Puppy's First Nights?

[Tim_]

I’ll be picking up my new staffy pup this weekend and I think I have everything ready for him – there’s just one thing that I’m not really sure of.

I’ve had dogs in the past when I was a kid and feel pretty comfortable about training, but having read a few different sources lately, I’m a little bit confused about some things.

One thing - where the puppy sleeps when you first bring him home. I’ve read that you should put the puppy where he’s going to be sleeping always, so he gets used to it and settles in etc. And that if he cries in the night you should just leave him otherwise if you give him attention he will think that crying is ok and do it every night etc. But then I have read that for the first week or so you should let your puppy sleep in a crate in your bedroom so that he doesn’t feel lonely from the shock of being taken from his litter and then put in a room by himself etc.

Which one is it?? Surely if he gets used to sleeping in the bedroom, when he is put in his own room he’ll cry? I really don’t want to teach him any bad habits, so which is the right way? What did everyone else do?

[schnauzer_luv]

Hi Tim,

It really depends on what you plan to do permanently. We put our pup in a bed on our bedroom floor BUT we are happy to have him in our room always. It certainly worked well for us as pup whimpered for 5 mins and when no one answered he nodded off, comforted no doubt by OH's snoring.

I suggest you maintain consistency, so if you have a place you want him to sleep, start him in there. You may have a few sleepless nights to start with, but wait it out and it will all be fine. If he does nodd off and you hear whining through the night, you are going to have to take him to the toilet. No playing or conforting at this time though or you will have to go through the whole bed time ritual again...just toilet, treat for correct response and back to bed.

If you want to make pup extra comfy if he is sleeping away from you try a snuggle puppy. They are a toy with a heat pack and a battery operated heart beat...the pups feel like they are still sleeping with their mum or their littermates and are much calmer....or you could wrap an old ticking clock up in a blanket and place it in the crate if you are looking for a cheaper option.

Good luck and enjoy your pup!!

[Poodle wrangler]

I put pup outside with our other dog for company. He was 9 weeks old, but had his poodle fur for warmth, plus he was outside in autumn, not winter.

I bought a crate, but rarely used it and sold it.

I can hardly remember what we did with our now 6 year old dog. Laundry in a modified cardboard box + blanket, then outside I think. We tried the laundry with new pup, but the whining was unbelievable, so gave up on it very quickly.

[Kaos Central]

We have always let our dogs sleep in our bedroom with us, our dogs are not allowed on the bed but they have thier own beds along one wall of our bedroom. When they are really little my OH will put them in a box closer to our bed so if they wake up in the night he can comfort them without having to get up.

[Joypod]

Hi Tim,

I had been thinking exactly the same thing!

I'm going to crate train my pup when I get him but was getting confused about when to take him to the toilet during the night. Do I wait until he cries to take him out or will that just reinforce crying as a way to get out of the crate? Or, do I just schedule a couple of toilet breaks through the night at set times and wake him to go out if need be?

I know I've just added questions on top of yours but it'd be great to hear other's thoughts.

[StaceyB]

I would schedule toilet breaks. It's better to get the pup used to your routine rater than you getting used to the pups routine.

Then when he has your schedule down pat you can make the time between toilet breaks a bit longer and keep doing that until he can hold it through the night - but that normally takes a few months, my vet says that most dogs can hold it when they get to about 4 months.

[sas]

Everyone will have different opinions, we can really only tell you what we did with our own puppies, what does your breeder reccomend.

We had and do still have Dante in a crate in our bedroom. For about 2 months he had a Snuggle Puppy, it's a toy puppy that has a heart beat machine in it and a warming pad to help him settle, some people put hot water bottles in covered by a blanket (not too hot though). We also popped some chew items in there with him.

We found it better having him in the bedroom because up until 11 weeks of age he needed overnight toilet stops, he would cry to let us know he needed out because dogs don't like to toilet in crates, it really assisted us with th toilet training process.

When we first put him to bed, I would lay next to the crate until he went to sleep, then get into bed, did this forabout 4 days. He'd wake everynow and then and whinge, if it wasn't toileting he'd need I would ignore him, the crate door would only open when he was quiet.

[Turbo]

I pick up my new pup on Thursday and was wondering same thing. The breeder has said he's going to start separating our dog from the litter tonight so hopefully he's not such a cry baby when we take him home. He won't be sleeping in our room as if we let him sleep in our room we would have to let our German Shepherd also sleep in our room so Me, OH, 2 dogs and a cat .... not going to be a peaceful night sleep. I want to introduce him to the german shepherd slowly and supervise them both together before i let them play alone just so i can be confident everyone is getting along so Im thinking of making him a nice warm bed in the laundry for the first weekend and see how things go from there.

[Dogfish]

Best advice I got from the site was to crate train.

Took a couple of months ofgetting up a couple of times a night for wee breaks but everything has been really good for months now.

She knows once she is in there it is rest time. Even put her in there in the day for a couple of hours nap if needed or we need to go out and cannot take her.

Dogfish

[Rainey]

We crated our Lab at the other end of the house from our bedroom from the very first night we got him. The first night he had some toys and a hot water bottle under his blanket, he only took about 1hr to settle in, second night was down to about 30mins, third night maybe 10mins and then that was it! He's always slept right through till after 7am unless one of us have woken him earlier.

One word of advice is to remove access to water about 1hr before bed time, and give him/her a little bit of playtime then toilet right before you pop him/her away. This will minimise accidents in the crate which are still most likely to happen over the first couple of weeks.

[BenjiMom]

I remember a vet on TV saying...put the pup beside your bed..when he cries just pat him..dont let the pup on bed if you dont wish to have him/her there for him/her life ...lol

But since i've been a member on this forum...i think crating is a great idea. I like the option of putting the crate in the bedroom...take him/her out when they wake to wee. We had to take Benji out around 3.30am....but now he sleeps til around 5am...my BF has always got up around 5am...so Benji goes to his side of bed....wd Benji lol

good luck with the pups....and pics from you both please. Everyone loves to see the puppy pics.

[Turbo]

I pick up my new pup on Thursday and was wondering same thing. The breeder has said he's going to start separating our dog from the litter tonight so hopefully he's not such a cry baby when we take him home. He won't be sleeping in our room as if we let him sleep in our room we would have to let our German Shepherd also sleep in our room so Me, OH, 2 dogs and a cat .... not going to be a peaceful night sleep. I want to introduce him to the german shepherd slowly and supervise them both together before i let them play alone just so i can be confident everyone is getting along so Im thinking of making him a nice warm bed in the laundry for the first weekend and see how things go from there.

Puppy has spent first night in his bed in the laundry. There was 20 minutes of whining and the it just stopped and he slept right through the night. He has a really nice bed with nice warm fluffy blanket, a stuffed Sibe Dog Teddy and an old shirt of mine so he has something that smells of me. His first night was suprisingly good.