night time problems with puppy ... anyone help ?

Hello... Last night was the first time i tried to get Daisy to sleep in our kitchen. She has been up in our bedroom for the first few nights, but i want her to sleep in the kitchen as that is where her bed is. I put her in the kitchen last night and i went off upstairs, and the noise was amazing! she was crying, and not a happy bunny! I continued to ignore her as she has to get used to sleeping downstairs, but then i thought it sounded too loud, so i peered over the banister and she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs! she had squeezed herself through the puppy gate! i was quite concerned because i dont know how she got herself through the small bars! i checked her over to make sure she didnt hurt herself, and she seems ok. so i took her up to the bedroom last night, needless to say she was up at 11pm, 1 am, 2 am, 3 am, 4.30am and then 7am. So today i took out the puppy gate (as i dont want her to hurt herself) and i plan to leave her in the kitchen tonight and close the kitchen door, that way she can stay in the kitchen. i know she will cry a lot and scratch the door, but i think it has to be tough love for the first few nights and once she settles down and realises that she sleeps in the kitchen i hope she will be ok.


i do feel like a meany when i put her in the kitchen, but she cant be with us all the time. i spend all day with her and i dont think i should spend all night with her as well.

am i doing this right??? I would appreciate any advice....

I would not leave a puppy this small in a huge room like a kitchen. Either get her a crate (see the sections in the Library section on crate training) or get an Xpen (exercise pen) with a crate inside it with the door removed so it is like a cosy doghouse. I'd recommend the small plastic crate you can get from Argos as it is quite cheap, the door comes off, and it is puppy size.

xpens: http://www.croftonline.co.uk/mcp/Puppy_Play_Areas_and_Pens.html

Either put her in the crate or (better in my own opinion) in the xpen with the crate inside.

She will at least feel better not having a huge room all around her -- she will feel safer with a small space (just as you would feel more comfortable in a hotel room than in a bed in a football field).

You will need to get up at around 3am to take her out to wee and poop and probably will need to do this for the next couple of weeks -- most puppies her age are way to small to hold themselves thru the night and you don;t want her soiling her bedding as this will cause housetraining problems as she gets older.

I really recommend reading all the puppy articles here to get a better sense of all aspects of puppy care -- these are great articles and will make a good reference library.

http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/behavior.html

See also:

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1603

When I got Gus he was 4 months old so he soon learned to settle in a basket in the kitchen. I used to read the paper in the kitchen ( making sure not to look at him or catch his eye! when he was fast asleep I would turn off the lights and go to bed he would stir and look through one eye when I was leaving the room but would stay where he was.

I got pippin when gus was 2. I put pippin in a really small basket with a big warm fleecy blanket and put the pen round him. He was only 9 weeks and he was tiny.

Gus was over in his basket in the corner and pippin sat at the edge of the pen and cried he used to do this a couple of times a night. Don't know if you would be willing to do this but when he cried really badly and kept it up for longer than usual I used to go down and take him out sit him on my knee and cuddle him until he was really fast asleep then lay him gently in his basket where he eventually learned to stay until morning.


When he got old enough I took the pen away and put the baskets side by side ,but after a couple of nights I would come down in the morning to find them in gus's basket together,then pippin started going in with gus during the day and straight away at night when I said time for bed!

They now sleep in one big basket together.

Your puppy will soon learn that when you leave you will come back but in the meantime he needs lots of reasurance.

Hope you soon get a full nights sleep.Gosh they are worse than babies!

When we brought Jeremy home, I made a nice comfy nest for him using an old jumper of my sons so he had a familiar smell to snuggle into. This was inside a crate with a blanket covering three sides, so he felt safe and not in the great open where he might get attacked by the kitchen monster.
It worked a treat and we had very minimal crying. Also we make sure he is asleep before we go to bed and he sleeps all night, and hasnt soiled his bed at all. Jeremy is now 12 weeks old. Its hard to believe it has only been 2 weeks that he has been with us.

I also would go with a crate. They feel much more secure with a little den all of their own and not a great emptyness that makes the feel vulnerable. Bailey sleeps in our loungeroom. He has his wire crate with a big blanket over it to make it more den like with his blankets and hotpack inside. He sleeps well there and has since we bought him home. He now sleeps throught the night and wakes at 6.30 to go out for his toilet break. I will warn you that you need to steal your heart against the crying for the first 20 minutes of leaving her for the first night. She will settle down if you leave her but if you keep coming back to her then she will learn very quickly that crying brings your attention to her.

Thanks

hi everyone, many thanks for all the replies. they all had some great advice, especially the message from Pippa. I will try again with Daisy in the kitchen tonight, and i am sure after a few nights she will get adjusted to it. I do not want to start to put her in a crate as i dont like them so i will try to get her all snuggled up tonight in her bed in the kitchen.

Both of mine sleep in crates at night. I got Jake used to the crate this way: when he was out with me playing and would fall asleep on the floor, I would gently put him in the crate, of course he would open his eyes and I would lay in front of the crate and look at him gently talk to him. I wanted him to get used to waking up in his crate.

I have only had the little one a few nights and much to my surprise, she went in her crate yesterday for a nap without me putting her in it. She has also stopped crying when I put her in to sleep at night (unless she has to go to the bathroom). What pitiful little noises they make - ohh it was so sad when she cried at first. But honestly the longest cry session the first couple of nights was maybe 2 min. before she went to sleep. Last night she even slept from 1am until 7am without whining to pee. Do you mind my asking why you don’t like crates?

I also have found the crates brilliant. We got the medium sized steel crate from argos, which is really good. She sleeps in it no problem at night and only starts crying around 7am when she knows we're getting up! Hubby made a little run to attach onto the end of it, as recommended in that book Karlin recommended (housetrain your dog in 7 days). This way we don't have to take Rio out during the night (it was KILLING me in work the following day). The door is open into the pen and during the night she goes to the end of the run and relieves herself there. That way she doesn't soil her bed. Thankfully during the day she's had almost no accidents and either we bring her out or she goes out herself. When she's 12 weeks old and hopefully able to hold it we'll officially start the cratetraining.

Cecily, until now I haven't liked crates but I think your little set up is lovely :flwr:

Maxx stayed in the kitchen for the first few nights after we had him but then hubs started bringing him upstairs in case he was lonely :lol:

He's 7 now and he still sleeps with us. He has a bed on either side of our bed and as soon as Daddy gets up in the morning he goes down for his wee and then comes back upstairs and jumps on the bed to snuggle into Mamma until I get up.

Charlie sleeps in the kitchen as he pees on my bed and he actually prefers to sleep there as he gets no disturbances. If we dare to go into the kitchen at night once he's gone to bed he sits up and glares at us and then huffs and puffs until we go again :roll: :lol:

I spend all day with my babies too and tbh if Maxx didn't sleep with us I would miss him too much. His gentle snoring sends me off to sleep.

As soon as I say that I'm going in the bath, he waits to go out for a wee and then trots upstairs after me - he then floats between the bathroom and mine and my youngest's bedrooms until I go to bed.

Never been a problem, as I say.....

as soon as Daddy gets up in the morning he goes down for his wee and then comes back upstairs and jumps on the bed to snuggle into Mamma until I get up.

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My two do this aswell. They sleep downstairs but as soon as they have had brekie and a wee it's up to my bed. If my hubby is off and having a lie in they huff and puff when thay can't get on his side and then lie on the floor, and on days when I get up early for work they look at me with disgust!

here's zack one night when he could tell that i was getting ready to go to bed which meant putting him in the kitchen. Sometimes when he does this, the other end of him is sticking out.

What a great crate and run area..... good old hubby. I have never really had to crate mine..... but they do have their travel crates in the front room (which are great coffee tables for Darren and me) and they go in there to have a sleep.

We must be really lucky, when we first got charlie I stayed with him in the front room (he was in his crate, medium one from argos) for the first 2 nights, he wouldn't have me on the couch I had to be layed in front of the crate so he could see me, and since then he's been absolutely brilliant, sleeping right through apart from 1 night when he woke up barking, i came down opened the crate and he ran out straight onto his training pad did his business and went back to his crate. so since then we've left his crate open at night so he can come out to go to the toilet, he always sleeps through (well doesn't wake us!!) and he always goes to toilet on his mat.

I totally agree with the others who have suggested an xpen and placing the crate in the xpen.

My husband built this xpen when we first got Dudley which was 2 1/2 years ago, we also used it a while back with Darby now just shy of 6 months old. I found it came in very very handy, we did have to place it in our dining room as we do not have a very large kitchen. But it sure did work. .

Here are a few snapshots of it, may help we also have the wire xpens which we purchased as a fence for our wkd getaways. Unfortunately they are not as sturdy.
The one my hubby built we just placed an old piece of lineleum on the floor in case of accidents it actually worked out very very well for us.
Something I will never part with for future puppies to come years down the road.

Linda, that'a wonderful. Is it made of wood?

No Donna, it is that durable plastic fencing material. Sorry I can't rememer the right name for it right now.

We did not want to use wood, as I was scared to death that Dudley would chew the wood and get splinters. This was perfect, we have now taken it down as we do not have a large home and Darby now sleeps in our bed.

It is packed on top of the garage, waiting for the next addition.
I hope to be moved from this home by then into a bit bigger just can't afford it right now.

It's really lovely, want to send your hubby to me for a few weeks? I have lots I'd like constructed :lol: :lol: :lol:

Linda, I just love his little head throught the trellis.....

Maxxs_Mummy said:

It's really lovely, want to send your hubby to me for a few weeks? I have lots I'd like constructed :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Hey Donna

I will send him to you for more than a few weeks, he will gladly come
as long as you make him some mince & tatties, stew & tatties.
He will be in heaven.

Claire:

I forgot that Dudley was peeking through that bit of trellis.
He was so small then, how we forget.
That is why I keep saying take tons of pictures of your little puppies they grow so fast.
Sorry to crash your thread.