The other thing that helped was getting an old fashioned alarm clock and wrapping it in a towel. Apparently sounds like it’s mother’s heartbeat so they sleep a little better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of dog? I read all these horror stories, but relate to very little of it. My 4 month old has been house trained since 11 weeks and didn't even have a bad first week with sleep. He sleeps 11pm to 7:30am and has for some time. The larger breeds seem to do better with puppyhood in my experience, partially perhaps because they have greater bladder capacity.

+1 We got our lab at 8 weeks. She got up twice the first night, once the 2nd and 3rd night, and slept through the night after that. We started with a crate on each level but now only have one in our bedroom for overnight. We are not fans of puppies being left on a different level overnight but that’s personal preference. Our dog wants to be where the people are and would be miserable if she was left downstairs at night.

Yup! Mine is a Golden and we got him at 9 weeks. Similar sleep pattern. Had never slept fewer than 7 hrs at a go and now routinely does 10. We live in a large condo and debated where to keep the crate. Settled on the living room, but that's basically "where the people are." We use the beds for sleeping, but the action is in the main space. We close off the crate with a dark sheet when it is really sleep time. But yeah, PP, it's been a breeze so read different experiences. Around 3 months with our pup I started feeling like maybe we should add to the puppy family...

We brought a puppy home at 12 weeks and the breeder recommended crating her by a door at night so she doesn’t have an accident when we take her out in the morning. She had no issue being away from us at night and knew that was her “room”. If you’re bedroom is far away from the door where you’ll take them to pee, just know they might have an accident and move any rugs!

OP here. Thank you all for the tips and 19:45, for the realistic picture! Yes, I know this is largely going to be up to me, which makes me nervous since I worked at home even before the pandemic and our lives are slowly getting back to normal now with DH back at his office and kids back at school. It sounds like it's having a new baby all over again and it's been 13 years since I had our youngest.

It sounds like the trick is to set a routine as quickly as possible and train, train, train, from the beginning, how we want his days to go. Thank goodness summer is coming up and my kids will have more time to work on this!

Anonymous wrote:What kind of dog? I read all these horror stories, but relate to very little of it. My 4 month old has been house trained since 11 weeks and didn't even have a bad first week with sleep. He sleeps 11pm to 7:30am and has for some time. The larger breeds seem to do better with puppyhood in my experience, partially perhaps because they have greater bladder capacity.

+1 We got our lab at 8 weeks. She got up twice the first night, once the 2nd and 3rd night, and slept through the night after that. We started with a crate on each level but now only have one in our bedroom for overnight. We are not fans of puppies being left on a different level overnight but that’s personal preference. Our dog wants to be where the people are and would be miserable if she was left downstairs at night.

OP kennel in kitchen. Do not set an alarm multiple times during the night. Once maybe til 12 weeks max. Puppy out for a bathroom stop at 11 pm and then hopefully 7 am. Believe me you will hear the puppy if they need to go out.

Definitely do puppy manners class and or more training. The more you practice the better the dog will behave long term.

Enjoy. Dogs are the absolute best.

What kind of dog? I read all these horror stories, but relate to very little of it. My 4 month old has been house trained since 11 weeks and didn't even have a bad first week with sleep. He sleeps 11pm to 7:30am and has for some time. The larger breeds seem to do better with puppyhood in my experience, partially perhaps because they have greater bladder capacity.

Puppies are hard but then you’ll have a great dog.

We got our puppy when he was ten weeks old (he’s now six months). It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and has very much stressed our family. Kids say they are going to help but I am warning you - sure they’ll take him for a walk or two a day and play with him a bit. But it’s going to be on you to manage literally every minute of his day, even the not fun stuff.

An example of why this is so hard - we’ve been out all day with the puppy, which has been fun and we’re all exhausted. We come home, kids immediately go to their rooms, take showers, want to regroup. Puppy is amped and needs to eat and go potty and play a little before bed. Guess who’s doing that work when I’m exhausted from our day too? Hint, it’s not the kids 😝 now imagine that, yes, literally every single day without end.

He’s up at 6:45, he needs to be exercised for 1.5 hrs at least every single day. So instead of starting work, or drinking coffee and reading the paper in the weekends, I play with the puppy and train him and tire him out. Every. Single. Day. I’ve gotten a rotation schedule going with the kids somewhat, but it’s still me managing it all and they don’t do a great job of entertaining him for the full time he needs it so then he’s not as tired as I need him to be so I can work all morning.

Anyway. My #1 lesson would be to do things the way you would want them to be right from the start. Put the crate where you will want him to sleep and get him in a schedule ASAP. You will at first need to set an alarm to wake up every two hours or so all night every night. Ours actually did well and slept through the night from about 14 weeks, but those first few weeks were really really hard.

I hope it goes better for you than it did for us!! It seems like it’s going to be so fun and you read all the training books and the kids are all excited and I’d say 25% of the time has been like that, but a good 75% is just a really hard slog.

Did someone say puppy blues? Ugh. Sorry. And mine is great, really. Going to be a fantastic dog in a year or two.

Anonymous wrote:We had more than one crate at the beginning. We kept one on the main level and one upstairs in our bedroom.

This. Our pup is now 11 months older and this still works well. By 6 months she was sleeping until at least 7 every morning (and my kids are getting up around that time anyway so 7 is sleeping in enough for me).

Anonymous wrote:We got our puppy at 8 weeks and he is now four months old. He sleeps in the crate and when not on a walk or outside is in the crate. I would recommend you do this to save your puppy from chewing everything and harming him/her self as well as your stuff. Enroll in a socialization class and later get a trainer so you know how to teach your dog what you want to do. In the beginning don't be surprised when you get "puppy blues" which are sadness that you have gotten the puppy. Everyone goes through this especially at 3am when you want to be in bed but, know the puppy needs to pee!

Congrats!

OP here and I’m a little nervous about this. My days of sleeping in on weekends are over, aren’t they? Of course the kids say they are going to take care of everything

We got our puppy at 8 weeks and he is now four months old. He sleeps in the crate and when not on a walk or outside is in the crate. I would recommend you do this to save your puppy from chewing everything and harming him/her self as well as your stuff. Enroll in a socialization class and later get a trainer so you know how to teach your dog what you want to do. In the beginning don't be surprised when you get "puppy blues" which are sadness that you have gotten the puppy. Everyone goes through this especially at 3am when you want to be in bed but, know the puppy needs to pee!

Congrats!

He’s going to cry no matter what. Place him where you won’t be tempted to pull him out of the crate.

We had more than one crate at the beginning. We kept one on the main level and one upstairs in our bedroom.

We are first time dog owners excited to welcome an 8 week old puppy. Where should we place his bed/ crate initially? Should he be in our bedroom or in the kitchen area, which is where we hope he will eventually sleep?