Crate in Bedroom or Not

[pickleweed]

Hi Everyone...

I was just reading through some of the older posts and current posts from other users on the forum and I had some questions that popped into my head that I wanted to ask.

I currently have the crate in my bedroom and I've had the crate in bedroom since I got him when he was 8 weeks. My puppy is 10 weeks old now. I wake up a couple times during the night to take him to his pee pads to do his potty business. Well, he actually wakes up and starts scratching and whining a tad to wake me up so I let him out to go potty. The pee pads are in his exercise den in another room. Oh, I am still working on his potty training. His last meal is at 7pm and water at 9pm.

There has a been a few times where he will whine in the night because he wants to be out of the crate to play...that's like 2am in the morning. And there were times where he actually needed to go potty 2am in the morning. So I don't know how to tell when it's potty or when it's him being a little rebel. I'm still trying to feel him out.

Plus, he isn't fully potty trained yet...we're still working on that. He does a very good job going on his pee pads when I have him in his exercise pen. But when I let him out of the pen to play or what not, that's when it gets risky. He'll go on his pee pads that I place in the same desingated places and sometimes he'll go in places that he's marked when he had his accidents.
I put him in the exercise den (where he has his little area for potty and a little area for his water and food) during the day when I can't keep an eye on him fully. Other times, I follow him around the place when he's exploring and sniffing. And at nights, I move his crate into my bedroom. I am thinking about moving his crate out of my bedroom and into his exercise den for bedtime. Is this a good idea? I wasn't sure if I should just wait util he's a little older.

Just a little side note: I live in a high rise loft and don't have access to a backyard. We do have a grassy common area on the property where everyone else in the building takes their dogs to take care of their business which I want to avoid taking him to. Since I took him home at 8 weeks, I didn't want to expose him to other dogs or take him out too much until he completed more shots. And this is the reason why I chose to potty train him on pee pads and not outside. He now has his second set of shots completed.

Please let me know what you all think. Any suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Sorry guys for the long post. I wanted to give as much info as possible.

Thanks!

 

[elegy]

unless you want him peeing in the house for the rest of his life, you need to teach him that peeing outside is correct. right now you're teaching him that it's a-okay to pee inside on soft squishy surfaces. do you really want that?

i would keep his crate in your bedroom. he's just a baby. he needs to be with his family. when he wakes you up at night, put him on a leash, take him out, and it's potty time. then right back to bed in the crate. it's not playtime. it's sleepytime. if he fusses, ignore him.

 

[bubbatd]

Wish I could help .... I never had a crate , excercise area or used piddle pads.

 

[misticaleclipse]

Keeping in mind I am learning as well, here is my two cents.

I got the piddle pads for a week or so, but charlie only used them once in his gated area and after doing some research I found out it sets up bad habits with going in the house, so I have removed them. The only time I would recomend them is if you plan on always using them, but that would be very costly throughout a dogs life.

Rather than a pee pad, if you are going that route you might want to litter box train, but I do not recomend that either, because after I thought about it, well I travel to visit family and I bring the litter box with me? For me it just didn't seem right... but to each there own.

I think that a dog needs to be with there pack, so I would keep him in the crate in the bedroom.

In terms of him holding it throughout the night what kind of dog is he? I have a toy dog and when he was that young he did sometimes have to go out twice a night. I took him out, gave him his potty command and immediatly back home and into the crate. He learnt fast that this was not play time and eventually started sleeping through the whole night.

I understand you wanting to avoid the common area because of the shot issue. I live in an apartment building that has tons of dogs walking by and had to deal with the same issue. I started taking him out back of the apartment building where there was less dogs comming by, do you have any other alternative?

You said he is going in areas that he marked before. What did you clean those areas with? If you don't use a special cleaner for dog urine then it most likely will still smell for him and he will keep going there.

 

[sglord]

There' some articles that you might like to read that can help you in training your puppy. You should start the training as early as possible.

==>http://www.dogtrainingclassroom.com/puppytraining.html

Be consistent and repetition is the key to training your dog successfully.

 

[pickleweed]

sglord -- thanks for the article link! it was very helpful!

misticaleclipse -- i have a mini schnauzer. i'm going to have to try a different routine...i am going to look for an alternative for taking him outside. it's just i live right smack downtown and everywhere is city when i step out of my building. oh and i do use a special dog cleaner for his potty accidents. maybe i don't clean the areas well enough. thanks for your reply!

thanks everyone for your replies!

 

[Sadie'smama]

I'm still learning a lot about how to handle/train dogs, but this is what I do:

Sadie's crate is in the bedroom and when she needs to go out at night she will bark, I take her outside and then put her right back in the crate. I've always done this she she was 8 weeks old and she's now 5 months. She rarely needs to go out during the night anymore and when she does, she goes back into the crate by herself.

I never used the puppy pads, because I just figured that she needs to learn to go outside. She's in the crate while we're at work and at night. But my husband comes home for lunch everyday, so she gets to go out then. In the daytime the most she's in the crate without a bathroom break is about 4 hours. She never goes to the bathroom in the crate and I have a huge crate for her.