Starting to sleep apart from puppy

[QuietLifeNC]

Hello everyone

So I have a 4.5 month old puppy. Since coming to me, she's slept in a crate by my bed- all fine, and she's been a fantastic sleeper. However this week she's started getting really restless and antsy at night. She did have an upset tummy and is teething badly which I think added to it, but I think she's beginning to outgrow the crate.

I have a large pen in the living room with bed, toys, water etc. Last night she slept in it and I slept on the sofa, and it was fine.

Any tips on this? I don't want to force her in the crate if she doesn't want it, and absolutely not while she still has an upset tum. But at some point I'd like to sleep in my own bed :-)

I might do the sofa another night or two and then go for it and see what happens. I'm in a ground floor flat and my bedroom is next door the living room so can easily hear her. Or once her tummy settles I can try the crate again but my gut feeling is she's really outgrown it (psychologically - it's plenty big enough) . She used to nap in there a lot but now is more into the bed. But I can't give her free range in the bedroom just yet

thanks!

And as a side note, I absolutely love having her sleep next to me; listening to her little snores and reaching over for a tummy rub when we wake up. But I don't want to force it and start creating a nighttime drama if she is still resistant. Equally I don't want her getting distressed sleeping on her own.

Dilemma :-(

A smaller pen next to your bed?

yeah there isn't really room unfortunately. I will have a look but pressed for space there

We never used a cage, just a well padded basket initially alongside a makeshift bed. When puppy was older and learnt to climb and descend stairs (with lots of ham pieces), we had another ddog territory (initially basket then a thick mat) in the bedroom doorway on the outside where they could stop at night. A short period of gentle teaching that paws need to be the hall side of the doorway (and lots of haha you thought I didn't see that paw slide over the threshold, back it goes please). Eventually ddog/s would stay in their main basket almost all the time apart from popping up for a look-see on their thick mat, they always knew we were there and accessible so no worries or bother both ways. In their dotage some adjustment may be asked for by ddog, and a comfy nest made up in the bedroom.

We swapped a crate for a bed next to our bed
no issues, ddog sometimes jumps on the bed early hours sometimes and we don’t mind that but equally could say off and he’d go back to his bed
but he sleeps through and we have to wake him up