crate help again

i have a few more questions about the crate and the amount of time my Peanut should be in it....

Right now (8pm) - she is in her crate with the door closed being very good. I was going to let her out around 9-9:30 to see if she goes PP again. Then i was going to put her in again til 1am - take her out to PP again and then put her back in again until 7am. Is this ok?
last night she was crated from 9pm-4am.. She started crying at 4 and i was told to ignore it but I felt so bad...thank god I checked.. she Pee'd and Poop'd in the crate..So all of today we had her in the gated kitchen with her crate open and she would go in and lay down and come out but was never closed in. is this ok?

i have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing... we hear so many different ideas and we know every puppy is different. I just feel if I keep getting up at night with her to go every 3-4 hours- she is going to expect that forever... but if i leave her in all night - she will PP in the crate.


what do you all think?

Re: crate help again

Because she is young - she will have to be let out to go potty every few hours. We did this with our dog when he was a puppy and we slowly increased it over time and now he holds it 8+ hours.

See if she holds it 4 hours - if so then set your alarm so that you are there before she starts crying - if not then try 3 hours. You want to get to her before she goes in the crate, and before she starts crying because you dont want her to learn that crying will get her out of the crate.

Re: crate help again

If she is going in the crate, then you have too much space for her. She should only be able to stand up and turn around at the most. We also do not give any food or treats after 7:00pm. Water is available all the time.

I would also advise not taking her out at night every few hours. Let her tell you when she has to go. She's only10 weeks old. If she woke you up at 4:00am, then that's good and you should take her out. Afterwards, put her right back to sleep in the crate.

We did not have our puppy in the crate unless we were going out, showering, or going to bed at night. If we were hanging out watching TV, we'd have him out with us and just supervised.

We did this with our puppy and he sleeps through the night now unless it's an emergency really. He is now 8 months old and sleeps outside the crate.

I would Google crate training - we did and learned a lot.