We give Toto the "run of the house" 24/7 if we are there. On those rare occasions that we have to leave her alone, we simply lock the gate on her X-pen, make sure she has everything she needs ... food/water, wee wee pad, bed, toys, etc. ... she does great with the exception of being very, very sad!
We always try to keep the entire house "puppy proof" and it has certainly made us "neat freaks"!!
In the beginning, we always crated her at night [the crate was always right next to our bed sitting on a chest and we left a night light next to it where she could see us] she did great after the first day. The first day she cried and we "tapped" on the wire and said "No" to let her know that
we didn't like it ... sure enough, exactly as the book said,
she didn't like the tapping ... after about five or six times ... we had her trained not to bark in one day!! Now all we have to do is say "No!" Naturally, like Ana said ... she now sleeps with us!!
We recently bought the biggest bed we would find and it's very puzzling ... Patrick and I
still have no more room than we did before!!!
If she needs to go potty during the night, she has steps to go down off the bed all by herself so she goes to the pad and we don't have to get up!!
