What did you do when new puppy comes home?

I'm wondering how others handled a new arrival (ours is an 8 week old pup we've had about 4 days) because so far we're not getting a lot of sleep.

We can't let her run lose in the house unsupervised and don't really have a room we can shut her in where there isn't SOMETHING she can destroy.

Crate training is supposed to take days or weeks. We're progressing and she will sleep / play in it but if she's locked in has quit a temper tantrum.We always make sure she settles down and is quiet before letting her out if one flares up. Often , after her nap , she'll let out one or two yips to let us know she's awake then is quiet. If we take too long letting her out , the temper flares up and we have to sit out the wailing.

We're taking shifts sleeping on the couch so we can let her out every 3 hours or so and take her outside for a "potty break" and to let her know we're still around. She sleeps comfortably in the crate then.

Totally at a loss as to how to handle the situation.

All our other pup's were more sedate and had an older companion dog to keep them company.

Starting to wonder if we're pandering to her too much.

I believe a lot of new owners put the crate in their bedroom.

With big dogs I just put up with the howling when we went to bed leaving them in the kitchen. It stopped eventually. I found it quite understandable - one minute they sleep all bundled up with mum and siblings. Next minute all on their own in the kitchen.

With much smaller dogs - dog's box next to my bed and invariably dog in or on the bed at some stage.

But as I've toilet trained all my dogs by taking them outside every 2 or 3 hrs to start with - broken sleep was a fact of life for a while anyway.

Rosie slept in her crate at the side of my bed from day one - bad mommy just put her in there with a stuffed toy as company and my hand going down periodically to calm her when she needed it.

I installed a child gate across the living room door and she had the run of that room when we were in the house with one of us always present. She came with us when we went into other areas of the house.

If I have to go out (and it's very rare) she goes into her cage now with no bother. It's her safe place as she's always slept there. She's now coming up 17 months and is now ready to be left in the living room if I need to leave her.

Don't know if that's any help, it's just what I did which has worked beautifully for my girl

Bandit was crated downstairs. I wasn't expecting to come home with a puppy so the first evening was all a bit of a blur. He ended up in a crate that was miles too big for him as it was the only one I had and left down stairs on his own.

After the first evening I got a more size appropriate crate but I still left him downstairs. I placed the crate in a puppy pen so he could still go out to toilet and the minute he was clean overnight I shut him in. I fed him in the crate, rewarded any positive interaction with the crate and within a day or so the minute he saw his food bowl he would race off to it like it was the best thing in the world! Last thing at night I would put a stuffed kong or a carrot in with him to munch on while myself and my old boys went to bed. I also used a heartbeat machine that slipped under his bed and mimicked the heartbeat of other dogs. All this worked to settle him down, I have to admit it was the heartbeat that really solved it.

I didn't really want Bandit upstairs because I wanted my old boys to have some peace and quiet away from him so he had to learn how to stay downstairs on his own. Some might not agree with everything I did but it seemed to work for Bandit. He is a very confident, self assured dog though.

Going through exaclty the same thing now with Dexter... Made harder because Kismet doesn't like him, so where with kismet she could have the run of the house with the other dogs while I was there to supervise and only needed to go in her crate when left alone, Dexter has to be in the crate and playpen whenever Kismet wants to be in the same room!

Currently I am trying to get into his rhythm of wee and poo. wen have managed one big boy wee outside and two ont he way to the door, which I think is fab for his second day! poos have both been in the crate so far, but its only day 2 we'll work it out Pharaoh is lovely with him, so its just Kismet that needs to come around.

Like you, I slept last night on the couch and like you I had very broken sleep... But that's puppies we slept two bouts of 4 hours with a chilly garden break in between though the little monkey then waited until he was back in his crate to have a wee I expect this will be our lot for the next three or four weeks! gradually I will stop sleeping on the sofa and move upstairs at night, but for a week or two I'll still come down in the night and let him out.

persevere it gets better... and the more effort you put in to making them independent now, the better they will be as adults

I was harsh - the first few nights I took him out when he woke up and made noises, then he realized night was sleep time and he slept for longer. Then I started stretching (hard!) the periods between him waking up and me letting him out.
If he slept, no way I would wake up to take him out "just in case".

It depends on your puppy how harsh you can or should be. Mine was very confident so we basically put him in the crate and decided that was how it was gonna be.
The first weeks we had the crate downstairs during the day and took it upstairs next to the bed during night.

Sleep isn't something you will get too much of the first one or two weeks, but hang in there... it gets better .

This is exactly what we are doing with Lola at the moment. I am knackered from getting up in the night, but that is par for the course with puppies. She has had two nights that she has been good as gold, even sleeping in until 6:30 this morning.
BeerHunter, I think you should keep doing what you are doing, routine is the key in my opinion. Do it often enough, and your dog will pick it up eventually.

Hi One of the first thing I did was askthe breederfor some of the bedding from the litter,then set up a cage in the utility room,where you have washing machines etc,the puppy gets used tothe noise,also put something over the cage so it becomes a den,often leave a radio on,so it gets used to various people speaking,the other thing is get some goats milk,as with all the changes tummy becomes a bit delicate,just have a routine,and dont make too much of a fuss,also you will have a lot of people wanting to see the new puppy,try to get the puppy settled first,but most of all enjoy they are notpuppies for long crystalgirl

Congratulations on your new family member

Not sure what other people will think but this is what I did and it worked a treat:

I came home with two 8 week old litter-mates and believe me they were a handful. I certainly didn't want them even having the run of the kitchen when not supervised so I bought a large crate then attached to either side of the outside of the front of the crate a 3' high 3 sided indoor room divider to form a little run that came off the front of the crate. They were more than happy to sleep in the crate with all the blankets etc and I had enough room outside the crate to have some puppy pads for them to wee on. It also meant I could attach the open door of the crate to the side of the 'run' which gave it more stability.


I have to admit for the first few weeks I actually slept on the settee in the same room (kitchen/breakfast room). The only time I actually took them in to the garden during the night is if one of them wanted a poo and it was obvious by their frantic noises that is was more than a wee. They used the wee pads as its very unusual for any dog/pup to wee in their own bed. This worked so well and it also gave me somewhere to put them for enforced chill out time as they just played together all day!! Then when they were a little older I bought a mothercare room divider and made a larger pen with normal dog beds in it - they both still choose to sleep in the same bed though.

Had I known about the mothercare room divider I would have bought one of those initially and just put some meshing on it to stop them climbing through the bars. The room divider has proved so useful and we still erect it up if were are having a party or young children here and we want somewhere the dogs be left in peace.

Crate training Betty


1st night crying and whining
2nd night crying, crying, whining, screaming
3rd night crying more crying lot of screaming
4th night she was in bed with us - peaceful night sleep she is a darling always asks to get off the bed to use her paper and we haven't looked back since

She has to go in it for an hour while we are both working according to neighbours she stops crying and screaming after a few minutes and they will put up with it as long as there is some hope it will stop eventually - hopefully she will past the chewing stage and out of it before they lose patience.