Hi Sas,

In my experience, I'm used to people using the term "crate" to refer to all kinds of enclosures -- the plastic molded ones as well as the wire ones. The plastic ones (with the wire windows and wire doors) are the kind that we've always used because they are more private without the need for a towel or blanket covering them.

Susan, in answer to your question as to what to do at night -- I am not an expert, but I can tell you what has always worked well for us. And that is to have the puppy enclosed within the crate at night, but nearby so that you can hear if it wakes up and is restless. That way you can immediately respond to a need for a potty break. But this will keep the puppy from wandering around the room at night and going potty (or creating chewing damage) while you are blissfully sleeping.

As Saskia says, you do not want to close a puppy into a crate until you've completed the process of familiarizing it. So to begin with, you may want to find some other way of "corraling" the puppy at night -- perhaps maybe using an exercise pen. Since our bedroom is also upstairs, I've always spent the first nights with a new puppy downstairs. I've been willing just to sleep on the couch with the puppy in a nearby exercise pen. That way, we were very close to the door and it was fast and easy to take the puppy out during the night for at least one scheduled overnight potty break (plus any other needed ones). But once the puppy was comfortable with being closed inside the crate, that became it's "bedroom," both overnight and for daily napping and quiet time. I agree that the crate should never be used as a punishment. Rather as a quiet den when it is naptime or when your attention needs to be elsewhere and the puppy needs to be confined so as not to be wandering around getting into mischief (yes, I have gnawed table legs and even a chunk chewed out of the drywall of my dining room to prove what an unattended Lab puppy can accomplish in a very short amount of time...).

Marianne