PupWatch guide

Your puppy's first nights and crate training: watching and listening

By Tim Grootes, Bumblly · Last updated November 14, 2026

The first nights with a new puppy are short for everyone. Your puppy is in a strange place without its littermates, and you lie awake wondering whether that whimper means a toilet break or just protest. Here is what dog organizations advise, and where watching and listening from another room can help.

We make PupWatch, a dog camera app. The advice on crates and nights comes from the dog organizations we link to. Ask your vet or a trainer about your own puppy.

Night one

Where your puppy sleeps

The American Kennel Club suggests putting the crate in your bedroom, next to your bed, so your puppy feels more secure with you nearby and you can reassure it (AKC). The RSPCA advises a spot where the family spends a lot of time (RSPCA).

Many people start with the crate by the bed and move it later, for example to the kitchen or the living room. That move is where a camera helps: you can see and hear how your puppy takes the new spot without standing at the door.

Crying

When your puppy cries at night

Some puppies settle at once; others cry for a few nights. When a puppy whines, the AKC advises a quick, boring potty break, then straight back to the crate. It adds that night-time trips outside usually end by about four to five months of age (AKC). The RSPCA notes that puppies cannot hold their bladder and bowels as long as adult dogs (RSPCA).

Listening from another room lets you hear the difference between a puppy that is settling and one that keeps calling, without opening the door and waking it again.

Crate training

Crate training in small steps

The RSPCA describes crate training as a series of small steps (RSPCA):

• Short sessions: treats near the crate first, then inside it.
• Stay quietly next to the crate where your puppy can see you, before you step away.
• Make sure your puppy has access to water.
• Never use the crate as a punishment, and never shut a dog in a crate all day.

A camera does not train your puppy. It shows how training goes once you leave the room: does your puppy lie down and sleep, or keep pawing at the door? That tells you whether to add a few minutes next time or go back a step.

Watching

Watching and listening from another room

With PupWatch, a spare phone becomes the camera by the crate and your own phone becomes the screen. When both phones are on your home Wi-Fi, live video and sound are free. A few things matter at night:

• Place the phone outside the crate, high enough and out of reach. Puppies chew: keep the cable out of reach too. Never put a phone inside the crate.
• Keep the camera phone on the charger with PupWatch open. If you close the app there, the picture stops.
• Keep your own phone charging, with the volume up. On an iPhone, listening goes on when you lock the screen.
• Dark room: night view brightens a dark picture. On Android, night view is part of PupWatch Pro.
• Keep the room quiet: turn off notifications of other apps on the camera phone, and dim its screen.

The full setup is in how to check on your dog with two phones.

Limits

What a camera cannot do

• It cannot tell you why your puppy cries. Hunger, a full bladder, cold or loneliness can sound the same.
• It does not replace going to your puppy. If a cry sounds different from usual, or does not stop, go and look.
• It needs power and Wi-Fi on both phones. If either one fails, the picture stops.
• Health questions, such as a puppy that has diarrhea at night or cannot settle at all, belong with your vet.