Skip to content
Basenji Forums
  1. Home
  2. Basenji Training
  3. Puppy training at night

Puppy training at night

Basenji Training
  • K

    Hi!

    Puppy season has begun :) We brought our 8-week old puppy home on Saturday and she's an absolutely perfect puppy during the day. She interacts well with us, has taken to taking naps between my two boys. She goes partly on the pee pee pad and outside when we take her out (we live in Canada and it's cold, she shivers and whimpers when shés outside more than 2 minutes).

    At night though it's another story. We have her in her crate on the ground floor ( we sleep on the first floor) and she spends the majority of her time crying, yelling, scratching her crate. Needless to say we are all pretty tired :)

    She has a large 36 inch crate and the breeder recommended we set it up with a sleeping area and a pee pee pad so we don't go see her at night at all.
    Last night she pooed on the pee pee pad and probably spent all night walking around in it by the state of her paws and the cage.
    So now I wonder if we should keep on doing that and we will eventually wear her down(sleeping in her crate is non-négociable) or if I should make her crate smaller, remove the pee pee pas and take her out when she cries... I worry she will keep on crying not to be alone...

    Thoughts? Experience to share?

    Thanks!

    0
  • K

    When we brought our pup home, I slept beside the crate several nights, so she could see, hear and smell me. The first night she cried, the second she was OK. We took her out when needed so she wouldn't soil her crate. I think being with her at night will help her make the transition from being close to her mother and siblings all the time to being alone at night.

    0
  • tanzaT

    Sleeping crate should be in the same room you sleep in... Cover the crate at night, keep it close to you, so that if she starts to whimper, you can stick your fingers in the crate and assure her that all is OK. I don't and never did believe in a puppy pad in the crate.... in fact I don't use puppy pads or newspaper at all. I litter box train them.... should be easy to do with her at this young age. Also, I think that 8wks is way to early to have sent her home where she is now an only dog.....

    Pat Fragassi

    Tanza Basenjis

    www.tanzabasenjis.net

    0
  • Baba BamideleB

    The rule of thumb I was taught is that a puppy can only wait an amount of time equal to their age in months plus one. So, at eight weeks old (two months), your pup can hold it three hours tops (1 month + 1 month + 1). You should probably schedule a couple of potty visits outside during the night, even though it will be a pain.

    When we got Cosette, my wife and set a timer for three hours and three hours beyond that. We took turns taking her outside. At twelve weeks old, we were able to lengthen the time between breaks to 4 hours, then 5 hours at sixteen weeks, etc. It's tough, but it will keep your home (and her crate) clean!

    0

Suggested Topics

  • K

    Couple of training puppy questions…

    Basenji Training
    8
    0 Votes
    8 Posts
    6k Views
    K
    i did get some bitter apple…the thing works like a charm! I got her some toys as well and she does so much better now with knowing what to chew and what not to! its like night and day from 2-3 weeks ago....I rarely have to redirect her now...I tell you, these B's are smart!
  • AnaA

    Crate training

    Basenji Training
    5
    0 Votes
    5 Posts
    4k Views
    AnaA
    He does only poop in his crate, no urine usually. I am trying to gradually get him to like his crate, but I do think it might be a lost cause. But yesterday I left for about three hours and left him in the kitchen. When I got back, I opened the door and looked down to see not only my cat waiting for me but my dog as well… He found a way to get out of the kitchen and have the run on my apartment. I now know why basenjis are called escape artists. I was happy to find that although he had an accident in the living room, he didn't destroy anything. But I won't count on one time to trust him alone. I am going to stick with the kitchen and try to make sure he can't get out.
  • KipawaK

    Whistle training

    Basenji Training
    8
    0 Votes
    8 Posts
    3k Views
    KipawaK
    @agilebasenji: for this sort of thing (big value treats over long time period), the best thing i've found to use is frozen liverwurst. i buy it, slice it and put it in a small container (the leftover cream cheese containers work GREAT for this) then put the container in the freezer. the pup gets to lick the frozen stuff for her high value treat - LOTS of treat over a long time, but not lots of calories or lots of treats in the tummy. the dogs at my house swear liverwurst pupcicles are wonderful. sometimes they will try to nibble, but given it's frozen and in a small container, it's hard to get lots of treats. I will try this, but I myself love liverwurst. Hopefully I will not eat it all before getting to the park. At the park today, I was about 75% successful with the whistle/treat recall. Not bad for the first time out, I think. Especially because there were easily 20 dogs there, and Kipawa is Mr. Social and has to visit with all of them.
  • BasenjimammaB

    Puppy training classes…questions

    Basenji Training
    52
    0 Votes
    52 Posts
    20k Views
    P
    I decided to start off with just one for a very special Basenji and hopefully later get more when finances have improved!!!
  • Ninabeana26N

    Puppy Nipping

    Basenji Training
    23
    0 Votes
    23 Posts
    8k Views
    Robin_n_JackR
    @JazzysMom: With Keoki we have to firmly say, "NO" and if he doesn't stop, we hold him under the neck – not tightly, just enough so he can't grab -- and make him sit. Then we look him in the eye and say, "NO! Enough!". That usually does it for him, and he's getting better and better at either not biting and/or listening the first time. He usually does stop the first time w/me, and in fact seldom does bite at me in play, but not as well with Dh and the kids . One of my dd's says it's because he's afraid of me, but that is not the case. He never cringes, he just listens to the Mama! I think he sees the other dogs and the kids listening to me, and the fact that I don't ask or beg him to stop doing things. I TELL him. I am working to get the family to see the difference, and to stop bouncing around while saying, NO. LOL Same for me- that is exactly what I do! When he was younger we tried the yelp, and we tried ignoring him….neither seemed to work very well for us. This seems to work very well, at least in our case.
  • EdwardE

    Clicker training

    Basenji Training
    3
    0 Votes
    3 Posts
    3k Views
    lvossL
    Edward, Positive reinforcement methods like clicker training work wonderfully with basenjis. All four of my basenjis are clicker trained. I guess you could even consider Sophie to have started before birth since I was clicker training her mom while she was pregnant with the litter. The purpose of the clicker is to mark the behavior that you want so you could also just use a word like "yes" or "Yay" or "good dog" followed by a treat. I use clicker training to train a variety of behaviors such as sit, down, attention, name response, stay, stand, go to mat, front, point, hand targeting, and the list goes on. I also use it in agility training.