Teaching the stay is easy, but can be time consuming and takes lots of practice. First have your dog on a leash and put them in a sit. Your dog should be in a sit in front of you, say sit and feed, then continuously feed every couple of seconds for staying there. Once your dog is staying for a couple seconds, you can start increasing the time between treats. Once they are staying well even with more time between treats, step one is complete! Always say “okay” or whatever you use for a release word to let them know that they are done “staying”. We choose not to say “stay” because we expect them to stay in a sit until we tell them they’re done sitting, or stay in a down, etc. If you choose to say “stay” simply say,”sit” then “stay” then feed every few seconds like mentioned above.
Now you can start increasing the distance, or time. If you choose to increase the distance first, simple start by having them in a “stay” then take 1 step backwards, then go right back and feed, then repeat. If they’re good at that, you can take 2, then 3, etc. Once they’re good at that you can start increasing the time but staying with them. Once they are good at both time and distance, you can try taking a few steps away and increasing the duration from afar. This will take a lot of repetition and a lot of practice, but if you’re consistent, they’ll get it! Remember, if they ever break their stay, put them right back in the same spot, don’t feed and start over. If they break their stay more than once, you’re probably moving too fast and should go back a few steps to make it easier for them.
A big mistake that people make, is they’ll practice “stay” and “come” at the same time. They’ll say “stay”, walk across the room and say “come”, it will make the dog anticipate the “come” and more likely to break their stay. So until your dog is super solid with both commands, do not put them together. ALWAYS go back to your dog in the beginning before releasing them. That way they’ll know that you will come back for them and be less likely to break the stay. Even once they are solid make sure you return to them at least half the time, so that they don’t think they’ll always be called and start anticipating.
Stay is a command that should be practiced daily, or almost daily, to continuously improve the stay, it’s such an important command!
Start with your dog on a leash with lots of treats. Simply take a treat and put it above your dogs head, and their bum should naturally fall, bringing them into a sit. As soon as their bum hits the ground say “yes” and feed them the treat.
Some dogs pick this up super quickly and some need a little extra time. For the dogs that really aren’t getting it, even after multiple attempts, you can use one hand to put the food above their head and the other to gently push their bum down to help them figure out what you want. Again when their bum hits the ground, say “yes” and feed.
Once your dog starts sitting as soon as you raise your hand up, you’re ready to start adding the word “sit”. This could take one session or a couple sessions, depending on the dog. So now you can start saying “sit” then immediately helping your dog into the sit position. After a while you can say “sit” and wait a couple seconds before helping your dog. Eventually they’ll hear sit and know exactly what you want, before you have a chance to help them.
Teaching a sit with leash pressure
Next you can start teaching them how to sit with leash pressure. This gives you a super valuable tool in the case that your dog is distracted, confused about what you want or just doesn’t feel like listening. You don’t want to bribe the dog with food to do everything, otherwise if you don’t have food one day, they won’t do anything until you show them the food.
To start this you will simply pull up on your dogs leash (straight up) and hold until they sit. Most dogs will automatically sit after a few seconds and if they do, say “yes” and treat. If they need a little help you can pull up on the leash while also pushing their bum down. If they already know what sit means, you can pull up on the leash then say sit. Eventually they’ll feel the pressure and sit right down, which is the goal!
Once they know sit verbally and with leash pressure, you can start working on them staying in position longer. Check back for our post on teaching the stay!
Do you want your dog to leave treats and toys like a pro? Do you worry about accidentally dropping something that’s not good for them like medication or a piece of chocolate? Does your dog counter surf? Steal your food? Does your dog generally just not have any self control? If you answered yes to any of those questions, keep reading!
It’s easiest for this trick to start with something big enough for your dog to see easily and preferably something a bit boring to your dog; a crunchy dog biscuit usually works well.
Things needed:
A leashed dog
A large crunchy dog treat
A bunch of small treats
It’s important for this exercise that you act as if the large treat is not edible. Whatever you do, do NOT let your dog eat the large treat. Start by having your puppy in a sit or a down and place the large treat in front of them and say “leave it”. They will naturally go to reach for the treat and you’ll put your hand over top of it and say “no, leave it”. When they leave the treat even for a second you’ll take one of your small treats and reward them with that. Then continuously feed small treats as they continue to “leave it” with the large treat. When you’re done with the exercise pick up the large treat and release your dog. Practice this at least once a day in short sessions. At the beginning, you may need to cover the treat with your hand many times before they understand. If your dog is having a really hard time, try moving the treat slightly further away from the dog to help them succeed at this exercise.
As your dog progresses you can start dropping the cookie and saying leave it instead of placing it down. You can progress by placing it closer to your dog or you can make it even harder by using yummier treats that are irresistible to your pup.
Next Step
To make it harder, you can start getting them to “leave it” with balls and different toys. Start by just gently dropping the ball and saying “leave it”, have the dog on a leash so you can stop them if they go to grab it. When you can say leave it and drop the ball without any movement from your pup (other than them looking), you’re ready to make it a bit harder.
You can progress to tossing it a few feet a way, and eventually throwing it as far as you want. If you move through they steps slowly and make sure they fully understand before moving onto the next step this is a fairly easy and one of the most important things you will ever teach! This will help them to not chase birds, squirrels, cars and even other dogs!
We use this command every single day. Whether you drop something your dog shouldn’t eat (like a pill or a grape, etc), or you see something on the trail that they shouldn’t eat (garbage, road kill, etc) or your dog spots a bird or a rabbit that they really want to chase.
Our dogs will leave anything we tell them to including their favourite ball, their best friend, or a bird mid chase, and that is the goal!
Marker, Praise and Release word, and how to use them!
During training we use three different, very important words. These words and method of training will help your dog not only learn faster but also enjoy every second of their training time.
If you clicker train the clicker would be your “marker word”. We use the word “yes” as our marker word, but there’s tons of words that you can choose. Choose something that is easy to say but not something you say often. It’s important that once you say “yes” reward the dog. “Yes” means “that is perfect, exactly what I wanted, you’re a genius!” so whether you’re using food or toys to reward, you must reward after using your marker word to show the dog that they did something right. You can choose whatever word you’d like but for the remainder of this post I will be using our word “yes”.
We also use a word or words for praise. This tells the dog that you’re getting close to what I want, and you’re doing good. Praise is important because it will keep your dog trying when the tricks and commands get harder. When you praise the dog, you’re telling them that the reward is coming soon, and typically they’ll try harder once they hear the praise. My main praise word is “good girl” but for the praise it’s all about the tone of voice you use. So just talk to your puppy and say whatever you want to them while they’re doing good, then when they do great you can say “yes” and feed. Just make sure you say the praise before the marker word to have the “try harder” effect on the dog. I tend to tell Petunia that she’s a genius, that she’s the “best puppy in the world” etc. Anything you say in a happy tone will tell them that they’re getting warmer to what you want!
The release word is also important. This is the word that you’ll say when they are finished a command. If you have them in a sit/ stay and you’re ready for them to move again, it’s time to use your release word to release them! We use the word “okay” but you can use anything. Some people use “free”. The important thing about the release word, is that you need to always use it when your dog is finished, otherwise they’re “stays” and everything else will start to get sloppy and unclear; you want everything to be very clear. That’s how dogs learn faster, when everything is very clear!
Marker Word
So let’s get started with teaching the marker word.
What you’ll need:
A hungry dog or puppy
Yummy treats
This part is easy, and your dog will very quickly catch on and have fun learning this. One or two sessions is all it will take for this. Simply be with your puppy and say “yes” then immediately feed your puppy. At first your puppy will be confused but be like”oh food, yay!”. Repeat over and over until your puppy hears “yes” and looks to you for food. Eventually your puppy will get excited when they hear the word “yes” and that’s when you know they’re ready to move on and start teaching other tricks using their marker word!
Praise
Praise isn’t something that necessarily has to be taught, but rather something that with everyday training they’ll get used to and learn. When you’re training everyday tricks, start praising them more and more before you feed and they’ll learn very quickly that when they hear praise, the reward is coming soon!
Release Word
The release word is an important one to teach, typically they’ll learn the release word first when learning a stay. Whenever we put our dogs in a sit, or down etc they know that they have to stay there until we release them, no matter what! We call this an automatic stay. This means, our dogs don’t really know “stay” but rather anything we say to them is considered a stay in that position until told otherwise.
So start with your dog in a sit and imediatley reward. At first you’ll reward every second, and once you’re out of treats (about 5-10 small treats) say your release word and allow them to move.
At first you have to make the word VERY clear, so you can say “okay!” and clap your hands, throw a treat, anything to make them move out of position.
Eventually you can space the treats out a bit more (every couple of seconds), then eventually less and less until they can stay for longer periods of time before you release them.
We also use the release word when feeding them supper, they can’t eat until we say “okay”, releasing them from their kennels (they are expected to stay even after we open their door), and for literally everything in their everyday life!
With the help of these training tips you should transform your dog into a very eager to please canine citizen who loves to learn and work with you!
Teaching a puppy to lure is simple, and can be done in one or two session in most cases; but this is a skill that you can and will practice daily will your puppy over their lifetime. Start by holding a piece of food by your pups nose and move it slowly to let your puppy follow it. Once they catch up to your hand for a couple steps say “yes”, feed them the food and start over.
At the beginning make sure to feed them after a couple steps, so they don’t give up; if they give up you’re moving too fast, so go back to the beginning and feed after one or two steps. Once they know what they’re doing, you can start feeding them less often to make it more difficult. To progress you can start luring them over objects, under objects and in patterns.
We use luring to teach most, if not all of the tricks that we teach, so this is important for the puppy to fully understand!
For puppies that love eating, simply do this at meal time with their own food, after a couple meals they’ll likely understand luring. For pickier puppies get the good stuff out!
Does your pup get easily distracted? Do you ever wish they would pay more attention to you? Are they reactive?!
Teaching look is quick and easy, but this command is so important. This is how you can very quickly get your dogs attention. The more you practice this command, the better!
This command is perfect for reactive dogs. When you see a trigger for your dog, (this can be a dog, person, bike, etc) you can simply ask your dog to “look” and you should easily get your attention. You can praise and reward them when they look and slowly you’ll get a less and less reactive dog. They’ll learn to look at you rather than the thing they’re trying to react to, and eventually when they’re unsure, they’ll look to you, ready for their next command! Australian Shepherd’s are naturally reactive dogs, it’s in their DNA, so we’ve worked extra hard on making sure they aren’t reactive by teaching them “look” and automatic “looks” among other things!
So start with your dog and a bunch of yummy treats.
Say “look” and put the treat by your eyes. When they look up, say “yes” and reward.
After a few tries you can start saying “look” and wait a few seconds to see if they look at your eyes. If they look at your eyes, immediately say “yes” and feed; If not, bring the food up to your eyes again, then say “yes” and feed.
As soon as they no longer need the help of the food by your eyes, congrats, they know “look”!
We also reward often times when they make their own decision to look at us. If i’m walking with one of my dogs and they look at me for no reason, i’ll tell them how amazing they are and reward. Rewarding them for making their own decision, creates a more attentive dog!
Bonus
Once they know look, you can make it harder by saying look and having a treat somewhere other than your eyes and wait until they make the right decision to look at your eyes instead of the treat. As soon as they look at your eyes for even a second, reward!
You can try this with toys and anything else they like as well.
Once they’re good at that you start adding duration, first start 5 seconds, then 10, etc to see how long they can look at you for without looking away.
If they cannot do these, they need more practice before adding in the distractions again.
If you can say “look” and throw a toy or treat while they remain looking at you, you know they have a super strong understanding of the command.
Do you want your dog to be able to have freedom to exercise and play off leash?! We’ll tell you how!
This is the single most important command that you will ever teach your dog.
This is a life saving command, and you need it to be reliable! For pet dogs, one recall command is absolutely fine, Petunia and Myrtle being future sport dogs have many recall commands.
Before we get started I’ll explain all of their recalls and why we use more than one.
Come- We use “come” only during training, this means “immediately come here and sit directly in front of me, nice and straight and look up”. We use this for Rally obedience, and if we decide someday to put our dogs in obedience, it’ll be used for that as well.
Here- We use “here” often, this means “come here and touch my hand with your nose”, this is perfect as a check in, they don’t need to stay long, they don’t need to sit, just quick contact with us and they can go play again.
Let’s go- We use “let’s go” during off leash walks, this just means come in my general direction but no need to come all the way.
Come!
Here!
Let’s go!
We have also taught them to come check in naturally when off leash, they are expected to check in with us often, we fed them for their automatic check ins every single time until they were about 8 months old, and now being 10 months (Myrtle) and 13 months (Petunia) we still feed them about 50% of the time for checking in, the other 50% we praise them for checking in but don’t feed. Once they are older it’s important to continue rewarding them for their automatic check ins, but not nearly as often! This is how you create a perfect off leash dog!
There are many techniques to teach a recall, and we recommend using more than one! We’ve used so many techniques to teach a solid recall, it keeps it fun and exciting for the dog. We’ll explain 2 of our favourite ways down below. Teaching the recall should be the most fun your dog ever has, you want to know that your dog is going to come every single time you call. You need to learn to be more exciting than anything else to your dog, this will keep your dog interested.
Method #1
It will take so much practice to get your dog reliable off leash, but it is worth it! Start by having your dog on a leash, say “come” and back up a few steps as you lure them with a treat, as they catch up to you lift the treat up to your belly and they should naturally sit; Then say “yes” and feed. Repeat this about 1000 times, and they’ll come running and sit in front of you when you say “come”. They’ll get it after a few tries, but this is something that you can never practice enough! Eventually you can have them on a long line and wait for them to get distracted and say “come” and they should come running and sit in front of you. If they won’t get distracted (this is awesome if your dog is this attentive ) simply throw some treats away to get them to leave, then call them back to you after they are finished eating the treats!
Method #2
Another great method works best with toys, but if your dog is not toy motivated, it can also be done with treats. You’ll need 2 people for this one, a long line, and a toy on a string.
So get your helper to hold the dog on a long line but by the collar so they can’t get far, you’ll take the toy and tease the dog with it a little bit, make them really want that toy! Then you’ll leave and stop about half the length of the long line, turn to look at your dog and say “come” or whatever word you’d like to use and get your helper to release the dog, once they start coming drop the toy (while holding onto the string) and run away while dragging the toy and get the dog to catch the toy.
If you’re using treats simply tease them with the treat, then go then call them, run away then reward with the treat when they catch you.
IMPORTANT
The most important thing about teaching a good recall is, never let your dog off leash fully until they are reliably coming back every single time. Keep your dog on a long line so you can grab them if needed. Taking them off the long line too early can cause them to make the wrong decision and not come when called. If they learn to do that, it’ll set you back in your training and they can start playing “catch me if you can”. The goal is to never let it get to that point, but if that’s where you and your dog already are, then the above methods with the long line can help fix your recall as well!
Step 1: With your dog in a lay down place your hand near your dog’s chin and lure your dog’s chin into your head. Once your dog is touching your hand with their chin say “yes” and feed. Repeat until your dog seems to understand.
Step 2: Once your dog sees your hand and anticipates putting their head in it, you can add the word. You can use any word or phrase you’d like, but I just say “head down”. Now say “head down” and show your hand, once the put their head down, reward.
Step 3: Once they get it with your hand, start trying it with something else like a stuffy or pillow. Place them in a down with the stuffy or pillow between their front legs and say “head down” and point to the ground. As soon as they place their head down, reward!
Step 4: Remove both the stuffy or pillow and your hand now and just say “head down” and point to the ground. They should now put their head down between their front paws on the ground. As soon as their head touching the ground, reward!
Step 5: Now you’ll start fading the pointing to the ground. Say “head down”, wait a few seconds and if needed point to the ground. Once they put their head down with verbal only, and don’t need to help, they know “head down”!
You can now start practicing in different locations and putting their head on different objects. Once they will do it anywhere, we consider it a finished trick!
Comment and let us know what tricks you’d like tutorials for!
Here in New Brunswick we are currently experiencing a heatwave! This brings lots of questions on how exactly to keep your pup cool during the summer months. There are tons of ways to keep your pup cool, but there’s no doubt about it that swimming in the water is the best way to quickly cool your dog down and keep them cool. So let’s get started!
Things you’ll need!
High value treats
Water toys
Small plastic pool
Water (duh!)
Petunia at 9 weeks, playing with her favourite water toy!
Some dogs are naturally more drawn to the water, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t teach your pup to love the water. I’m not claiming that this will work for every single dog, but in the majority of cases you’ll have a water loving dog in no time with a little patience and training.
Start by determining whether your dog is motivated more by food or toys, and use whichever your puppy prefers. It’s best for this to use both treats and toys eventually but start with your dogs favourite.
Treat method
If your puppy really loves food, kibble may be just fine, but we choose to get the good stuff out when teaching new things! Some favourites in our household are dehydrated liver, chopped hot dogs, cubed cheese, but whatever your dog likes will work!
Start by just walking your puppy around the pool to see their reaction, don’t put any pressure on them and whatever you do, don’t force them into the pool. Forcing them in, too quickly will often have the opposite effect and you’ll end up with a puppy that is scared of the water.
This will go one of two ways, either your puppy will go right in the pool, or they’ll go around it. If they go right in, perfect, you have a confident puppy, reward them heavily with treats and tell them how amazing they are, and repeat! Most puppies will go around the pool though, and that’s fine too.
If you have the second kind of puppy, start by taking a treat and luring them into the pool. It may take a few tries but if you reward them for the littlest try, they’ll catch on quickly. Some puppies will do much better if you walk right in with them, and some don’t need it. Some puppies need to be rewarded for going near the pool and never stepping foot inside (yet!), and some can be rewarded for putting one paw in, and some will jump right in after the treat. Move through the steps as slowly as you need to for your puppy, but once your puppy is confidently going in the water for a treat or when you point (I use the command “go in the water”) then you can move on to the next steps! Hopefully your puppy will also start going into the pool for fun to cool down without being asked!
Toy method
First grab your puppy’s favourite water toy and get them all excited playing with it away from the pool. Once they are really into it, bring them near the water and see what they do if you throw it in the water.
Note: Your dog should already be toy motivated and know how to fetch and tug, etc.
If they go fetch it out of the pool, throw them a party and play with their toy away from the pool again. Repeat a bunch of times and eventually they should love fetching it out of the water and it will definitly cool them down and tire them out. If they really don’t want to go in, i’ve had good sucess with tying the toy to their flirt pole and getting them to chase it into the pool.
To increase difficulty you can then move onto toys they don’t love quite as much, get them to “leave it” for a minute before fetching or move into larger bodies of water such as the beach or river.
Working with toys they don’t love as much is a great way to practice building their toy drive. You’ll have to get very active and excited until they get excited about the toy too. Basically don’t give up until they start playing with the new toy, just like their favourite. This is also a great activity to do with all toys, not just their water toys! Switch out their toys often to keep it interesting.
Getting them to “leave it” requires them to know what “leave it” means. So if they don’t know yet, go back and teach them before doing this step. Even if they know leave it well, you’ll want a leash for this part. Put a leash on your puppy, then say “leave it” and throw the toy into the pool. If they go to get it, pop the leash lightly and say”no”, keeping in mind that you don’t want to discourage them. Once they leave it and look at you, say “okay” and release the puppy. Holding them back like this will make them NEED to get the toy even more, which will build confidence, drive and enthusiasm in the water.
To start at the beach or river you’ll have to check out our next post!
Happy swimming! Comment and let us know how your puppy does, we are happy to answer any questions you may have!
Petunia happily napping in her crate during an agility seminar at 15 weeks, dogs barking and whining but she has always been super comfortable in her crate, using these techniques!
Crate training is the number one most important thing to teach your puppy. The benefits are endless and it’s a skill that will be used so many times in your dog’s life, even if you choose to let your dog roam free in the house once they’re older.
Benefits of crate training
Potty training made easy! Dogs will naturally avoid using the bathroom close to where they sleep, so with a properly sized crate you can easily teach them to hold it.
Keeps your puppy out of trouble when you can’t supervise or when you leave the house. They can’t counter surf, chew things, potty in the house, or bark out the window if they’re crated. Therefore they are far less likely to learn some bad habits that are totally avoidable!
Their crate gives them a safe “den” to hangout in whenever they feel like it. Dogs are den animals, if you teach them to love and enjoy their crate when they’re young, don’t be surprised if they hangout in there randomly when you’re home as well. We always keep the crate doors open in case they want to go relax in there.
If your dog gets hurt and need to go to the vet or simply need “kennel rest” to heal, they’ll be far less stressed out than a dog that isn’t used to the crate.
If you go away on vacation or unexpectedly have to leave your dog for any period of time, you’ll need a place for your dog to stay. They’ll be well adjusted enough to stay anywhere; Whether they stay at a dog kennel , or even if you have an in-home type dog sitter, your dog sitter will definitely appreciate a crate trained dog. It keep them safe while your dog sitter is away from them and makes their job much easier. If you send your dog to a groomer or a doggy daycare to play, they may need to wait in a crate for a few minutes or a couple hours, a crate trained dog is happy to do so, while one that isn’t used to the crate will be stressed out and possibly even hurt themselves attempting to break out.
Creating a good “off switch”. Have you met a dog that runs around constantly whether inside or outside, they just can’t relax? That would be a dog that hasn’t been taught to relax. Some dogs are natural born couch potatoes, but most dogs need some help learning to relax in the house. A crate teaches them that it’s okay to relax and chill even when we’re around as a puppy. Once they can relax well in the crate, you can slowly start teaching your puppy to relax in a playpen, on a leash with you, and eventually how to relax free in the house.
When eating something messy like a raw bone, or filled Kong toy it saves your house from needing to be cleaned when they’re finished. It much easier to sanitize a crate than it is to sanitize your couch, rug or whole house.
Choosing the right crate
Firstly a crate that is the correct size is important. For a puppy you can either start with a smaller crate and buy a larger one when they outgrow it or you can buy a crate with a divider so that you can section off the crate to make it the correct size. It should be just big enough to stand up and turn around comfortably. If it’s too big your puppy could get into the habit of using the bathroom in the crate away from their sleeping area, and if it’s too small your puppy will be uncomfortable and cramped. Once your puppy is full grown and well trained you can upgrade the crate to be bigger if you want to give them more space during the day, but for training purposes a properly sized crate is important. Wire crates or plastic crates work well for most dogs, stronger metal crates are also available for stronger breeds. While fabric crates are best used for trials, dog shows and shorter term crating.
The crate should be a safe and happy place for your puppy, so start by putting some of their favourite things in the crate. Favourite toys, safe chews, and a blanket that smells like you are all a good start. Once you have a comfy crate, you can start teaching your puppy to go to their crate on command.
Training the “go to your crate” command
Start by saying your command (“kennel” “crate” “go to bed” are all good ones.) then immediately throw a treat into the crate. Your puppy should follow the treat and go to their crate. Once you practice a bunch of times they should start going to their crate before you throw the treat.
Once they have that down pat, you can start keeping them in there for longer. To start this next step, send them to their crate then throw multiple treats into the crate one by one for a few seconds. Slowly start increasing the time in between treats, and when they’re finished eating the treats, quickly release them from their crate. To keep them in there even longer you can send them to their crate, throw some treats then give them a frozen Kong treat and monitor them when they eat it, then release them. You can build on this with duration and eventually start closing the door.
The next step would be teaching them not to bust out of their crate until verbally released. When releasing them open the door, and they will try to leave the crate, quickly shut the door, then open again. Repeat until you open the door and they stay put, then say “okay” and allow them/ call them out. They will catch on quickly, usually within 1 -2 days, and you’ll be thankful that they no longer bust out of their crate. Impulse control is something you can never work too much on! With an adult dog that always busts out, it will take longer to teach them, but they will eventually catch on as well!
Another super easy way to teach them to love their crate is always feeding them in their crate; Simple yet so effective at teaching them that their crates is their happy place!
Crate training puppies: Important tips
Myrtle at 9 weeks
It is extremely important when crate training to never let your puppy out of the crate when they aren’t calm. If you let your puppy out when they are whining, barking or scratching at the bars, you’re teaching them that all you have to do is be loud and struggle and you’ll let you out. Puppies cry and bark, they are babies so it is natural. The first few nights they will most definitely cry at first, but if you never let them out while they’re crying they will learn super quickly. It is however super important that you understand that when they cry at 3 am, after sleeping peacefully all night, that they do in fact need to potty and you should listen to them.
Placing the crate beside your bed when they are young makes them feel comfortable and not alone. When Petunia would start crying, I’d stick my hand through the crate so she could feel that I was there, without taking her out. When she calmed down and fell asleep I’d take my hands out. Remember that until you bring them home, they are used to being with their litter mates and momma 24/7, it is a big adjustment for puppies.
When letting them out in the middle of the night it is equally important that you never play with them or feed them during their potty break. Middle of the night pee breaks should be all business, out to potty then directly back in their crate. Puppies learn very quickly that if they wake you up in the middle of the night and you play with them or feed them, they will wake you up earlier and earlier because it’s fun to get out and play. This is the same reason that we never feed them first thing in the morning, wait a little while after waking up to feed them, otherwise they’ll wake you up at the break of dawn every morning for breakfast, and nobody wants that! We feed them at a random time every morning so that they never get upset if breakfast is off schedule.
Never leave them in their crate too long, 4 hours is typically the maximum amount of time a baby puppy (8-16 weeks) can handle before going outside, and that includes overnight! Some puppies, like Petunia mature quickly and start sleeping through the night at 10 weeks, and others take much longer before they stop waking up in the middle of the night. Adults can usually make it 8 hours or even longer, but it’s not fair to them to force them to wait that long everyday without a potty break, unless you exercise them vigorously before and after work. A dog sitter letting them out for a potty break mid day is always a great option as well.
Always exercise your puppy and let them potty before crating them. If your puppy has already used the bathroom, you know for certain that if they cry they don’t need to go out and you can ignore their crying. A tired puppy is a happy puppy, and it makes crate training a much better experience. Even my full grown, well trained adult dogs get lots of exercise before crating them, it’s super important!
Give them a filled Kong toy when you kennel them to calm them and keep them occupied during their time in the crate.
