Have made a lot of progress towards crate training our 6lb, 3 month old miniature dachshund. He will go into the crate (in our bedroom, he can see us) excitedly at night since he gets a nice treat to chew on. Generally he’ll got to sleep right after eating his treat. Given he’s so young/small, he needs to go potty about 4AM. This is where the issue is. He, in no way, wants to go back to his crate then. If we put him back in, he whines and screams. It’s just amazing how much noise this little dog can make. We’ve tried various options to get him back to sleep.

A). Give him a dog treat that takes about 10 minutes to eat. He eats it and then starts crying/whining. Move to either Option B or C

B). Put him and his “brother“ (2 months old from a different litter) in the living room (wood floors, access to a doggy door). He times we did this he has not had any accidents.

C). Move his crate to another room where we can barely hear him and letting him cry it out (last night he went on for an ~ 45 min before I gave up and let him out - know this was bad, but no good decision is made at 5am.)

He will go back to sleep generally right away once he is no longer in his crate. He isn’t hungry because I’ve tried feeding him and wasn’t interested. Have brought him outside to potty again but didn’t need that either. So essentially after his 4 am potty break he just doesn’t want to be crated anymore.

Feel like I do need to get him to crate for a whole night but maybe this is a wrong assumption?

Appreciate any ideas to get him back into the crate quietly after the potty break. Thanks for your insights and help!
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LMMB
LMMB
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Joined Oct 23, 2015
1,191 Posts
#2 · 8 h ago
Hi,welcome to the forum.

First of all, don't put him in another room and let him cry it out - dogs who are subjected to that and stop, don't learn that everything is OK - they stop because they learn there's no point in crying because no one comes whether they cry or not.

You have a baby animal. Reacting to his crying is not smothering him, or spoiling him (I'm not saying you think that, but it's a common argument) - it's meeting the fundamental needs of an infant, a need that the dog is trying to communicate by crying and screaming.

I found myself just this past weekend in a similar situation, but with an adult dog. He isn't mine, but because of the circumstances I'm currently in, I'm sleeping in the same room as him. He whined too. He wouldn't settle, either. He was frustrating. I tried to ignore the whining and the barking. Blocked my ears with a pillow, told him to settle down and go to sleep. Finally, about 2am, I had the epiphany - he's got a fundamental need that isn't being met. So I opened the door for him and supervised as he pottered around the garden. Turns out he needed a pee, and once he'd had that pee, he settled down and we all - finally - got some sleep.

In your case, I wouldn't be trying to force the issue with the crate if he doesn't want to go in - that just "poisons" him to the crate, and certainly don't leave him to cry. Have you tried either giving him a treat and leaving the crate door open, or leaving him out of the crate, but in your room? Or maybe beside you on the bed? And then just ignoring him?

There's a sticky in New Dogs and Puppies - it's a bit hard hitting, and challenges your thinking, but it may help;