Our little guys were my first "indoor" dogs, too. Ours were 12 weeks old when we got them, and we got two litter mates at the same time, but we still had problems with them crying at night for about a week. We found that keeping their crate in our bedroom helped. We put a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel in there with them to give them something warm to cuddle up against, and they had towels to curl up on. As soon as we put them in there, we got in bed and turned out the light and didn't talk or anything - basically we were trying to get the idea across to them that when the light went out, it was time to sleep. We gave the command "Quiet" whenever they started crying or barking at us. We did have to get up in the middle of the night to let them out to potty. They would usually whimper to let us know they needed out. That only lasted about a month though - they slept through the night (or at least were quiet through the night) after a month or two.
Now that they're grown up, they have a larger crate with a pet bed in it to sleep on. They crawl in there on their own each night and go right to sleep. Hope some of this helps and good luck! |