So I ended up picking up a 9 week puppy the other day and yesterday was the first night.

I ended up providing his feeding at around 8 PM and then took away his water bowl around 9.  Before going to bed around 10 PM, I took him on a walk and he ended up going both number 1 and 2.

I put him in his crate with a kong and two other toys, nothing else.  The crate is a 36 size, but I have a diver to take away 3/4 of the car.  I had a blanket over the cage to hopefully make it calm.

I set alarms for every two hours throughout the night.

In the end, he had one oopsy.  I went down at 12:30 AM, picked him up, walked him outside and put him in the potty area and said "go potty"  He sat there and then started walking around.  I picked him up multiple times and he just kept walking away.  I put him back in his cage and then at around 1:30 AM I started to smell poop.  Yep, he oopsied in the cage and it was wet because of likely the stress of the move.  He actually ended up eating it looked like because it wasn't all in the cage but more on him.  Thus, I washed him at 2:00 AM haha.

Anyway, am I doing the crate training right?  I think I'm going to try something different where I will do the feeding and final water at 8:00 PM.  Then before bed, take him on a long walk/running around to hopefully tire him out more and hopefully the food/water will pass by then.  I'll set my alarms for the 2 hours and take him out and see how he does this time.  The other thing that I changed was I made the divider bigger because I think it was too tight for him to lay down comfortably.  I'm hoping these minor changes will help but he did a great job without crying as loud as I've seen on youtube.

Any comments/recommendations would be welcomed!

Here is a picture of Loki

As far as the crate size, I think the general rule is that it should be big enough for them to comfortably be able to turn around in, so as long as the divider gives them enough space, you should be okay.
When we got our puppy, we started with every 4 hours at night and slowly increased, I think around 15 minutes every week. She was good about letting us know if she had to go out though, so if the alarm didn't go off, I heard her whine a bit.
Please be careful with walking as it usually isn't recommended before they have all of their vaccinations. Our vet told us after our second set of vaccines, to bring our puppy to some "safer" locations like some outdoor malls in an upscale neighborhood near us where there was a lower risk of her being exposed to dogs that weren't up to date on their vaccines, but still expose her to people as there seems to be a fine line between keeping them safe and isolated and socializing them enough at an early age so they are comfortable around people and other dogs.

Sounds like you've got a good handle on it. He's very cute by the way

There are a few things i might change.

First the feeding time i would probably feed around 7 if he goes to bed around 10. And pick up the water around 8. Gives him more time to digest and less chance to have acciddent at night.

Then its a great idea to tire out the pup. Becareful on long walks/runs. Generally a puppy should get walked for a max of 5min for everymonth of a "structured walk". They can play and romp in yard longer than that but structured walks that are too long for pups can cause hip and join problems.

Did you put anhyjing in the kong when you give it to him at night?
I dont think i would if you do. Thats just another food that would need be processed increasing chance of acciddent.

Then the last thing. I dont know if i am mis understanding but when you take him out and tell him go potty and he walks away.. He might be trying to go. Id let him walk around. I know with koda when i take him out i actually lead him around the yard, it seems like it makes it easier for him to go.

But your doing good! Keep it up! And share pix!!

Reminds me off my puppies first night..lol. I would probably not feed him that late.

Hello all,

Thank you for the insight. The second night went better with no accidents! I slept by the couch last night and will probably this night. If I hear him, I'll peak around to see if he's playing or what he's doing to determine if I need to get up. I then set my alarm for every 2 hours or so. I am about to start my third night but here is the routine I'm starting with him:

7:00 PM - Feeding in is crate
8:00 PM - Water is taken out of the crate and I bring him outside to tire out. I bought a 20inch stake with a 20 foot tie out and brought his ball. I'm able to throw the ball around and he'll chase after it. I'm likely going to buy a longer tie out as there is plenty of space at the park and I underestimated how small 20 feet is.
9:00 PM - I've told him the "kennel up" He doesn't quite know what to do yet but I crawl over to his crate and tap on the inside of the crate and he will go in. I give him a treat and close the door at the same time. I have multiple toys in his crate (Kong ball, tugging rings, squeeky toy and a Blue Wild bone) and by 9:30 PM he is knocked out.

As far as whining goes, he whined the first night which is obvious. The second night he whined but I remember hours of silence where we both were able to sleep peacefully. This third night I'm expecting little to no whining. Today I had the crate open and he would go in there on his own. I'd close the door and leave the room and there was no whining. I left for the gym today, put him in the crate and no whining for the 5-10 minutes I was home getting ready. When I came home, he was asleep. I opened the crate door and he stayed in there and went back to sleep.

I'm going to try to "push my luck" and try to set my alarm for 4 hour sessions. One at 1:30 AM, the other at 5:30 AM and then my normal work wakeup time at 7:45 AM.

Sorry for the long post but just want to make sure I'm doing this all right!

I think you're doing great, and Eric gave you some fantastic advice. My girl, she'll be 2 in November, still needs to move around some before she'll potty, I think it works up the urge. I have one question for you, will you be crating when he's older? The reason I ask is if there's no crate he may get confused with "kennel up", totally understand why you use it now, but in the future he may not be using it. We never crated so I may be dumb in that matter, however we use "bed time" and off she goes and lays down on her bed, just my two cents and was curious. We need more pics, lol. Have fun Loki is very handsome, I just love seeing pics.   

Yeah good call to sleep on sofa. That's what I did for a few weeks. just sleeping in close proximity seems to really comfort the pup and make it easier to get up in the middle of the night to take them out.