To let puppy sleep on the couch all night?

[Xen20]

We always maintained we would crate train our puppy however, she’s an intelligent breed and is practically housetrained now with the odd accident.
She tends to wake us up between 1-3am every night - supposedly for bog but she runs outside, squeezes a wee out (for our benefit) and then runs back in and tries to get on the sofa. It’s like all she wants is to sleep on the sofa. After that she starts screaming again at 5am and again, just wants to get on the sofa. A couple of weeks ago she slept all through the night and by 6:30 we’d still heard no noise so I panicked and went down to check on her - turns out she’d escaped the crate and slept on the sofa all night. No damage. No toileting.

AIBU to give in and let her just sleep on the sofa now? She’s 11 weeks old today.

Come to think of it I should really keep her in the crate. When I go back to work she’ll need to be crated anyway I suppose.

Why? If you’re worried about destructive/anxiety behaviours then you need to manage her anxiety. Crating won’t fix her feelings and there's No specific reason to crate her whilst you’re out.

The reason she prefers the sofa is because it’s where you sit and where your scent profile is strongest - it’s where she feels safest. But if she’s already seeking out that reassurance and is not content in her crate i’d STRONGLY suggest that you start separation training whilst she’s still young enough. If you’re going back to work then she has to be able to cope on her own.

Do people create dogs when they ho to work?

HAHA! That would be a great job. CRATE, obviously

If she is having the odd accident, she isnt house trained.
Personally I think 11 weeks is too young to be given the freedom of that much space and it might not help that much with the house training. And I would avoid giving her that much unsupervised access when she starts teething! For her own safety, and your sanity.

It depends - will she get off the sofa when told? Are you happy to risk that night being a one-off?
Once you get her out of the crate habit, you'll struggle to get her back into it.

I wouldn't be creating a fully-grown Doberman

Depends what you want ultimately and what your reasons for crating or not crating are...

Also at 11 weeks, she’ll probably still go through a chewy stage, can you puppy proof the whole room?

By that age, all of mine were in bed with me - so I'm probably not the best person to comment!!

Take the cushions/overs off the sofa and put them in the crate overnight. She is seeking comfort in your scent. And check the crate locks carefully, she shouldn't be able to get out!

Mine loves his crate, but only for sleeping, he rarley volunteers to go into it during th day, though we do use it for short stays if we ned hi to calm down or be safe whilst we are out or doing something he would only get in the way of!