Any nighttime advice HUGELY welcomed...

[katem98]

Hi all, we brought home our 8 week old puppy on Wednesday. She's lovely. Only a few accidents indoors and has learnt sit already!

However, we're really struggling with bedtimes. The initial idea was to crate her overnight downstairs so my DP laid on the hallway floor next to her crate and let her out every time she woke up. She still howled every hour or so for what felt like ages!

Obviously aware we've just taken her from her litter siblings and Mum and it will take time to adjust. We do understand this completely.

I'm not totally closed off on the thought of having her in our room with a crate or dog bed in the room but we have 2 young DC and wouldn't want the dog spooked if one of them came in at night (this isn't unusual, they will co-sleep with us at night most nights).

Any advice on crate training for the night? Or any help/ guidance on what would work well for nighttime sleep?

I feel quite alone having puppy blues on day 3, is this unusual?!

I had my pups in pen / crate, beside the sofa for the first few weeks... when they were unsettled or whiny, i just put my hand in so puppy knew I was there.

After around 2-3 weeks or when they sleep through, I would creep upstairs into my own bed. (It's very tricky, dogs are naturally light sleepers!)
So that they get used waking up and being alone....

Honestly, having a puppy is like having a baby, the only good thing is, that they grow up much quicker!

@Ylvamoon Thank you. That's really helpful 🥰 I've tried researching so much but my eyes are stinging from all of the reading!

Do you mean you slept downstairs for a few weeks until they slept through? Willing to do this. I think I've made a mistake by letting pup nap on sofa 😬

Yep, I slept downstairs for a few weeks....

@Ylvamoon Thank you. Willing to try anything! I've just popped her bed from her crate here in the living room and instead of insisting on sleeping on the sofa she's settled quite nicely in there for a nap! Maybe she's just not a fan of the crate

We slept downstairs for a while and she slept downstairs on her own for a while, but she was clearly unhappy. Once she was reliably house trained she started sleeping in our bedroom and we are all happy! We don’t have little people around any more, I would probably have her in a crate in our bedroom in that case.

We slept for a few nights on the sofa with our puppy in a crate. Every time she cried, we'd say to her that she was ok, touch her gently and would do a gentle shush-shush until she stopped. We tried to take her out as little as possible in the night as this seemed to wake her up and she'd think it was playtime. After three nights, we started creeping out back to bed! We'd come down if she cried, but after the fifth night she slept through.

But she was a little older than your pup, we had her at 11 weeks. So yours may take longer to adjust.

Now she is 1.5yrs old and can go from 10.30pm to 8am in her crate with no issues at all. Best of luck! It does get better, I promise!

Puppy blues, you are not alone, I had them a lot! I look back and am amazed at how I would sit on the stairs and cry and think I could not do the puppy thing. I did do the worst thing and compare her to our beloved old girl we lost last year. Don't worry it will pass, it is very common. Our pup was bad at night. We did have her with us after a terrible few weeks and she settled much better. She is 8 months now and I still pull my hair out but love her to bits.

My teen dd's took turns sleeping next to her crate for a week!

In crate in kitchen and to be honest I couldn't hear him if he cried at night. I did make sure he went out about midnight and again at 6am. Dog was a bit older when I got him though - closer to 10 weeks. He's 14 now and never had separation anxiety or anything - same with dog i got two years later.

Have you crate trained her or is she just expected to sleep in there without learning that it's a safe space?

We put up with the howling for far too long. It was like having a newborn banh. We were exhausted! Eventually gave up (and wished we had done so much sooner!). We let him sleep in our room. No more howling. After about a week, he chose to sleep downstairs in his bed.

You could look up Susan Garrett's 'Crate Games'. I've bought the DVD but they also have an online subscription site.

Our puppy (9 weeks tomorrow) has been playing crate games for the last 3 days and last night spent 45 minutes sleeping willingly in her crate. We have a pen around the crate so she's safe if she's out if the crate.

Thank you all ❤️ My partner slept on the sofa with her last night. She woke once at 3 for a wee outside and again at 6:30 for another!

An alternative view here. Both my dogs slept in crate by my bed for first few months as pups. They slept beautifully as did I. My children coming in at night woke them but they resettled quickly.

My puppy was the same, he hated being alone and was clearly distressed, so we put his crate next to our bed and he was fine. He's 5 now and sleeps where he chooses to.

@mintbiscuit Thank you. That's really helpful. Mine can be quite noisy (crying or whinging) when they come in so I was worried about this but reassuring to hear it causes minimal disruption for you!