Hey,

Am new to this site (was 'googling'!) and am now after some advice, please.

We got a cocker spaniel puppy at the weekend and we are struggling with getting her to sleep in her bed. She has a box in a puppy crate, which the breader recommended, which also has room for her to toilet. However, she prefers to sleep on us!! We try to put her in her bed but she just comes straight back out and climbs back on us if we are sitting on the floor, or sits at or on our feet if we are on the sofa We don't want to keep shutting the door of the crate all the time as we want her to be free to go in and out.

Please - any suggestions as to how we can get her to choose to go to her own bed and stay there!!

Thanks.

If she has just left her litter mates, she is used to snuggling up to the other pups, so she probably likes your warmth.
You could try warming her bed a little or give her a cuddly toy but why would you want her away from you if you have only just bought her home?

Congratulations on an excellent choice.

I have Oscar a 15 week golden cocker.

During the day i left the crate open. I only shut it when he was left alone.

I used one of those things you warm in the microwave and left a radio on overnight, turned all the lights off. I also give hima puppy kong with a few bits of his puppy food in to distract him while i leave.

Initially we put him to bed (shut door) at 11pm and got up at 6.

He has never weed in his crate.

We were advised to go hard line and let him cry (which wasn't easy)

He cried all night the first night, on and off the 2nd and 3rd and that was it, he has been fine ever since.

This is just my experience and lots of people on here advocate putting the crate in your bedroom which worked for them.

I found The first couple of weeks quite tough in general but it got easier and am really loving it now.

hi ,having simular probs with our new pup,lack of sleep is soooo hard ,but she is sooooo cute and worth it ,am trying the use of a radio tonight so waiting to see how that goes, mine to loves her crate during the day but cries at night once the door is shut ,x

Our yorkie has a crate with a blanket, her small teddy a chew toy and water and food dish.. She cried for the first few nights but we ignored her and she stopped. Now she goes in her crate herself when we tell her its bedtime, or when we go out. She also goes in her crate herself when we have our meals and she lies down and goes to sleep till we call her out when we have finished. She knows its her space and she feels safe.

Thanks for all the tips. She is sleeping ok at night. She went from 10:15 to 5:15 last night with only a couple of whimpers. We would just like her to feel that the crate is somewhere she wants to go rather than beg to be on our laps all the time. We leave the crate open all day, but, she doesn't show any interest in going into her bed to sleep.

Our concern is she will associate the crate with us leaving her and will then get more and more anxious when she is put in it during the day.

Every time she comes to sit on your lap and you do not want her to just say no and tell her to either stay on the floor or take her to her crate and tell her to lie down there. Be firm. It may take a few times or it may take a hundred times but persistence will win in the end. She will get the message eventually.
Try Shutting her in her crate for short times and staying in the room and then she will not think you are going to leave her everytime she goes in.

you could leave some old unwashed jumper which has been worn and you can part from; that way she would smell you and reassure her. I did this when we brought our rescue home from the foster carers, we left a t-shirt of mine with them for a week and they kept it in his bed, so he could get used to us, when we picked him up the t-shirt came with him and we kept it in his bed for the first couple of weeks; by then it had also absorbed the smells he was used to. It helped him with the transition.
The first week was quite hard, but in the end we found that leaving him to come in the bedroom with us if he wanted to helped; we have a thin rug on floor boards so after a couple of hours on it he realized it wasn't worth it and returned to his bed. Forcing him to stay in his bed wasn't working and was causing problems with neighbours...

Sometimes he still has the same ceremonial; we go to bed and he comes too! After 15 minutes he goes back in the living room, he doesn't cry or tries to sleep either, it's more like he thinks it is his duty to make sure we are settling in ok before retiring for the night! I had a cat that used to do the same!

I would suggest using a dog crate. Dog Crate training your dog may take some time and effort, but can be useful in a variety of situations. If you have a new dog or puppy, you can use a dog crate to limit his access to the house until he learns all the house rules - like what he can and can't chew on and where he can and can't eliminate. Dog crates are also a safe way of transporting your dog in the car, as well as a way of taking him places where he may not be able to run freely. If you properly train your dog to use a dog crate, he'll think his dog crate is a safe place and will be happy to spend time in his dog crate when needed.

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Oscar doesn't use his crate much during the day he prefers to be near me (which i love ) but interestingly he will go to it if he is scared (when i hoover generally).

He is fine overnight at 15 weeks so don't think he has any sort of bad association forming.

Another interesting point is my husband went out the other night and i put Oscar in his crate as usual. Hubby came home a couple of hours later and wasn't quite ready for bed so thought he should let Oscar out for a bit and Os came out had a fuss and then headed straight back to his crate as if to say "cheers mate but it's the middle of the night !!" lol.

It's easy to worry about every little thing when you first get them but just try and be flexible and enjoy it. You might get things wrong but you are likely to get lots right too.

I have found the forum really helpful so hope you do too.