first night….!!

[Britchic]

Puppy came home early this morning! We've had a gorgeous day and we're all exhausted!

I've been reading the Happy Puppy book, which suggests (actually tells!) you to get up 3 hrs after you got to bed to take your puppy outside to pee, as it won't last the night. The idea of setting an alarm at 1.30am makes me feel slightly ill…. but is this what I should be doing?!!

I was going to have her in a small crate in my bedroom for the 1st 3 nights as the book suggests.

Thanks in advance for any help.

We're just a week down the road. Our pup is a little older at 12 weeks, and had been sleeping in a barn with mum, dad, brother, uncle and elderly aunt. We decided to leave her in the kitchen.

She cried for 30 mins the first, then slept until 6am! It appears my little girl has an iron bladder .

Good luck for tonight, just go with what feels right for you. And make sure you have clothes & shoes to hand. Also a torch is handy!

Congratulations on your new puppy

We didn't set an alarm to wake her up, instead we stayed up till about midnight, carried our pup out to the garden, waited for him to wee then popped him in his crate. We took turns sleeping on the sofa in the kitchen next to his crate for the first few nights. The first night he went through until about 5, and each night after that he lasted a little longer.

After a couple of weeks we stopped lifting him at midnight so his last wee was about 10-ish. During the week I get up at 6:30 but he's usually still very sleepy then and at weekends he's happy to wait until 8-ish. He's nearly 14 months old now but he's had the same pattern since he was about 4 months old so the 'newborn' phase doesn't last that long ...

I put mine to bed at 10.30pm in his crate in the kitchen fully prepared for crying only to have him sleep all night until I got up at 6.00am to let him out. He's never had a night time accident.

Eric never had a problem going overnight without needing a pee. He has a cast iron bladder though and goes from last walk at night to first walk next morning so twelve hours now at eight months.

We put our pup to bed in the kitchen where I slept. He cried out for 15mins then stopped, think he started again through the night and I got up and let him out. It didn't take more than 3 days to have him sleep through. We took him in his first trip at the weekend and he slept in his crate beside us - whined at 4am to be let out. It was all much easier than we thought it was going to be!

Thank you so much for your help, was great to have that!

It's going really well, I didn't set an alarm, and on the first night she woke at 3 for a pee, last night at 4… fingers crossed tonight will be at 5?!!

However I was going to move her down to the kitchen tomorrow night, so there's still plenty of opportunity for it to all go wrong!

What's the rush? Make sure she feels totally secure first and then move her down gradually.