First few nights...crate in kitchen or bedroom?

[mmeears]

Hi,

We're picking 8 week old Daisy up on Thursday and we are almost ready (famous last words...) We have a large crate in the kitchen which came with a divider and at the moment it has vet bed covering the whole of the base. We also have a separate bed which we had planned to keep in the living room.

I have read the puppy book by Gwen Bailey and the Dog Whisperer cards by Cesar Milan and both say to keep the puppy near you for the first few nights - Gwen Bailey says a large cardboard box near your bed so you can comfort and reassure if pup gets upset. After they are used to being away from litter/mummy then move them downstairs at night. I am completed conflicted over what to do now!! I was going to put her in the kitchen straight away and leave her til morning but now dont know whether to have her in a box at the side of my bed and then move her downstairs once used to being here. I also have a 10 month old baby boy and a 6 year old girl who I dont really want disturbing too much at night (although it is half term at mo so the first couple of nights aren't so bad).

Any help/advice on the first few nights and what to do once move downstairs - ie get up during the night or wait til morning? Also, should I only have vet bed in half the crate and put newspaper down for wees etc?

Many thanks!! Hubby works away through the week so unfortunately its all down to me!!

[Joules]

I would say start as you mean to go on - so if you intend to have your pup sleeping downstairs long term then start that way.    Otherwise your pup will get used to being in the bedroom and you may have problems trying to change it  

A lot of people on here sleep downstairs for the first few days/week so the pup knows someone is near.  Also a good idea to get up a few times to let pup out for wee etc (no fuss, just wee and back to bed) - helps with the toilet training    If you do this you may not need newspaper in the crate - I used a puppy pad though.  

I found it was a good idea to divide the crate - Coco wouldn't settle at first so I put a cardboard box upended in her crate to make it smaller and put a blanket over the top.  She settled much better when it was smaller and cosy like a den    Re bedding, I used a small, low sided cardboard box for a bed with some bedding in it - Coco liked to snuggle into bed rather than an open space with vetbed  

Good luck with Daisy - you will have to post pics as soon as she is home 

[Geordietyke]

Hi, my pup Odie sleeps in his crate in my bedroom and has always done this.  I know a lot of COLers keep their dogs in the kitchen/elsewhere downstairs so I suppose it's where you want your dog sleeping in the long run.  I always planned to have him with me (eventually in his bed next to ours when I can trust him not to toilet on the floor overnight ). 

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from others on how you can handle this. 

BTW on the subject of the divider.  Odie slept in the whole of his crate for the first few days - he regularly toileted IN his bed so I divided it off into a small space large enough for him to sleep and nothing else - he stopped weeing/pooing in his bed and whined when he wanted out.  Much better for me!  Good luck, looking forward to some pics.  Lesley 

[SusieY]

Barney was nine weeks old when we got him and slept downstairs in his crate (half vet bed half newspapers) from day 1.  I slept close by for the first few nights and just spoke to him in a soothing voice if he started whimpering and he was fine after a couple of nights.  I'm not as experienced as most of the other COLers and didn't think to get him up in the night for a wee but it didn't seem long before he was dry through the night.  I think the best advice I had was to do what feels right for you

Enjoy your new puppy 

[Betty]

We put Roxy in her crate in the lounge from day one and two weeks later we are not getting up to her in the night.  We made sure she had lots of practise during the first day of being put in her crate and ignored.  We were up for the first two nights and then just early morning from then on until a few days ago when suddenly I realised it was 7am and no whining from downstairs.

She did have newspaper in the corner to wee on (which she did) but now we just leave a blanket in there coz they won't we where they sleep.  She is dry until first thing when she sees me and can't wait for met to open the crate - that's love for you!!  Probably should have done this from the start.

I promise pictures of Roxy this week!

Good luck and have fun!!

Bx

[Poppypuppy09]

Hiya!

I am in the start as you mean to go on camp too....I am definately no expert but my experience of pups over the years tells me that routine is key and any changes to routine and environment upset a likkle one. With Poppy my last pup (nearly 1 year old now  ) she was in the crate, no newspaper or anything. For the first 3 nights of getting her she woke me at around 2.30am for a wee and I took her out to the garden let her do her business, no talking and no fuss and then straight back to bed til I got up. After that she went through the night and I still consider myself lucky now  Covering the crate with a blanket is always helpful in settling them too!

Can't wait for the pics.....enjoy!

[Geordietyke]

I definitely must have a duffer in Odie   He's 5.5 months and STILL gets me up for the toilet every night around 3-4am   It's about 7 years since I had a full nights sleep without either kids or pups disturbing me   Lesley

[Alfiethecocker]

We started with Alfie downstairs, the first couple of nights he howled for about half an hour, then went down to 15 and then stopped. Now he's 11 weeks ( 8 weeks when we got him ) and he's good as gold when it comes to night time and when we go out, he just hops on in bed 

[cfordham2710]

We started with Skye in the kitchen in the crate with the door left open on day one and she was fine.  She whimpered a bit on the first night but other than that, not a peep.  She now has the run of the kitchen and lounge overnight and she starts in the crate (now with the door removed) and when we come down in the morning she is usually asleep on the sofa     We gave her a teddy to snuggle up to on day one, and this now has to come with us whenever we go away overnight.  If we don't take it she gets very unsettled. 

[supergirl]

With both Misha & Roly I went with the Gwen Bailey method of having a box by the bed - if given a choice of getting up and going downstairs in the middle of the night or just sticking your hand out to reassure pup, I'm lazy and prefer to do the latter.  After about 3-4 nights they went downstairs to their crate.  I'd been getting them used to their crate over that 3-4 days so that it wasn't completely alien to them.  Set it up with a hot water bottle wrapped in an unwashed T-shirt of mine.  Have to say Misha was easy, even now she loves her crate.  By contrast Roly was hard work, as a pup he never wanted to let me out of his sight, but we got there eventually - every pup is different. In those first few nights when they were by the bedside I didn't need to get up once and they were clean throughout the night and no crying or howling.  It was only once they were in a crate downstairs that I would need to get up to let them out for a wee in the middle of the night - the one time that I ignored Roly he had an accident in his crate, which taught me a lesson.  All the dogs sleep upstairs with me now, but they will sleep downstairs if it's required (this is mainly because I have one cat that is a little timid and the nightime is the only opportunity that she has to leave the house).

Whatever method you choose you have to accept that you will have some sleepless nights, and it will be frustrating but its only for a short time - if you have a baby you already know what it's like 

[Emma xx]

Alfie slept in the kitchen in his crate from day 1 with a fleece blanket over it. Only got up to him on the first couple of nights, and even then we had to wake him to take him out. Hardly ever even heard a peep from him and still havent, he sometimes whimpered a little bit just as we closed the door but we just left him and he soon went to sleep.

We have started to leave the cover off now (would like to ween him off his crate) and soon we will leave the door open. He's not crazy about his crate and only really uses it for bedtime so once we can trust him not to mess in the kitchen during the night we will just get him a plastic bed (that doesnt get in the way as much as the crate ).

Just start as you mean to go on and try and stick to your guns and you wont go far wrong

Emma xx

[mmeears]

Thanks everyone !! Yes having a 10 month old is probably very good preparation indeed for the sleepless nights although I'm hoping Daisy wont take 8 months to sleep through like my little boy - in fact I did say to my husband we should have got Daisy instead of having child no2

I'm still torn about what to do though   Very tempted to go for the side of the bed box (Gwen Bailey and Cesar Millan) partly because she'll be the first to leave her litter and she's been brought up on a farm so our house is going to be so completely different to what she's been used to. Just hope I'm not making it harder for myself in the long run and hubby only here from Thurs night to Sun night and then he's away all week so it's all down to me. In some ways it would be easier to start her off in the crate in the kitchen and cover it with a blanket and leave her til morning as thats how we're hoping to continue but dont want to make her any more distressed than she may already be... Oh well - whatever happens she will be a much loved addition to our family and I know we'll look back at the early months and just laugh

[Coco]

Perhaps try her downstairs and see. Wherry cried for and hour the first night she was home, I went down and cuddled her and that was the last time she ever cried at night. You may get lucky too  .... She would however cry if she was shut out in the day time on occasion 
Gizmo cried on and off for the first few months, even though she had Wherry with her (so I can't say it's because she was lonely)  I'm not sure I could have ignored it if I hadn't have known Wherry was there too as the 'lonely', 'all on her own and so tiny' thing would have pulled at my heartstrings but it couldn't have been that.  She soon got the hang of it though when she realised no-one was coming. Gizzy was/is a more needy dog by nature though.
As it goes, both now sleep upstairs but will sleep downstairs if needs be without too much fuss.
I'd rather have had the few nights of crying at the start for the ability to have them out of the bedroom now 

[siam]

I started both previous and present blue roans in the kitchen with no crate from 7 weeks. I have 2 sons who are late to bed who went through and gave Alfie some reassurance about 1am for the first 2 nights and after that he slept through till 6.30 or later at the weekends until he heard the shower going on. I made the kitchen as 'puppy proof' as possible from a safety and damage limitation point of view and had no problems- he is 8months now. We put him out to toilet last thing at night and first thing in the morning. He always used one newspaper for overnight early toilet use before I got down. Once my previous cocker was post 1 he got up to the bedroom for a cuddle occasionally and then one of my sons put him back to his own bed. He had several operations in later years when I would take him up to my bedroom so he wouldn't be trying to get at his stitches and then he would revert to his own bed in the kitchen when he'd recovered and he was always very contented there. Alfie has not reached the stage of being 'mature' enough to join me for a cuddle upstairs yet but plan to take him up occasionally as I did with Jake when he's more grown up.