It is VITAL that you teach the dog to be alone otherwise you risk a dog maturing into a an incompetent and unconfident adult who cannot cope with your absence.

I start this from Day 1 by putting my puppies in the crate when time for nap whilst I am in the room, so they get used to separation.

Good luck.

I`ve found that this is very much an age thing. (Never used a crate). I find very young pups need to be in company and get distressed if alone. Which, if you think about it, is a normal survival trait. As they get older they get more independent and want to explore (and cause havoc out of sight )

I know exactly what you're saying but in practice it's very difficult as she really goes bananas when she's in the crate-even when I'm there. I have to persevere though or I won't have a life!
My dog owning friends say to just ignore her and I am but the constant screaming really has my nerves jangling

Claire and Daisy...my older dog had a crate that she was only put in when we had to go out and though she cried it was nothing on the scale of this little one. Poppy still follows me around but though she puts the sad eyes on when I go out she's fine. I had thought to just bring Lucy up the same way but though she seems super confident (i.e bossy!) she seems a bit needy but hopefully that will work itself out.

Ben still is a velcro dog - if Im in sight he likes to be with me

I did make sure tho that I go to the loo alone and stuff

I remember when he was tiny we were visiting a friend and they had a big pile of blankets on the floor and he cuddled up in there and fell to sleep

I went to the loo (not often I can get up without him noticing) and when I came back he had woke, as soon as I sat down he came over and put his head on my feet as if to say 'you cant sneak off without letting me know now'
poor wee pup

I know all about the messing the crate thing too - my wahing machine was on every day for the first wee while
I took all the nice toys and beds out of there and just left him with a towel

But with a bit of work he was fine in his crate

That's good to know. I am determined to make it work but it's hard when you're a proper softy and your friends are all hard-core!
As I said before, Poppy (older dog)has the most beautiful nature so I think if we bring Lucy up the same way hopefully she will be fine.
I have bought some flower essences (Timid for Poppy and Over Dominant for Lucy) so I'm hoping this will help with the power struggle!

Hi, I have a 12 week old puppy, and when I first got her at 8 weeks, she kept toileting in the crate. We put a box in the crate to restrict how much room she had, and that worked.
Even now I don,t shut the door on her, but she goes in on her own to sleep. The crate is in the kitchen , so when I go out she gets shut in the kitchen, with the crate door open.

As for the toilets 8 weeks is early days, my 12 week old puppy still has odd accidents. I find the worse thing is the puppy hanging on the other end of the mop as i,m cleaning up.

Yes Lucy has decided that biting the mop/cloth etc is a game too!

Hi everyone...just a bit of an update on the situation.
Lucy, rather than weeing randomly anywhere she feels like it, has now starting jumping in her crate to do it. Not brilliant but it makes it much easier to catch her and pop her outside with the result that there was no puddles on my floor yesterday. AND....major breakthrough-she actually went outside of her own volition this morning and had a wee! Result! She has been back to the cage since then, but still...baby steps.
I just need to crack the bullying of my older dog and her screaming the place down when I leave her now