yep, we've already decided that she will not be sleeping upstairs with us. because first of all, she doesn't know how to use the stairs. second of all, she still goes pee at night, so we wouldn't want her to pee all over my room, or in her own doggy bed for that matter.

we have tried putting her in when she appears to be tired - however, as soon as we put her in, she all of a sudden musters up some more energy to stay awake and scratch at the gate, attempt to jump over it, and cry a whole lot - even if she knows we're there.

the gate does have a small pet door that she can fit through. i've taught her to go in and out of it, and she's gone in there occasionally on her own. however, i still think she views it as a place we put her for punishment - which is clearly not what we're trying to convey it as. we leave the pet door open whenever she's free to roam about the house. she's gone in there to drink water and whatnot, since her water bowl is there. her toys are usually in there as well, unless she carries them out herself. her bed is also in there, with puppy pads for potty in an opposite corner.

she peed and pood on the puppy pad earlier today, but when brought out, she made a huge accident on the floor a couple of hours later. i don't think she knows yet to go back to the puppy pad when she needs to go potty. would there be any strategies for this? usually when she has an accident, we carry her in ourselves to tell her to pee on the puppy pad, but should we be letting her enter herself through the pet door, and then telling her?

i'm assuming it wouldn't be a good idea to put her in there directly after she makes an accident on the floor, otherwise she'll begin to associate her fenced off area as an area of punishment. do you think it'd be okay to put her in there after walks? she tends to be really tired after walks, so perhaps putting her in there will help. but she does stay up and begin to cry, so i'm not sure what we can really do with regards to that.