To take away water from puppy at night?

[keratoms]

We're picking up a chihuahua puppy in a few days. We are going to crate train so have got her a crate for downstairs and a crate for the bedroom. The downstairs crate has plenty of room for her bed and a water bowl but not much else.

The bedroom crate due to the size of the bed only has enough room for her bed and blanket. Is that okay or do we need to make space for water? Never had a puppy before so not sure of the correct way to do this. Getting different info on Google.

Have attached the picture of nighttime crate.

Thank you.

It should be common sense.

Are you and your kids willing to be thirsty for 12 hours per day ? Try it for a few days and see how you like it.

Why would you put a tiny animal who's just been taken away from her mother through that? These are vulnerable living creatures, not cute toys to be shut away and deprived for your convenience.

It's a chihuahua puppy not a Great Dane - the crate size is fine.

And while I don't agree with removing water, many websites do say to withhold it overnight to help with toilet training. If you're a first time owner it's very easy to find a website that says the wrong things and believe it as you don't know any better.

Join a chiouhaha specific fb page . You will be able to ask questions in a supportive environment where answers will still differ but you can make up your own mind based on your home and your puppy. There are usually vets and trainers on there too I find. I found it really useful a few years ago.

The comments about the crate being too small are bloody ridiculous. The bed is too big, which OP has acknowledged and will be removing.

I have a toy breed and when they’re puppies, they’re tiny! Mine only weighed a couple of pounds when he came home. I didn’t crate him but that would have been plenty big enough.

Just get rid of the bloody cages and get her a normal dog bed that she can get in and out of. That crate looks dreadful- too small and no space to move around. What if she gets hot? Where can she go? Yes, other people lock their dogs in cages too but that doesn't make it OK.

I thought those breed puppies were weenie? That crate is big enough for a weenie puppy surely.

It will be tiny of course that's big enough 😒

You will receive a lot of conflicting advice about crates. I am personally very uncomfortable with using them overnight. My dogs have never been crated and I know how they sleep. They don't stay in a single place the whole night. They stand up, move around, find a new position. Confining them to a crate would be limiting and unnatural for them.

A lot of people (including vets, trainers, etc.) recommend crate training and it has become increasingly popular. But there are alternatives if you need to keep your puppy contained but not confined to such a small space.

This. People need to stop locking dogs up in cages. If you want a cages animal, get a guinea pig or a hamster. Dogs should not be in cages and I'm sure in a few years time, this fad will be considered cruel and the advice will change.

If you are using a crate as a "den" for the dog. Leave the door open to give it a choice to go inside. If you are locking the door, it's a cage.

caged animal*

Do all the people who think locked crates are cages feel the same way about parents using cots and playpens for babies and toddlers?

It's just a way to keep the dog safe. Not everyone has a home that can be puppy-proofed, or a room that can be fenced/gated off for the pup.

Much, much better to put the puppy in a crate than to leave it loose if it's liable to chew and eat things it shouldn't.

I never put my baby in a cage. Playpens are not the same as cages - more room to move around and no roof and I never left my baby in a playpen for 12 hours

But nobody would blink at a baby in a cot for 12 hours.

It's a dog, it will be fine people need to stop with the anthropomorphism of dogs.

Being uncomfortable about the use of crates has nothing to do with anthropomorphising dogs. For me it is based on observing dogs’ actual behaviour, e.g. sleeping patterns. I understand that crates can be useful and convenient for owners, but I personally don’t think they are good for dogs in the majority of situations. Exceptions exist, of course.

Firstly there’s plenty of room to move about and change positions in that crate without that bed in it - I honestly think people don’t realise quite how tiny chihuahua puppies are.

but mostly - a crated puppy in your bedroom who isn’t comfortable, for any reason, will wake you up much quicker than a puppy just in a bed. So you’re much quicker at getting them out for the toilet, but also if they didn’t have enough room you’d soon know it.

and who is in bed for 12 hours? Where did that number suddenly appear from?

He is nearly a year old now, but my yorkie is a tiny one anyway, and as a puppy he was about the same size as a small guinea pig and weighed less that a kilo. That crate will be plenty big enough but it wants a flat blanket and to be covered on 3 sides. OP, you probably have, but do check out info re tiny puppies as they are prone to hypoglycaemia and of course they are very delicate body wise. My little chap is the sweetest thing, but he was too small even to negotiate getting out of the back door at first, and it's only a six inch drop!

I think crates overnight are fine as long as you're close enough to hear the puppy if it needs you. I had a small breed puppy and was reassured that they weren't going to fall down the stairs or hurt themselves wandering about. He was too small to get on/off my bed or the sofa even!

It's not dissimilar to putting a baby in a cot overnight, you know they're safe, comfortable and contained.

He was fine in the crate until he was 9 months or so then he refused it but by that point he was safe around the house and toilet trained so he didn't need it any more anyway.

He sleeps on my bed now!!

Of course playpens are the same as crates - the whole point of them is to keep the baby/puppy safe while you get on with other things. The fact that playpens don't have roofs is largely irrelevant - the whole point is to keep the baby contained safely, which is exactly the point of a crate when it's used correctly.

I also don't know anyone who leaves their puppy in a crate for 12 hours🙄

Our last dog slept on the bed from the first day, our new puppy is in a crate beside the bed. She never settles and is a wire chewer.
When she wants out she hits the side with her paw. She has plenty of room, the crate is bloody huge.
We have one doorstairs for her, she goes in to sleep during the day, she isn't any good at self settling and would run about all day. I tried her on just a bed but she wasn't ready, I'll try again as she gets older.
I brought the playpen out of the loft that we used for our last dog but she jumped over the side 🤦
I have an open plan living room, my stairs are in them and no doors leading to dining room.
Not everyone has multiple rooms or a utility room to put them in.

There's a lot of hysteria on here about crates OP.

For what it's worth we used a crate overnight with our puppy on the advice of the breeder. I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing he had the run of the house and was eating and chewing unsafe things (it's impossible to totally puppy proof a house), or even worse shut in the utility room by himself as a friend recommended.

He slept through and was dry at night within days. He genuinely loves it. Trots off to bed before we even go up to bed, and often goes there in the day for a bit of peace and quiet. We struggle to get him out of it in the morning now. We leave the door open and he emerges some time later for some breakfast😅We'll ditch it soon and just put the bed from inside it in the same place, as he's passed the eating things he shouldn't or getting up to mischief phase.

Crates are absolutely fine. If our puppy had hated it of course we'd have rethought it, but provided puppy is happy why would it be cruel?

The crate is not too small .

They need to stand up and turn that's it .

I don't know any dog that has access to water in their crates 🤷‍♀️

Also if you're toilet training it you will be up in the night taking it out every 2-3 hours ... so it will have the opportunity to drink ... it's not going hours without water

@MiniatureHotdog mines the same, she refuses to leave it even if she's banged to get out 😄 I have to coax her out.
She's never got up 2 or 3 times for her toilets. She sleeps from 11-7.
Not all puppies are the same.

Crate size is ok
bed is ridiculous - what if the dog gets hot, especially with no water (animals need access to water at all times).
Anything could happen whilst you nip out, you get stuck in traffic etc.
I crate trained my Lab, before switching to a den type fabric bed with flap which was never closed, then moved to a normal bed.
He’s the only dog I’ve used a crate with due to chewing.
You may not need to use a crate.

If you’re locking her in that then she needs access to water. She’s going to be tiny - my sister has a chihuahua puppy and he’s in a pen as he’s so small and she has a toddler.

However she’s also a dog trainer, our retriever had a crate and always had water in it on a hook clipped onto the side from a pup. He used to go for a wee before bed and first thing but could go overnight fine. Even with access to water. However he was crate trained I didn’t just get him and put him in , it’s a process and to make him comfortable with it we gave a lot of value to the crate until he’d go in and out himself - some dogs just naturally go in theirs but some don’t. He just has a vet fleece in bottom easy to wash etc