I'm currently in the process of raising my first puppy (a Dachshund). She's 6 weeks old and about to get her first vaccine.
I've had a few dogs before and even litters from my previous pets, but never a puppy on my own.
The problem I'm facing is that this puppy has a lot of energy at night and I'm having serious trouble getting sleep. We spend lots of time together (since I work from home) and she's generally calm or playful, but generally obedient during the day.
I've tried a few different things, like trying to tire her out a few hours before bed, not feeding her at night, etc. Even if she's exhausted she'll get restless a few hours into the night, even when not needing to pee.
I've built a "puppy safe" zone in my kitchen which has a door that leads to an outside area (not really "outside" as it still has walls and a roof and it's technically inside the apartment) where she pees. I generally feed her in the kitchen and put her crib there (crate training is not common and frowned upon here).
Sorry for all the details. My question is: can I try to get her used to spend the night in her crib here? While we get a lot of quality time during the day, I wonder if it would be bad for her health to sleep alone this young. At the same time, I'm having very rough nights and I'm concerned about my work performance / social relationships during the day (sleep deprivation gets me rather cranky and makes it hard to think at work).