SpaRkles & sleeping issues

[catorres8988]

Ok so as everyone knows we jast got sparkles
A few days ago. Before sparkles, spike would sleep in his crate w the door opened. Anyway now that sparkles is here I decided to just put each one In each of their own crate and latch the door closed. Well spike is fine w it bc he LOVES to sleep all night long and he doesn't even notice the door is locked until I unlock it n the morning & wake
Him up. Lol. Well last few days w sparkle has been very difficult @ night. I'll put both of them n their crate and we say night night to them and go to bed. Then 30 seconds later princess sparkles starts to whine & whimper and bark trying to get out of her crate. So I get up to try to calm Her down and end up sleeping on the couch w her n my lap. I don't want her to think this is the way it's going to be bc it's not. We never had problems w spike as a baby & sleeping in his crate @ night. Any suggestions? Keep n mind she has only been w us 3 days now & is only 3 months old. :[ PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[kazzy220]

Ooops you've already taught Sparkles that if she whines and makes a fuss she gets her Mommy back down real quick!! Then to make things even better Mommy has also been trained to stay downstairs on the couch and cuddle her ALL night. Sparkles is VERY good at training her humans ... LOL

But to be serious now ... that is what you have now trained Sparkles to think. She goes in the cage, whines for a bit and is then rewarded by attention from you. It will be difficult but you might need to pick up some ear plugs because you are just going to have to ignore her. That is the only way she will learn not to cry at night. She's not in pain, or discomfort she's just whining for attention.

[sheshistory]

Ok so as everyone knows we jast got sparkles
A few days ago. Before sparkles, spike would sleep in his crate w the door opened. Anyway now that sparkles is here I decided to just put each one In each of their own crate and latch the door closed. Well spike is fine w it bc he LOVES to sleep all night long and he doesn't even notice the door is locked until I unlock it n the morning & wake
Him up. Lol. Well last few days w sparkle has been very difficult @ night. I'll put both of them n their crate and we say night night to them and go to bed. Then 30 seconds later princess sparkles starts to whine & whimper and bark trying to get out of her crate. So I get up to try to calm Her down and end up sleeping on the couch w her n my lap. I don't want her to think this is the way it's going to be bc it's not. We never had problems w spike as a baby & sleeping in his crate @ night. Any suggestions? Keep n mind she has only been w us 3 days now & is only 3 months old. :[ PLEASE HELP!!!!!

This was me 5 months ago when we got Truman!

Both Bentley and Linus LOVED their crate and never had any problem with it. They didn't bark, sleep, or potty in it at all. I was spoiled and so were you with Spike. It sounds like you have some crate training to do!

Unfortunately, the only thing that will really help is time. Sparkles is separated from her pack for the first time and is probably a little lonely but she also is a bulldog, that doesn't want to be in her crate. You must ignore the whining and barking (impossible, I know) and not give in to her demands. It really sucks for the first weeks (or months - it took Truman a long time) BUT it does pay off eventually - with a dog who is comfortable being crated.

You CANNOT pick her up and take her out of her crate and let her sleep on you! As Kazzy said, you've already created a bad habit and now you're going to have to break it. You also need to remember, at least in my experience, at 3 months, Sparkles cannot hold it all night and you will have to let her out - at least once - to go potty. Her bladder is small so she will only be able to go around 4 hours without a break!

I was the same way as you - I figured since I'd been through two bulldogs that immediately loved being crated, my new puppy was not going to be a problem! But since he was younger than the other two were, and a different personality - much more playful - it has been a new experience for me, as it is for you, and made me realize how spoiled I was with my previous two bullies!

Hang in there, you have some sleepless nights ahead! If you haven't done so already, cover her crate with a towel or sheet to give her less stimulation and perhaps, throw in a stuffed animal or toy that she likes to cuddle. It just takes time, which is rough puppy barking at 3 AM...believe me, I know!

[Lacey28]

Great advice @jillh10 and @kazzy220! Good luck!

[catorres8988]

yes thank u for the great advice... i'll try to ignore her whining but its just soooo hard. :[ i'll keep ya'll posted.

[2bulliefamily]

Wow...that's great advise @jillh10 and @kazzy220. I don't crate so definately could not give advice. We did try to crate Lola way back when and she did the same thing so we spoiled her and she slept with us until she was too big and now has a mac daddy bed on the floor (actually just a perla with a big pillow and blankets)! Now with Brodie he is sleeping with us (he is on his bed though) and sleeps all night until my hubby gets up at 4:30. He will get him up to the potty and puts him back with me and he wants to play but this am, I told him no, laid him down and he went back to sleep! He is such a good boy, knock on wood! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[LisaRN]

I agree that you're starting to teach the little princess if she whines she can get out of there. When we first got Chester we did something the breeder told us to do - we put the top half of his crate and bottom half of his crate together like a bowl, secured it with zip ties and he had more of a "pen". Once he got big enough where he was able to jump up and out, we had to put the crate together the regular way. The first night he cried, but we left him like that. He only cried the one night.

[mammyglicks]

I agree she got you trained alright, lol. Since she is new to the home she doesn't know how to act. Bear sleeps with me so I will be no help on the sleeping in the crate, hope she gets situated soon so you can get some sleep