 training to sleep in crate
Over the last two weeks that we've had Cody, we already trust him to be in the house following us around during the day. He was doing so good with potty training and then sleeping in his crate at night (with a few accidents but we've been working on timing for that) After his shot the other day he slept the rest of the day and since then he's gotten on the schedule of sleeping all day and barking all night in his crate (and now having tons of accidents since he's awake all night) We don't want his crate to be something he feels captive in but comfortable. We have a bed that fits exactly in the bottom of the crate, but since he's having accidents we keep towels in the bottom. I understand that he barks because he doesn't understand why he's in the crate instead of with us
When we first got him, we'd put him in his crate during the day when he fell asleep so that he would get used to it- and he did! But now he acts like he's being punished every time we put him in there. Today we're working on keeping him awake as much as possible so that he's really tired tonight and then putting him in the crate when he falls asleep (which immediately makes him wake up) When he barks we tell him no (firmly) and sometimes make a loud noise. He'll fall asleep eventually but then wakes up to any noise and realizes people are around and not letting him out. We let him out- he goes to his bed and sleeps....
I love Cody, I don't want him to feel like he's being punished for falling asleep... any advice? Are we being horribly cruel? We just want him to sleep at night (which he would I'm sure if we put him in our beds and cuddled all night long but our goal is to get him used to sleeping independently- so that when he's completely potty trained he can just go to his bed and sleep at night) |