[Vanillamom]

Hi, I posted three times before, and every time I did, I got very helpful advice and suggestions - I appreciated those who responded to my postings. So here I am again looking for some advice on another problem with my puppy!

My puppy is now 3.5 months old. She does not sleep through the night. Even when she is really, really tried before going to bed (for example, after she spend the whole day playing with some other dogs), she wakes up in the middle of the night and whines/barks to wake me up. I used to put her into the crate during the night, and she barked and barked almost through the night. Then I bought a play pen and put her in it during the night, and it worked well a while. Now she wakes up in the middle of the night, starts playing (I can hear her chewing), and then starts whining/barking.

I do not mind being disturbed by her, but I can't let her bark during the night, because I live in an apartment and just received a "notice to terminate a tenancy early", which means I could be evicted if my dog keeps disturbing my neighbors. I do not want to move because my pup has adjusted to the present circumstances. So what I recently do is get up as soon as she starts whines/barks, get her out of the pen, and sleep on the floor with her. She plays for a while, sleeps beside me, plays again, and sleeps again, until I get up. Do I have to worry about her sleeping problem??? Or is this common in puppies?

I have two options now, and I do not know which I should take - I would like to hear your opinion, please. If my idea is wrong, could you correct it?

Option 1: Putting the bark-control collar during the night and keeping her in the pen - this is the advice from one of my friends. She as well as I think that it is very important that night is sleeping time, not play time. Anyway, I tried putting the collar on her during the night. She whined intermittently, several times, but never barked. So it worked. However, she stays in the pen during the day, and wears the collar as well. I really feel bad about putting it on her during the night too.

Option 2: Sleeping with her on my bed - I've hesitated to do this, because she hasn't been housebroken yet. Peeing on my bed is not my main concern, but if I let her keep peeing outside the designated spot, that will cause further delay in housebreaking. However, like I mentioned above, she spends lots of time in the pen, although I spend the whole evening with her every day and the whole weekends. So I think it would be a good idea to spend time with her in bed, as recommended by the expert in this forum (thank you, tenderfoot!) Oh, by the way, my pup can hold pee during the night if she needs to - if I let her go during the night, she pees on the floor though....

What should I prioritize for her training? Could anyone help me decided how to deal with this problem?

Thanks!!