This is a recent question from a reader of my website: 

Question:  I am getting a Weimaraner puppy, 10 weeks old.  We have two adult Dachshunds.  My question is, should I crate the puppy in the same area as our Dachshunds sleep?  They are not in crates, they sleep in our utility room.  I would like the puppy to some day stay in there as well, but we are going to crate train it. I just did not know if the puppy would get upset seeing the other dogs loose in the room and it is in the crate?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:  This is a question I receive quite often about crate training the new puppy when there is an adult dog in the home.

There is no formula or right or wrong way.  What I tell dog owners in this scenario is to put the crate where you want until it doesn’t work.  What I mean by that is that if you want the puppy to eventually sleep in that room start the crate training in that room and see how the puppy does.

- Does he scream, cry, and bark as he views the other dogs?  If he does let it go for a few days.  If it continues beyond that you may want to try changing the location of the crate.  Changing the location of the crate shouldn’t set you back in the long run with having the puppy sleep in the utility room.  The idea behind the crate is to condition the puppy to calmly sleep through the night.  Once the dog understands that concept very well it should be a simple task to apply that understanding to your utility room.

- Does he learn to calmly be in the same room as the loose dogs?  If this is the case you don’t have a problem.  Like I said, there is no right or wrong way.  Often times there is no harm in experimenting with your dog training efforts and seeing what works best.

 Good luck!