Puppy wants to cuddle and lap all the time... help

I'm scared she'll get too attach and start hating her crate.

At the moment, she goes in every time I say crate, she'll sometimes go in by herself if she's really tired. But if I'm sitting by the crate she'd MUCH rather sit on my lap... or if I'm sitting on my bed, she MUCH rather try and get on the bed to be with me.

Instead, I have to pretty much stand up by the crate (which is by the bed in a confined area of the room) and then she'll go in her crate.

My question is though, how much can I let her sleep on my lap? I've let her do it twice before realizing it might not be a good idea because she's getting attached to the idea. Should I just not let her do it all together until her potty training is done?

She poops and pees outside a lot but still has on average 3 small accidents a day. She is also 9 weeks old now. For some reason she can pee and poo outside... sometimes pee even 4 times, but will come inside and randomly stop and pee as she's running. Is that normal?!

When Miles was about that age, he spent most of the day sleeping on my lap. We did use the crate, but mostly at night. He'd cry at night, clearly didn't like his crate, but a few weeks later, he started sleeping longer and longer until he slept almost through the night. He just didn't like being alone at first, but he got used to it.

We had his crate in the living room, and I would sleep downstairs on the couch so I could take him outside at night. But I admit, at 4am when he'd been crying for most of the night and I had barely gotten any sleep, I would put him on my lap, and we'd both sleep for a couple hours. It didn't seem to cause any larger issues with either potty training or the crate, he was pretty quick to learn both.

During the day, we fed him in his crate and put him inside for short periods to get him used to it. I think it's a good sign that your puppy already goes to her crate on command at 9 weeks!

Don't worry if she doesn't choose to sleep in her crate on her own. It doesn't mean she hates her crate or that she'll stop going to it when you say. Only once has Miles ever gone to sleep in it on his own, and that was years ago. He would always rather be with us if we're home. But when we tell him to go to his crate, he does right away, and either naps or lies there quietly until we let him out.

They're cuddly dogs, I think they'd pretty much always rather be sleeping on your lap. :wub:

Anyway, it didn't lead to any problems for us. When he woke up, we'd just run him outside right away.

And yes, I think it's normal for puppies to run and stop in the middle to pee. They get distracted.

If you want your dog to be crate trained you'll have to just say no when the puppy wants to sit on your lap or in your bed. They're cute but damn smart. lol!

Thanks for your reply. It helps hearing other success stories. Makes the training all the more worth it. We had a chihuahua puppy 5 years ago during a move and we were lucky that she transitioned from pads (condo living) to outdoor potty. It was almost a miracle.

Where does Miles sleep?

For the first year, Miles slept in his crate at night, and we would put him in there for some naps during the day or if we left the house.

Now that he's older, I let him have free reign of the house if we're home, so he sleeps with me at night, and naps on the couch during the day. We do still occasionally crate him while we're home, but pretty rarely. Every time we crate him, we give him a small puppy biscuit. The only time he gets these particular treats is when he goes to his crate. It was hysterical when he learned the sound of the bag rustling and would be waiting in his crate before we even got out of the kitchen.

If the issue is she's in the crate and crying because she wants to be with you, you do have to try to only let her out when she's behaving well or she'll think she can cry and howl to get her way. (Oh my goodness did Miles have a piercing howl the first two days we crated him, you wouldn't think a 3lb puppy could make so much noise.) But if you just want to let her sleep on you sometimes instead of in the crate during the day, I think that's fine.

Try to spend more one on one time with the older dog, working on building her confidence. Since she is already timid, she may be feeling a lack of confidence with the new puppy. Shy dogs tend to have a harder time adjusting to new situations than 'normal' dogs. You may want to visit this website (fearfuldogs .com) and also join the Yahoo group for shy dogs (shy k-9s). You can learn more about your timid dog and how to manage this new behavior from people with similar experiences. Good luck.