How clingy is too clingy puppy

I'm another one who believes baby puppies should be crated right next to the bed. All mine have been. Until they can make it through the night, I sleep in my clothes and if they fuss enough to wake me after a couple of hours because they need to go out, I can hop up, shove feet in shoes, and get them out easily - upstairs bedroom, I carry them out, no talking, no play, just a quick potty trip and back in the crate. In winter, I grab up my coat on the way out the door and put it on outside. That way there's no chance of an accident.

When I was working, my puppies spent their day in some safe confinement where they could move around, play with toys, and relieve themselves. I was fortunate to have a barn for one, used a laundry room with tile floor covered with paper for another, always had a friend stop by midday to take puppy out and play with her a while.

The puppies I've raised in retirement spent most of their days with me, always confined to the room I was in. When I needed to go out or work with one of my other dogs, back to the crate with Kong or something else to entertain them. I ended up with dogs that crate without trouble or complaint at shows, at home, for an hour or hours.

Even back in the dark ages of puppy raising when I was a kid, people allowed for the fact going from litter to alone was hard on a puppy and tried to compensate for it. I can remember my parents wrapping a clock in towels and putting it in the puppy's bed because it supposedly sounded like a beating heart and gave them something to cuddle up to. I'm not saying that worked or would work but that giving a small puppy some extra reassurance it's not alone in the night wasn't considered unreasonable pampering even 50 years ago.

I admit to having no experience with lapdog type puppies. Mine have been large dogs of working breeds, but it seems to me a dog left alone as a baby, upset and lonely every night until it stops crying and resigns itself would be at higher risk of developing separation anxiety than one who felt secure and wasn't stressed. Maybe someone else knows if there have been studies on causes. I found an article on it but don't know if there's a basis for it other than opinion.

What Causes Separation Anxiety In Dogs?

Thanks everyone! The advice is really so split between tough love and letting them cry it out vs being there for them and not letting them get scared in the first place. I think we've taken a middle ground so far. We did have her in our room in a crate for the first 2 weeks or so but then I asked out vet about it when we had a check up and she said we should have her where we want her to be before socialization ends and to take the tough love route. To make her more comfortable, because I suspected she had fear of confinement, we attached a playpen to the crate downstairs and initially that seemed to help. She is in fact the ultimate lapdog being both cav and bichon. She looks almost completely bichon, but I suspect she has a Cav personality.

We have had her for a month now so we were hoping she was at least a bit more secure in her routine and that we weren't going to leave her forever every time she goes to bed at night. To be honest I think something probably scared her the other night, since she seemed to be fine last night.

Appreciate all the thoughtful responses!