Should a Puppy Nap in the Crate During the Day?

Yes, and most puppies need two or three of them a day. Puppies need eighteen to twenty hours of sleep and almost none of them will take that voluntarily in a house with people in it. The enforced daytime nap is the single most underrated fix in puppy raising, and it resolves a surprising amount of what gets diagnosed as biting, wildness, or too much energy.

The pattern is so consistent that when somebody tells me their twelve week old turns into a land shark every afternoon, my first question is not about exercise or training. It is what time he last slept.

What an overtired puppy looks like

This is the important part, because overtired puppies do not look sleepy. They look like they need more exercise, which is why owners give them more and make it worse.

• Biting gets harder and more frantic. Not play mouthing, real grabbing at hands, sleeves, and ankles.
• He stops responding to cues he knows. A sit he has done a hundred times suddenly takes four seconds or does not happen.
• Zoomies at the same time every day. Usually late afternoon. It looks like energy and it is closer to a toddler falling apart before bedtime.
• He cannot settle even when nothing is happening. Pacing, whining, grabbing things and running.
• He gets clumsy. Tripping, misjudging jumps, bumping into things.

The test costs you ninety minutes. Next time he is in that state, crate him in a dark quiet room. If he is asleep within ten minutes and a different animal afterward, you have your answer.

How to run an enforced nap

1. Aim for a nap after every hour or so of awake time. Young puppies can manage roughly one to two hours awake before they need to go down. Watch the clock rather than the puppy.
2. Take him out to toilet first. Every time, no exceptions, so the crate never becomes a place where he has to hold it uncomfortably.
3. Crate in a quiet dark room. Not the kitchen at lunchtime. Cover the top and back of the crate if that helps him switch off.
4. Give him something to settle with. A chew or a stuffed frozen toy. Chewing brings arousal down and gets most puppies to sleep faster.
5. Ninety minutes minimum, two hours is fine. Do not get him out at the first noise. Most puppies grumble for a few minutes and then go quiet.

Do not let him out while he is crying. Wait for a pause of at least twenty or thirty seconds. Opening the door mid protest teaches him that protest works, and that lesson takes a fortnight to undo.

How many naps, by age

• Eight to twelve weeks. Three or four naps a day, one to two hours awake between them. This is the stage where skipping naps causes the most trouble.
• Three to five months. Two or three naps, two to three hours awake between them.
• Five to eight months. Usually one or two, though many puppies still need an afternoon one and are much easier when they get it.
• Adolescents, eight months and up. Most benefit from one enforced ninety minute nap a day well into their second year. Owners of wild teenagers often see the biggest single improvement from exactly this.

Objections worth answering

It feels like putting him in a box when he wants to play. He wants to play the way an overtired toddler wants to keep going. Wanting it and needing it are different, and the crate is not a punishment as long as nothing unpleasant happens in it.

He cries the first few times. Normal, and it usually resolves in two or three days. Build the crate value separately by feeding meals in it with the door open, and the naps get much easier.

He falls asleep on the floor anyway. Floor sleep in a busy house is light and gets interrupted constantly. The crate gives him deep uninterrupted sleep, which is what actually restores him.

We work from home and he is around us all day. That is exactly the situation where this matters most. A puppy in a room with people is monitoring the room.

What changes when you do it

Most families see a difference within three or four days, and it usually shows up in this order.

The evening biting drops off first, often dramatically. Then the training sessions get better, because he is able to concentrate. Then house training tightens up, since a puppy on a predictable sleep schedule is on a predictable toilet schedule.

If you do one thing from this post, put a ninety minute crate nap in after lunch and hold it for a week. It is free, it takes no training, and it fixes more than most of the things people try instead.

The nap schedule is part of the wider daily rhythm that makes the first weeks work. My free first 7 days blueprint lays that out hour by hour. Download the First 7 Days blueprint

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.