Understand what the crying is actually saying
A puppy who cries all night is usually not being stubborn; they have spent their whole life sleeping in a warm pile of littermates, and a silent, solitary kitchen is genuinely frightening by comparison. Crying can also carry simpler messages that deserve checking before any training response: the puppy needs the toilet, is cold, is hungry after a long gap since the evening meal, or has woken disoriented in an unfamiliar place. Rule those out first. A puppy whose needs are met but who is simply lonely needs comfort and gradual confidence-building, while a puppy left to scream for hours learns only that night-time is terrifying, which makes the following nights worse.
Build a sleeping spot that feels safe
Where the puppy sleeps matters more than any single settling trick. For the first nights, a crate or pen beside your bed, or in a room where the puppy can hear and smell people, usually settles a young puppy far faster than exile to a distant room — you can move the crate gradually further away over the following weeks once nights are quiet. Line it with bedding that smells of you, such as a worn jumper, keep the room comfortably warm, and make the crate a daytime nap and treat place too, so it reads as a den rather than a night-only prison. A ticking clock or low background sound helps some puppies; a covered crate helps others, so watch your puppy's response rather than collecting gadgets.
Run the same bedtime routine every night
Predictability is what turns a frightening night into an ordinary one. Finish the evening with a calm play session, a final meal in good time, a last toilet trip, and a few unhurried minutes of quiet stroking before lights out, in the same order each night. Keep your own departure boring — no long emotional goodbyes — and leave a safe chew or stuffed toy for the puppy to work on as they drift off. Puppies who go to bed overtired and wired cry longer, so protect an evening nap earlier on rather than keeping the puppy up hoping exhaustion will do the job; an overtired puppy settles worse, not better.
Respond to night crying without rewarding the noise
When crying restarts at night, wait for a brief pause, then take the puppy out for a toilet trip that is deliberately dull: low light, no game, minimal talking, straight back to bed afterwards. If the puppy has just been out and is clean, dry, and warm, a calm hand on the crate and a quiet voice can reassure without lifting them out for a cuddle party they will request again an hour later. Expect a protest peak as the puppy tests whether louder works, and judge progress over a week — shorter crying spells, longer gaps between them — rather than demanding silence by night three. Consistency between everyone in the house matters, because one person rescuing the puppy to the sofa at the hardest moment teaches the puppy to cry until that person appears.
Know when crying needs a vet, not a routine
Crying paired with straining to toilet, repeated vomiting or loose stools, refusal of food, a swollen tummy, or a puppy who also seems listless and unwell during the day is a reason to call your vet rather than persist with settling techniques. Very young puppies can go downhill quickly, and night distress is sometimes the first sign that something physical is wrong. For the ordinary lonely-puppy kind, the rota is what saves the household's sanity, and KinsLe Care Teams makes that rota explicit: overnight toilet and settling duties for the puppy can be handed between family members night by night, each one marked done, so the load is shared instead of silently landing on one exhausted person.