[alnatmom]

We got Jack at 14 weeks and for the little while we had him in an ex pen with a bed and pee pads (he was pee pad trained by the breeder). However, we wanted him to go outside so once he was used to our house - about a week or so - we put him in a crate at night. He's fairly small so he sleeps in a plastic cat crate (shhh - don't tell him) in our room with a towel over the metal front door. At first I had him just sleeping in the crate with a plastic chew toy but now he gets a towel in the bottom of the crate as well. We were prepared to get up with him in the middle of the night if he needed to go but he never did. One of the keys to crate training is to make sure the crate doesn't have so much room that they can sleep in one part and potty in another. We pick his water and food up a few hours before he goes to bed and make certain that he goes to the bathroom outside. He's quite happy to go in his crate at night and sometimes, if we are late going to bed he will stand in front it and ask to go in.

I think if you leave your puppy in an ex pen with pee pads he will likely continue to use them, but I'm not sure because we didn't do it this way. If you are interested in having him crate trained so that he goes outside all of the time then I think you can probably put him in at night any time. Be prepared to get up though if he has to go. You don't want him getting accustomed to going potty in his crate.