I'm getting an 8 week old puppy in a few weeks and thinking about how sad it is that she's going to make the transition of sleeping with her brothers and sisters all cozied up to sleeping all alone in a crate! I know it has to happen and they have to adjust and learn but any advice on what we can do to settle her and make her feel at peace at bedtime. We've owned a dog from being a puppy before but she was slightly older and the last puppy of the litter and lived in a kennels so had got used to being alone so this is new to me in terms of how young she will be and how much this will be such a big change for her.
See how she goes. Neither of my two puppies seemed remotely bothered by the transition. I was all prepared to have my new puppy (now 8 months) in my room, or to sleep downstairs with her, but she took herself off to her puppy bed, started snoring, and snored until morning when I had to tip her out of her bed to get her up for a wee. Lots of pups are upset though, of course, and if so I'd keep them with me or sleep with them downstairs until they seem more settled in their new home. Also be aware that some pups are ok in crates from the get go, others find it very strange and it can take a little while to crate train them so they are ok settling down in a crate.
I have always got a big teddy bear to put in the crate with them. Teddy always remains favourite and is never eaten (unlike everything else!!) Sam
I put my pups in a cardboard box next to my bed and just dangled my hand into the box and they settled.
I sleep with them until they sleep through. Some sleep quickly and I'm back in my own bed within days some take a bit longer. Most pups quickly realise that being without sibs is good they get all the food and attention the little despots love that.
Most make the transition really well. I have a pile of teddies in the cage for a few days and a snuggle puppy with heatpad inside. I'm ready to sleep by the cage but have never needed to. For the first few nights I sit reading by the cage until they are snoozing. Once I know their natural wake up time I set my alarm 15 minutes before so that they don't learn to shout for me. But if they shout in the night I do go to them as they usually do that for a reason. Mollie is 12 weeks old now and I get her up at 7:15am - she sleeps all night. Here is the snuggle puppy - Mollie loves it and it stays warm for 12 hours - https://www.amazon.co.uk/SnuggleSaf...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MVH21RHK2ND5DAGDA8VM ...
As well as above we followed age old advice to put a hot water bottle securely wrapped in towels and a ticking clock with it if possible or separately wrapped with puppy to simulate sibling and Mum body heat and heart beat. The link above looks like a good idea. Seemed to help. When Oban woke and cried and screamed the first night I went down to find him soaked in pee and never disregard a crying puppy again. Out to pee, clean up and dry up and he slept till the next pee, unfortunately for us that same night. He needed, really needed out twice a night a first.
Hi when we collected our boy we had a crate next to our bed. We had a small furry (cream coloured, my goodness what was I thinking lol) soft bed and a couple of soft toys. He settled really well and from day one slept through all night without needing a wee. He still goes to bed with his long legged monkey but he's now on a cushion bed next to ours. Good luck and whatever happens don't despair as they are tiny for such a short time and you will get through anything with them
