We have a young rescue pup (part dachshund/beagle/cavalier King Charles spaniel). We picked him up at 6 weeks old and he is almost 8 weeks old now. Since day 1 he has actually been pretty good about being in his crate for the most part.
One thing though, is for bed time I generally let him fall asleep on me when I am sitting on the couch/at my computer and then I will place him in his crate. This isn't surprising to him because he will stir awake when I go to place him in the crate and he will just fall right back asleep once he is placed in his crate. I must mention though, his crate is in my office and I sleep on the couch in my office right next to the crate, so I am sure that helps. Though he may see me leave my office sometimes and it's like 50/50 on if he will put up a fuss about it. Throughout the night he wakes up maybe 2-3 times. Usually when he wakes up he will whine/cry a little and I will take him out to just go pee/poop in his play area since he can't go outside yet (he is getting his first round of shots this weekend). He may not always go to the bathroom as well. At this point if I am awake (I am a night owl) I may just let him fall asleep on my lap or on my couch again and then place him in his crate. If I am asleep I may just place him right back in his crate after he goes to the bathroom so I can fall asleep. If it's not crazy late he may cry/whine for a few minutes before settling down and falling asleep again. The last time he wakes up in the night, right around 3-5am, I will try to put him back in his crate, but his crying/whining is pretty incessant (like he won't stop). So I end up just placing him on the couch with me to sleep on my chest until I get up around 6am.
I know I have read that it's kind of a terrible idea to let your puppy sleep with you because then they just will kind of expect it for the rest of their lives, but based on what I described above am I building that bad habit considering he will sleep in his crate pretty easily for the most part?
submitted by /u/Xkwizito
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