Hi all! Just a little advice I am looking for: at what age did you give your puppy full room of their crate without the divider? My puppy is almost 7 months old and hasn't had an accident in there for a while (knock on wood). She does well with the room she is given but since she is getting bigger I am thinking that it's time to give her full range of her crate. I will also mention that she is in there for about 6-8 hours a day while I am working but she has a bathroom break here and there. Another question is: I put blankets in her crate to make her comfy but she is starting to tear them apart and destroy them. I am looking for bedding that is not overly expensive and that will fit inside all the way. I cannot stand to hear her nails scrape on the bottom. Like nails on a chalkboard to me! I saw veterinary is helpful but she is a chewer still so I didn't know if that would work and like I said, it's a little expensive. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Hi There, I didn't use a divider as Dexter was 5 months when he came to us....so he had full range from day 1 and no issues. I don't know about your set up ,so excuse me but just from taking the info in this post I would say that is a long time to be crated ....so the more space the better.Dexter was still crated at 7 months if I went out but for never longer than max 2-2.5 hours. That might be a factor in why she is tearing up the bedding?Although they are perfectly capable of tearing up bedding just for the hell of it regardless of their lifestyle arrangements Hmmmm I can understand that ,I used to have a piece of vet bed and put a thick ikea cotton blanket on top....Dexter didn't bother with either but he wasn't a terrible chewer to be honest x
As soon as Willow grew too big for where the divider first was, I let her have the whole crate, and she was fine. So probably about 12 weeks, without looking back at my notes. At 6 months, my two were de-crated, so I'm sure at seven months yours will be fine with the whole crate. How big is the crate? 6-8 hours is a very long time for a dog to be in a crate every day. Could you use a pen arrangement instead? I used vet bed in my crate, and now on the floor. You can buy it on eBay and it lasts really well. My two give it a chew every now and then, but they're 19 months now and I've had it since 8 weeks.
I think I would be tearing up blankets and bedding if I was cooped up in a crate for the day with only a couple of short toilet breaks
Ours has had the whole crate from day 1, he's 12 weeks old now and the crate is from our other dog who's huge so it's the biggest crate we could find. Far too big for him but he's never messed in there. He's only locked in it overnight, when we're at work it pushed against the kitchen doorway so he has the crate and the kitchen to roam in. He can go in his crate as he pleases to sleep and rest we've just put a soft throw in there and a big teddy he likes to lie on. The other dog has the rest of the hallway but they can't get to each other otherwise they'll play unsupervised. I'd definitely give him more than just the crate to be in. Moog is left for about 4 hours a day Max while we're at work
Ours also has had the whole crate since day one with his large teddy and has been fine, never a mess but in the day he has the crate open and a pen arrangement for when I'm out and about so he can move about a bit and play with his toys/Kong.
Try a close knit carpet to fill the area like a berbur. Whatever they want to destroy just remove. Give them an elk antler and see if they can tear that apart.
