They've been used to sleeping with siblings, so the change is probably pretty drastic to them. What I do is make sure they are tired by bedtime, put them in the crate with soft comfy puppy blankets, a chew toy, a few kibbles and talk to them in a soft assuring voice that I'm still nearby when they whine. If they've been in there an hour or more and then start whining I take them out to the potty pad, offer them a drink of water, and once they potty I take them back to the crate. If they seem 'really wide awake' and want to play sometimes I'll play with them for a bit (as long as I haven't been sleeping myself yet) and then put them back in. Repeat process every 2-3 hours. Takes about a week, but they get the hang of it, know they're not abandoned.
My first I used to hang my hand over the bed's edge into the crate and that comforted her (I had never used contained sleeping before), but it worked and now (short of crates) I tried letting the first (2 year old) Yorkie sleep with us so the two younger ones could sleep in her bigger crate, but she wanted in a crate so I pulled out her old one (a bit on the small side) & she's happy going to bed in the crate.
__________________  Kendra |