Newbie Introduction

[Patti]

Welcome and congratulations! When I got cal a few months ago she had been use to being in a playpen at the breeders. I would ask the breeder where she will be keeping the puppy once it is weaned. We bought a dog playpen and Cali was fine in it from day one. She slept in it at night until about 6 weeks ago when I put her in my bed. She still goes in on her own when she wants to take a nap or if I am going to be goen for a little while. She never cries in it and will jsut go lay down when I leave her.

[KimMee's Mom]

You are going to fall in love so hard after your baby gets home. You won't even believe it. I started crate training on first day home. We have absolutely no problems when putting our baby to bed at night. She goes right in. The first month I kept her in our room in the crate right by our bed. She would wake up about 3 times a night. We paper trained her at first and then moved the paper outside. I moved her into the hall right outside our door after about a month and surprizingly she slept longer at night and didn't wake me up as much. When she was so little we had an area blocked off with her crate/bed and paper down. During the day if I was busy, I put her in that area. I did put a t-shirt in her bed that I wore so it smelled like me. I also but a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel in bed with her at night. (Really her bed is a larger sized travel crate.) Our baby has the run of the house during the day, goes right to the door when she needs to potty and sleeps in her crate at night. She never makes a peep and waits in the morning to make noise until she hears us get out of bed. Good luck with yours and I hope your training goes as easy as mine. Read about potty and crate training before yours gets home. I guess you could say I crate trained her at the beginning and while we used paper training, I also took the paper outside serveral times a day. Your pup will be very time consuming for the first few months but the hard work will pay off quickly. Good Luck and keep coming back to YT
ps- mine has access to her bed in the daytime so if she wants to get in it she can. she also has several pillow beds around the house plus the couch is hers now.

[lilbumbleybees]

Crate training is the BEST thing anyone can do for themselves and their dog. It makes it easier if they ever have to stay overnight at a vet, going to the groomers (which is a lifetime commitment for yorkies), or staying with your petsitter. My Boy does sleep in the bed, but he was crate-trained from dat one until he was mostly potty trained, then he was allowed in the bed with me. So to answer you, yes it is OK. Make the crate a happy place for her with blankets, toys she loves, and everytime you put her in it, give her a treat so she knows that "hey, this crate ain't so bad!" Good luck when you get her and congrats on the new baby! Also, welcome to YT!