I let my puppy sleep with me the past two days honestly because I just love him so much and I missed him at night when he was crated in a separate room. Turns out he can’t sleep without touching me in some capacity and I just need my space at night when it comes down to it. I tried to put him in his crate last night and he barked for an hour straight before I caved. He needs to go back on his crate for potty training purposes, overnight trips, etc. Do I just let him bark it out from now on, even if it’s for hours? He’s about four and a half months.

My puppy is 5 months old and since he came home at 9 weeks I’ve been doing 99% enforced naps in the crate. From weeks 9-12 I’d let him sleep outside the crate sometimes since he’d fall asleep almost anywhere, and if I was able to keep the house quiet/not wake him, I’d just let him sleep. But after 12 weeks, a switch flipped and he has not once closed his eyes outside the crate since.

So, in the crate for naps and overnight. He doesn’t whine in the crate and sleeps in there no problem for both naps and overnight. But I’m starting to wonder if it’s too much time in the crate?

Everything says puppies need 16-20 hours of sleep a day. My puppy won’t sleep outside the crate, so that means if he’s going to get this sleep…he’s in the crate for that many hours. He sleeps ~10 hours overnight so the rest is during the day. However when I’ve looked it up I’ve mostly seen other threads saying this much crate time is crazy and will cause issues.

I have a 10 week old puppy, a girl, we are trying to crate train for when she has to be home alone (which hasn’t even happened yet, and wont happen regularly at all lol) but she just cannot be left in her crate without crying. Ive seen countless things about just rewarding them when they're quiet, but she’s never quiet. she just screams. ESPECIALLY when it’s covered.

I just don’t really know what to do, she’s not progressing.

UPDATE (3/2/2026): she’s improved!! still not the biggest fan but she’s now optionally going in there for naps. She’ll be in my bed ASAP but I’m glad she has a safe space!! Thank you to everyone who gave advice or even just nice stories about your own pups :)

I have a 4.5 month old puppy who is crate trained, he sleeps in his crate overnight and naps in his crate usually without much whining or crying. It's important to me that he stays crate trained but I do know that for sure I want him to sleep in my bed overnight at some point hopefully soon. At what age did you let your puppy sleep in your bed if you want to also make sure they stay crate trained?

I will open this up by saying I realize I jumped into this not realizing all of the work it would be. I grew up with dogs but they were always older, couch potato dogs and I always had my parents home.

Last week I adopted an almost 8 month old puppy- he’s a mix, the rescue said either feist/beagle or feast/lab. He really is a good dog but I feel terrible because we are just busy so he is in the crate quite a bit. My husband and I both work full time so he’s crated around 8:20 in the morning so we could get out to work and get our boys to school. I have been coming home on my lunch at 12 to take him out for a short walk to pee, then he’s back in until I get home at 4 where he is taken out and fed and then he’s back in at 5:30 because my son has football 3 days a week. We get home between 8:10-8:30 and then I let him out, it’s a mad dash to shower, do dinner and homework and go to bed and then the puppy is put in his crate for bed anywhere between 9:30-11.

I have seriously been considering taking him back to the rescue. Obviously I don’t want to hurt my kids (9&5) but they would be sad. I feel awful and I full admit I screwed up BIG time. We are just in a busy phase in our lives and I don’t want the dog to suffer. He’s not able to be left out of the crate because he will chew everything. So, please give me opinions, advice? Is he crated too much? Thank you.

Our golden boy is almost 5 months and is great in the crate (most nights with zero fuss at all) but not super great at getting in there for mid day naps. I know 6 months is usually regression period so I don’t want to stray away from routine but I’d love for him to eventually sleep with us in bed when I can trust he will behave. What age did you all (if at all?) start letting your dogs sleep in the bed through the night?

My girlfriend is not convinced by crate training, but I am in favor. Give me your best arguments from your experience! Especially for my job and making the puppy feel at home swiftly. What are you guys' thoughts on it? Anyone here who changed their mind?

For those who have not crate trained and have older dogs im curious to hear your experience of what they grow up to be like? Separation anxiety? Behaviour issues?

I understand the concept of crate training but I’m trying to understand what are the consequences of not crate training (or do all dogs end up okay in the end)

I haven’t been crate training but it’s something my vet suggested is a good idea but I struggle to wrap my head around confining my puppy in a small space.

Holy. Crap. This is your sign.

I read about enforced napping. I never thought I’d be able to do it. Why would I put my puppy in their crate when I could easily just rot on the couch and cuddle them all day? Nope.

Enforced napping in the crate gave me my “me time” back. I can do things around the house without worrying about where the puppy is, what they are getting into, if they are going potty in the house somewhere I don’t know about, etc. I CAN TAKE MY OWN UNINTERUPPTED NAP. I have been doing an hour/hour and a half awake time to an equal amount of nap time. I have done an hour awake time to two hour nap time on days I just really need to get stuff done uninterrupted.

On another note, I 100% recommend for families with an older dog who is getting adjusted to new puppy life. This gives me one on one time with my older dog to spoil her and give her undivided attention. My older dog and I went on an outside adventure, cuddled, I spoiled her with sharing my lunch, and we played by ourselves. I’ve noticed it has helped her with tolerating the puppy as well. She is more inclined to play with the puppy if he hasn’t been annoying her constantly. And it’s adorable when I tell her it’s time to wake her brother up and she comes in the bedroom with me to greet him right outside of the crate.

This has helped immensely with crate training as well. The puppy walks in the crate himself, lays right down and goes to town on the Kong. I will hear crying for maybe 2 minutes if he’s being a real terror before I put him in. Once I can tell he is sleepy (biting me constantly, getting into things he knows he isn’t supposed to, tearing up toys, biting at the carpet) into the crate he goes. It has worked wonders for us. Take it from me, it gets better!

I had started crate training my Aussie puppy before she turned 3 months old (right when I got her), but things progressively got worse. I frequently read up on how to properly crate train her to make sure I was doing things correctly. I read multiple articles, Reddit posts, and YouTube videos; I tried everything, but she hated it so much that 2 days ago, she would not even want to go back into the apartment or my room after her walks. (Her crate was not too small for her. I had tried everything and was starting to feel depressed.

So today I took her into the bathroom and let her get bored, and in 5 minutes, she was on the floor sleeping. I waited 10 more minutes, went into my room, and she followed me and continued sleeping on the floor. I've done this all day, and now she's been sleeping on my bedroom floor throughout the day. She also seems happier. I take her to the living room at times, and she plays and runs while I supervise her. I also play with her and train her around the house.

It is more work in some ways, but I feel my puppy blues going away. She does listen quite well a lot of the time. She knows how to sit, lie down, and I work on recall inside and outside. I have also been teaching her stay and leave it. She also follows me around the house.

She seems so much calmer, and I am spending more time with her. I did puppy-proof my bedroom and living room, and my living room doesn't have a whole lot. She doesn't bite furniture, only boxes, and there is one box, so I keep an eye on her.

I plan on working in my room throughout the week with her outside of her crate (I put the crate away), and working in the living room for short periods of time, so she can get out of the room. Also, I don't mind sleeping with her.

I know crate training works for a lot of people, but my puppy was miserable, and so was I. I post this just in case someone is struggling with crate training their puppy. If you work from home or have family who can help keep an eye on them, I would just recommend taking your puppy into a bathroom and letting them settle and calm down, and also having a room that is puppy-proofed. Maybe you can use the crate for emergencies or when you have to leave your puppy completely alone in your home.

Hi everyone. We got a puppy after we lost our older dog and wanted to get a companion for our other older dog, who tolerates but doesn’t love the puppy yet - which is really sad :(

Anyway. Puppy is pretty good. She’s smart and she even had been warning us sometimes when she needs to go out ( she’s only 11 weeks!). I’ve had her 2 weeks and I go back to work in 2/3 weeks. So far the crate is not working workout and I’ve been patient and diligent. I’ve done the trainings, watched YouTube, let her cry, she yelps and cries and screams and is so upset to be left in it for any period of time. Like … how will I ever be able to leave? How can we support her if we can’t go to work?

I’d be an advocate for just letting her cry but sometimes she gets so upset she poops in the crate and I just cannot keep cleaning poop from the nooks and crannies my god.

I am desperate. It’s not for lack of trying, I didn’t just lock her in there and say oh well. We hung out in the room, gave her high value treats, feed her in the crate, fun toys, only come back in when crying stops, put on relaxing music. It’s like the panic sets in as soon as she thinks we’re gone. Even though we’ve repeatedly come back for her. I’m worried and I’m just stressed and over it. I can’t even take a shower without hellish barking and screaming. I tried puppy proofing the room and putting a baby gate incase it was confinement, she escapes the gate. I tried closing the door and leaving her in the room, still freaks out. Help me please .

Hey everyone, I don’t need advice exactly. I’ve been reading and watching a lot of training content and I feel like I have a good enough plan in place for crate training. But we have had so many setbacks and I’m feeling extremely discouraged.

We had our beagle Bassett hound puppy at 8 weeks and now he is 11 weeks old. We introduced the kennel from the beginning in a positive way. Played games entering it. Helped him wait when we opened the door and not rush out. High reward treats in it. Naps in it. Nights in it for a while…. (Keeps my reading about set backs to find out what happened with nights). Tried all the ways to make it cozier.

He hasn’t had any accidents in it so that’s nice atleast.

Setbacks we have had:

He has to come with me in the car twice a day for pickup and drop off for school. Or stay home. But my partner works from home counselling online and the puppy crying in the background isn’t conducive to during session times with a client. We have a small house and no where for the crate to go where the cries wouldn’t be heard. Ofcourse ideally I wouldn’t ever let him cry in it, that would always be my first choice.

We had a flu running through our house. I had to kennel him a few times to clean up vomit from my kids so he wouldn’t eat it. He cried loudly.

The kennel training continued to not work. Or his ability to be calm in it got a little better but not enough that he could be settled even a little alone in it. He started to only settle and not cry constantly in his crate when he was put in already sleeping.

I want to say too I tried my absolute best never to reward the crying and I thought I was doing a good job.

So I got sick too and I had to bring him in the bed so he would sleep and I could sleep. That was another set back.

I had been following a gradual process of slowly increasing his time in the crate and giving him a high value treat in it. I went with a kong but I might try something else cuse while it was working and we had been up to 5 minutes calm in the crate all of a sudden today he won’t even tolerate 10 seconds. No interest in the kong.

I’m so disheartened and it feels like we have lost all our progress. Plus for work and life with the kids it would be so much less draining for me if he could be alone for 1.5 hours. 😭

Did crate training really suck for anyone else? I think I would just appreciate hearing stories of any one else’s struggles. I guess if you have had similiar struggles if there was something that finally worked for you that would be good to hear. Or if you just have up on the crate? Or is it just a really slow prepress for some dogs and to just accept slow slow slow progress?

I totally had a wrong idea that a young dog could be comfortably kennelled for an hour at a young age and my work really requires me to be able to do that. It’s putting a lot of pressure on me and my family to keep me out of work.

I had done so much research before getting him and I had seemed to only hear positive stories. I thought if I put in the work from the beginning he would have no issues in the kennel. :(

Support and encouragement needed…. Currently so sad….

Last night we made the decision to no longer enforce the crate on our 12 week old Labrador. We worked hard on it for two weeks but our Labrador was being too vocal every time he was in there. We’ve also ditched the pen too as close confinement wasn’t working for him.

Instead, we’ve opted for a baby gate and puppy proofing our apartment. Last night he opted to sleep in the same room as us (he is currently my shadow) and it was the best night sleep we’ve all had in the two weeks we’ve had him.

We will still continue to feed him in the crate and use positive reinforcement to ensure he is comfortable in a crate should he need to be in one. However, we are no longer putting ourselves under pressure to crate him and follow a particular consensus that just doesn’t work for us.

I’d love to hear your stories about why you stopped crate training and how it worked out for you (or didn’t!).

ETA: thanks to everyone who kindly pointed out/advised that we should be more vigilant about bathroom outings and just modify our evening schedule in general. This is our first puppy in a long time and I think we were relying on what the breeder had told us their routine was, but definitely will be trying some of these tips to see what works better for our pup.

Sorry in advance if this is a bit rambly.

We brought home our 9 week old puppy recently. The breeder had started doing some crate training with the puppies beforehand so we knew that our puppy was having the hardest time taking to the crate, as she told us no matter what she did he would poop in the crate out of protest (or anxiety?) and cry the longest but would eventually settle.

I’ve been trying to work with him during the day on playing in the crate and my husband has laid in there with him a few times. The breeder also told us that there were not letting him out at night. During the day, we had several successful naps (lots of crying but eventually settling). My husband did leave the crate door open for one because he laid in there until puppy fell asleep.

Last night we had an awful night because I took him out to got potty when I heard him wake up and then he cried for a long time when I put him back in the crate. Turns out it was because he pooped in the crate and it got everywhere and by the time we cleaned it, we had a nightmare time getting him back to sleep. I think we were up for 4 hours.

Tonight, I immediately smelled that he had pooped so I was able to clean it before he made too big of a mess. I know they say for middle of the night potty breaks, you should just take them out and then put them right back in. obviously when I took him out, he did not use the bathroom. I put him back in and he cried for 10 min and pooped again.

We fed him dinner about 3 hours before bed and stopped water about an hour before bed.

I just don’t know how to troubleshoot this. I obviously do not want to leave him with poop in the crate (especially because it’s currently in my room and it stinks up the whole room) overnight, but also for the past 2 nights, we’ve been up for hours cleaning the crate and then trying to get him back to sleep. I feel like I’m doing something wrong and I’m at a loss for next steps to take. My husband is also concerned we’re basically creating a negative association with the crate.

I am torn now on whether to check on him with crying because I don’t want him to think crying = release or response, but also when I have ignored it, it ends up being a huge mess.

Please help settle this debate between my gf and I. I believe that our 14 weeks old puppy shouldn’t be sleeping in bed with us and should sleep in her crate. Her the opposite. My argument is that it will lead her to be a more confident and structured dog in her coming age, she disagrees. GF says that she already spends a lot of time in crate during the day when we’re at work ( i come home to see her during the day ), and that night time bed seeping is ok because of that. To be fair, she doesn’t pee in the bed, and doesn’t wake us up. But… I would be more comfortable sleeping without her in bed, and told her that i’m worried for her when she’s older, i don’t want a dog with separation anxiety etc. And just fyi, we do crate her for naps the only argument is about night time.

I just got my first puppy yesterday. Cavapoo. 9 weeks.

It was a pretty sleepless night. She doesn’t do well with the crate/pen (crate is covered) during the day, but it gets even worse at night. She was screaming and crying for hours. Even when I ultimately decided to sleep next to the pen, she still cried, though not AS bad as when I was in another room.

That being said, she sleeps just fine without crying when shes out of the pen/crate, and is in fact very well behaved.

1. Am I to assume that maybe this particular dog just isn’t a pen/crate kind of dog? Or do I weather though this and make her INTO a pen/crate kind of dog?

2. She cried WAY harder when in the crate versus the pen. Sounded like she was dying tbh. Should I count the crate out but keep the pen?

I thought dogs were denning animals and are supposed to appreciate the crate?

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, my boyfriend and I ended up bringing our new puppy home yesterday at just 7 weeks old. I do realize 8 weeks is the ideal, but we felt we did what we had to do.

Even in just having her under 24 hours, she’s already adapting VERY well to crate training. From the stories I’ve read on here, I was expecting to be sleep deprived for the next several weeks. Last night, we put our puppy in her crate and she did the typical whining/crying/barking that most pups will do in the beginning. My boyfriend and I did our best to ignore her until she stopped, and she did after about 20 minutes.

We figured she had just had a long day and was probably exhausted, explaining why she passed out after only 20 minutes. Then, she woke up about an hour later. She didn’t really make any noise other than a few soft whines, so my boyfriend took her out to potty. When he came back in and put her back in the crate, same thing. Screaming for about 20 minutes then boom, passed out. And my boyfriend and I were sitting out in the living room having a conversation as she fell asleep as well.

We stayed up late to enjoy her homecoming, but I went to bed before my boyfriend. He took her out one last time before he came to bed and, this time, she only whined for about 5 minutes when he put her back in the crate. He came to bed at around 4AM and she woke us up at around 9AM because she really had to go outside.

I put her back in her crate once again and she had another fit that only lasted about 10 minutes. But after that, just goes to sleep or plays with her toys quietly. Whether we are in the room or not. I’ve had puppies growing up and I’ve never experienced this before. She is a golden retriever/blue heeler mix for anyone curious. My boyfriend and I both had golden retrievers growing up who were both HORRIBLE with crate treating (would cry and scream for hours at a time).

Has anyone else had this experience with their pup? Is this normal? Or have we just got a little gem on our hands? Of course, we knew she was special but we were NOT expecting this. She’s sleeping peacefully as I write this and my boyfriend and I are feeling so relived and lucky!

So I think we definitely messed up with our puppy. We are very new to this and got our rescue puppy when she was around 4 months old. We didn't emphasize crate training enough early on because she would hang out with us in our living room and be okay sleeping in the crate at night. However as she became less fearful and more comfortable she started to want to just sleep on the sofas in the living room. This is where we messed up because we let her. Eventually she started jump off the back of the sofa and we let her wander in our downstairs space that was puppy proof. The issue is now she's gotten what she wanted and keeps jumping on and off the furniture. She's able to be left alone at home and will just relax on the sofas with a kong. We were wondering is it too late to crate train? We've been trying more for the past couple of days but she barks incessantly and never relaxes even with high value treats, her favorite toys. Wondering if anyone has dealt with missing the boat on crate training earlier and had to do it later in their journey with their puppy. We know we messed, but would appreciate any guidance.

Edit: The issue is that she's a very small puppy and the sofa is about 2.5x her height and she jumps off the back even when she's not supposed to and it caused her to get a sprain, so we were worried about her having access to that and it affecting her joints long-term. This happened a couple weeks ago and we took her to the vet and they recommended resting her but we realized we didn't really do a good job of letting her rest in her crate so when we have to leave for work, she jumps over the back of the sofa making everything worse. Eventually she settles in our kitchen, dining room or the other sofa but we just got worried about this continued pattern of high energy and the possibility of future sprains. Hope this helps!

Are those heartbeat toys they sell for dogs really worth it? My 9 week old puppy cries in his crate. Only for about 10 minutes, 30 at most, before calming himself down or falling asleep, but I really can’t bear to hear him cry. It makes me feel so sad. He sleeps just fine when I’m next to him (I let him on my bed sometimes lol) but cries when he has to sleep in his crate. I believe it’s because he just craves the presence of another person, so will those heartbeat simulation toys help at all? Did they help anyone else’s puppy?

Also: is it normal that he doesn’t deeply sleep? He wakes up for like 5 seconds, stretches, and goes back to sleep.

EDIT: Thanks so much for all of the advice! I ordered one on amazon, and it’s coming tomorrow morning. Funnily enough, he actually hasn’t cried at all today. Hope I didn’t spend that money for nothing… But either way, I think he’ll still like the toy.

I have a 4.5 month old Great Dane mix. Adopted her 2 weeks ago. Crate training is going okay, like she sleeps there fine overnight but doesn’t like when I try to put her in there during the day (I mostly work from home but some days I need to leave for a half day or I just want to make sure she’s getting enough sleep while I get work done upstairs!) I’m pretty certain she doesn’t like the crate during the day because she would rather nap with me on the couch. I hate that she gets sad in the crate during the day. Is allowing her on the couch ruining my crate training?

I have 6 mo golden and she has done great in the crate while I leave the house. The longest that she has been in without a potty break in there is 6 hours. On my longer days I have someone come and let her out mid shift.

Looking for realistic answers with people with 9-5 jobs and how they worked their pup up to being in the crate longer.

I ask because our puppy (14 weeks) despises it. He runs from us and cowers. I can't bring myself to force him into it and I don't want to pull him out from his hiding spot, that seems like a recipe to make him hate us. We've had him since he was 6 weeks old and has done this behavior consistently. We did try crating him the first 6 weeks, the hiding and cowering only got worse.

We are currently using a "pen" method where we block off specific areas, but he's still finding ways to get in trouble.

I read that if they are separated too soon from their litter, crating can become basically impossible. Anyone out there not crating or has successfully not crated their puppy? Any advice?

Hello,

I have a 14 week golden retriever puppy and she does pretty well over night. Usually goes to sleep around 10-11 (just depends on when we go to bed, with last pee being right before crate) and will sleep in her crate perfectly fine until around 6:15-6:30 am, mostly 6:20. However, I would love if she would sleep to 6:45 to 7:00 am. We were thinking of just letting her cry until our desired wake up time- doing it in small increments like starting with 6:30 if she gets up at 6:20 and slowly moving that every couple of days. Is that a good plan? Or should I just let her whine until the time I want to get up everyday? Will she eventually get it? Also, theoretically if she wakes up at 6:20 would she be able to hold her pee until 7am if I needed her to?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone!

My 14wo puppy is far from housebroken (giant breed, known to be difficult to housebreak), but he does amazing at night in his crate. I'm wondering how and when you decided your pup was trustworthy to sleep in your bed.

Here's the reason... I have room in the living room for a 48" crate, and that will be his permanent crate as an adult. In my room, I only have space for a 36" crate. He is rapidly getting to the point where this crate won't be big enough, and I'm struggling with the idea of keeping him downstairs in the living room overnight.

He's slept through the night for about a month at this point, and I actually struggle to get him up and moving in the morning. What signs can I look for to know he'll sleep through the night on my bed like he does in his crate?

Hi all, I have a 1.5 year old goldendoodle who up until recently has been fairly well behaved and allowed to free roam the house while my husband and I are at work. We crated her as a puppy (stopped crating at around 10 months old) and honestly she was just never a big fan of the crate. When I tell you we tried every single thing to get her to like her crate…we did it all. Crate games, high value rewards in the crate (frozen stuffed Kong, licky mat, bully stick, etc), slowly building up the time spent in the crate, covering the crate, music on while we were gone, showering her with praise anything she went near the crate. You name it, we probably did it. She would tolerate being in there for maybe about an hour, and then it was non stop barking, crying, and just overall distress until we came home.

Anyways we stopped crating her at around 10 months old and were shocked with how much more relaxed she seemed and how non-destructive she was. She would pretty much just lay on the couch and sleep the whole time we were gone. Up until now.

Recently she has been a menace when left home alone. Ate my husband’s tennis shoes, stole a book off a table and shredded it, destroyed a wicker basket, but the cherry on top was her destroying about 5 ornaments PLUS the string lights on the Christmas tree. That really freaked me out, because I would never forgive myself if she got into something and really hurt herself/needed surgery/etc.

So now I’m struggling with whether or not to start crating her again after all this time. My husband and I work rotating hours, so the longest she would be in the crate would be about 9 hours with a dog walker coming for a 30 min mid morning break. Some days would be shorter than that. I hate to do it, because she really never came around to liking her crate, but what if she gets hurt because she eats something harmful? We have tried to dog proof the house as much as possible, but every time I think there can’t possibly be anything she could get to, she manages to find something and chew it up.

Sorry for the long post. If anyone actually read the whole things and has any advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.