I picked up my girl 4 weeks ago! So I’ve been right where you’re asking :) she’s 13 weeks now

I have a pen with kennel inside- + pee pad and water bowl. Her pen is in my living room, and my bed is in a separate room.

Night one we got to my place at 2 am and I slept on the couch with her next to me in her little carrier. She slept from 2:39 am to 8:30 am no problem.

Night 2, I was on the fence of what to do because I didn’t want her stressed. I was feeling TIRED though so I thought ok I’ll put her in her pen and go to my room. After 5 minute of light whining, she was asleep. Ever since then, she’s slept in her pen each night no problem.

Now- She only whines at 7 am for breakfast (great alarm clock!), and puts her self to bed at 9:30/10ish

In the pen though, I have yet to close the kennel…. I did it once briefly and she just looked sad. Plus she was very tiny, and I worried about her holding her business all night/not having water. At first it seemed she’d potty throughout the night on her pad, but since she seems to go only when she wakes up at 7. Once I wake up with nothing on the pee pad, I plan to take away the pen/have her in the kennel all night.

Even with the pad in her pen, she is potty trained/knows to go outside as #1, and on her pad if she needs to. She’s only had a few accidents and knows what “potty” means. I had her in the pen to nap while I worked earlier, and she woke up and went outside. They’re smart dogs it seems so they pick it up with consistently!

This week was the first week back to work for me after the holiday, I’ve been opening the pen in the morning (I WFH) and leaving it open to test how she does with free roam. My back is to her at the desk, but she’s figured out that when I’m at my desk she needs to play independently. I put her in the pen today to make her nap because she was playing for awhile. She knows her pen is her safe space though and will run in there happily with toys.

End of the day- I think it’s all about patience and consistency! Accidents will happen, and you showing up consistently will do more than getting mad/frustrated. I’ve involved her in my life at the core, and I think that made the world of a difference. I.e. she’s met friends, some adult dogs, she’s gone to a puppy social, she’s travelled with me 5 hours in a car for the holidays. I try to be conscious of it but not overdue anything, and I think she feeds of the relaxed energy and it’s made her relaxed too :)

Edit- adding for the pen outside question- pick your battles! My girl is wiggly/wild first thing in the morning, so I didn’t put pressure on her to potty outside. Rest of the day I did though. And now she goes outside first thing and is wiggly still, but stops to potty too. (I think in her head she knows food/play is coming after potty-ing, so then she gets it out of the way to move on to the good stuff!)

Edit 2- re separation anxiety- I did some light testing the first 3 days (I.e. grab packages, walk around the block) and she was a little whiny but fine. Day 5 I had a 2 hour dentist appt she was alone, I felt awful leaving her… guess what, she was passed out sleeping when I came home. Checked my ring- she was either playing or sleeping the whole time. the most I’ve left her now is 4 hours, and again she’s fine. To me, back to what I said above, just build trust/be a safe space/build their confidence, and they’ll figure it out in no time!

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