Ideas for night time with new puppy

Hi congratulations on your new puppy.

My way of doing it would be to close to crate door first night, as with the pen you may find the puppy will not settle with the freedom of a pen to wander around in. They need to feel secure and a crate is good for this, covering it also helps. Some people put half bedding and half puppy pad in the crate and find that works and some just go 'cold turkey' it is personal preference.

A midnight out for pee pee is a good thing, the later the better, as when the puppy is very young they can not hold themselves for that long and I am afraid to say you will have to be an early morning person for a few weeks at least. When I first got my puppy I used to go to bed at 11.30pm and up at 5.30ish...........and that was a good night. It is hard work in the early days but it soon passes and eventually your dog will be happy to stay in bed as long as you want to.......weller does now
Good luck and enjoy!

I was concerned that the first night howling would be awful so i had Buddy in his crate at the end of my bed ,because he could smell and hear me as soon as i said sshh he carmed down and went to sleep ,i did this for 3 nights then put him downstairs and apart from a bit of whimpering we would not hear any thing from him till morning.

I had a puppy pad in one half of the crate but to be honest he never really used it so after a week or so i stopped using them ,i wouldnt worry about him getting used to weeing in his crate the pads are just in case he cant hold it ,once he can hold his bladder longer even if pads are in there he would rather wait and go outside as they like to keep their beds clean and dry.

Thanks.

I had heard that it was not a good idea to put the puppy pad in his crate in case he gets confused about where he should wee......but it sounds like that might be the best idea overnight at least for a couple of weeks.

And I will work out a rota for those early mornings.....although we all know who will be the one to actually get up!

I deceided to get Hattie a big enough crate to hold bed and puppy pad as to be honest I think if they need to go at that age they will go pad or not and if they wet/mess their bed then they will be further stressed. I always put Hattie out during night if I got up and we didn't have any accidents. It will depend if you are going cold turkey straight away ie crate utility room leave all night or having puppy where they can sense/see you and then gradually extend their seperation over time. It very much depends on your personal preference, circumstances, any close neighbours(!) and what your ultimate goals are. What I will say is until you get your puppy you won't know what will work for you.

inside his crate door closed is the way we did it. they learn to not mess inside their "den"

Lady Amanda - did you put some puppy pad in the crate at one end?

nope. make sure the crate isn't too big...some come with a divider to make it smaller. we had the plastic kind so a big teddy went in there with Lady. and a towel on the bottom...she only made a mess the first 3 nights...then never again. They don't want to mess in their den, it isn't in their nature to go to the bathroom where they sleep. it makes toilet training go by faster too.

Lady would chew the puppy pads, so it was just easier to clean it up than worry about her eating the pad