Every year one of moms clients/friends (she's a housekeeper) buys us (me, mom, siblings) Xmas presents. And she's well.... loaded. So it's always really great presents.
Well this year, as an early present, she got me a mini long-hair dauschund puppy. She's an absolute sweetheart, is 3 months old, purebred, and we've named her Zara (like sara but with a Z). She was getting one as a gift for her daughter, and when they were at the breeders house there were two puppies left. And she had already been thinking of getting me one as a gift so... tada! I have a puppy now. (I have to share her with everyone else in the house *annoyed*)
We have a crate for her to sleep in, we want her crate-trained. She slept in it for about... 5 hrs. Getting up to pee once. She seems puppy pad trained at least.
So at 4 bloody AM she starts crying and scratching and chewing on the bars. It took about 30min to get her to settle down when I first put her in the crate in the evening.
But now if I put her in she whines and cries. And there are 4 people living in a small house, so if she really decides to voice her opinion on things it will wake everyone. And two of those people need to be up in the mornings fairly early.
I tried letting her sleep in bed with me but she doesn't want to settle for very long and chews on my douvet.

So any advice? Or is she just gonna be like an actual baby and I best sleep when I can and wait till she's grown a bit more?
I have plenty of experience with dogs but I've never had a tiny little puppy to care for before.

Some people tend to think that create training is cruel to the animal, and it can be if you abuse the training method. BUT, I've create trained 3 pups, and all of them do this, they all turned out pretty decent too!

1st you have to consider things from your pups point of view, dogs are pack animals, and usually, not always but usually LOVE to be around people, to put them in a create isolated is almost like a punishment. This is why some people that don't create train are so against it.

Life for your dog, moves at about 7 times faster then it does for you, so if you put her up for 30 mins it feels like 3 hours to her. Same thing about you going off to school or work for 8 hours, it feels like it's been a full day since they last saw you, thus why they are so excited to see you.

Your puppy is going to do anything in her power to try and get out, cry, whine, chew on the bars, if she can think of it, she'll try it. I always said create training was just as rough on the puppy as it was the owner, because sometimes you just have to leave them to realize that if they cry and whine they won't get their way.

As for what you can do, try making sure that the create is covered, BUT please make sure that at least one panel, maybe the one next to the wall is NOT, and keep the create a bit away from the wall so that your puppy has fresh air, but still isn't seeing anything. Sometimes they can be like parrots, and can be covered and it helps.

Another issue your puppy might be having is that she's had a sibling to snuggle with for the first 3 months of her life and now she's all alone. Try getting her a snuggle buddy from one of the pet stores. This may help as well. I hope this helped in any way, and good luck. It took 1 pup of mine 3 months to create train, another about 4 and the last about 5, to be fully house broken, no accidents, and well behaved.

R0o's right on all counts, but another thing to remember is that puppies don't stop teething for awhile either, and giving them something to keep them occupied in the crate and in your room is good too (that way you don't end up with shredded bedding and they don't notice the time passing as much). Petsmart or Petco has a huge selection of toys and bones that are good for their teeth and giving them something to do until you let them out in the morning.

Thanks R0o, I'll remember to stock up on coffee LOL. Had to have two cups this morning. I did get her to finally go to sleep... in bed next to me. I was so tired I said 'screw-it' and let her sleep with me. (I'm not worried about squishing her, I've slept next to a chihuahua with no problems) I guess each night she'll go into her crate until she wakes me with her tantrum. She doesn't seem to mind it, she went in it all by herself this morning and had a little nap after breakfast so I assume thats a good sign.

Ya she sorta sprung the puppy on us yesterday LOL. We had about a 1hr warning, >.< fastest I've ever cleaned my room, and made it puppy-safe. She brought us some food and a few toys but they are too big for her little mouth. Even the collar is too big and its a small collar. So one of the first things on the agenda is a trip to the petstore anyways, I'll remember to get her something to snuggle with. Right now she's just using my bathrobe rope tied in a knot for a chew toy. At least she's not slobbery.

Oh, my douvet survived btw, she decided the corner of my pillowcase tasted much better LOL.

lol i hope you didn't want or need that robe cord, it's her's now and she'll always think of it as so. :3

Kinda hafta remember, that a puppy is still a baby in some forms, some people that aren't really big animal people will just see a dog or a puppy, but a puppy really is kinda like a baby, you wouldn't want to make your baby cry by treating it wrong. NOT SAYING YOU ARE. it's just the thought process.

Pups, usually will not use the potty where they sleep, it's instinct, that's why crate training works well, it's a small area, and you don't want a large crate if you have a small dog. that makes it hard for them to move around and use the potty to oneside while they stay on the other.

also keep in mind that while some dogs may see a crate as punishment, and thus don't want to be in there, others will see it as a small den, and place of their own to hide away from other members of the family. Good crate training will make it so that your dog will know by how you say "crate" if it's punishment or if it's just time for bed.

I had a set of mini schauzers that would crate themselves when they knew they'd done something bad. you could just look at them and point and they'd go. They also knew when i said "bed time" that was where they were going. it all depends on the trainer/owner how well crate training works with your dog and her temperament. ^_^

Bert my current pup, he always looks at me like i'm crazy when i tell him he has to go to "bedtime" b/c he also sleeps on the bed with me, spoiled brat he is, :3 is always all D: you mean i have to sleep there?!?! it's amusing!

Well its night #2 and she's putting up the biggest tantrum so far. I'm letting her cry herself out this time. I know she is tired because she was dozing off on the couch, but man is she shrill! I covered the side of the crate that could see me but so far that really only increased the intensity of her fit. She tapers off then starts up again after a minute.
She has finally started doing those little howls Lady does in the movie "lady and the tramp"

Last time I crate-trained a puppy, we used it for when we were gone and night... and I put the crate right next to our bed. It was always open during the day and he could hide there when life got to be too much. When he whined in the night, I'd just drop my hand off the bed so he could sniff it thru the crate. He'd shut up right after that, until he needed to go out. Ours was only 6 weeks, though, so he needed to go out during the night pretty regularly for the first month or so.

After that, he figured out that he was a floor dog and didn't really try jumping on the furniture. Unfortunately, he had separation anxiety and, being a Samoyed, decided to take his crate apart when we were gone. He was FINE when riding in it in the car, or when we were there at night, but not if we were gone. He completely decimated a welded crate, and made it so we had to put LOCKS on the next crate we bought. Even those didn't help much, though, and he bloodied himself more often than not trying to get out.

Thank heavens we found that leaving him tied outside worked. He was calm, cool & collected as long as he had the garage to hide in... I guess we just needed a bigger crate? Our latest dog (a white Labrador) came to us 7 months old and did NOT take to crate training by that time. If left in the crate without us here, he'll scrape the heck outta his nose. He's okay if left loose, unlike the other dog, who would just try to go through the windows and eat the woodwork.

Dogs are all different, but most are capable of learning the necessities. She WILL give up, but it may be unpleasant for the rest of the house while you're trying. If you can put the crate in your room, it might lower the noise level for others, though. Just a suggestion!

~~Wiccan~~

.......*headdesk* it is in my room.
She's calmed down now. Have given up on yesterdays method. Leaving the crate open and letting her be able to roam, drink, and use her pads whenever she wants. She's still whining but no more howling. She'll hopefully go to bed all by herself eventually, she keeps going in and out of her crate.

Oh, sorry!!! I will cross fingers that she will settle and all will be well then!
O.o
~~Wiccan~~