New Puppy - What to do at night?

[em1126]

I searched and found lotsof good puppy advice, but nothing that addressed my question specifically. We just got a new puppy on Saturday. She's probably 2-3 mos. old (we go to the vet tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get a better idea of her age.) So far we've been keeping her crated in our bedroom at night. We take her out to potty a few times during the night and we've also taken her on walks right before bedtime each night. The first 2 nights she slept for pretty good blocks of time, but last night she cried most of the night. So, my question is, should we keep her crate in our room? How should we deal with her crying? Thanks for any advice!

[fuzzy]

There are lots of gals on these boards who crate their dog in their bedroom. I'm just not one of them. :) We crated Daisy in a separate bedroom. She's the type of dog who will wake up at the slightest sound, so if one of us rolled over, she'd whine and cry (and I know she didn't have to pee!).

As soon as we moved her into her own bedroom, she was fine. The first night, she cried for about five minutes, but that was it. She's been -- more or less -- sleeping through the night since.

[TazLuv]

We put our Molly's crate in another room for a couple of reasons, the biggest two being there really wasn't room in our room for it and we didn't want to be moving it around. They say you should leave their crate open so that they can use it as a safe haven if they want and therefore it should be in a place you spend a lot of time. Ours is in our living room.

I think as long as you take her out a couple of times/night she should be fine in another room, you'll also get more sleep. And just like a child if she whines and you don't come she will fall asleep. If her crate is too big make sure you block part of it off too, this will keep her from having accidents because they don't like to potty where they sleep.

Good luck! :)

[roberta]

Is your bedroom door open? How far away is the dog crate from your bedroom? These things made a big different for our Austrailian shpard when she was a puppy as she still felt "close" to us. There simply was not enough room in our bedroom for her crate. So the crate was in the next room, our dining room. She really needed to go out at least twice a night when she was very young, then tapered down to once a night around 8-9 months old. I was tried from getting up once a night when she was a year old and tried just having her in our room with the door shut. At that point, I knew she would wake me up if she needed to go outside and cleaning the carpet was just like cleaning out the crate. She succssfully transitioned to our room sleeping on the floor and never had any problem. I think she just wanted to see me once a night to know I was okay. (She is protective and a bit anxoius if we are away.)

[Chimichanga]

We kept our puppy in the room with us in a crate. He was only 6 weeks old, so he had to go out quite often. After a month or so, we did move him downstairs for a few months. After that, we left him out of the crate (and how he's on the bed with us).

Puppies are going to whine. I don't want to sound harsh, but that's what they do. They will learn about potty time and sleep time and such. It will probably happen a lot, but it will get better.

[Scooter]

I think she just wanted to see me once a night to know I was okay. (She is protective and a bit anxoius if we are away.)
Puppies are going to whine. I don't want to sound harsh, but that's what they do. They will learn about potty time and sleep time and such. It will probably happen a lot, but it will get better.I agree with these two quotes. When we got our puppy she had been in a shelter and was feeling very isolated & anxious. Unless she was crated in our room, she whined & yipped the entire night. Once she was crated in our room she was soo much happier. And that's part of what puppies do, no matter what room you have them in, when they're feeling lonely. They don't just whine to go out or eat, they are like babies and sometimes they whine out of loneliness--they just want to see you & know you're there. And like many other animals they also have an instinct to yip when they feel left behind, to let their mom know where they are so she can come gather them up. Like when a baby bird falls out of the nest and cries, or a toddler is lost in a store and cries...these are just instincts and they aren't going to completely go away with punishment or if you ignore it. She learned thatr we weren't going to come let her out or see her when she did the lonely whining, but we would say something to her to let her know we were there, and then ignore her afterwards. She got the idea after awhile, but it does take a lot of patience.

So I think it's going to depend on your puppy's anxiety level and past experiences, too, whether your room or another room is going to work out. You mentioned not knowing the age, so I thought I'd write what we'd learned when we adopted our shelter puppy, because it sounds like yours didn't come from a breeder, either. :)

[zhannushka]

Our dog was spoiled from the very beginning - we have always kept our bedroom door open for him during the night, he also was never crated. He's got a few mats and "beds" here and there throughout the house and doesn't always sleep in the same spot.

He is going to be 3 this May and for the past 1-2 years he rarely sleeps in our bedroom anymore (even though the door is still open). He knows that he can come in whenever he wants to and I think that makes him feel safe. He ends up sleeping in the living room most of the time.

[CityGirl]

With a 6 month old puppy that was a nightmare for the first month we had her, my suggestion would be to try some different things until you find what works. Our puppy was fine the first night, then screamed bloody murder for the next two weeks. We thought we were doing everything right, keeping her crate right next to our bed, ignoring her cries, putting something that smelled like us in the crate. It had worked so well for our first dog, but just wasn't working at all for her.

Then my husband got smart. He noticed that she loved to nap in the afternoon in our older dog's (Hugo) bed. He went and got Hugo's crate (it was way too big at the time, so we had bought a tiny travel crate for the puppy) and put one of his old beds in it. I don't know if it was the scent, or the fact that it was bigger, or if it was more comfortalbe, but we had no problems after that.

So now I'm a firm believer in what "right" AND what "works".

[ManteoChik]

We never crated our dog. We got her at 7 weeks and she slept in bed with us since day 1. :o I know a lot of people are against that.....but we wouldn't have had it any other way. She's been sleeping through the night with no potty breaks since she was about 3 months.

[Lucy Van Pelt]

We create trained Lucy and, of course, dealt with the crying at night. What I did was put the crate up on a small table next to my side of the bed. When she started crying, I could just stick my fingers through the crate door to help soothe her, but still let her know that crying wouldn't get her out of the crate. It took some persistence and some nights of little sleep, but in the end, it worked out great!

[Maggie8202]

We never crated our dog. We got her at 7 weeks and she slept in bed with us since day 1. :o I know a lot of people are against that.....but we wouldn't have had it any other way. She's been sleeping through the night with no potty breaks since she was about 3 months.

We do the same thing. The crate just didn't work for us because of limited space. The first night I made a bed next to our bed and she cried, so from then on we let her sleep with us. Now she likes to start out on her bed and end the night with us. She also was able to sleep through the night with no potty breaks (10-6) from about 11 weeks on.

On another note, my parents have crated their dog from day one and he is downstairs on the main floor, and they have never had a problem, although their bedroom is so far away I don't know if they would hear him crying, but they both seem happy. I think a different room so the dog can't hear you maybe worth a shot.

[em1126]

Thanks for all of your replies. Sometimes it's just nice to know you're not the only one that is going or has gone through this! Our puppy did a little better last night. We kept the crate in our room all night. We took her out to go potty 3 times and I think the key to settling her back down is to sit with her right outside her crate for a little while. Anyway, thanks again for all the good advice!