay patient and positive—yelling at or punishing a puppy is never a good idea. Feel free to call us for further advice, and talk to your vet as well.

*Also, any and all links included in the blog post are only meant to give you an idea of what to choose. The Puppy Burrow is neither affiliated with nor sponsored by any outside company.

When you are ready to go to bed at night, you’ll need to put the crate in your room, (it can be a pain moving the crate back and forth, so some people will buy two to avoid that, but obviously that’s a personal choice.) The reason the crate should be in the room with you is because it’s very unlikely that your puppy will sleep through the full night. He is in a new place where he may still be a bit scared and uncertain and, more importantly, he has a small bladder. When he has to go potty he will wake up whining and you need to be able to hear him so you can immediately take him outside. You never want to inadvertently teach him to go potty in his crate.

For now, back to settling him in for the night. Unless your puppy is three pounds or less, it’s a good idea to pick up his food and water a few hours before bedtime. If your puppy is three pounds or less, you might want to look into potty pad training—which has a different set of rules and would require a crate large enough for your little one to go potty on his wee-wee pad on one side of the crate and sleep on the other. That way you can leave food and water in his crate overnight, which will help keep his blood sugar steady. Other than that, all other aspects of crate training remain the same.

You’ll want to establish as much of a routine as you can. Like children, puppies respond well to routine, meaning bedtime should be around the same time every night. Obviously there will be times you aren’t able to follow his schedule, but for the first couple weeks at least, it will help reduce your puppy’s anxiety to know what is expected.

It’s also a good idea to add a little heartbeat toy to help soothe the puppy to sleep, and a T-shirt that smells like you. Your puppy can have a few toys in his crate, but no treats. Turn the lights off, go to bed and give him time to settle down. He may fuss or whine a bit, but he’s had a long day and he should fall asleep pretty quickly. If you want, you can put the crate on a small table or something next to your bed so you can dangle your hand into the crate and let your puppy see that you are still there—but only if you are comfortable with that. It can also be helpful to cover the crate with a blanket, so that only the front remains uncovered. This makes it feel cozier to the puppy, more like a little den for sleeping.

Again, at some point in the night you will end up taking your puppy outside. While you would normally get very excited when he goes potty and reward him with a treat, the middle of the night is not the time for that. Take him to his normal spot and when he goes potty give him some pats and calmly tell him he’s a good boy before bringing him back in.

When he returns your puppy may be reluctant to settle back down. Put him back in his crate but if he is whining and seems upset, sit down next to him with your hand inside so he knows you are there. Turn his heartbeat toy on and keep the lights off. Sit with him for a few minutes or so and then go back to bed. Your puppy may cry and complain a bit, but he should soon settle down and go back to sleep.

Of course, not all puppies are created equal. You may be that lucky person who gets a puppy that is determined not to sleep in his crate. The best solution to this problem is patience, patience, patience. Let the puppy know you are in the room by occasionally talking to him in a soothing tone of voice, and once every forty minutes or so, going over for five minutes to pet him through the crate door. You don’t want to leave him just barking and crying without those frequent check-ins from you, because that will cause him a lot of anxiety. Unfortunately, that’s all you can really do—just wait him out. It may take a few sleepless nights but, eventually, he will give up and settle down to sleep when you put him in his crate at night.

And that’s it. You have successfully mastered crate training!

Now all you need to do is get a good night’s rest so you can have a happy play day with your little guy tomorrow!