Hi there & congrats on your new pup hope the little guy is feeling better.

Crate training needs to be down gradually, getting the pup used to the crate on the outside, then slowly letting them explore the inside (with the door open), closing the door just for a few seconds and eventually for longer. It takes time to get them comfortable in it. Make the crate a great place - comfortable, give Jasper a favorite treat or chew stick in it or a frozen kong, so he associates GREAT things with the crate - his very own space he can relax in! A great article that helped me: https://www.pet.co.nz/feature/puppy-crate-training

We have a 5 month old puppy and the crate is in our bedroom, which was a big help for her getting used to sleeping it with us being around. We've never moved the crate out of our bed room, but I believe you can do this gradually too if you want the crate to be downstairs.Give it sufficient time though. Having the crate in the room is good too, because it makes it easier to hear them whine when they need to potty during the night.

The time is different for every puppy, some take days to get used to it or weeks, some months and some never get used to it. Our Nova got used to it within a few days, but only after a few weeks she really started loving it and going in there nap during the day.

Another tip: When we go to work and Nova is in the crate for a couple of hours, we usually leave our iPad playing with some calm music or a movie even, it really helped her to have some noise in the house and she falls asleep to it .

What do you do with Jasper before he goes to bed at night? We usually try and help Nova wind down and make sure she is super tired before going into the crate.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

We did not really have time to ease him into crate training, as I needed to go back to work so we only had the weekend, then I had to crate him during the day.

It seems to be getting worse, instead of better. LAst night, we put him to bed at 10:30. He had fallen asleep on the floor by the couch so we took him out to potty and put him in the crate. He cried for about 10 minutes before falling asleep. At 1:10 a.m. he started barking again, so I went down to take him out to potty, and he had already peed in his crate. I'm thinking the UTI is not quite over yet and will be going back to the vet for a recheck on Friday. HE did pee again outside, and then I cleaned up the crate and put him back in. He howled until 4:30 on and off, and which point we relented and brought him into our bed so we could all get a couple hours of sleep. I'm bleary-eyed and wonder if I royally screwed it up by bringing him into our bed? Or, should I just dispense with the crate training until I'm certain he is over the UTI for good?

Really tired, frustrated, and wondering what we got ourselves into.

 

Have you done any training with him during the day to ease him into it? just start from scratch. Sorry to hear about it, I hope it does get better. At 11 weeks they usually need a potty break during the night, so I would put an alarm on to let him out so he doesn’t pee in the crate. My pup was 10.5 weeks when we got her and we had to let her out to pee once per night for about 10weeks until she was able to hold it through the night.

It’s good to take him to the vet for a recheck with the UTI because it may be causing other discomfort?

I’m not sure about the bed thing, our pup was allowed to sleep in bed with us for a few nights until we transitioned her to sleeping in the crate and there was no fuss with that. Now that she’s as good as potty trained she is allowed to sleep in the crate with the door open and often sleeps in bed with us and sometimes chooses to sleep in the crate instead. She had a tummy upset last week so I shut the crate at night, she whined a little bit the first night to get into the bed but I didn’t let her. Got up and comforted her, made sure she was ok and she went back to sleep and slept in the crate for a week with no worries. But every dog is different and every familys arrangement are different.

 

Hm, difficult.


I want to put one thing first: In case my chosen words aren't the best, I'm not trying to be mean or anything!

We have the crate in our mud room, on the first floor of our house and we sleep on the second floor.
[...]
Or should we be considering other sleeping options?

I would say, yes.


Jasper is a baby and two weeks aren't much time to settle in for him.
Now just imagine: You're tiny, you're a baby. You have to move out from home to strangers.
And adding to that, you get put away far away from these people, you just met, alone in another room on another floor.
Sounds creepy, doesn't it?


Then add a crate, you haven't been trained for, so this crate is close to being "pure evil".


Personally, I would probably cry too

Another tip: When we go to work and Nova is in the crate for a couple of hours, we usually leave our iPad playing with some calm music or a movie even, it really helped her to have some noise in the house and she falls asleep to it .

A friend of mine did that with his grown-up Malinois as well.
Worked for her too!

We did not really have time to ease him into crate training, as I needed to go back to work so we only had the weekend, then I had to crate him during the day.

Now, here comes the part, for which I pointed out, that I'm not trying to mean! So, please don't take it any wrong way!


But pretty much, you didn't train him at all.
Essentially you just locked him up, with him not having a clue as to what happened.
I'm more of a lay person myself, but I think this start might be a reason, that it will take a while, until he sees his crate as something good.
He's probably closer to being traumatized by it, compared to having learned, that the crate is a good place.


As I understand it, you got Jasper; his night he spent always in the crate (aside from going potty).
So, I guess he's pretty shocked there.
And after only two days, he has to spent several hours (I think? I obviously can't know, how long you're away for work.) a day in that crate as well.
Sounds to me, like he spends way too much time in that crate from right of the beginning without any training to learn, that the crate should be a fun place.


Plus, it sounds like a lot of alone-time for a puppy, which probably adds to not making it easier.

I'm thinking the UTI is not quite over yet and will be going back to the vet for a recheck on Friday.

Fingers crossed, that he gets rid of it as quick as possible!

At 11 weeks they usually need a potty break during the night, ...

I was so proud of Revan.
He wasn't even ten weeks old, when he started sleeping through the night
Of course that meant, I went the last time outside around midnight and would get up around six

I’m not sure about the bed thing, our pup was allowed to sleep in bed with us for a few nights until we transitioned her to sleeping in the crate and there was no fuss with that.

I did it, sort of, similar.


I slept on the couch in my living room (I have a high sleeper in the bedroom, and for me that was just too far away, to be able to react).
For weeks he would just sleep right next to the couch; sometimes right in front of it, sometimes behind it (Gosh, he must have been tiny to have gotten there ).
This way, I would wake up if he were to start walking around; I was close enough, so he wouldn't be alone.
It even took some months, until he slept on the couch for a little while.


Today I party sleep in my bed and later that night switch to the couch.
Revan isn't impressed, when I'm on my high sleeper and sometimes he comes with me on top of the couch, but mostly he sleeps in front of it.

 

We relented and let him sleep in our bed last night and all was great. I woke up in the middle of the night to my calico cat sleeping under the covers between us and Jasper sleeping with his head on her body. I regret nothing

 

Update to this question. We moved Jasper's crate into our bedroom, and he's doing great in there at night now. No crying, lays down and goes to sleep without a whimper. He just wanted to be near us.

One other question though. He is waking to go potty every 1-2 hours through the night. He is 12 weeks old now. Is this normal, or does it indicate his UTI is still having an effect? He went back to the Dr. on Friday and he put him on 7 more days of antibiotic, but he said his bladder feels normal now. We need to bring in another urine sample on Friday.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure if that's normal. Does he drink water during the night? Our pup only had to get up once for potty every night when we got her from 10.5 weeks old. We stopped access to water at about 8:30pm at night and last potty trip was 10:00pm. Then my other friend got her puppy at 8 weeks and he slept through the night from the start with no potty breaks. Others told me they had to let them out every 2-3hours at night. Not sure what's considered normal here.

Great update on the crate training and sleeping. Glad he is doing much better and he will be happy to hear your breathe and have the smell of his new family all around him.

Hope the UTI is clearing up!!!