Hi! Welcome to YT. I tried to crate Belle when she first came home at about 16 weeks. The first night she was perfect and slept quietly all night. The second night she woke up and whined off and on. The third night she barked and cried. I gave up and took her into bed and she's slept with me ever since. She's never had an accident at night and sleeps all night long. I was lucky, I think its because she wasn't such a young puppy when she came home.
My shih tzu on the other hand, was about 9 wks old when I got him. He didn't do well in the crate AT ALL. It sounded like he was being tortured so from the first night I had him in the bed. He had several accidents on my bed before I realized that wasn't going to work. I bought him a nice cozy dog bed and started keeping pee pads in my room. He slept just fine on the floor in his bed in my room with a gate at the door so he couldn't wander around the house. Once he reliably didn't need to use the pads at night he was allowed back into the bed.
__________________ Melissa and Belle  |