I've got a 7mo old male husky named Koda who's a timid ball of energy (yes, somehow that works smh lol) & this is the first time I've had him in my presence 24/7. I have NO idea what to expect with him during situations I took for granted as he was younger (he was kept at a friend's house all summer since mom had allergies =/ I did visit nearly everyday or spent the night to do more of my part ), so this is quite new to me x.x His crate is in my room, and he's never had me stay in a room with him without him being at my side or at least near me. Thing is, he used to LOVE his crate as a pup, but as he had gotten older & discovered his love for the great outdoors, that all changed. I read the sticky on crate training so I put treats in there and left the door open for him to investigate. I'll begin feeding him in there as well so he gets used to being there. But of course, there's no such thing as a quick fix-so his whining persists. What are some of your preferences about where/how your dog gets to sleep?

Are you exercising him through out the day? Try going on a long walk or run in the evening to tire him out.

Ideally, he should sleep in his crate since he's only 7 months old and could do some major damage if he's left out. Not to mention eat something that he shouldn't and hurt himself. Exercise him in the evening and play with him for a while before bed and he should pass out!

You will have to wake up in the middle of the night to take him potty. Major part of doggie/husky parenthood. I had to take Kody out at 2am/3am until he was about 9 months (he's now 11 months and wakes me up at 630am religiously). I got lucky with him though. He sleeps with us...at my feet...right next to Mya...and has never done anything naughty in the middle of the night. Now, when Mya was his age she had to sleep in her crate! No ifs ands or but's about it!

Myas crate was in our room and Kody's is now as well. In my opinion isolating him in his crate where he can't see you will just make the process more painful so leave the crate as is...in your room.

Good luck! He'll pick up on it =)

Yes, I do exercise him. Today we walked around the whole 12 building apartment complex once, ran once, then walked halfway to calm ourselves. He just got here today so he didn't get his first run from me, but I'm sure my friend helped. I've been waking up at 6am to prepare for him for the last two days so that should help me to be ready for him lol. He's actually been pretty good at holding it. I have him exercise before food & water, and during that regiment he'll either poo & pee or do so after he has eaten. Then I'll take him out about an hour or two hours later since he drank water & I'd like no pee in my room or on his bed lol.

He's since stopped whining, so the ignoring thing works for sure. It's not like I'm leaving him or anything at the moment-so I believe he's finally realizing it. This whole summer has given me time to reevaluate myself as a dog owner, more importantly a husky owner. I did all the research in the world, but experience is the best teacher lol. He & I've made it this far, and I will continue to be as responsible as I can be for his sake.

Yeah, ignoring the whining does work sometimes. Siku screamed as a pup the first few nights we had her and if I knew she had just gone to the bathroom I would just put in ear plugs and sleep through it. She got over crying in her crate after about 2 nights.

I've also thought that maybe this could be happening since it's a new environment to him & whatnot? I woke up at 6, walked around the complex once, ran once, walked once again to wind him down and he was still pretty energetic. He's still figuring out my rules though, like I have him sit outside the closet since I don't want any fur coats this early in the year lol.

We did have an issue last night though: he would still whine, pant heavily, mess with this part of his bed he tore, smack his gums & whatnot throughout the night. I thought I had gotten hours to pass while I was sleeping, turns out it had only been an hour x.x I assumed he had fallen asleep from about 3-5ish and I could hear him in my sleep, so I was quite conscious until his walking alarm came on at 6 (tbh, I couldn't wait lol). Now let's hope I'm still some good for classes lol..

I would just be patient, work on it, and give him time. Both mine love their sleep and sleep 90% of the day so bedtime is not a hassle with them. They both crash out permanently by 9-10PM; Rogue will sleep under wherever I am sitting if I don't follow Jarod to bed, and Koda crawls under the bed. Whenever I get to sleep, Rogue trots into her crate, waits for her bedtime snacks and dozes off. But I got Koda as a puppy and am Rogue's second home but got her at 9 weeks, so I think you can't compare our situations too much since neither dog have really had to "adjust" to being with me (Rogue never really needed to despite being with another family for a week). I can imagine just like with a new rescue who is older that he is just confused as to why he is switching up his home [again] and uneasy about it.

We got Appa at 5 months old. He had never slept in a crate until we got him. The first 3 nights he cried and cried, but would fall asleep after 30-40 minutes. We started letting him fall asleep in our room for an hour or so, then rousing him and taking him to his crate while he was barely awake. That turned into our regular routine until this last week. We've started letting him spend the night out of his crate, and he just sleeps on our bathroom floor (after moving all the bathroom rugs). The bathroom is attached to our bedroom so he has direct line of sight with us. This has worked out better for us, because he will sleep in longer out of his crate than in = more sleep for us!

rileyflorence wrote:

This has worked out better for us, because he will sleep in longer out of his crate than in = more sleep for us!

EXACTLY!!!!!! In the crate Kody would wake up at 530am! Even after taking him out at 2am to potty. Since he's been sleeping loose in our room he wakes up at 7am now. Definitely better than 530am! LOL

We are seriously lucky. Appa has never required mid-night bathroom trips, even when he was only 5 months old. There have only been two nights he's cried in the middle of the night. Out of the crate we get until 7:00, if we REALLY tire him out/stay up late we can get to 8:00am on saturdays.

I may or may not be threatening a second puppy, then my wife and I laugh and reference our "magic dog." He's been so easy a normal puppy will throw us for a loop.

Riley, I too am blessed! Rogue is almost 14 weeks and sleeps til 6-7:30AM, which is insane. At 9 weeks though I took her down probably at 1AM and then 3AM and usually could wait til 6 for the next one. When Koda was a pup he went outside himself already. If I lose sleep I get grumpy!

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions guys! Would it be good to leave the crate door open or would that cause an issue? I could do the bathroom thing, put the trash can in the shower, put in the curtains n whatnot inside as well. Or should I continue with the crate? I MUST have sleep-at least until 6am lol and uninterrupted if at all possible. I don't mind the occasional disturbance of course, but I need enough sleep to gas me up through my onslaught of courses. I love that he's more balanced now with constant boundaries & limitations. I'm so proud of him in just the few days I've had him all to myself.

Another thing, how do you all take naps with them around lol? Do they just chill out while you do? Sleep when you do? I'm playing music constantly, soothing music, so he'll get used to hearing something as opposed to utter silence.

I sleep 80% of the day right now due to being sick- pretty much how it's been a week prior to getting our new pup- and they pretty much sleep all day with me. My husband gets up at 5AM, I get up, feed them, an hour later we go on a walk & maybe 5-10 mins run around at the park, then I come back and sleep a ridiculous amount. Koda goes back under the bed to sleep or on the porch, and Rogue is in the kitchen or on the end of the couch/next to the couch.
I think each person will have different response for sleeping/naps etc, because some of us have lazy dogs, some of us have a balanced dogs, and some of us have dogs where you have to constantly keep eyeballing them. You just have to find out if Duke will just sit and chill with you or if you maybe need to confine him while you nap so he doesn't go amok. I pretty much have no energy right now so when we first got Rogue I would be couch or bed-ridden and couldn't close my eyes for a minute because I wanted to make sure she was a good girl (when she wasn't asleep with me and wanted to sleep on the floor) and for the first week we had her I had her in her crate with one of her chews and would close my eyes for an hour while she chewed it. Thankfully she is a sleepy pants and always complies with my horrible schedule right now! She is picking up a wonderful disposition from her big brother .

As far as the crate vs. bathroom, I'd do crate- as people mentioned before, regardless of trash/curtains and all, the dog could damage the plumbing/cabnets among other things. Not worth the damages that can possibly be done to the dog or bathroom.. $$$! As for leaving the crate door open, I'd leave it open during the day so he can go check it out when he wants, but not at night- that sort of defeats the purpose as then he is still unsupervised all night and may go potty. Rogue is crated when we go to bed until to be safe since we both sleep hard and so there are no accidents. As for getting up for potty breaks, if you sleep 7-8 hours a night you shouldn't really have to get up to let him out. Rogue isn't even 4 months yet and usually doesn't wake up til Jarod gets ready for work.

As I read what Heather just wrote, it hit me that maybe our huskies really are molded alot by our lifestyles.

I am almost embarassed to admit how long Sabaka sleeps at night. We have had him since he was just over 3 months old and I rarely took him out in the middle of the night and he never messed his cage. I used to get him up when I got up with the kids to send them off to school. Then he began to not want to get up... He would sigh and roll over and ignore me, so I started leaving him in my bedroom in his crate while I sent off the kids and then sat down for some quiet time with a cup of coffee!! Most of the time I would wake him and drag him out of his bed at 9:00 or later.

However, once he's up, he's crazy! He goes nearly nonstop when I am home with him. I will occassionally crate him to run to a store or to school or a kid's sporting event, but when we are home he would not allow us to be napping! Occasionally he lies quietly by the front door in the morning, but after about 3:00 there is no resting in this house! He likes at least 2 walks and a couple trips to the backyard to play and a chasing game or two and at least one good, violent wrestling match.

I started this comment by saying that our dogs are molded by our lifestyles...and we are sleepers. We go to bed late, but love our nighttime sleep and sleep in often on weekends. I would rather be able to sleep until 9:00 on Saturday than to take a nap later in the day. I also just think Sabaka's crazy activity level just wears him out and he sleeps very well!

Good luck!

Hey hey hey, this is not a lifestyle, I'm injured! LOL!

SabakaMom wrote:

I started this comment by saying that our dogs are molded by our lifestyles...and we are sleepers. We go to bed late, but love our nighttime sleep and sleep in often on weekends. I would rather be able to sleep until 9 on Saturday than to take a nap later in the day. I also just think Sabaka's crazy activity level just wears him out and he sleeps very well!

Good luck!

I couldn't agree more! I sleep in late when I can, and I think that's what my dogs think of as normal. When they were little I would take them out potty and a run in the yard to tire them out. Then I gave them a small snack and it was back to bed until 9 or 10. They both got the hang of the routine very quickly. I almost always wake up before they do, they rarely try to wake me up. My boyfriend stays up really late and will sometimes sleep until noon, and if I'm gone, they will sleep as long as he does! Sometimes I'm amazed how long they can sleep without having to eat or pee!

I've trained mine to accept mid day naps too. I tell them "let's go take a nap" and they will go lay on the bed. Luka loves nap time. I do too because its the only time she ever wants to cuddled, and I just love sleep! I would use the crate for naps too until you think he is ready to stay out of trouble. It took Luka about a year before I ever let her sleep outside the crate.

Every dog is different, but just be consistent. The crate will help. Ear plugs are not a bad idea either!

The Monks of New Skete* actually talk about down time/quiet time/alone time for dogs. They say that just like us they do well with some quiet time to just think and relax. When Appa was coming to work with me I could tell when he just needed alone/quiet time, and he loved(s) it. Nap time is a perfect time for that.

When we first had Appa and didn't totally trust him in the house I would tie his leesh to my ankle while I napped so he could move around but not too much without waking me up. Now he's crazy from 7:00am-9:00am, then will sleep until 5:30. No problems with mid day naps around here.

*I'm well aware that some aren't fans of the Monks, but just because some of their methods are questionable to some doesn't discredit everything they teach.

This is definitely something worth trying! If he wasn't a potential couch-fiend I'd LOVE to take naps on the couch with him since I'm not too sure I want him on my bed (his white coat displays juuuust how dirty he can be & he HATES baths lol..) just yet. I've been going to friends' rooms or going to bed early to catch up on my week's worth of lost rest. He also has a habit of jumping in your face if you stoop too low or lay down on the bed smh. So much work to do lol...

Oh! & rileyflorence, so the leash-to-ankle nap time serves as your dogs quiet time as well? What other methods would you suggest work?

Update: (I could've sworn I typed this earlier buuut-guess not) I actually got a full 8 hours of minimally to uninterrupted sleep! No whining except for a few minutes, but after that he was GOOD. I talked to him until I fell asleep, telling him "Quiet, it's ok" etc. When I'd wake up, I'd see this very still white blur (i have HORRIBLE vision without contacts) & happily drift back off to sleep. Progress

That's what I did at first, now I trust him (and dont have time for naps very often). Normally when he wants to be alone he goes to one of his resting spots throughout the house and isolates himself. Normally he follows me like a shadow, but when he wants to be alone he finds a spot and just relaxes and I let him for an hour or two. I think most people's dogs use their crate like this, but Appa isn't a crate fan, and I'm fine with that. He'd rather go in our bathroom where it's dark and he can spread out to nap.

It's weird though, this guy does NOT nap lol. I don't understand it! He may out of lack of activity during my classes and whatnot, but I can't just be in the room and he just wanders off. Farthest he's gone from me was probably to lay on the bathroom tile with me in his line of sight still. I can't gauge his energy level as of now, but I assume it's high. He's pretty energetic but at the same time quite timid. He loves to get out and do whatever, but will lie down and chill when I'm busy. I prefer for him to play with things in that time, makes me feel bad if he just lies there watching me lol.

The only time I put Kale in his crate is when I'm leaving for work or leaving the house. He has always slept the entire night since I got him at 5 weeks so I've never had to worry about him destroying things. I left him confined in my bathroom for a while, then confined him in the kitchen, then at 4-5 months I started bringing him into my room to sleep. He usually sleeps either on my couch, or on my bed, but if it's ridiculously hot, he sleeps sprawled out on the floor lol. Lately he's been on my bed all night. He loves his sleep; he has never woken me up before; even if he's awake he will just stare at me while laying on my bed till I wake up lol. He's always been crazy independent too, to the point where he wouldn't want any body part touching, and if i accidentally did he'd immediately jump off my bed lol, but now he's the one doing the leaning and seems to always want to be close. I'm still getting used to it haha

Bella just does her own thing. I tried crating her but the first time I tried she pulled out four of her baby teeth. SO! I had to go off of the trust thing and gave her free roam of the house (She doesn't like closed doors if she's in a room but if she's just in the house in the living room with her toys she's fine!). She learned from the start that night time is upstairs and sleep was on the bed. She never once had an accident on the bed ( I know I'm probably going to get shunned for not crating her . I couldn't risk her pulling out her adult teeth! But you'll be happy to know I started reintroducing her to a crate again and she doesn't mind it if she goes in on her own with the door open!). So she got into the routine that when the living room light goes out and I start going upstairs - she runs up the stairs and jumps right into bed and curls up into a ball and sleeps the night away curled up right next to me in the curve of my legs.

Niraya wrote:

Bella just does her own thing. I tried crating her but the first time I tried she pulled out four of her baby teeth. SO! I had to go off of the trust thing and gave her free roam of the house (She doesn't like closed doors if she's in a room but if she's just in the house in the living room with her toys she's fine!). She learned from the start that night time is upstairs and sleep was on the bed. She never once had an accident on the bed ( I know I'm probably going to get shunned for not crating her . I couldn't risk her pulling out her adult teeth! But you'll be happy to know I started reintroducing her to a crate again and she doesn't mind it if she goes in on her own with the door open!). So she got into the routine that when the living room light goes out and I start going upstairs - she runs up the stairs and jumps right into bed and curls up into a ball and sleeps the night away curled up right next to me in the curve of my legs.

lol sounds like kale =) except he gets to excited that its bed time he gets himself all riled up and does donuts on the couch sometimes lol but it doesnt take long for him to calm down.

Kale's crate is outside on the patio in the shade and he's never minded being locked in it when i'm gone, he curls up and sleeps the entire time. when I had it inside he whined and drooled everywhere ( had severe separation anxiety) so outside it went since my mom complained about her floors and he LOVES it! I never really "crate-trained" him, he's always just got it for some reason, but only if je's outside.

Niraya wrote:

( I know I'm probably going to get shunned for not crating her .

I've never crated ours either. When we're gone they've got the run of the middle level of the house...the downstairs is blocked off to them and all the doors upstairs are closed. When we got the two pups, we couldn't afford 2 crates and also couldn't find a logical place for them. So the house is their kingdom.

Niraya wrote:

she runs up the stairs and jumps right into bed and curls up into a ball and sleeps the night away curled up right next to me in the curve of my legs.

Awww! Mine are usually urging us to bed before we're ready! Then they both jump on the bed and get comfy. As we get into bed, one then the other jumps down and lies down in their doggie beds with a giant groan and huff. Once Dakota thinks we're asleep, she gently gets back up on the bed and goes to sleep.

Niraya wrote:

Bella just does her own thing. I tried crating her but the first time I tried she pulled out four of her baby teeth. SO! I had to go off of the trust thing and gave her free roam of the house (She doesn't like closed doors if she's in a room but if she's just in the house in the living room with her toys she's fine!). She learned from the start that night time is upstairs and sleep was on the bed. She never once had an accident on the bed ( I know I'm probably going to get shunned for not crating her . I couldn't risk her pulling out her adult teeth! But you'll be happy to know I started reintroducing her to a crate again and she doesn't mind it if she goes in on her own with the door open!). So she got into the routine that when the living room light goes out and I start going upstairs - she runs up the stairs and jumps right into bed and curls up into a ball and sleeps the night away curled up right next to me in the curve of my legs.

Koda has never been crated accept for when I attempted it once when we moved in our first apartment and then I never did it again. Got him at 6 weeks and he is now 3 years old.. no crating and no accidents. No shunning on my part, no worries
Koda sleeps under the bed or in the living room, he's always liked sleeping under the bed. Once we have a yard again in February he will probably sleep out there part of the night, as that's what he did at Jarod's parents' house and at my mom's.
Rogue sleeps in her crate and also is there when we leave, until I am positive she'll have no accidents.. then I will test her