Puppy - first few nights recommendations?

[FuckingHateRats]

Hi all,

We pick up our girl Maggie in just under three weeks. She's a mini labradoodle.

We're very aware that the first few months will be lots of hard work and adjustments and establishing boundaries.

I'm also aware she's going from a litter of ten puppies and other adults dogs in the house, to being the only dog in our house.

Can anyone offer any advice in how they approached sleeping for the first week or two? Did you sleep close by so they knew they weren't abandoned/on their own?

Pic just because 😍

We popped a heartbeat lamb (for dogs) in her crate and made it super snuggly. DH slept in the same room for 2 nights to get an idea of when she was waking for a wee and took her out. Then from night 3, we set an alarm clock, say at 2.30am and took her out. If she managed three nights at this time with no crate accidents we moved the alarm to 3 etc and did that until she could go through the night with no accidents, moving the wake up time by 30 mins until we reached a full night.

With regards whining - we didn't have any. She was very settled in her crate. She sleeps all over the house now! Also very chilled at being on her own when needed.

Good advice .

I'd buy a crate and a puppy pen !

Maggie is adorable!!

my friend picked hers up last week. He's been as good as gold. He's slept in her room in his bed next to hers. Woken her up if he needed a wee (about 3:30) straight back to bed/sleep, she woke him yesterday at 5:30 when she needed a wee 🤣 today he slept through until 6 when they all got up for a wee 🤣

he'll go downstairs in his bed soon in the lounge, where their other dog is, (too old for the stairs) and he'll go on the puppy pad if he needs it before 6 when she gets up.

my other friend was much the same. Her DH slept on the sofa for the first 10 nights, had a couple of wimpers, but the puppy was fine 🤣🤣no seriously, a couple of wimpers, but a head stroke from Dad & he was fine, sleeping through with no accidents by the second weekend

both puppies doing poos outside & only the odd 'can't get to the garden on time' wee on the puppy pads.

best of luck!

Maggie is gorgeous!

We have had Ddog sleeping in our bedroom from the beginning. At first he slept in a small dog bed on our bed and then, as he grew bigger, we moved him to the floor.

He woke twice during the first night, once in the second and slept all the way through after that. He's now 18 months and still sleeps in our room. He's usually in his own bed or spread out on the floor but he sometimes jumps up and sleeps on my feet at about 5.30ish

I chose this approach because (1) we use the burglar alarm downstairs at night so wanted to have the dog upstairs (2) I didn't want to leave him alone as he was settling in (3) I read that puppies sleep better at night if they're close to you - I knew I'd struggle if I was having broken sleep for too long.

The upsides:-
His night time sleep has always been excellent.
No early mornings spent cleaning up accidents.
He was recently unwell with diarrhoea and woke me in the night every time he needed to go out so I knew straight away that he was ill.
It feels very comforting to have him close by.

The downsides:-
It might make it more difficult to leave him with a sitter if we want to go on holiday without him.

DH sometimes comes to bed later than me and Ddog and he says that the room smells of dog farts

I crate trained my girl but to be honest, for the first week she slept on the bed with me. I did try putting her in her crate on the first night but she cried like her little heart was going to break and I caved. However, initially the crate was in the kitchen, so after a week of her being with me I moved the crate into the bedroom so that she was near me. She was crated in the bedroom for a few months and then I moved the crate into the spare room and just before she turned about 11 months I ditched the crate altogether. She sleeps where she pleases at night now, sometimes on my bed, sometimes on my sons bed and sometimes god forbid in her own bed.

but yes, when she first came home with me I was very conscious that she had left mum and 7 siblings so I wanted her to feel confident and settled before starting being strict at night. Basic training though, I had a trainer round within the first few days just to give me some handy hints.