Crating YOUNG Puppies

619 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Abbylynn, Jun 12, 2012

CandJHarris

Discussion Starter · Jun 12, 2012

I've always crate trained my dogs, but I've never had pups as young as the two girls I'm currently fostering as of this evening (they are 4 weeks old). Right now I have them both in a medium sized crate, but I know they are way too little to start real crate training. I'm planning on getting up with them every couple of hours and taking them out through the night tonight, but I'm thinking about taking a different approach for now, at least until they are 8 weeks old.

I have a X-Large crate (Great Dane sized) and was thinking of setting it up as an exercise pen for the both of them lined with pee pads. As they get a little older I would remove pee pads until there is only one in a corner. Then at 8 weeks they would graduate to an appropriately sized crate to start actual crate training. Does this sound reasonable?

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trainingjunkie

· #3 · Jun 12, 2012

My breeder kept her puppies in a fenced off area in a room. A large portion of the space had shallow trays filled with absorbant pellets. I think the trays were actually taken from the bottoms of large wire crates. The pellets were designed for horse stalls and were very affordable. The puppies learned to go on the pellets. They didn't chew the pellets and there wasn't all the drama of them moving around like there is with pads. Worked really well.

I don't see anything wrong with the large crate as long as they can't get their bodies all tangled in it. I will go out on a limb and assume that they aren't in there 24/7.

Good luck with the fosters. I have only fostered one that young. It was quite a ride.

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