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ChihuahuaCrossing.com -> Chi Questions -> Crate training for wee pups
Post Info TOPIC: Crate training for wee pups
WeeKidsMom


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Crate training for wee pups
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I'm looking for thoughts here.  We have both litters of pups in the bedroom. Each litter is in a huge cage. There is a potty pad on the bottom. Then a sheet wrapped over the crate bottom and tucked under. Then, there are blankets at one end and a potty pad at the other. The pups are getting really good at going down to the potty pad to go potty. Any mistakes get soaked up by the other potty pad under the sheet. The whole shebang gets changed every night before bed. They have room in there to play and wrestle and pounce. Although the water dish is getting quite a workout and we are changing the top potty pad a LOT for that. <g>
OK, that's the scenario. Now we have been leaving the cage doors open so the mamas can come and go. We feed both moms in their cages with the doors shut because A) they can still be a bit pissy about guarding their babies with food in there and B) my diabetic boy Yoshi would hoover it all down the minute we blinked.
The puppies are all learning how to get in and out of the cages on their own. Joy is out more than in, prancing around, she thinks she is SO smart, taunting her brothers from the other side. smile All of them can really get in and out now though.
Should I be letting them do as they please all day and just shut the door at night like I've been doing? Or do you think that will make them little monsters for crate training later? Should I choose when to let them out and have set up "play times" instead?
Obviously, if we aren't here or aren't in the room with them, they get shut in the cages. But other than that, they are having a grand old time. They are fun to watch, but I don't want them to be impossible in their new homes.
Any thoughts?

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chideb


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Wish I could be of some help, Karen... but I have never crate trained my guys.. I use a child's playpen for my babies when we get them.. with a potty spot on one end. Once they finish their shots, they are turned loose with the rest of the gang...It is amazing how quickly they learn the "ropes" from the other chis.. "Monkey see, monkey do!!" Deb

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lil luvs


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Karen - i don't think you're spoiling them.   My general rule when i crate trained was, if i wasn't there to watch over them, they were shut into crate.   And at night, they were shut in.   But i would do same in leaving door open during day for them to come and go.   I like that way in that, i think, it teaches the dog he/she can retreat to the kennel if they want.   Some cases that's good.  I've always told prospective adopters (of my rescues) they must crate train and as the dog gets older and they don't want or need to leave them in crate, to keep crate available with door open and make it a rule that no one touches the dog if they're in their crate.   This gives the dog a "safe place" to go to if things get too much.   My idea behind it was most of my rescues were large breeds and if the prospective family had kids, the dog needed a place to retreat to (that the child had learned not to touch) if they had had enuf lovin' from the kids:)  It stops a lot of growling and biting.
My only suggestion would be, depending on age of pups, you start putting them in their own crates when they get older - if you really want to make it easier for their new families.  Pups who've been crated together since birth and then are all of a sudden separated from siblings tend to cry a bit more at night, whereas, if they have spent time alone in a crate at night, they seem to adapt better.  Just my 2 cents :)

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