First nights at home

I was quite firm about this and Flo had an open crate in the utility room from day 1 and I still put her in the utility room every night when we go to bed and shut the door. She is not allowed upstairs where we have carpets and where the kids toys and clothes are usually all over the floor(!!!!)

We still have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, which we got when she was a puppy to stop her going upstairs, although we never have to close it now. She doesn't try to come upstairs at all now.

Some have the dog bed upstairs and some allow the dog to sleep on their bed.

Nothing wrong with any approach as long as everyone is happy and everyone agrees. The puppy dog will just get used to whatever you decide but generally it's best to be consistent.

Some people recommend having a new puppy upstairs for the first few nights while it gets used to it's new surroundings. I suppose a compromise might be to camp out downstairs for the first few nights.

I love Flo to bits and would like nothing more than to hug her all night but she is already quite clingy with me (a velcro dog) and if she also slept near me and didn't learn to be on her own a bit I suspect she wouldn't cope at all if I wasn't around

Hi - I'm new here too. I'm not greatly experienced and Ruby is our first dog too. We put her in her crate from the first night, crate door open but in the kitchen with the door shut and newspaper on the floor.

We tended to stay up until 11:30 to 12 every night and then down at 5:30 to 6am every morning. But she never peed in the kitchen, and slept through, still does at 7 months

Ruby is a very high energy dog and from the time she woke up to going to bed, she NEVER stopped until she hit 5/6 months. Now she crashes out a fair bit, but she gets walks out off the lead now

We took the decision to allow her upstairs (or we changed our minds) and she hasn't been in a crate since 5/6 months - we close her in the kitchen when we go out, but she has the run of the house the rest of the time

Have fun, they're tiring but more than worth the effort!

I picked my puppy up last Saturday so we're now on night number five, and he's been in the kitchen in a puppy playpen lined with newspaper and containing his bed since the first night.

He whined for 15-20 mins the first night and then every hour and a half after that but it's got less each night. Last night (night four) he whined for 5 mins and then all I heard after that was him playing with a toy at about 4.30 in the morning.

When he whines I've ignored him as attention will reward that behaviour. I figure that he's safe and warm, and that he has to learn somehow so start as we mean to go on. It doesn't seem to have done him any harm so far....he's a very happy little puppy. It does make me feel guilty when I hear him whining, but I think have to resist the temptation to give him attention if he's going to settle in the long term. He's getting plenty of attention the rest of the time after all.

That's my experience anyway....good luck with whatever you decide is for the best!

Thanks for the advice

Thanks everyone for the quick responses! I feel a lot better as a part of me was expecting you all to say "oh my goodness, you are so cruel thinking of putting her straight into a crate downstairs on her own!".

I definitely don't want her upstairs on a permanent basis - I agree with the theory that dogs must learn their place in your pack and I have two young children so for theirs and the dog's sake I want to be able to give them separate play areas for some of the time anyway.

I think we will go back to the original plan of putting her in the crate in the kitchen straight away (does the hot water bottle and ticking clock thing really work?), as my husband feels very strongly about it. I'm not sure I will hear her crying though (big old house) so maybe I'll set an alarm to go down a few times in the first couple of nights to let her out.

I really want to get her started on the right foot - I'm not normally a worrier, but until we get her home and get to know her, it's a fear of the unknown, I guess!

Thanks again

Louise

hi Louise
Our puppy is now 7 months and I had the same concerns as you when we brought him home at 8 weeks. We put Alfie in his crate in kitchen from 1st night and had about 30 mins whining before he settled. He woke at 3am and I got up and took him into garden for a wee giving him no attention at all. The next night was worse and he whined for well over an hour and a half!! We didn't go down to him because we knew he didn't need to go out and was safe. (it was torture and bit like having to teach your child to fall asleep themselves without cuddles) From night 3 we never had another whimper out of him and he slept right through from then onwards. Our breeder gave us a blanket with his mother abd siblings scent on (very smelly) but really think this helped to settle Alf in his new home! Maybe ask your breeder if they could do this for you. Good luck and this site is fab for advice to new puppy owners!