Put him in the laundry room and ignore the crying. Keep to your regular potty schedule...

Let me repeat what everyone else has mentioned; if you give him attention in the crate when he's crying, you will reinforce more crying in the crate.

It's probably easiest to stick the crate in the laundry room from the beginning.

Keeping him close doesn't prevent the whining, so why put up with it.
Moving the crate once he starts whining, is in effect, paying attention to him and reinforcing the behavior.

Don't let him lay on your bed. You're only setting yourself up for other problems down the road.

the reason we had put him by the bed in the first place was because of the the books/material i had read said to put the crate next to the bed at night.....

also when you are eating/some other activity where you cannot supervise to put the crate in a common family room....

now im really confused as to what to do....

Joey, I think that you are overthinking this. If you want the pup in the house crate during mealtimes, that's fine. If you want to get some sleep at night, put him in the laundry room at night...

But you must not reward or give any attention to the pup when he's whining in the crate, regardless of where he is.

Some things you can put in the crate to help the pup occupy time:
A kong toy or everlasting toy filled with creamcheese or peanut butter...
A gently worn sock, rolled up, that he can chew on and will have your scent on it...
Any soft puppy toy that he can chew on...

i know...i think i am overthinking this too...just new to it want to do it right...

can i ask your opinion on what we are doing during the day....

my wife and i both work full time...8 to 5ish jobs....my wife is coming home at noon to let him out...because that is about 4 hours or so from the time we leave in the moring till when she comes home for lunch and then from lunch till we get home from work....we put his kennel in the laundry room and then leave the door of the kennel open....lay out news paper offer plenty of toys....is this a good route to take...we are doing this cause 4 hours at a time is a long time for a puppy....at 8 1/2 weeks....to hold his bladder...he has done great...he actually uses the newpaper or puppy pads and doesnt even chew on them......what do you think about this method...at what point can we leave him in the crate for longer than a cpl hours at a time....

i am a teacher...so i am really looking forward to the summer....

Sounds like you're training him to pee in your house.

You can leave him in the crate for a couple of hours at a time, when he is capable of holding it that long.

In the meantime, puppies of that age need to be let outside every couple of hours during the day.

Perhaps you can take an early lunch and your wife can take a late lunch so he doesn't have to go so long.

Or you could hire someone to come in and let the dog out a couple of times a day.

Or, just take the dog to work and leave it in the crate in the car.

Until around 14 weeks old, the dog is going to need several potty breaks a day- and training the dog to use pads or newspapers in the house is really just training the dog to pee in the house.

Having just went through this I will offer a couple of pieces of advice for you and the others can correct it....

Using 2 crates is an excellent idea. Like Mr. Frawley says, I'm not a big fan of having a dog in my bedroom while I sleep. That is my bedroom, not the dogs. Put the dog in the laundry room crate at night when it's time for bed and ignore all the whining. Your dog is going to continue to whine for a while so get used to it, and ignore it.

I work 9 to 5 like both of you and know exactly what you are going through. Like you I came home every day at lunch to let her out. That is fine. I was off for a good portion of the holidays so I paid close attention to how long she could hold it for, it was right at 4 hours. She couldn't hold it any longer than that. So I made sure I was back home at the 4 hour mark and it worked instantly. I put my night crate in the garage pretty close to where I park the car, so immediately after pulling into the garage I had a 2 feet walk to her crate and would let her use the bathroom right next to the garage in the grass. Just keep coming home for lunch. At 12-14 weeks the dog should be able to hold it for a work shift but you'll have to monitor this closely to find out. My GSD can hold it for a full work shift now and then some.

Like they said, when it cries, ignore. You are dealing with separation anxiety (from the dam and the litter) and you are also dealing with crying on the leash when the dog doesn't get its way, ignore this completely. And do not use newspaper or any store bought potty pads, this only teaches, like they said above, that it's ok to use the bathroom in the house. For me and my dog, I wanted to teach her that it's never OK to use the restroom in the house, never, under any circumstances.

And when the dog cannot be attended to, it belongs in the crate, not running free in your laundry room, not at this age anyway, with the crate door CLOSED. I won't go into it, but this will pay off later.

A good option for you, as Alyssa stated, was for you or your wife to take the dog, in the crate, to work, and leave it in the vehicle. Right now, it's winter so it's acceptable. Every couple of hours, go out to the car, give it some water and a potty break, then back in the crate. It will whine, but like I said, get used to the whining. My GSD is 15 weeks old and she still whines when she doesn't get her way, it will go away. I almost started bringing her to work with me but I figured out she could hold it for 4 hours so lunchtime trips home worked for me. I tried it the first day, and she didn't go in the crate, if she had I would have brought her to work with me in the crate. She is a couple days shy of 15 weeks old now and she can hold it easily for 8-9 hours. Those 4-6 weeks before she could were extremely difficult but that's life with a puppy.

If you haven't bought it yet, buy ED's your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months DVD and throw the potty pads in the trash.

never really thought about that....taking it to work....

i have another question...if we are playing and the dog falls asleep on the carpet in the house is it necessary to put the dog in the crate or just let him sleep on the carpet....

The more experiences members will have to chime in but I'd say it's fine and would be welcomed at my house. My dog would never do that while out of the crate. As long as it's supervised sleep, meaning you have your watchful eye on it, you should be good.