This is gonna be a long post

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

Hey everyone! As most of you know we added a new member to our little pack this weekend, boy was I unprepared. But really, how prepared for a puppy who you know nothing about can you get?! Maggie is very vocal. She will "talk" to jace and I'm just gonna say it she WHINES! She's a big drama queen for sure. She does not like being out of my sight for a second! I understand that she doesn't understand the concept of being left alone yet and I sympathize with her but last night was rough. Almost as rough as I look today. She would pitch a fit about every 30 min from 10-12, then I got in the floor next to her crate, put my husbands Tshirt in there with her and stuck my fingers in the crate. She piped down and slept from 12-3:30 when I woke her up to take her to potty! How long do puppies typically do the whole "crying" thing? I never had to deal with that with jace so that part us new to me! She's doing so well with potty training. Day 3 and 0 accidents, not that she really gets the opportunity! The only thing that's worrying me is the poops so little. Like maybe 3 times in 24 hours... Is that normal? Her stool is a tad bit loose but she is on awful food right now and she's probably stressed... We have a vet appointment tomorrow just to get her checked up and tested for any intestinal parasites. Fingers crossed all comes back okay! All in all I am happy with Maggie, still a little nervous with her around jace, he likes to knock her over with his paw and nibble on her like he's grooming her. She's starting to love him, she cuddled up to him this morning! :) he allowed it for maybe 2 min. We're making good adjustment progress in our house. But like I just said, it's an adjustment for us all..

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

The first night Haley cried and cried.  I finally lay down on the couch next to his crate.  That helped a little.  The second night I slept on the bathroom floor with him loose (small room with a door).  He was quiet all night and kept crawiling from one end of me to the other (he was actually on me), back and forth.  After that I let hime sleep loose in th bedroom for awhile until I was finally able to convince him he had to sleep in his crate.  Enjoy your baby.  She will get better.

[Rebecca bratter]

My little girl is vocal too and had terrible whining fits in her crate in the beginning, we did the same thing get down on the floor with her and put our head in the crate until she fell asleep, we put pillows in there with our scent and our dirty socks.  After about 2 weeks, all the noise stopped for bed time. Our crate faces our bed so she sees us.  My girl is just about the worst about cooped up in any way, at 7  months we've never been able to crate her for anything else except bedtime.  For the last month we stopped crating her at night, she's house trained and she has been dying to sleep on our bed, she can easily go 8 hours with no potty break.  However, she prowls around a lot at night and keeps changing her sleeping locale.  Now every morning we wake up to find her voluntarily sleeping in her crate, the door is open but she just stays in there.  If Madiba can come to like sleeping in a crate, any dog can, as I said, she is the worst about it but now goes in voluntarily.  Just time and putting up with the whining for a few weeks, then it will be fine.  At least she has the company of another dog.  We want to get a sibling for Madiba too. 

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

I so didn't mean to post this in the food group!!! This has nothing to do with food, I meant to post it in puppy madness... I really am sleep deprived. Anyway! Thank you all, Rebecca your girl sounds like my jace, he loves to roam in our room at night but chooses to sleep in his crate he was a rough one to confine around her age, but has grown to love his crate now!

[Robin & Josie]

Hi Emily:

You should definitely repost this to Puppy Madness. You'll get many recently experienced responses, I'm sure! First of all, I'm guessing that you don't have any children because rule #1 is NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY!! Especially when their really little and they wake up on their own plenty. You need your sleep and you have to sleep when they do.

Having said that, my youngest child is 26, so it's been a while on the baby thing, and maybe that's not the rule anymore, but I would definitely say that it is for puppies!! No need to wake them to take them out. 

Josie was a couple of weeks older when we got her and the breeder told us that she was sleeping in her crate alone, through the night. Our challenge was to change "her" night to "our" night. They were putting her down at 9 and she was getting up at 5. That is a good number of hours, just skewed differently. We would take her out right before we went to bed at 11ish and she would sleep til 5ish or until one of us would get up to use the bathroom. She would whine a little, we took her out and put her back in and she slept until 7 or 8.

The first two nights were pretty rough. She did more than whine at first. I would say hysterical high-pitched barking was more like it. We learned to ignore her (and put in ear plugs) and after two nights of about an hour of that, she went right to sleep. At about 18 weeks, I think, we let her start sleeping with us and she sleeps until we are up for the day. On weekends, that could be from 11 or 12 until at least 9. Doesn't make a peep. When we go out, we leave her in the crate and she's usually very good. She has never had an accident in the crate either.

She still doesn't like to be away from us (or whomever her people of the moment are). In fact, if she starts wandering, that's our cue to take her out. She just doesn't go too far, as a rule.

They grow and change so fast, try and enjoy this time when she's really little! Great to hear that the two are getting along as best as can be expected at this stage.

Good luck!!