Hi, I am new here.  I have just became the proud owner of 10 week old Lakeland Terrier.  Have had her 5 days and am concerned as next week I have to work every morning.  She would be left alone from 8:40 - 12:15, is this wrong?  I have a crate and a puppy pen set up in the kitchen so she will have plenty of room to play.  I am concerned as she sleeps in the crate at night but howls ALL night long.  I try to leave her for spells, sometimes she eventually settles down to sleep but as soon as she wakes up she howls again!  When this happens, she messes in the pen then tramples it all over her bedding etc.  Please help- on, by the way, did I mention she is GORGEOUS, has turned our lives upside down but we love her! 

congrats on your new puppy , but i would think that from what you say she sleeps in the crate at night but howls ALL night long.

that you may have trouble with leaving her for 3 hours it sounds like it may be a bit long for her she clearly does not like being left alone,

iv never had to deal with these issues myself as someones always here mostly me,
and my youngster loves his cage its his bed to him we dont even bother locking the door anymore he goes in and out as he pleases,

hopefully some others here will give you some good advice,

Congrats on the new addition.. hard work aren't they? Firstly, I will say that there is no doubt in my mind there will be a few people who will criticse you for leaving a new puppy for a few hours. IMO, three hours is acceptable and you shouldn't feel guilty about it. When we had to leave our girl as a baby, instead of a crate we used a play pen. There was an area for her to go to the toilet if she couldn't hold it, toys, food, water etc etc. She was safe (ie couldn't chew electrical cables) and we knew she would be ok for short periods of time. She may not like you leaving her, but they need to learn that you will leave them for short periods, but will be back!! Ideally we would all like to spend every waking hour with our news pups making sure that they grow up to be well behaved and happy, however life goes on and sometimes you will need to leave them!

As for the howling all night long... some pups just don't like to be left alone. Our girl was lucky enough to have her crate in our bedroom and slept every night all the way through. I think they find it comforting knowing/hearing that you are there. If she is messing in her crate you may need to be taking her out more often in the night until her little body is able to hold it in. Some pups are super clean from the start, others take a while to learn how to hold it in until Mum arrives!

There are so many hugely experience people on this forum, I am sure many of them will be along soon to impart their wisdom! Best of luck with your new girl.

Hi welcome to the forum, you will get some great advice on here.
With regards to leaving your puppy all morning this isn't ideal. Have you got someone who can pop in after an hour or so and let the puppy in the garden and spend a little time with it? if not this is along time for a puppy so long to be left. If you have no other option i suggest you get up early enough to spenddo not plenty of time with her ie playing in the garden etc so she is tired before you go to work and will sleep for a while.
It's going to be a big shock for her to be left alone so long as she would of been with her litter mates for comfort before coming to live with you., so make sure she has water and toys to play with ie a stuffed kong is good as she will take ages trying to get the food out of it. Also a towel or some clothing with your smell on it.
Try and feed her early enough that she has time to poo before you go to work, this doesn't mean she want do another one but there will be less mess. If you find she has messed on the floor never punish her or tell her off as this will not help when your trying to teach her to tiolet in the garden. Of course her toilet training will be harder if your not around to take her outside every hour and she may get confused where she is supposed to go.
Alot of puppies will cry at night for a few days and the way i deal with it will be different for other people but it's always  worked for me.
Take her out last thing at night until she goes to the toilet and praise her when she's finished, may take a while but be patient. then bring her in but no talking or eye contact and pup her in to bed with a couple of toys. close the door of the room she's in, turn off the light and walk away. whatever sounds she makes do not go back and see her other wise she will learn that crying gets your attention. this sounds hard but does work and my dogs have all been fine with this. When you come down in the morning again no talking or eye contact until she is calm which means she gets used to you coming and going and that she doesn't get excited when this happens or stressed.
I would suggest that over the next few days you put her to bed at the time you go to work and go out for a few minutes then come back let her out and don't fuss her for a few minutes, this way she feels whether your there or not things are no different. If you make a big deal about leaving them or when you first walk back in they gets over excited and very stressed when left.
With regards to her bed really the only thing you can do is get a washable cover or bed,maybe have two so you can swap them over, it will take time for her to toilet train. You could get a bigger crate or pen for her so she's less likely so stand in her mess but i've always slept my dogs in the utility room so there in a confined smaller space but have room to move about. i don't really like crates but thats a personal choice.
Some people may suggest you get up in the night and take her out to the toilet then no speaking and back to bed but i've never done this and all my dogs have learnt pretty quickly but can depend on the dog and also when young they can only go a short time before needing the loo so the night thing comes with age
Hope this helps but your get alot more ideas off other people, i can only tell you whats worked with my three over the years.
Good luck, be firm but patient and she will be great. It's always better to use reward based methods for a pup and distraction rather than telling off but their all little monkeys to start with.lol

our puppy timo whined when left at night so i moved him into the bedroom for a while,which stopped his whining as he could see and hear me.once he was settled in his surroundings and had bonded with the other dogs i put his bed in a large crate where he has room to get out of his bed if hes caught short,and hes been fine sleeping in the lounge knowing the other dogs are around etc.some dogs need to feel that bit more secure before being left downstairs. also during the day why not try giving your pup a bone or pigs ear while in the crate when you do housework etc ,the prospect of a treat will help associate the crate with good things.hope this helps,roy.

> sleeps in the crate at night but howls ALL night long
> When this happens, she messes in the pen then tramples it all over her bedding etc

Is she maybe howling because she needs to go to the toilet and is howling to get your attention? In the early stages it is perfectly normal to have to get up once or twice during the night for them to toilet as their bowels and baldder arent able to hold much for long.

Make sure she has her last wee/poo late at night just before bed, then maybe set an alarm to wake up after the first couple hours. Without talking or fuss take her to the garden, use your command word and give praise when she toilets. Bring her in and straight back into the crate and repeat as often as neccessary. It is tiring but does get easier :-) and over time she will be able to go all night without toilet.

Thanks to all the great replies!  You all have given great advice.  Grace has settled well over the last few days, my Mum has came in the mornings while I am at work.  We have a very large cage for her - it is massive and we have now bought a puppy pen (attached to the cage) - again large, so she has loads of space.  She still sometimes stands in mess if it is throught the night but this is happening less often.  I have bought loads of spare bedding for her so this makes it easier in the night to do a straight swap.  As for the howling, I think she is just trying to assert herself now!  I am not giving in, I come down throught the night, no eye contact, tidy up and put her back to bed - sometimes she doesn't even bark and the times she does it doesn't go on for very long.  It is hard switching off as I feel sorry for her but I bought a great book ' the perfect puppy' by Gwen Bailey which explains that if you give in to the pooch, she will assume she is leader of the pack - clever little monkeys aren't they?

I remember really well when we got our Golden retriever puppy about 8 months ago... It is hard work the first few weeks but it will get a lot easier once they can hold their wee a bit longer! I think you're doing a great job with your pup. The only thing I would suggest is that the crate you've got might be too large. If you give her too much room she will create a 'poop-corner', and she will mess in there whenever she needs to go rather than learn to do it outside (or on the newspaper if you're doing paper training). Especially at night, I would limit her space in the crate, and get up a few times to take her outside to toilet (remember, it's only for a few weeks). It's more difficult for her to 'unlearn' that it's not ok to poop in the house than to teach her right from the start.
We have tought our Golden to go toilet in one corner of the garden now. It's really handy, as she doesn't pee on the lawn anymore and brown patches of dead grass are a thing of the past ;-).
Also, great job on ignoring the howling! Our Golden tried this after a few weeks of silently sleeping in her crate - she suddlenly started howling when we said good-night. I ignored her, and she stopped after a couple of weeks. Stay strong...