The next couple of weeks will probably be a bit chaotic until little Cooper settles down. Its a huge step for such a little pup, he's left his Mum and his siblings and everything he knows and has been whisked away to a strange environment, strange smells, strange people and when the lights fo out and he's alone in his crate, he's frightened and crying for his mum. Its all quite normal and we've all been there, some had it easy, some not so. First step - remember its only for a limited time, so try to stay as calm as you can, the calmer you are, the quicker he'll get through it.
There'll be lots of advice coming, everyone's got their own way of doing things, but for the record, this is what we did.:
First night I put the crate next to the sofa and I slept (well, - off and on anyway
) there. I put my fingers through the crate and talked quietly. At one point he got so hysterical, I put a tiny bowl of water in there and he lapped it up like mad and fell asleep with his head over the bowl!
Second night I also slept downstairs but moved the crate a bit further away. He'd still not settled after about 10 minutes and I slapped my hand on the crate and said "quiet" and he was si shicked he shut up!
The following couple of nights I stayed down until he'd gone off and then went back upstairs. He had an old T shirt of mine in the crate (stayed there for months!) and some nights, if he didn't want to settle, I left the radio on low.
On a general note, we didn't play with him at all after his evening meal,(still don't), so that he didn't get over excited before bedtime.
There is no one size fits all solution, we were very lucky in that Humphrey is very laid back, we're retired, the kids have flown the nest and it didn't matter too much if I got tired, I could catch up later, but the calmer and more patient you can manage to stay, the quicker Cooper will feel secure - and try as much as possible to stick to routine, they need that, especially in the beginning.
Best of luck and remember, we're all here for you, so such shout up or have a rant if you need to, we're listening!!
