Henry, just over 4months old has grown out of his puppy crate now! He likes to sit in it sometimes but can't stretch out to sleep. We'd planned to move to a large crate this weekend... But we've tested the water this week by putting him in his crate as normal then leaving his crate door open for the night with an extra piece of VetBed outside the crate door. Every morning I've come down and he's been stretched out on the VetBed! He seems perfectly happy outside of the crate and isn't a chewer so he can be left downstairs no problem, so I'm wondering whether we do actually need to get a big crate at all? Or Is it important for the pups to still have their crate environment for a few months longer? I've read mostly people keep a Crate until their pups are 1? Thanks
Fred was out of his crate by 4 mths. We left it up with the door open so he could go in at night if he wished, but he slept out side in another bed we had for him. He was no trouble and when he was 7mths we put the crate away. He never chewed anything and like Henry was happy.
I really don't have any experience with this so I can't offer any advice. Lucky that you don't have a chewer! My pup would eat my entire house if I allowed him to roam free!
I moved Molly on to a larger crate when she was about 4 months old. She is a boisterous one and a chewer to boot. She was quite happy in her crate and we decrated her this summer when she was about 18 months. I am lucky in that I live in a largish house with the space for a large crate and I think it is a good idea to retain the crate for a while, having somewhere secure to put a dog can be a god send.
My Tatze is still in her crate (2 1/2 years old) and loves it - 42 inches. Gypsy was de-crated at 5 months and Twiglet never had a crate and was in a puppy pen but climbed out (!) so she was free in the kitchen from 4 months. I put bitter apple on the chair and table legs and a very thin smear of vicks on the skirting board. Plenty of chew toys/nylabones. She's been just fine Twiglet climbing out of the puppy pen lol.
I do think it depends on the dog, and on your house - how much space is available.... There is a sort of garden room off my kitchen, the previous owner of the house used it as an eating area, but we find a table in the kitchen is fine for us, so that space is given over to a dog space. It has a crate in it, and whelping pen panels to create a pen outside the crate. I use this whenever I go out, or need Charlie out of the way, so have no intention of getting rid of it. He sleeps on the bed at night, and the sofa during the day in between walks and activities....so in a way he is "de-crated" but when I leave the house, he is in his pen.
My one yr old lab has been in a crate since I got him at 10 weeks old. I did go up to the larger crate which he is happy with. He sleeps during the day on the floor or sofa, but night times he's in his crate. I'm planning on starting to leave the door open for him to come and go, like the others he's not a chewer thank goodness Hachi decides at night when he wants to go to bed and takes himself off to his crate, but there are nights when he doesn't want to go to bed and a small puppy biscuit does the trick but that's not often. I'd give him a try for a.few nights and see how you get on. If it doesn't work then get him a bigger crate. It's trial and error at this age I'd say. Shelly x
I've never used a crate (had 3 dogs from pups). There is a risk of chewing, but otherwise they've each seemed quite happy choosing their own spots. (My last Lab made his spot under the piano stool!)
Can I ask those of you who don't have a crate or pen....a big reason why I leave my dog in a crate or pen when I leave the house is because of the house alarm. Even if I set it not to go off for movement below 1m (or whatever) my dog would probably jump on something, have a quick counter surf etc. and this would set off the alarm. Don't you have burgler alarms? They are so inexpensive these days, I thought everyone had them, really. Or if you have them, how do you set them in order to allow a dog to free range in rooms when the alarm is set?
The dogs are our burglar alarm... LOL The crate is all dusted down ready for pup next weekend could not do without one, crate that is.
I'm not much help ,Dexter is our first dog ,he liked his crate and had no issues with it so I didn't rush to decrate him....he wasn't an 'illegal' chewer but some of the harder chews I had I wouldn't have left him with unsupervised so if we went out he was crated with kongs just in case he fancied a bit of illegal chewing.The Fact that he sleeps whenever we leave him ( I've left the iPad filming him so many times!) made me feel ok about him being in there ...he just settled down for a snooze. Nobody has house alarms in Dubai Julie,in fact I only started locking my doors when we got Dexter so no one tried to take him! X
JulieT Ella goes outside when we go out so we can still put our alarm on. We do have a gate up in the house though so can lock her safely in the laundry/part of the kitchen (this is where she sleeps at night) which I think we'll have to use during summer if we have to leave her on a particularly hot day so that we can leave her in the air-conditioning. The only time my OH decided it was a good idea to let Ella have free range of the house unsupervised we ended up with teeth marks in the Samsung Tablet! He said "she's six months now, I thought she'd understand to respect our property" haha, oh well...
No crates (but then ours were both older when we got them), no house alarm to worry about. Quite laid back here - we lock up when we go out - but I usually forget.
Maybe best not to announce on the internet if you do not have a house alarm.... It is often not that hard to track people down from their internet activity just by using Google and the telephone directory....
I 'sold' my husband on the idea of a new dog as a security measure. We sometimes refer to Molly as "the head of security". Her other nickname is "Prewash"
I tried to de-crate Indy at 4 months without much luck, he is a chewer! We had to buy a 42" crate. He is de-crated now at 1 however he still sleeps in the crate with the door open. I am trying to slowly get rid of his crate as it takes up so much space however anything I buy soft or plastic in the way of beds will get chewed so I'm letting him grow up a little bit more. Just do what feels right for you and if it doesn't work try something else. Everyone's dogs are different.
I am considering a trial of leaving the crate door open over night and seeing how Dexter gets on l, he is 4.5 months only and although he does enjoy his crate he loves his bed so much more- it's actually a physical effort to get him off the bed and out for a wee before bedtime! My question is, if we manage to decrate him successfully overnight, what about when we leave the house? Would anyone suggest letting him have the run of the downstairs-as he does normally when we are home? Or should we restrict him to one room? If we need to restrict him I'm nervous about the living room (soft furnishing etc) but I'd feel bad restricting him in the kitchen where it's a bit colder and smaller!
