Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm new to the forum here. I have a female daple mini-duchshund that is now 14 weeks old. I have looked through the posting for crate training. Most say that their dog goes into it to sleep and so fourth. My dog would not ever go inside the crate if it wasn't for me feeding her inside of it. We have tried several times to put her in there and see how things work out, but she has cried before for 5 to 6 hours. I thought she would have passed out from exhaustion, at least I would have. I wouldn't even mind her sleeping on a bed at night. I just don't her sleeping in my bed for the next 15 or so years. Any help, I would GREATLY appriciate it! Thanks.

Greg

I too have a 14 week old female dachshund. She is not crazy about her crate either but she will go in there after a while if she knows we will not take her out. Here is the set up the we have that seems to be working pretty well. We have a laundry room that has been designated Savannah domain... the area of the room that she occupies is 4 X 6. I have her crate on one side with the door open and a soft bed inside. I have her food near her crate on the floor and a puppy pad set up in one corner. We also baby gate the door so she doesn't feel closed in the room. I work from home so I have to put her in there during the daytime when I am working. I do come in and out of the house during the day and will leave her for up to 4 hours. I think that leaving the crate door open helps her to feel that it is not a prison for her.. but a place to rest while she waits for the family to play with her!

She does not like it when we put her in the room... no doubt about it! She barks and barks .. at first she barked all day. At one point she barked for 9 hours. But after reading Dachshunds for dummies and talking with folks here on the message boards.. I realize that I had to be more persistent then she. Now... hallelujah... when I put her in the room... she only barks for about 10 minutes. If she hears me talking on the phone she will sometimes bark or whine... but eventually she realizes I am not coming in to get her. We have had her for 3 weeks.

At night she does sleep with my son... but he has a mattress that lies on the floor. We put a cage (one of those fold out exercise pens) around his bed and a puppy pad on the floor. Most nights she does not make it through the night without going to the bathroom. She climbs down and does her business and then climbs back up on his bed. She always goes on the puppy pad now! Yeah! But that took about 2 weeks for her to get it and lots of Nature's Miracle ( a special enzymatic cleaner to remove a dogs urine scent) Unfortunately dachshunds LOVE to sleep with you... our Savannah burrows under the covers with my son and sleeps by his knees. I know when he goes to college she will probably be sleeping with my husband and I !!!

Sorry I wrote a novel... hope this helps.

Ryan's mom- Lori

Is it possible to put the crate in a small bathroom at night? We did this for the first few weeks, until out Doxie could hold it through the night. He howled the first few nights, but when he realized the only soft thing was inside his crate, he would go sleep there. He is really good about going in his crate now. We leave it out in the open in the family room and he'll go and sit in it on his own sometimes. We put his special blanky in there with him and he knows its "nap time".

Hope this might help a little.

Just finished reading the posts about crate training. Gretal is seven months and also has taken over our laundry room with the baby gate. Fortunately, she has always taken to the crate. We have never locked her in. She goes in on her own and we have an old bed blanket in the crate. I bought a sponge padding for the bottom. So, between the padding and the warm blanket, more times than not, I find her underneath the blanket and have a hard time getting her to emerge! She burries all of her pigs ears and goodies in the pen and I partially cover it to give her the den feeling. When we travel to our beach house, the pen goes in the SUV, toys, blankets and all.

PS
I have only heard Gretal bark once?

Kathy

I think that doxies are very easy to train. Once they sleep in the bed, burrowed in your knees, their most comfortable and won't need to go out till morning. I got my mini at 1 1/2 years. He wasn't potty trained. I crated him for 3 nights right next to me with my hand in his crate. He's been perfect ever since. They love the bed!