We have just got our new lab puppy she is 9 weeks old and her name is Cleo. I need a bit of advice on the best way to settle her at night. She has a crate but does not really like it that much, she prefers to sleep during the day on the sofa next to it. We have only had her two days and just need a bit of help on when and how to leave her on her own at night.

when I got my lab home , the first week was the worst, basically do not respond to her cries no matter how upset & guilty you feel. As long as she is comfortable, warm, has water etc and maybe some piece of clothing of yours then she will eventually get used to it...

She will cry and whine as she has left her litter but she needs to learn you are not leaving her...

you may need to get up to take her out but you can gradually extend this until areasonable hour...

Minstrel took a week until she went through the night quietly,

I also seriously suggest ear plugs!!!!

good luck

Thanks for your advice although I thought that would be the case. I have slept with her for the first two nights but I think I will give her a try on her own tonight - watch this space.

Hi, my puppy is 10 weeks old, when I collected him 2 weeks ago he cried all night for 3 nights in his crate. On the 4th night I moved his crate into the hall and left our bedroon door open so that he could hear/smell/see us and he slept for 6 hours straight through. His ctate is still in the hall at the moment but I am planning moving it back into the kitchen slowly. Good luck.
J

Hi congratulations on Cleo
What about a `puppy safe` cuddly toy, this sounds really sad (but true) but I used to put my puppys cuddly toy in the tumbler dryer for a few minutes and then used to snug the toy up to her in her crate with her blanket, it used to work for us in the early days. Apart from that as long as she is dry and warm try to ignore her and she will stop crying.

Hello I'm new to the message board and also new to the puppy owning too. I had lab before but she was 6 months when we had her hence never had to go through the early early, days, but here goes with some advise, we have been lucky to date (touch wood, etc, etc) but for the first few nights we buried a baby hot water bottle under his bedding and only on the first night we had a few cries, after that nothing at all, maybe try this!! We also found that a nice cuddly items work and he seem to treat this as a mate ( now in more ways than just his sleep comfort!!!)

When we got our puppy home at eight weeks we put an item of our clothing in her bed so she could smell us, a hot water bottle and a ticking clock. This worked a treat until the batteries ran out in the ticking clock... then she raised merry hell!!!

Thanks for your advice - I think we may have cracked it, I left her on her own on Mon and Tues night and she whined for about ten minutes, gave a sigh of resignation and went to sleep. The only problem is that she is sleeping on her blanket on the floor and not in the crate - she hates it, she will eat her food and drink in there but wont sleep in it !.