I think I want to start decrating Murphy but im unsure how to go about it all. The reason I want to start de crating him is because i noticed at the weekend that he can no longer fully stretch out in the crate. As he is only 10 months it is possible he will get bigger and I then feel it would be mean to put him in the crate for long periods of time. At the moment the max he is left is 3 hours in one go in the day and that is maybe twice a week max. We haven't got room to buy a bigger crate and tbh we never wanted to stick with it forever anyway. We only used it to start with for toilet training and being in control to prevent anything getting chewed! However He has never shown any signs of really chewing anything he shouldnt other than the odd shoe, so i am not worried that this would be an issue. And we wouldnt let him have full run of the house anyway he would be shut in the kitchen. The only problem is, the couple of times i have tried leaving him shut in the kitchen for like 10 mins and have videod him he was extremely anxious and whining and pacing, and once the dog walker didnt shut he crate properly so he was out for about 2 hours in which time he had made an awful mess weeing everywhere and the neighbours said he made a racket also (i mentioned this in a post earlier this year). So just wondering the best way of going about de crating him fully? So he would still sleep ithe kitchen, but rather than in a crate hed be on a bed, and when out he would just be in the kitchen. Thanks in advance!
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day We are getting to the same stage as this with puzzle so interesting to see the replies. The only difference is that she has plenty of room in her cage but it was only supposed to be a temporary measure, and we need it for barley to go in at times
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day Hi Frankie....just wanted to check that your crate is in the kitchen? That he can access his "cave" when you leave him in the kitchen. I know...silly question probably...
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day Hiya Yes it is, so to begin with we would leave the door open so he can still go in there if he wants to but eventually we would hope to have no crate at all, but that is in no rush to happen.
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day Hmmm.....honestly this isn't a solution to everything...but have you tried leaving him with a stuffed kong to occupy him when you shut the door? I seem to have been singing the virtues of Kongs lately :
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day Years ago, when my spaniels got decrated (quite young, never madea move to chew a thing...) they went from crates in the utility room to crates with open doors in the utility room. They were not a problem, but as already said, chewing was never an issue. Clare
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day Love to know how you get on, we tried he was great for the first couple of nights then scraped the wallpaper on the third night :
Re: Decrating both overnight and when left during the day I slowly started letting Poppy spend more time out of her crate after about 6 months or so. I'm not saying there weren't some minor 'cushion-killing' episodes… but on the whole she was pretty good. I think the first time I left her out of the crate it was for about 15 minutes, then the next time 30 minutes, then we went shopping one day, and then finally I let her stay on the couch with the other dog overnight…
