we just got an 8 1/2 week old yellow lab on saturday....was rought the first couple nights...then monday night...wow...only had to get up once to let him out...thought we were making progress...last night before bed..he is going in and out of his crate to get toys treats etc....then bed time came...and you would have thought we were killing him...whinning...barking etc..we tried to calm with with "shhhhh its time to go to bed" to "NO TUCK" (thats his name)

the crate is right next to the bed...we have a blanket we put over the crate...wed put the blanket down...wed lift it up...my wife would sit next to it.....nothing work...finally we had to take him and his crate to the laundry room (luckily on the other end of the house"...it was too much...we had to get some sleep...

this am i am getting ready for work...couldnt watch him fully so i put him in the laudry room while i got ready....barked whined for 35 min..

when we have him on his leash in the house and he cant go where he wants to he whines....

can you let the dog fall asleep in your lap or on the bed and then put him in his crate?

when he cant be surpervised, like this morning, should i put him in his crate or was it ok to let him play in the laundry room....

we are doing well on the house breaking...so far only a couple of accidents...

any help would be greatly appreciated....we want to do this right...im paranoid about it...we have a 3 year old son as well...we have raised a puppy in in over 14 years...

thank you

He's a baby and he's brand new to your home so he's still adjusting, as are you. It can be stressful for the first couple of weeks.

When he can't be supervised he should be in his crate. Leaving him free in the laundry room will only delay him learning that his crate is a good, safe place to be.

Pups can fall asleep literally within seconds but it's better, IMHO, if you put them in the crate before that happens.

Ignore him when he whines and barks in the crate.
Talking to him, even with the hopes of calming or soothing him, is just positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

Negative behavior is best ignored.

Crate training generally takes more than a week with a dog the age of yours.

At his age (under 14 weeks) he should be going out to potty at a minimum of every 4 hours. If I were in your shoes, I'd take him out hourly between 7am-9pm.
During the night, I'd take him out every two to three hours.

http://leerburg.com/housebrk.htm
Any attention given while barking(even NO TUCK) will just reward the behavior. Put the pup in the crate and ignore him. It's like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum. You can't reason with them by saying it's okay. With a pup what you do right now is setting him up for life. If you teach him now that screaming and crying never opens the crate door he will remember and you will have a dog that's great in the crate for the rest of it's life. He will learn that it's his safe place and it will become an off switch when he goes in. It just means you might have to give up your sleep for a few days. I use "go to sleep" when I put the dog in at night just to clarify that she shouldn't expect to be let out any time soon. A pup that's only 8.5 weeks old might need to go in the middle of the night. But just stand in front of the crate until he's quiet and then let him out.

You can speed up the process by putting him in the crate though out the day. When you have a break in the screaming and crying go over and let him out. A kong goes a long way towards a quiet dog. Dog food frozen in an ice cube tray can keep a teething and cranky pup happy for a few minutes. I don't know about the laundry room. Maybe you could just tether him to you instead?

Congrats on the new puppy! I love labs.

we now have 2 crates....one for in the house and one for the laundry room that way we dont have to move it all the time...does it matter which crate you put him in? one is wire the other is plastic....

is it ok to put him in the crate in the laundry room at night or is it best to have him next to the bed...?
last night he eventually stopped...when we moved him to the laundry room...

what about at dinner time...put him in a crate in a common room even though he is barking? or crate in laundry room...?

the barking doesnt really bother me MUCH until its time to go to bed...

what about the whinning when he is on his leash in the house...when we are supervising...?

how do you keep him from chewing on the leash...?

sorry if i feel like im asking dumb questions...i have never taken this approach to training a dog...i was not aware then...like i said...its been 14 years

Joey, by all means, keep him in the laudry room if he's being quiet there. In fact, it may be better there, because you'll be less likly to reinforce his barking/whining if he's not right by the bed.

If you ignore the whining when he's on the leash, it will go away. If you give in (even once), you have taught him that if he whines long enough, you will eventually pay attention to him. If he's a voracious leash chewer, buy a light chain leash for inside the house.

Start marker training (clicker training) with him and then you will be able to reward him when he's being quiet. Here's a link to a free e-book, and also one to Leerburg's puppy dvd. Well worth the investment...

http://leerburg.com/pdf/markers-clickers.pdf (Marker Training)
http://leerburg.com/120.htm (Puppy Video)

Hang in there and be consistent with him...

well its not that he is quiet in the laundry room...its just that its on the other end of the house and cant really hear him in the bedroom when he is in there...

By all means, put the crate in the laundry room, if it gives your eardrums a respite.

It also decreases the likelyhood of rewarding negative behavior.
For some dogs, even looking at them when they're being dinks in the crate, is rewarding.

Stick a radio on top of the crate and tune it to NPR or some other talk radio station.

would it be wise of us to try and crate him in the bedroom again tonight and if it doesnt work to move him to the laundry room....or just start out in the laundry room...

its just funny...cause if he lays on bed...he will fall right to sleep...we pick him up...take him out to potty one last time...put him in crate...and all heck breaks loose