Nighttime crating, in our room or no?

[TheVintageAngel]

We pick up our white GSD this coming Monday. She will be 8 weeks old.

Anyhow, I'm curious...we are going to crate train the pup at night. Some say to put the sleepy time crate in our room with us so she will feel secure, close to her new "people"...others say to put it downstairs and ignore the first few nights of crying. It sort of reminds me of when I had my human babies and they said to put them in their cribs and ignore the crying and let the become good sleepers, except I coudn't seem to do that with them, and wonder if I'll be able to ignore crying from our new four legged baby. Advice???

My gut tells me to put the crate in my room and reassure her that we are right there, then once she is potty trained start leaving the crate open and eventually replace it with a doggie bed, always in our room. But another shepherd owner suggested the crate be downstairs, away from where we sleep.

[PaddyD]

Totally up to you. I think most will say in your room so that she knows you are there. Put a recently used t-shirt in the crate. Cover the crate with a blanket. Don't count on any sleep for a couple of days/nights. At that age she will probably have to go out every 4 hours at night and every 2 hours during the day. Especially around mealtime.

[Kittilicious]

I have ours in our room so that if he starts crying/howling I know he needs to go outside. If I had him in another room, I'd never hear him and it's not fair to him to try to make him hold it or lay in his waste all night long.

[bruiser]

I always kept bruiser with me when he was a pup. The crate was next to my bed and now at 10 mos. he sleeps next to bed outside of the crate.

[Mary&Stella]

When we brought Stella home she had a playpen in the bedroom for night time, worked like a charm, as she grew we got her a crate and she was vrated overnight in the bedroom, now since about the last 6 months the crate is there but she is free to go in or stay out, amazingly enough she will start bedtime in bed getting some cuddles and then she will go sleep on the floor, usually by the door (gated) I think she wants to make sure no one escapes during the night without her !!, and in the morning she is usually in her crate, with the door open lounging around!! ( Unless its the weekend then she will wake us up with her big paws (mits). I say in the bedroom in a crate, and yes it dies make getting up at 1:00 and 4o am easier when the baby is close bye.

Dood luck!!

[wildo]

My next puppy will be crated in my room, elevated to the same height as my mattress, facing the bed so that my breath goes into the crate- mostly following the advice of the Ruff Love program.

[Rott-n-GSDs]

We found that keeping Luna in our room helped her to get used to her crate... she actually learned to love it in a very short time.

I will say that you SHOULD NOT leave your 8 week old puppy in the crate all night without any potty breaks, regardless of where you choose to put it. Most puppy bladders cannot hold it all night long, so you'll probably need to take her out to potty at least once or twice.

[Anthony8858]

FWIW.... I recently went through this.

Kira is now 14 weeks. We got her 3 weeks ago.

The first 2 nights, I insisted that she stay downstairs, in her crate, in the kitchen area. The howling drove me crazy.
At the advice of many, I put her crate in our bedroom, next to our bed. Since the first night, she hasn't made a single sound at night.
Last night (at about 11pm), she actually went into her crate, and went to sleep on her own.
She sleeps through the night, until I wake up at 6am.

I vote for putting her in her crate in your room. Let her feel secure.
Don't forget, it's her first time away from her pack.

[GSDkid]

It would be better if you kept the pup with you. It would be easier for them to adapt to you as the "Family" or "Pack" and so you can supervise them when in the crate.

I'm looking to get a White GSD as well. Maybe in a few months. Where is the breeder located?

[TheVintageAngel]

Oh we would never leave her in her crate all night without breaks no matter where we put it - we are night owls, so we'd let her out in the middle of the night then very early too at the least. Thanks for all the advice, definately confirms my gut feeling to keep her in our room with us. Like the idea of putting in a recently worn shirt or two also with our scent on it for her. We have kids, so it might be a good idea to use their shirts too for that. Now it will come down to a battle between my hubby and I over which side of the bed (mine or his) she goes on - we both want her on our own sides ;-)

The breeder is located in Warren, Ohio. They have 8 pups...4 males and 4 females, all white. One of the females is ours and a few others are spoken for, but if that's close to you, let me know and I can get you the contact info.