Originally Posted by adp25

I just got my 8 week old shih tzu on Sunday evening. He is very well behaved. The first night he slept soundly in his crate... not a peep and no accidents. We put him in around 11:30-midnight and took him out around 7am.

The next night, he went to bed fine, but woke up at 130am and cried for about 15 minutes and then went back to sleep. Then he woke up around 550 and cried until i got up and took him out, but he didn't pee. Then i realized he had peed in his crate over night at some point...
Then last night, he cried for 10 mins when we put him to bed around 11pm, then woke up at 250 and proceeded to cry until 650am.

Our vet advised us to ignore him in the middle of the night, and if he messes in his crate, clean it up and proceed as normal. He said he is too young to realize that he needs to go out to pee, so ignoring him is out best bet. He is a very good pup otherwise, loves attention and affection (which makes me think he is just lonely in the middle of the night). He does not have many accidents indoors during the day. We take him out every couple of hours and he usually goes, no problem.

He has also been whining when in his crate at all. We have been trying to make the crate a safe and nice place for him, even moving his food in there etc. I try to put him in there while i am in the room as well so he can get used to it, but he cries when he cant see me or my husband.

any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am really looking for reassurance that we should continue to ignore him in the middle of the night as our vet suggested... I have read so much that says the contrary. Has anyone else done this with their pup and it worked out successfully?

Thank you