Hi everyone, I was just wondering when, if you crated your puppies at night time you decided to stop crating at night time and just let them sleep in a bed in your kitchen etc? Dexter is now 9 months old, and is pretty good at not chewing (don’t want to jinx myself) things when I’m around, I can leave him in the lounge if I need to potter about in the kitchen and he isn’t phased by all the things he shouldn’t chew, he will just chew his toys or go to sleep. At the moment he is in a crate in our lounge for bedtime or when I need to go out however we are thinking of moving his crate to the kitchen in the next few days to make room for the Christmas tree (sounds silly) for December. We will hopefully at some point be keeping his crate in the kitchen but having the door open so he has free reign of the kitchen (we have a stair gate already on the kitchen door) I was just wondering at what age did you start letting your pups have more free reign especially at nighttime? I hope this post makes a little sense I have a tendency of knowing what to say but ending up rambling thanks in advance
Dexter seems like he is doing well. A lot just comes down to the individual dog. I was not expecting her to be de-crated before 10-12 months. We ended up de-crating Lulu at just over 5 months (she is 8 months now). She never chewed anything she was not supposed to and her toilet training went well. We started by giving her free roam of the house, left her alone a few times for a couple hours, each time she was brilliant so decided it was time to de-crate her. Since we have de-crated her, we have let her sleep where she likes, she has a bed in the kitchen and in our room. She is often up with us now. She could be an exception and we will take the same steps with our next puppy in a few months. The first few nights of her being de-crated, we were quite vigilant as we tend to start our day around 6:30am. It was seamless and haven’t looked back. Wishing you like with Dexter
thank you for taking the time to reply! I also read that most owners don’t give their dogs full reign until at least a year but every dog is different aren’t they. I think for now I will move his crate into the kitchen as planned and potentially leave the crate door open and the stair gate on the kitchen door shut for when I pop out gradually increasing the time and see what he’s like, we’ve got a camera that I use in the lounge so I will move that to the kitchen so we can watch and see what he gets up to with more freedom, and then potentially do the same at night time. Lulu sounds like an angel!
We crated our Lab puppy from the start at 9-weeks old. She was sleeping through the night by the time she was about 3-months old. We let her roam freely through most of the house but blocked off the stairs because she would sometimes pee on the carpets upstairs. We never had a problem with her chewing on furniture, probably because we sprayed all of the furniture with a sour apple repellent, and we also provided her with plenty of bones and chew toys. I don’t remember the exact timing, but we started letting her sleep upstairs uncrated at about 8 months age. She had been sleeping through the night with no accidents in her crate for several months when we started leaving her out at night. We got an extra dog bed for the bedroom and kept the door closed so she wouldn’t be tempted to pee somewhere during the night. She has never had an accident since we started letting her sleep upstairs.
Oh amazing! Yes like your pup, Dexter has been crated since the start and we also used the bitter apple spray on furniture and had plenty of chew toys etc! I think he’s definitely heading in the right direction for transition from the crate to no crate. thanks for your reply
I brought one from Pets at home, I think it’s called Grannicks Bitter apple chew spray, you spray on the objects you don’t want your pup to chew and let it dry, I did find I had to reapply a few times however be warned some pups actually don’t mind the taste so may not work for all!
