When you get a new puppy, how long on average do they cry and yelp during the night? Until what age or for how long?

I'm going to make a few assumptions.

1. The puppy is recently taken from a litter.
2. Puppy is in the house and not being left outside all night long this young.
3. People are spending time with the baby during the day in place of mom.

A puppy - one less than a year old will usually settle in at the most a month, that is if she or he is getting enough attention and is being brought into the pack or family and knows that they are safe, loved and are not in danger.

Dog Psychology 101: Dogs are pack animals, they are social creatures that are designed to live in groups. The adapt well to human families as long as the family is around. If you are planning to having this dog stay outside all the time and or to be left along all day long then I strongly suggest either giving to adoption to someone else or to get another puppy to raise it with.

Being left along for any length of time 6 month old and younger is like leaving a 3 year old alone. A general rule of thumb - dogs age 7 years for 1 human year - roughly, so you can figure that at one year old the puppy is 7, at six months old its 3 1/2... roughly.

Being left in another room alone is a very scary situation for a puppy. Remember they come in litters of 4 to 6 on average plus mom was there at night all sleeping together, bodies touching the scent of each other right there. Suddenly moving alone to a big strange human place, then being forced to be alone all the dark lonely night.... I imagine we all would cry and yelp at night if that sudden change took place.

I will assume you have a pet cage already, if not its time you think of one. If you have one put puppy in it, cover with a blanket leaving one end uncovered, preferably the end that faces you. This makes a "den". In the wild dogs den, dig holes, get into enclosed, semi dark areas. These are safe places.

Make a safe place for your puppy. Seriously consider getting a pet cage, or dog cage. One that is large enough to accommodate your breed of dog when full grown. Make that his/her sleeping place his/her "den".

Start off with the den in your bed room next to your bed - to where puppy can see you, smell you and hear you. For the first couple of nights you might have to keep the door closed - however to not make the cage into a "bad place" by only putting the puppy in there when misbehaving or just for bed time - through out the day put puppy in the cage with the blanket over it, maybe a chew toy or a treat - After about a week of this puppy will start going to his/her den for naps and when they need to feel safe.

For the sleeping, after about a week move the den/cage to the door, next to the door with the door open. After a week more move the puppy and cage right outside the door, another week down the hall... after that the cage or den is also the puppy's bed-room and he/she will feel comfortable in it no matter where in the house the cage is.

During the day move the cage to where ever the family is, if its the kitchen, then put the cage in the kitchen, if its the TV room then there it should be.

After about oh say two months you should have the cage in the place you want puppy to sleep at night, by this time you should be able to leave the cage there and puppy will, when tired or anxious or just wanting to be alone, go to "his/her room".

Trust me a cage is not a bad thing to have, even for a 100% indoor dog. Thunder storms will cause your dog to run to the den. When they are sick (for anything) they will stay in their den.

Other puppy stuff - a heads up if you will.

Accidents (potty) can go on for about a year some times two years. They will be pretty much potty trained earlier than that but excitements will cause accidents that and puppy forgetfulness. Also if YOU do something to irritate them they will purposefully do their thing in the house. Doing "their business" in the house will be a part of the dominance issues you will have to settle. Dogs will, even adult dogs, get it in their head to question the pecking order of the pack now and then.

Chewing will go on for two years. After two years he she will stop chewing on things. They need to chew for the first two years, tooth growth and tooth cleaning is part of it. I would strongly suggest getting either pigs ears or raw hide and have plenty of it around.

We lost a dining room table, shoes, slippers, a leather jacket... Puppy chewed through one of the legs of the table when we were gone one day.

Potty time/Potty place: You are blessed to have a puppy - but with puppies can come "land mines" in the back yard. No fear - it is relatively easy to teach puppy to use one corner of the yard/garden for potty. The trick is that you need to leash the puppy and walk them to the spot and let them do their business and praise them. When you do let puppy off the leash and s/hje goes else where a stern "bad dog" and nudging them to the potty place is needed. In the case of BM DO NOT pick it up in front of the dog - they will assume this is your job. Instead wait until she/he is elsewhere and pick it up - if it was out in the yard then move it to the potty place.

Trust me it will protect your lawn, flowers, walls (for males) to train them to a corner.

Digging: Dogs dig. Remember the den? That is one reason why dogs dig the second is that they do not have that many sweat glands - a dog will dig down to the moist cool earth and lay in that to cool off in the summer. In the colder months the earth is usually a tad warmer than the air so they lay in the hole to stay warmer.

With that in mind. You can try to designate a free digging place, however they get it into their head that the spot they want to dig is the best spot. If you allow them to dig a hole in one place they usually will not desire to dig up the whole yard.