The puppies have been sleeping in crates at night (with the door open and access to the litter box). They’ve also had time in them during the day when we’re cleaning pens and such.

But I’ve wanted to get them further along in their crate training before they go home to help their new owners out. What that entails is making sure dinner is served around five o’clock and then the dishes picked up before too late so puppies can go potty. They usually crash about nine to nine-thirty. My plan was to go upstairs around eleven to eleven-thirty, wake them up potty, then shut them in the crate for the night, Then, of course, the next step is setting my alarm for five-thirty to six-ish in the morning to let them out for their morning potty break.

I’ll be honest, with this nasty bug that got me down for so long (and I’m still fighting the remnant cough and congestion), the idea of staying up late to wake puppies up to potty and then getting up extra early to let them out tires me out just thinking about it! I just haven’t had the energy.

But last night we succeeded!

After all the puppies, dogs, and horses are “tucked in bed” for the night (usually nine to nine-thirty), that’s my down time to just relax. I usually watch a movie or something that doesn’t take too many brain cells to process. 😉 And I usually fall asleep on the couch before it’s over. 😛

Last night the evening routine wasn’t much different except for the fact when I woke up late to head to bed (I know, why don’t I just go to bed earlier?!), I turned the other direction and headed upstairs to visit the puppies.

They are pretty predictable. When you wake them up, pretty much the first thing they do is go potty. So I piddled around, giving them all a chance to relieve themselves, then put them all in crates (each litter in one crate together for the first night), closed the door,  covered them with a blanket, turned off the light and headed to bed, finally.

I could hear crying as I headed downstairs, but I think it was mainly our youngest litter, the Poodles. They quickly settled down, as did I and off to dreamland we all went.

My alarm startled me awake at six a.m. this morning and I jumped out of bed and quickly headed upstairs to open crate doors so puppies could potty. (By the way, they were quiet before I headed up there. So the key is to wake up before your puppy does!)

Out of the four litters, I only found one little “accident” in a crate. I’d say that’s pretty good for the first night!