Crate at night help PLEASE

[Sparky's mun]

I am going to bring home this week an 8 week old sable Border Collie. I have a crate with a safe zone around, very like the one Victoria uses in her program. Please I don't know what to do for the first few nights, Should I close the door on the crate and get up every two hours and let him out into the safe zone to toilet or take him outside. Or should I leave the door open so he can walk out himself into the safe zone and where best to put water?
Thank you for your help

[Ari_RR]

I am not sure what safe zone is... But I would be taking him outside to toilet.
I probably wouldn't wake him up every 2 hrs if he is asleep, but I would aim to be so close to him that the moment he wakes up - I am ready to jump out of the bed, grab him and run outside.

Which in our case meant - the puppy slept in the crate, downstairs in the living room within 10 ft from the door to the patio and outside. And I slept on the sofa next to him. It was winter also (snow, cold), so this procedure of hear noise - jump out of bed - grab puppy - run outside.. It really sucked! But it really worked too.

Good luck! Hope you've gotten plenty of sleep, because from now on a good night sleep will be hard to come by for a while

[Sparky's mun]

Thanks for that, a safe zone is like a play pen and you put the crate inside that. Not too hard to get up here, its summer and VERY warm at night, yesterday was 45C or 109f so really need to keep pup with lots of water at night

[doggiedad]

i got my pup when he was 9 weeks old. i asked the breeder to start crate training.
his 1st night home i put in the crate. one of us got up every 2 hours to take him
outside. the 1 st night he whined for 3 to 4 hours. the 2nd night he whined for 2
hours or so. the 3rd night he whined 20 minutes or so. after the 3rd night all was
quiet which i think we were very lucky. before our pup came home i told my neighbors
we were getting a pup.

[Ari_RR]

before our pup came home i told my neighbors we were getting a pup.

This is an excellent point! If you have neighbors close by - some folks believe it or not don't like dogs.... some are scared of dogs.... some hate it when dogs pee on their bushes or mail boxes.... some have dogs or their own who hate other dogs... some have chickens who are used to walking the neighborhood without a worry... some have wild kids who run around and scream at dogs... etc... so, turning neighbors into allies while the puppy is growing up I think is an important step. At least being able to figure out where problems might come from in the future

[doggiedad]

i told my neighbors i was getting a pup because i knew he was going to whine
the first few nights. i also asked my neighbors to help with training and
socializing him. when we were at work my neighbors would come in and let
our pup out. one of our neighbors use to take him to her house because
it was easier for her to let him out and he wasn't alone all day.

before our pup came home i told my neighbors we were getting a pup.

This is an excellent point! If you have neighbors close by - some folks believe it or not don't like dogs.... some are scared of dogs.... some hate it when dogs pee on their bushes or mail boxes.... some have dogs or their own who hate other dogs... some have chickens who are used to walking the neighborhood without a worry... some have wild kids who run around and scream at dogs... etc... so, turning neighbors into allies while the puppy is growing up I think is an important step. At least being able to figure out where problems might come from in the future

[JudyN]

Leaving a young pup to whine for hours as doggiedad suggests is not positive, however, and should not be recommended on this forum. I tried it with my new pup as I didn't know better back then, he got very distressed, and I regret it very much.

Have a read of this thread which should help you: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17996&p=132820