Good morning, our 7 week old puppy came home on Saturday. I appreciate and understand that he won't sleep through the night just yet, but I'd welcome some advice from experienced dog owners- this is our first!
We have a crate and a pen set up in the living room, and a puppy gate on the living room door. He has free run of the whole thing but, the pen is there if we need to leave him for more than a minute or two (to answer the door, cook, etc...) We also have a plastic crate.
The plan on Saturday night was to pop him in the plastic crate at bedtime and bring him up to our bedroom, then take him out in the night as needed. This failed as he point black refused to settle in the crate. However, in retrospect this could have been because my husband kept him downstairs with him while he was watching TV. Anyway, he ended up staying up most of the night with him as he cried wherever they put him.
Last night, I set up a camp bed in the living room. I made the whole room dark and calm, and after a 10pm (fruitless) toilet trip, I popped him in the pen. I was able to settle him by Shhhing and putting my hand on the outside of the bars. He cried for about 2-4 minutes. He probably woke every hour or so, but settled with the hand and shhhing. I took him out at 12, 2, 4, and then my daughter came at 6. He was clearly ready to start the day at 5.30 so I let him out of the pen for cuddles then. He may have weed at 12, definitely nothing at 2 and then wee and poo at 4 and 6. I did not speak or fuss him on our outside breaks apart from to tell him to Go Potty.
So my question is this. What do I do tonight? Obviously I'd prefer to be in my own bed! Do I try plan A again and bring him upstairs in the plastic crate and see if I can settle him in a dark, calm, bedroom? Or stick with what I did last night? Or something different. He gets very upset when we leave him (as in go to another room!) and as we will eventually have to leave him for short periods for work (9+ weeks minimum and I'm prepared for Doggy Daycare if he's not ready) I don't want to cause any kind of separation anxiety. Thank you for reading this epic post! Picture of our gorgeous boy to say thank you for any advice offered!
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The doghouse
Puppy sleep advice!
25 replies
UnicornPug · 02/07/2018 08:17
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