Overnights, or not to overnight, that is the question…..

Decisions Decisions.....(core)We have put considerable work into our goals, deliberately crafting a positive association with being inside the crate, giving our puppies an understanding that running into the crate is great fun, that being locked inside a crate isn’t cause for panic, and that the best things happen in crates.Now it’s time to decide about doing overnights in crates.Even if a breeder did not want to do the overnight stays, just that foundation will be of tremendous benefit to the puppy in it’s new home. It’s the frequent, daily, enjoyable exposures to the crate that builds a solid foundation. Overnight stays are built upon that foundation, if the foundation is weak, overnight stays can be detrimental and contrary to our goals. If the foundation is strong, overnight stays can give puppies some experience with being closed in the crate at night, just as they will be in the new home.Sending puppies home at 8 weeks? You’re off the hook for this work, it will be done by the new owner because 8 weeks just isn’t enough time, and puppies aren’t mature enough during that time to spend hours in a crate. Even the new owners could put this work off for a month and have a much easier time of it! Breeders who send puppies home later, between 10-16 weeks may find their puppies can sleep overnight in crates for a couple weeks. If you send puppies home during week 9 to 10 you are in a pretty gray area, some puppies will be too immature for this and others will be just old enough. Use your own discretion and remember that it’s fine to let the new owner do this work. It’s also fine to do overnights with just a couple puppies who you know have owners that will benefit from this head start.If you don’t have the inclination to do overnight stays, you will continue with the crate conditioning protocols up to this point until your puppies go to their new homes. Be proud of all the hard work you have done, your puppies will benefit their whole lives from this foundation. Here are some pros/cons of doing overnight stays in crates if you need help deciding.Pros:1.Puppies are less stressed in the breeder’s home than they will be in the new home during transition week.2.Since puppies have not yet been separated from their litter and first home, they are more able to cope with a new routine like being closed in a crate all night.3.Puppies will be experiencing time closed in the crate as they are transported home via car, or plane, as well as in the new home. Giving the puppy some experience with sleeping in the crate before the stress of transition can be helpful.4.For the breeder, some puppies are really quite messy overnight, this is the case for my own puppies from 8 to 9 weeks, so sleeping overnight means waking up to a clean pen.5. Some new owners will find puppy raising very stressful and even upsetting. Loosing sleep is a common cause of “puppy blues” and can even cause puppy return, so if a puppy goes home later and is mostly settled overnight in the crate a more sensitive owner may be less anxious and fussy about their puppy.Cons:1.Immature puppies may not have the emotional capacity to handle overnight crating without panic, or distress. NO crate work is better than traumatizing crate work.2.If the breeder has skipped over important parts of the protocol, so the puppies emotional response and association with the crate is tenuous, confining overnight may move that emotional response from ambivalent to anxious.3.Puppies who are crated overnight are not engaging in other normal puppy behaviors, like play, socializing, and etc and for young puppies those activities are more important than crate time. Overnights are for puppies who are at least 8 weeks old.For those who want to do this final step, to allow their puppy to experience sleeping alone all night in the crate in the comfort and familiarity of their home, more information follows.Overnight Crating: Considerations and PreparationsIf you would like to do overnight stays with your puppies you have a few decisions to make.If we are going to confine puppies in crates all night we have two options.1. Remove puppies for toilet breaks. 2. Provide them with a litter box inside the crate.Let’s consider both.Without a litter box, a puppy who needs to void has two options. It can hold it, tolerating being uncomfortable, until it can’t hold it anymore and then soiling the crate. Or the uncomfortable puppy can vocalize, hoping to rouse a person in time, be released from the crate to void, and then put back inside the crate. Neither are super options, so without a litter box you will need to schedule a potty break.1.Scheduled potty breaks. We know that having distress or physical needs ignored creates negative associations with the crate. So, if you plan on letting puppies out for potty breaks, try to schedule these before you expect puppies to wake up and need to void. A good bet is halfway through the night, usually around 3:00 am. Option 2: If you are a light sleeper wait until you hear puppies moving around and waking up and then go to let them out. 2.The potty break. When your alarm goes off, or when the first puppy wakes up and starts to vocalize, go to the crate bank and let all the puppies out into the weaning pen. The reality is, once you have removed one puppy from it’s crate, ALL the puppies will very likely wake up and need to relieve themselves. So, there is little chance you can remove one puppy without waking them all up. Plan on removing all the puppies from the crates and giving them a chance to potty. Be sure to close the crates so the puppies don’t take the pacifiers out of the crate into the weaning pen.3.Option 1: After the potty break. Change pacifiers for a new one, and reload all the puppies after the potty break. You can reload each one after you see it void or wait and reload them all after a set amount of time. Darken the room and go back to bed.4.Option 2: After the potty break. Honestly, after you have removed all the puppies from their crates, it is often easier to leave them in the weaning pen for the rest of the night. Since the puppies will be rested from sleeping a few hours it’s unlikely they will be tired enough to sleep more, and will probably just fuss and cry. So, it’s OK to crate the puppies until they wake up, put them back in the weaning pen, and then leave them there till morning. Each night they will usually sleep a bit longer based on how tired they were the night before. This also means that you can get some rest before getting up in the morning.Tips for potty breaks.1.Each night your puppies may sleep a little bit longer, if you wake up at 3 and there isn’t a peep from the puppy area try snoozing for another hour, or waiting until you hear the puppies getting restless to get them up.2.If you are a heavy sleeper, a baby monitor can help you hear when the puppies are waking up but not yet vocalizing.3.Use easy to launder bedding, because even if you are really careful, it’s possible a puppy won’t be able to hold it long enough or will excitement urinate before being let out. Have a couple clean pads nearby so you can quickly switch a soiled pad for a clean one before loading puppy back up, we do NOT want puppies to get used to resting on soiled bedding.Now, easy to see why an in-crate litter box is so useful. Here is our night routine once we started using in crate litter boxes.1.Load puppies up at bedtime.2.Sleep all night, ignoring any restless or fussing puppies.3.Wake up and let puppies out in the morning.4. Remove litter boxes, clean any that need it, and set them aside for the next night.Any puppy that needs to void can relieve itself in the small litter box in the back of it’s crate. Puppies do not learn to vocalize to be released, nor are they forced to hold it.We have used a crate litter box for four years now, on more than litters and this system works extremely well for us. Nobody needs to get up in the middle of the night every night, for a week, the puppies can use the box if needed, so bedding is rarely soiled, and everyone is happy.But won’t this teach the puppy to be dirty in crates later?The biggest question we had ourselves, and that we get asked now, is won’t having a toilet inside the crate actually teach the puppies to void inside the crate making them dirty in the crate as an adult?The answer is, not in our experience, the experience of our owners, or the many trainers who have adopted this method. I think the reason for this is very similar to why we humans don’t relieve ourselves all over our own houses once we are toilet trained. Because we know that the toilet is for relieving ourselves, when a toilet isn’t available, we don’t simply “go” anywhere like we did as toddlers.Our puppies don’t continue to void in the crate once we remove the toilet for the same reason. The puppy has learned that the toilet is for relieving oneself, so they learn when they need to relieve themselves, they should seek out the toilet (which for most dogs will be “anywhere outside”) which is whatever we teach them that is.In fact, since we have started with this crate conditioning protocol, our clients report zero accidents in the crate, and many also report their puppies NEVER have accidents inside either. Obviously much depends on the new owner’s house training skill, but the big lesson is that of course the puppy can understand the difference between having a toilet and not, just like a human can.Now, having a toilet inside the crate doesn’t give us an excuse for leaving the puppies inside the crates longer than we should simply because the puppy has a “place to go” if it needs to.Our goal is zero use of the toilet in the last week, depending on the age, physical maturity, and gut maturity of the puppies we might reach this goal. But if not, the toilet is our insurance that the puppy doesn’t void on it’s own bedding, or become distressed that it needs to void and has nowhere to relieve itself.Other OptionsIf your space simply does not allow for crates large enough for both the puppy and a litter box or potty pad, you have a couple options.You can use fewer larger crates, taking some normally used for adult dogs, and set up a rotation schedule. Crating a couple puppies per night, and rotating so everyone has a chance to experience sleeping overnight in the crate. This works nearly as well as crating the entire litter, because each puppy does get to experience a few nights in the crate. Just about every breeder can find room for a couple full size crates for use with a rotational schedule.Or, you can use the smaller crates and schedule a potty break.Or, not do overnights at all, continuing with the earlier parts of the schedule.Choose the option that works best for you.

Week 6: Preparing For Send Home & Decisions Decisions

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