Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy Oh no Rolokris! That sounds terrible! Hopefully it was a one off and it won't be too expensive to put right!
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy We sometimes fall asleep on the sofa (ok, quite often recently - we both seem to be overtired at the moment) and the pups are free to mooch as they wish. They move very little until the morning, which has made me think it would be OK to decrate them at night. But, they love their crate, take themselves in there a lot and I don't feel a need to have them out at night. Once they're adults, I plan on not having to crate them during the day when we pop out for an hour or two, but for now, it's much better to know that they're safe. I also have a security system set up with a camera pointing at the crate so I can see how they're doing. I couldn't do that if they were loose - although, I suspect I'd just have to point it at the sofa to see where Shadow was
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy We have started to leave Ozzie's pen door open at night as we had to take his crate away when he was about 4 months old because he was too big for it and it was an XL crate and the next size up on was too big for the house he has a comfy bed but has a pen which divides our lounge in two really. Anyway on the 1st night ever heard from him until our alarm went off at 7.30 and he came pounding up the stairs all excited to get to us, and the same the 2nd night, on the 3rd night we had to shut the pen gate as my OH was leaving at 4am for a business trip and we didn't want him to get excited and wake me because OH had gone. so last night was a night with the pen gate open again, and he came up at 1.30am stuck his nose in my face, so I told him no back to bed, and he went back downstairs then he must of snuck back upstairs without me knowing and he was asleep in doorway of the bedroom when I woke up this morning, and so far no destroying of anything But in the day we leave him with run of the Kitchen and the pen bit of the lounge, I think we will be doing this for a bit longer yet, as he just likes to put everything in his mouth haha!
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy I don't really want to upset how great things are. Rolo goes to bed when we do which can be as early as 8.30pm and as late as 1am. My hubby sometimes leaves at 5am and sometimes earlier, on weekdays it's school so me and kids are up at 7.30 Rolo just lays in his crate even if he's awake he doesn't make a sound. When I'm up he knows it's breakfast time. I am very pleased with our night routine so am loathed to change anything. Can I leave him in his crate forever? Will need a bigger crate tho i know.
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy Hi all, I'm in the same kind of dilemma at the moment. Amber is 10 months and very well behaved in the house. No chewing, no accidents. She is crated overnight and when we're out. Wakes in the morning when she hears us stir and comes straight out for toilet and breakfast with whoever is first downstairs (normally sleeps from 10:30pm til 6 or 7 am). Her crate is in the hallway. When she comes to work overnight with me she sleeps on the bed with me as a treat for being kenneled while I look after my patients. She is good as gold and doesn't stir til I do. My issue is our house is very open plan, kitchen lounge and dining room all in one so unless I set up a gate system it's sort of an all or nothing type situation - plus she'd set off the burglar alarm (we could rejig the zones though). I think she'd be trustworthy but I wonder if she woke up for some reason would she re-settle or cause mayhem while we slept. She does like to chew, rag and hump the odd cushion. Also she loves her crate, runs in it when asked and whenever we've been out she's either asleep when we come back or is stretching as if she's just got up. So part of me thinks, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. When visiting friends, we took Amber's bed (but not crate) and put it in their kitchen with their dogs while we went out for dinner - came back to a sleepy pup in her bed and no accidents so she is clearly capable. One week in 3 she is crated a fair bit due to my working hours (her 'nan' does a lunchtime visit if OH is also out at meetings all day - often he's only out 4 hours ish) but is out a lot the other two weeks. The longest she has ever been crated in one stretch other than overnight is 7 hours (a one off - which she was fine with) normally 5 hours is our absolute maximum. What do people think?
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy Sounds like a tricky one. Could you not start with putting her bed next to the crate in the hall and see what happens?
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy Alex, I feel the same about Monty and his crate, at just under a year I had hoped to begin de-crating, but I can't quite trust him not to chew - he hasn't destroyed anything major in the house (slippers, shoes, toys, magazines etc accepted) but I can't trust him yet- just last weekend he very lazily stretched out in the lounge doorway and put his jaws gently around the door frame and gave a tiny chew - left for even just five minutes goodness knows what havoc he could cause. He too seems to like his crate, willingly goes in at night time and when we leave him on weekday mornings - always gets a treat and has always had a walk, so I'm going with the 'if it ain't broke' view. It's not what I expected it would be like by now, but it works for us and him and I'm sticking with it for a while longer yet.
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy My two (3 years and 16 months) still have their crates and are very happy to use them. If I'm going out they watch me prepare their kongs and then rush into their crates! They're still lying down sleepily when I return and go to let them out - I tend to 'potter' for a couple of minutes rather than go immediately to see them. Occasionally I leave them out, but yesterday returned to find that Tuppence had carefully covered the hall floor with shredded rope from the new rope ball that I'd forgotten to put away before I left! It would be good to have the crate spaces back, but on balance it works well: I know they're safe and usually fast asleep!
Re: De-crating & Leaving Puppy Thanks for that. Maybe we'll leave things as they are for now. We have talked about converting our coal shed into a dog bedroom for her or maybe gating the kitchen but I guess there's no rush. Most importantly we have a really happy puppy so maybe let her lead the changes.
