twelve week old miniature poodle in a 700 square foot brooklyn one bedroom with thin prewar walls, neighbors have left two notes in eight days, looking for crate noise reduction recommendations that other apartment puppy families have actually used

Tofu is our 12 week old apricot mini poodle, 6lb, came home 8 days ago, our first dog. we live in a fourth floor walkup in a 1923 brooklyn building where the walls are basically cardboard and i can hear my upstairs neighbor's radio at normal speaking volume. crate training during the day is going well, she settles in 5-10 minutes for naps and is starting to go in voluntarily for meals. nights are the problem.

the issue is that any whimpering at all carries straight through the wall to the neighbors on our shared bedroom wall, and we have already gotten two passive aggressive notes under the door (one polite, one less polite) about the noise between roughly 11pm and 2am. she usually settles by 2am and sleeps through the rest, but those first two to three hours are the problem and we cannot ignore it because we are about 4 noise complaints away from a real conversation with our landlord. what we have tried so far. one, full crate cover with a heavy moving blanket. helped some. two, white noise machine on the dresser between the crate and the wall, the dohm classic. helped some. three, vet okayed a quarter dose of melatonin chew about 30 minutes before bedtime, helped a little but i do not love using it nightly. four, exercise schedule shifted so she has a real wind down play session 90 minutes before bed and then a quiet decompression window before crating. helped meaningfully but the whimpering still happens.

what we are now considering and where i need real opinions. one, sound dampening crate covers from the dedicated vendors that run $80-$150, are any of these actually worth it or is a moving blanket basically equivalent. two, moving the crate from its current bedroom location into our walk in closet with the door cracked, the closet has clothes hanging on three sides which should muffle a lot, but i am worried she will associate the closet with punishment or that we are setting up bad habits. three, soundproof curtains over the bedroom window which i read somewhere actually helps because the apartment is echoing rather than the sound originating only at the crate. four, just giving up and letting her sleep in our bed for the first month and starting the crate work over once she is older and quieter. would love to hear what has actually worked for brooklyn or manhattan or other tight quarters apartment dog families. willing to spend on the right solution. running out of patience and goodwill with the neighbors