Help! Puppy advice please

[MissSP]

Hi all. First time poster, long time lurker - just hoping to use your amazing hive mind for puppy advice please
We brought our beautiful pup home three weeks ago. They are a clingy breed, so for the first week (on advice) my husband and I took turns to sleep downstairs with her, which worked well for a few nights, then she just started waking to see us!
Vet then said go cold turkey as it's better for her longer term so we now leave her.
Some nights she's ok but others, like last night, she just barkes on and off all night. I confess we've probably confused her, as despite the vets advice my husband was worried about her, so we had a couple of nights when he got up at 2 to take her out to do her business - although she was going just before bed at 11 and then again at 5 so could have happily held it if she was sleeping properly.
She is crated, got a super comfy bed, crate covered with a blanket, snuggly toys etc. Again, she was probably confused as we tried a few things such as the radio on (don't think she really liked that), more lights, less lights that sort of thing, but we are now being consistent with her routine.
I guess the thing is now she seems to be sleeping ALOT during the day - as you would if you were awake in the night - but the advice is so conflicting as to whether she needs to nap more, like a baby needing more sleep, or whether we need to keep her awake so she's tired for bedtime?
Sorry for the rambling post, we are all a bit worn out. I should stress, my concerns are based on her happiness, we were aware that this phase came with the territory of getting a pup - but as we didn't start as we meant to go on, we now just want to make things right for her.
Sorry, that was longer than planned!

[skippy67]

You might want to get this moved to the dog board on here. Lots of helpful people over there.

[GinIsIn]

If you report this and ask MN to move it to the doghouse, you’ll get more replies. How old is the puppy? Are they house trained? If not then your husband is correct and you should be taking them out regularly at night - a tiny puppy doesn’t have great bladder control. Dogs do sleep a lot during the day. That’s just how they roll, so I wouldn’t worry about that in terms of overnight sleep. Lower energy breeds can need to sleep 16-18 hours a day as puppies. (And sometimes as adults!) a greyhound is comatose approximately 20 hours of the day.

There are a few things you can try but they’re all depend on the age of the puppy.
One thing I would say though is don’t have loads of toys in the crate - toys are for playtime. You can try putting in one large soft toy to replicate littermates, but not loads of exciting stuff to play with.

[adaline]

Puppies sleep for about 18-19 hours a day at that kind of age. Please don't fall into the trap of keeping her awake during the day so she sleeps more at night - dogs don't work like that!

And you need to be taking her to the toilet through the night - probably twice at that age. Our puppy is six months and still needs to go during the night occasionally. Expecting her to hold it for seven hours is hugely unrealistic - their bladders are tiny at that age and they're only just learning bladder control.

You need to take her out pretty much constantly - every 20 minutes when awake, after all meals and drinks, when she wakes up, and before, during and after play. She needs tons of praise for going outside and any accidents need to just be ignored - never tell her off for toileting indoors. Puppies don't know they shouldn't pee or poo in the house, it's our job to teach them what to do.

Have fun - the puppy days are exhausting but so worth it. And get enrolled in puppy classes ASAP. Ours knows several reliable commands now and it's great to see how much he's progressed.

[MissSP]

Great, thanks all. I've asked for this thread to be moved to The Doghouse.

She's actually been pretty amazing with toilet training, no accidents in the house at all now, outside after every meal and big sleep. Interesting comments regarding her napping as well, definitely worth letting her nap as she pleases then. Thank you.