Hi everyone I was just looking for some advice, please. Lola is just passed 6 months and sleeps in her crate every night. She sleeps very well in her crate and knows when it’s bedtime etc. We were thinking, soon, we might let her sleep at night out of her crate as she is very comfortable on our couch and at the weekends (when she awakes a little earlier than we hoped) we let her out her crate, toilet stop and bring her up to our bed for a sleep in. When did everyone stop crating at night time? and did you have any problems crating during the day if puppy wasn’t in crate at night? Thanks x
Hi, we started to leave the crate door open at night when Isla was 9 months. She had always slept well in her crate but it was very warm weather and we were worried she was to hot, as her crate had warm bedding and was covered in a blanket to create a"den". After we left the door open she was able to come out and lay on our cool wood floors if she was to hot. This caused no problems at all with her being in her crate during the day. We're now trying to decide whether to put her crate away altogether as she's now 19 months old! It seems we are always worrying about something with our dogs. Good luck
We stopped closing the door on his crate around 7 months day and night and found he was much more settled. We kept the crate for another year after that as useful for certain situations (eg supermarket deliveries, broken glass on the floor) but actually found we could manage even those situations without it.
Kyko's will be 15 months next week, we still have the crate at night as he enjoys sleeping in there & has really good settled rest. We don't use a crate through the day, as he has never been destructive with anything other than his own toys
We quit closing the crate at about 4 months, but kept the crate around for 4 years. Cooper liked to sleep in it some times during the day. At night she sleeps on our Queen sized dog bed..
Our pup is also 6 months old. We stopped using the crate around a month ago. She was always happy using it but we never closed the door, we used it in conjunction with a pen to restrict her at night. However, the whole set up was a bit cumbersome and other half decided he couldn't be bothered with it any more! We introduced her to her bed over the course of several evenings while she still had her cage and then put everything else away. I thought it was far too soon but we haven't looked back. She's restricted to the kitchen overnight and, despite often being a little monkey during the day, she behaves wonderfully through the night! Generally, we're finding that the more we can 'normalise' things, the sooner she learns to ignore permanent fixtures – tea towels hanging down, clothes on the back of chairs etc! Good luck with yours.
My dude is about 5 months. Still growing in some puppy teeth. Nearly done though. Still use his crate religiously. He is destructive and hyper. He does not settle unless he goes in the crate. When loose, he wants to destroy things and run all over. I actually am planning to upgrade the size of the crate so he can keep using it for the forseeable future. He is not a Labrador. He's a muttador. With that said... My other dog stopped using his probably around 7 months and nearly never uses it now. He is 7 years old now. He will go in there if the house is chaotic or if there are strangers he isn't fond of... But he otherwise never goes in there. He is not allowed to sleep on my bed. He sleeps on the floor at the foot of my bed. Also a muttador.
We stopped crating poppy at night when she was 3 months old! She has a bed next to our bed which she sleeps in at night! before we go to sleep we have cuddles on the bed and then when we say “ok bed time” she jumps off into her bed and sleeps there until she wakes me up at 7am for breakfast and to go toilet ! Then she comes back into our bed for morning cuddle haha (she sounds so spoilt). Sometimes i do wake up at like 2am and find her cosied between us on the bed . I was worried at first she would get up to mischief if she wasn’t crated but we must just be lucky because she just sleeps through the night in her bed! I think the fact she sleeps in our room, and has since we brought her home (8 weeks old) helps as that’s where she feels most safe. we have her crate In the living room now with the door off and she’ll go in there to chew a chew, or play with a toy sometimes. I do shut her in it when I go out though (never more then 2 hours , and only twice a week) as she is known to rip up the carpet and she likes to pick up random things.. cardboard etc and chew them and rip them up. So I don’t trust her on her own alone just yet. But she doesn’t mind because she knows she will get her kong filled with something tasty so as soon as she sees me get it she runs into her crate haha
