Please Help, Crate Training.

[Chuckles]

My pug is almost 10 weeks old and we just got him on Friday December 23rd. We introduced him to the crate immediately, putting treats inside and letting him play in it whenever he wants (leaving the door open) during the day. At night hes fairly difficult to keep inside the crate. We will put him out for his last pee before sleep and place him in his crate, usually if i just shut the door he will cry and whine for hours, non stop. The ONLY way he goes in without crying is if i sit there any pet him to sleep. I want him to like the crate because I heard it helps with house breaking your dog, but its not something he's gonna be in forever, or when we leave the house but I have to go back to work on Monday which will mean leaving him at home for 9 hours, so instead of keeping him locked up in a crate for 9 hours a day & at night (which I don't think is a good idea) we are going to baby gate the bathroom and place him in there with his crate open and some toys and a pee pad. I need help with what to do when he whines and cries at night, and its not only for 5 - 10 mins then he falls asleep, it goes on for hours and no one gets any sleep! :(

Please help!

Thanks.
Jenny & Charlie!

[Oregon Pug Mom]

Marley sleeps with me so I can't address night time crate--but when I go to do errands & she's in the crate I've always put my slipper in there with her so maybe that helps comfort her. She fusses for a minute or two & then goes to sleep. ( I stand outside & be sure it stops). The bathroom idea is great for him---that would be alot of time for a baby to be in the crate. Good luck & I'm sure others will be along with ideas.

[Fifi_Mollie's Mom]

Can he still see you when he's crying in his crate? Sometimes after we put Mollie to bed and are still up doing things if she can see us she digs at the floor of her crate. We started covering the front part of her crate so she cann't see us anymore (while leaving the back part uncovered to let air in.

[CSollers]

Is there a reason you don't want him to sleep in bed with you? You'd be surprised what a difference this makes. Besides, once you get used to Pug snores, you'll find it hard to sleep with the serenade.

[Fifi_Mollie's Mom]

Is there a reason you don't want him to sleep in bed with you? You'd be surprised what a difference this makes. Besides, once you get used to Pug snores, you'll find it hard to sleep with the serenade.

The reason we crate train Mollie and have her sleep there is I'm a super light sleeper! Our six year old sleep walks and I've always got one ear open for him.

[Chuckles]

We have started putting him in bed with us and he sleeps right through the night, I've just heard that letting puppies sleep in bed with you and not in a crate might develope behavior issues later on in life. Any thoughts? I'm starting to think its not true, little Charlie has some diarrhea and when he needed to go outside during the night he pawed at my chin! He's so smart!

[Oregon Pug Mom]

I'm no expert on dog behavior but I think it helped bond Marley & I right from the beginning. I love those little pug snores. I put her in the crate if I go out in the day time so she accepts the crate but that's about all.

[mss]

Our pug is now about 18-weeks and she also did a lot of whining and crying when we first got her (at 12 weeks) and put her in her crate at night. I felt like I was back to having a crying newborn! We ultimately found it helped if she KNEW we were right there in the room, like if she could actually see us in the bed from her crate. The other thing that mysteriously helped was making her crate smaller than it already was, by putting up a little divider. This was an accidental result; I built a partition out of cardboard because she was peeing in there and I read (on pugvillage) that a dog was less likely to soil her bed if she couldn't then get away from the pee. For whatever reason, having it tighter in there also seemed to provide some comfort. It's a small crate as it is (plastic travel kind) and now she's pretty snug in there. But she seems to like it that way and does not whine at all at night. Ok, one more thing that I think helped: About two weeks ago, once our dog could go out (done with vaccinations), go on long walks, get lots of fresh air during the day, etc, she was a lot more tired in the evenings. She is like liquid by 6pm! I don't think she would have the energy to put up a fight; I honestly think she would fall asleep if I hung her upside down!!!