First nights with puppy... sleep downstairs with her, or take her up with us?

[StillMedusa]

Which is better? I'm happy to do either . She will have a crate (but as a den, not shut).
We have to go through the living room to get to the garden for wees, and if we sleep upstairs the resident (soon to be very annoyed) cat can at least have her downstairs in peace at night, but it means resettling puppy might take longer and dh gets up from 3am for work,. Or I sleep downstairs on the sofa.
Long term she can sleep with us , or downstairs, (probably will end up on DS2s bed!)
I just can't decide and we pick her up on Sunday!

Our dog has always slept downstairs in a crate. I don't really like the idea of dogs in bedrooms and if she is disruptive it's going to seriously impair your sleep. If you start with her upstairs she will always want to sleep upstairs so I guess be certain before you let it happen.

Love my dog but the bedroom isn't for him.

Mine slept downstairs in the kitchen in her crate on her own from the first night.

Agree she may be better downstairs in a crate. A puppy in the bedroom will seriously disturb your sleep. Hard to resist but better longterm.

We always sleep downstairs with a new puppy. Near the crate to start with - any crying gets a swift and very boring trip to the garden. 5 minutes of being ignored/have a pre and back in the crate (door open but a small pen around it). Then we talk and shush to reassure them, but no getting them out again until after they've slept at least a bit! We move further and further away from the crate until we''re outside the door of the room, then back to our own bed. Usually takes max 2 weeks, and you end up with a puppy who sleeps happily in a crate all night alone.
Once they're old enough, the pen gets removed and the door shut (usually at least 14-16 weeks before they can last the night without a pee...
Good luck!

We collected Cloudpup on Saturday afternoon. He is 8 weeks and four days old today. Saturday night we had planned on him sleeping in his crate but despite all of my efforts in making him soft beds (including a nice soft bottom to his crate), he is only interested in making himself comfortable on the cold kitchen floor.

Saturday night I let him stay there and I slept on the sofa close to him. He woke three times for a wee and we went out each time. He settled back to sleep immediately. No crying or anything. I suspect he work me up about 8 times. Do you really want that every night?

Next night we sectioned off the utility room with a baby gate (for the sake of the cats) and kept the doors open so that we could hear upstairs if he got distressed. Not a peep from him! Disadvantage is that he needed newspaper down to wee on and so that's not as good as him going out but I needed proper sleep.

I would agree with the others. Sleeping downstairs will be better for everyone. In a crate if you can.

Depends where you want him sleeping in the end. With us DH stayed down on a roll mat and sleeping bag for the first couple of nights until pup was used to his surroundings. Pup had a few minutes of mewling on the night DH came up to bed, but really very little, and has always been happy to sleep downstairs subsequently.

Puppy slept downstairs in kitchen in crate from night 1. Quite lucky that she took to the crate instantly. Left the door open and just accepted I'd have the two P's to clean up in the morning up until the point I knew she could hold it all night. That was recently (at 4 months) when we went on a camping trip and she was in the campervan with me in a locked crate. I now close the door at night and puppy happily sleeps through the night and I wake up to a clean kitchen. It's taken a couple of months but we got there.

Ok it sounds like downstairs is better. I will go for that (and the sofa is comfier than my bed with dh snoring anyway!)

I’ve always had new pups in a cosy box beside my bed. They always end up in bed with me, needing to go out once a night for just the first week. Sleeping with your puppy creates a loving bond but you can do that just as well from the sofa.

Downstairs definitely if you can, it's good for the dog and family life. I'm still annoyed that we weren't allowed to let our dog settle downstairs as a puppy due to neighbour being unreasonable. It's not the end of the world as she has her own bed in our bedroom, but I'm a firm believer in dogs having boundaries and sleeping downstairs/having their own space.

Our dogs always sleep upstairs with us. We are a pack - why would one member of the pack sleep apart from the rest?