i've got a 7 week old staffy, had him for a week, we have not left him on his own yet even during the night there is always some one with him in the same room. just wanted to know if this was the best approach or would it be better if we left him on his own?

I have a Staffy who is 11 months old now, and we got him when he was around 7 weeks old.  From the first night he has always slept in a separate room on his own he did cry and I did feel really guilty leaving him but he eventually come to terms with sleeping on his own and I never let him sleep in the bedrooms with us.  I was advised that puppy's needed undisturbed sleep and that you need to start as you mean to go on so if you want your Staffy to sleep on his own eventually it is best to start this right away.

Its what I do with all my puppies for about 10 days. :) I've never had a problem getting them to sleep where I want them to afterwards and I've never had a miserable crying puppy.

Do you have a crate where you intend him to sleep in future? If you do you should get him used to going to sleep alone in it during the day. If you don't, leave him alone while he is snoozing in his bed during the day.

Best of luck.:)

Does anyone know what happened to the other question from the same person? I just sat here typing a long reply and when I hit post the question was gone.

hey goldmali,

i was wondering the same thing i had written a long post which seems to have disappeared some how??
does any one know what has happened to the other post?

i have a 12 weeek old staffy and weve crate trained her . she howled like mad for 2 weeks but now loves it goes in and out on her own acord . you have to give it time and not give in im afraid . buy some ear plugs .

i have a staffy tie hes a great big lump lol
we got him when he was 11 months old (rescued) and with my old man working nights i let him stay in my room  in his dog bed.
but he allways ended up on the bed , so i let him  and wow wasnt that my mistake .
he allways sleeps on the bottom of my bed know and no matter how many times i push him down he still gets back on. the thing is when there small there not to bad but know hes putting on his weight his heads so havey.

so my advice is if you dont wanna buy a queen size bed.
is to let your pup cry for a while she/he  will soon settle down, and when you get up praise her/him
he/she will know if you let her/him out every time when they cry that thats wot they will do.

i hope that helps a little

thank you all for the input. it has now given me a better picture of how to handle him. i've recently also found that he's getting a bit aggressive, biting and barking, is this normal??

Hi
Part of what I wrote in my orgnal reply that disappeared was this:

This is a typical puppy. :) A puppy that age won't be aggressive, he is wanting to play and acting like he would do with his littermates, it's as simple as that.

Hi - you might want to buy a book called The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson.  (Available from Amazon.)  It is an excellent book with training suggestions and it also discusses how dogs learn and explains a lot of popular misconceptions about dogs. 

Mine always slept in the kitchen alone. He woke up and cried every 2 hours and I just called down to him and hed go off again.

The biting is quite normal. It can get quite bad though you will find many posts on here about the same thing but it does get better. Mine used to curl his lip and launch himself at me. Im not saying this to scare you but I think if you can have a plan in mind from day one and stick to it you can nip it in the bud quickly.

I used to start with a firm no and stop playing with him (however, you dont have to be playing for them to do this, you could just be sat on the sofa!)The next time, I would put him behind the baby gate and ignore him for 2 minutes. Its very important that hes able to see you for those 2 minutes as he will be wanting to come and join in and this will teach him that if he wants to be with you then he has to behave. Id then let him back in and for the first few months id have to do this every few hours. Almost any ethical training you do will work but you must be consistent from the word go. Also, be prepared for lots of emotions. Of course it makes you cross and you have to keep our cool but it can also be upsetting as you feel that your dog hates you and that your the only one in the world going through it.

Best of Luck x

If you NEVER leave him alone it can cause problems as he gets older and he may suffer seperation anxiety etc
Plus it is better to have a happy confident dog used to either having short spells on his own or with other people rather than just you -rather than one following you everywhere as you may never be able to leave him in kennels etc if you go away etc as he may fret

Seven weeks is very little indeed and it's extremely tempting never to leave appealing little pups alone. But in the long run it isn't good for any dog to grow up unable to occupy itself and enjoy its own company - even if only to have forty winks! Separation anxiety can be a huge problem and it's well worth avoiding the risk as early as possible.