[belf1125]

Hi all,
This question is for those who crate-trained their pups at the beginning. Our V, Shelby, is 3 months old. She's stayed in her crate every night (we haven't been suckered into letting her in bed with us yet, haha). She still wakes up at least once every night, sometimes twice. I know she should only be able to hold her bladder 3-4 hours at this age. I just wondered when your pup slept through the night, without interruption? Also, when did you let them graduate to keeping the crate door open so they are free to roam around?
Thanks...

 

[1notenough]

mine are almost seven months.every night i am up ,but just once.I dont know about anyone else but as soon as you leave the crate door open you might be in for a vislaprise.mine found out where i sleep.and i dont mind if they snooze with me.it just means they get a bath once a week or more .A dirty dog is a happy dog. hahaha.

 

[tbone13]

To be honest I think you can start keeping the crate door open whenever you're comfortable with it. For me crate training was about getting the dog to feel like the crate was "home." I was also told very early on that if your dog spends time in the crate during the day (like if you work) then he/she should not sleep in the crate at night because that's far too long to be in there.

Also, a word of caution, once you let your V start sleeping in your bed it's VERY hard to get them out. So if you're going to start letting your pup sleep outside of the crate you may want to get a doggy bed or something that's just as comfortable as your bed. Although it is cute to let your pup sleep with you, it gets old fast.... especially if he/she is a bed hog!

 

[Vlicked]

We got our pup when he was 3 months and was also relieving him two times a night. I think , maybe, three weeks later we reduced it to one time a night. Then around 4.5 months was when we thought he could sleep thru the night. But we let him out late (like around 11PM) and my husband was getting up before 6 those days. I remember it feeling really good when we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night! It was January when we got him! Pups can hold their bladders longer when they're sleeping because of some hormone that is realeased, so you might be able to "wean" him of going out twice a night soon.

As far as leaving him to roam...our pup is now a year and we still don't trust him. We've tried letting him roam at night but he always found some article of clothing to play with.

 

[Rusty Star]

My Vizsla is just 10 weeks old and she is sleeping in her place (we prepared her kind of 1 m on 2m separate place where she's got her bed, toilet and a bit space for toys and water). She is staying there whole night, during the day when we are at the office (max 4 hrs)... First 2 weeks we needed to get up 1-2 times a night, now is quiet. Even she wake up is not noisy and falling asleep soon. We are sleeping whole night (from 10-11 untill 6-7).
We teached her to be quiet - remember they are like babies - nothing is happened but they are just trying you... (it was very difficult for me at the beginning - she was so small and to let her crying - my heart was broken, but it works - now is really easy and she is happy)

 

[madaboutvizslas]

We got our pup at 10 weeks. She sleeps in a crate in the garage. The first night I was up 3 times (apparently the wife says it is MY dog). The next night we were heading down the same path so I let her howl. After 3 nghts she was sleeping quietly right through the night from 10:30pm until 6am. She has never messed in her crate once. The crate door is locked at night. She has a big backyard to run around in but we also have a kennel and run out there if we need to use it. She is almost 7 months old now and as it is coming into summer and heating up I will be trying to get her to sleep out in the kennel. How she will react to this change in routine will be interesting. I never use the crate to house her during the day and I try to never leave her in the kennel longer than about 3-4 hours.

 

[Crazy Kian]

From day one our pup was in the crate. The crate is now in our bedroom and we are hopeing to movie to the spare room.
He has never had an accident in his crate and he's now 5 months old. We leave him during the day until about 1-2 pm when we come home to feed him and let him out to do his toilet thing. Then we're home at 7.
He seems to like this schedule.

 

[williajm]

My 4 month old vizsla, Scout, started sleeping through the night at about 10 weeks. We keep his crate in our bedroom, and would take him out every 3 hours when we first got him. After about a week we took him out every 4 hours, and so on until he slept through the night (our night is only 5-6 hours anyway).

The other morning I realized that I forgot to close the door to his crate. Luckily he loves his crate and never got up. Whenever he is tired he runs up to his crate, and there is no way (short of dragging him) to get him out.