My girls are 4 an not 100% house broken, when they get excited they sometimes pee, no matter where they are, but they have all slept with us from day one, just put a towel under them, you are quite likely to wake up at 3 am when they come shooting up from under the covers to pee, all my adults tend to get up mid way thru the night and use the wee wee pad in the bathroom, expecially in winter.
Pat - We have heard SO many things from so many different people/breeders/books about overnight crate training. We've been told everything from "keep it in the bedroom with you so you can comfort him" to "keep it downstairs where he'll be far from you and it's quiet and don't go to him" to "if you're eventually not going to crate him overnight, why would you give him the mixed signal of crating him in the beginning?"
How do we know who to listen to? Yes, we will eventually allow him to sleep in our bed/his bed in our bedroom at night, but only once he's 100% housebroken.
Of course everyone needs to make their own choices…. but IMO (and this is how I have always raised my Basenjis and advise my puppy people to do the same) is that the crate is in the bedroom. I don't want my dogs way on the other side of the house where I can't hear/see them at night... not only the separation factor, but even things like "barfing" in the middle of the night or again as a baby puppy, when they need to go out. With my pups, I would wake them up in the middle of the night 2 or 3 am and take them out to pee or to the litter box (I can do outdoors here is No. Cal).... most every time, they pee immediately and are still not quite awake, put them right back in the crate and back to sleep they go.
That said, I also tell people that if you have to crate your pup during the day, then at night they should be out with their humans... including sleeping in bed. I have never had a pup have an accident in bed unless sick (or very old)... and yes a towel works under them. Baby puppies, especially the girls, I have found can have a bit of a UTI and may pee while sleeping... or they may have accidents when teething...
I think it is important that they are crate trained for a number of reasons, not just house training.
My experience was similar to eeefarm
If you plan on bringing them into the bed/bedroom anyways why not just start out from there? [at least in the crate until older] it shouldn't take them too long to be able to hold their bladder all night. I brought my boy home a little later (9ish weeks) and by that time his bladder was able to withstand the night….he never had an accident in the bed - I ended up using the bed to potty train since he would go in the crate, or anywhere else really, but would never go in the bed voluntarily; the only time he went in the bed was when he had an onset of the UTI (which is how I found out he had one). It was nice having them in the bedroom [if not in the bed] at the very least just in case they throw up or get diarrhea or something.
Are your females spayed? Just curious. I'm hoping to get a female for a second dog eventually but I keep hearing rumors that females [mostly large breed dogs] have a chance of ending up a little incontinent if they are spayed too early….and you have 4 of them so that makes me wonder if this is a common problem in females [though so far I've only heard the rumor that spaying too early causes slight incontinence].
Mine are not spayed, just never became fully housebroken, my fault not theirs. I have one that I have to race to the door I. The Rv to take her out when we are on the road as when she beats me there, she stands up to look out the door window and gravity takes it's toll as she pisses on both of us while I'm trying to get her leash on
Thank you to everyone for all of your advice! Loki stayed in his crate last night in our room, and I ended up sleeping at the foot of the bed so he could see me, and it really made a difference. Much less crying for him, much better sleep for us. It's not the most convenient thing to carry the crate up and down our stairs, but hopefully he'll graduate to his own bed soon.
We think he may also be cold, making the crying worse than just being lonely. His crate is loaded with fleece, but it threw my electric blanket in his crate this afternoon just to test it, and he is very obviously waaaaaaay happier in it now. He still prefers to sleep in my lap, but he stays in his crate when I lay him in it as he's sleeping. Definitely a temperature issue. We left him alone in the crate for 30 minutes today, and he cried much less, even stopping briefly by the time we walked back in (we left a video call on my laptop so we could watch him while we were gone.)
He's still not messing in his crate, which am supremely thankful for. No accidents today, either. Now, to just work on the biting… 
Thank you all for your support! Here are a few photos to show you all what we've done. You'll notice that I have part of the blanket under the door, so he can't chew the cord. Puppy life is so rough 
That is a great start….. about carrying crates... LOL.... I have way MORE crates then Basenjis... I use the wire fold down crates.... and can stack them when not in use... some for the SUV, some for the bedroom, some for the doggy room... it is the house of crates.
A cold Basenji is not a happy Basenji! I think many cases of mischief start with a dog who is uncomfortable. Good that his is happier now!
Glad that you are finding what works..it shows you are committed to crate training…having messed up royally in that arena I now notice the importance of not taking the easy road/avoiding the tough times to avoid upsetting them in regards to crating. Do whatever you have to do to make it work, stay consistent and never give in to the crying (biggest mistake ever!!)
For the next one there's not a chance I will break
awwww . . . what a cutie! you could probably put the electric blanket around the outside of the crate and turn it on to create some warmth. my first basenji "killed" an electric blanket once upon a time. Honestly, she was just trying to figure out the "bones" inside the blanket. there are also snuggle safe microwavable dog pads. they will keep warm all night if the dog is sleeping on it.
And there are Lectro kennels that you can put in that have a protected cord… then you just put the bedding on top. I use them all the time when my girls are having pups. It can get pretty warm, especially in a crate so I would attach a lamp dimmer switch and then I can regulate the heat. Another reason that I use wire crates, the cord can be threaded through any part of the crate
http://www.amazon.com/Lectro-Kennel-Heat-Pad-22-5x28-5-In/dp/B000PSRN20
If I were putting something like this in a crate, I would want to leave a space where the dog could go if he got too hot.
He is definitely a cutie! Great to hear he is doing well in the crate. Our Loki still does not tolerate his well, but Kaia doesn't have problems. They've been in the bed with us from day one. Made potty training so much easier, we all bonded incredibly quickly, and I never move as fast as I do at 2am when someone starts heaving….
Enjoy puppy time. It goes by too quickly!
