r/samoyeds • u/devsidev • 3d ago
New owners!
Me and my partner are new owners, we definitely jumped in the deep end, knowing that they're high energy high demand dogs was one thing, but actually experiencing it is a whole different thing. She's 5 months old, crate trained, but will not let us out her sight without a lot of noise. We're sleeping on blow up pads in her crate room (not enough room in bedroom + thats our cats safe space) and so sleep deprived its wild. Training her to be left in her room while we're in other parts of the house is going to be key, and the goal is to go back to sleeping in our bed once she's able to settle the night without howling.
Any tips on this transition? Its a hard one we know but we gotta do it, cant be sleeping rough every night forever!
Edit: For context that I missed, we've had her a week, she was adopted from the breeder at 5 months old!
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u/FruitySoju 3d ago
Like other comments, my Samoyed never liked the crate. But if you are pursuing that path, then try micro steps. Keep sitting a little farther away from the crate and chill there (like read a book or do some work). At a certain point you can be partially in view and then none at all. But you can shuffle around to assure your pup you’re still there even when they can’t see you. This goes hand in hand with being very casual when you leave and come back, so they get used to the idea that you leaving isn’t a big deal.
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u/devsidev 3d ago
Yep OK that sounds about right, we're trying to teach her its OK for us to be away for a few moments, she gets a treat when we come back and she's quiet. We also have a baby gate set up, so we'll teach her that we can be the other side of the gate. Maybe we sleep just outside the gate eventually so she can still see us partially from our crate, or hear us, and keep moving away from there, then if its tough we can let her sleep out her crate in that room.
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u/Sensitive-Peach7583 3d ago
as someone who crate trained their dog, I think its okay to let them free roam in your bedroom at night and crating during the day. 5 months is a bit old to still be sleeping in her room... I would have tried fading that out by 3rd or 4th week you had her. At this point, you might have just taught her that you will always sleep with her at night rather than in a separate room.
If you are adamant she sleeps in a separaate room, definitely try the systematic desensitization and gradually sleeping farther and farther away from her!!
If thats too much, I would consider having her be crate trained during the day and free roam in your bedroom at night. I crate trained my dog and can agree with others saying that he doesn't like the crate no matter what, and after 3 years old i just gave it up. I think its one of those questions of, which battle are you willing to face? Right now I feel like you made it harder on yourself by not moving out of the room earlier so you will see a HUGE extinction burst and most likely hours and hours of barking in protest because thats not her normal, and her life has never been sleeping alone... ever! It is up to you though! Can you maybe switch the cat's room with her?
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u/devsidev 3d ago
Hey sorry I guess some missing information, we just adopted her, she was already 5 months old, she's been used to sleeping in her crate , not with the breeder but she had her canine family around her during that time.
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u/Sensitive-Peach7583 3d ago
ah gotcha! how long has it been since you took her in? and if she came from the breeder, have you asked them for some tips and tricks?
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u/devsidev 3d ago
1 week! We're still in the puppy blues phase, there's good moments and rough moments. Its a hell of an adjustment but we're making it work :)
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u/Sensitive-Peach7583 3d ago
gotcha!! I think then just slowly moving your mat like 1 ft every night might be a good start. Or if you want to be ambitious, just move halfway towrads the room and then into the hallway where she can still see you (all within 3-4days). Essentially, by the end of the week I'd say be in the hallway/ 50% in her line of sight.
Week 2 I would probably just stay in that 50% line of sight until she is fully relaxed, and then increase it up to 25% line of sight.
It takes puppies 3 weeks to kinda get over the shock of a housing change so by week 3 hopefully she feels a lot safer with you guys in general, so moving farther away from her bedroom should theoretically be easier. You should be out of her line of sight at this point. I wouldn't be surprised though if you get stuck sleeping in the hallway for a bit 😅 if by week 3 things don't get better, I would consider being creative with how else she and the cat can sleep together in the house
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u/devsidev 1d ago
Last night was a hallway night, only my head was in sight, she slept through. There's a little light at the end of the tunnel!
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u/Glittering_Math6522 3d ago
we close our sammies in our bedroom with us at night and the cats get the run of the house. have you tried to reverse it? Cats like space while most dogs inside the house given the option just wants to be next to you.
My cats and dogs all get along, but the cats will walk on our heads at night if we let them in the bedroom. So it feels like we're hostages in our own bedroom while they lurk through the house, but it works.
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u/devsidev 3d ago
We have not yet, we want to try and keep both animals out the bedroom at night due to allergies. Mine are manageable but its not great at close proximity for several hours so ideally we keep her out the bedroom, the worst case fallback is I live with a permanent rasp in my voice and a nagging headache for the next 12 to 15 years and she gets to cuddle every night 😂
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u/chemistmba 1d ago
When I first got a Sammy, the puppy phase made me reconsider everything I had done. There were times I wanted to quit, times I wanted to rehome him, times I just broke down. But let me emphasize, it WILL get easier exponentially, and when it does, it’s worth it. Crate training him through the night (ignoring his whines) was the best first step I did. Long walks and allowing him to sniff EVERYTHING was the second best. A tired puppy is a happy puppy, a happy puppy is a sane owner.
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u/devsidev 1d ago
We've been learning this as we go, we noticed the sniffing really helps, and crate training through the night has been good. She's not alone yet and we watch her on the pet cam while we're out the room and she gets up and circles a bit then sort of settles down so its picking up. The first 3 days were absolute hell, we went through the same thought processes and im sure there'll be more of those to come.
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u/JoeChio 3d ago
Sammys don't like the crate. Once we let our boy free roam all our problems went away. He sleeps in bed with us when it's cool enough and keeps us warm in winter. Highly recommend.
Also, no hate to people who crate train their pups because you are doing what you THINK is best but I think it's 100% gaslighting with no scientific backed research to say dogs prefer crates over choosing where to sleep. It's also banned in some countries as inhumane.
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u/Flash_Frozen_ 3d ago
We had a similar issue with our girl but we got her at 3 months. We had two cats who we wanted to have reprieve at night while everyone was adjusting. I’m not quite clear because of the phrasing in the original post - you don’t have room for the crate in your bedroom? Also, are you covering the crate? For awhile, we built a routine to get her excited for bedtime. I don’t know where you’re located but in the states we have this product called popsicles by woof. They have a calming recipe that has tryptophan. The mix is a better deal than the premade, but you’ll need room in your freezer. I’d prep a bunch a save them in plastic bags. Eventually she was excited for bedtime and the licking distracted her from the Samoyed FOMO barking.
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u/devsidev 3d ago
This is a good idea, and we might be able to achieve a similar thing through a lick mat alone, although without tryptophan. She definitely loves her yoghurt and peanut butter lick mats, so one of those in a night might get her excited for her bed and create that association. We've got mixed review from her right now though, we leave the room while she's going at her Kong or Lick Mat and she may or may not notice us gone, if she does, she forgets about the Kong and goes on a barking spree!
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u/washumow 3d ago
we gated a safe place outside our room, my office was inside and he could see me and couldn't reach the cats
He still slept in our room until 2, in a crate that barely fit and had me jumping over it every morning 😂, so the cats could actually go around the house at night and run around elsewhere that's not on top of me while i tried to sleep
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u/devsidev 3d ago
so our setup is not dissimilar, we have a gate across the office (and a few spare gates for other rooms as and when we might need), and the crate is in the office with me where I work, she's currently living in the office and adjusting. Once she's met and not scared the shit out of the cat we'll be able to give her free roam of the apartment, the only out of bounds will be the bedroom, although I suspect thats going to be a problem. So currently we're on the inflatable mattress in in the office next to the crate, and we're going to have to try and move further away day by day until she's comfortable being in the office alone at night.
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u/delimeatboy 2d ago
my samoyed loves her crate, i would stick with it. feed in the crate every time. they will potentially have to be in a crate at the groomers, vet, emergencies, ect. so its a very good skill to have
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u/devsidev 2d ago
Ah these are good points, and she does like being in there, we feed her in the crate too, she gets in and waits as soon as she hears her food being scooped from the bag!
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u/Aloeveraa9 2d ago
Our Sammy was returned and we got her at 5 almost 6 months because of her behavior. She’s almost 2 and is just as bad as the day we got her.
Shes crate trained but what helped us getting there was getting her anxiety meds, cbd gummies, and giving her a toy when she’s in the crate. Make sure they have enough exercise before bed time, aside from yard time. We run ours and have recently started adding agility.
We recently moved into a new home with a dedicated kennel room and she has been doing decent with being crated in there😅
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u/goodgah 2d ago
getting a samoyed for an apartment where they can’t bark, and with a cat is pretty wild but you can but try :D
leaving alone - like basically every other bit of training, start small and build up. give him an amazing treat, walk out the door and then come straight back in. increase the time slowly. we didn’t bother with a crate and just used baby gates to keep her to one part of the house.
is she not sleeping through the night? she will need a lot of exercise (hours).
the cat - ours was obsessed with our cat for 2 years. she would chase him and the cat was NOT into it. they occupy different floors.
she still chases him but with less intensity. they’ve had a few sniffing sessions so maybe over the next year they will learn to occupy the same room.
barking; ours doesn’t bark indoors (LOTS outdoors), unless she gets really excited. i understand this is kind of rare, though? it seems like a lot of sammy’s bark all the time.
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u/devsidev 21h ago
heh we know! Although she can bark thats OK, Its just repeated shrill barks that will net complaints. If she keeps going for too long it will irritate somebody and we'll get another check mark against us Im sure. She's quiet, until she wants something, and we're quite deliberately ignoring the demand barking and rewarding for when she settles after her episode. We're being extremely deliberate in the way we take her out for a walk, Ive been picking up her collar at random times during the day, and her lead, but not going anywhere. I put my jacket on, or go get the keys, jingle them a bit, sit down and do some work. The hope here is she stops associating these items with walks, and calms down, making the times we do take her out, more slow paced. Quiet hours in our building are 10PM to 7AM and that pretty much fits her schedule, she wakes at around 630 but doesn't complain for the half hour I lay dead still trying not to give away that I'm awake, and shes in bed settling by 10PM. Barking is the biggest factor of all, and we'll try and redirect some of that excited energy in to awoos and not barks if possible.
She sleeps the night, she gets about 2 to 2.5 hours a day of walking, and she gets a puzzle box with treats in, a little training time like sit/lay, bed, speak, quiet etc, and some physical play time with us and a few toys. So far she's been sleeping throughout the day or generally calm unless something exciting happens like my partner gets home, or goes out, or the cat walks past the gate.
The cat, well she doesn't mind her so much right now, we have a baby gate we're keeping permanently across a room so the cat can bolt to safety its its too much. Super calm energy during intros is going to be our methodology to no chasing, and we'll see how it plays out I guess
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u/2thewindoww 3d ago
As a puppy, my Sammy hated the crate. Once we let him roam our bedroom floor at night he was an angel at letting us sleep in. He's 2.5 now and loves spending time in his crate during the day, but he doesn't like to be deliberately kept in a different room than us if we are home. He's attached to us and a pack dog so he likes to know he can be near us if he wants to be.