We are picking up our new pup, Gus (he's a beautiful red), this coming Saturday and have been reading through the amazing information on this site and joined because I had a question. With my first lab I had I did the progression with kennels, always using one that wasn’t too big to keep her from going to the bathroom in it, until she was full grown. For the most part that process worked like it was supposed to, but there were some accidents. Is that process necessary to do or would I be safe buying one that would hopefully be good for life (looking at a 36” for 50-70lb dogs) and not mess up potty training success? Or does it all depend on the dog? Thank you for any help/knowledge!
Hi Blake, It's absolutely fine to get a full sized crate straight away. Just pick one with a divider, so you can make it small enough to discourage your puppy from messing in it. This article has some ideas. Have fun this weekend!
I’ve had two labs and I used a kennel that would accommodate them fully grown, but had the divider so I could use it when they were small. It worked great. I also had a small one I used when they were puppies for our bedroom at night. Once that one was too small, they just started using a doggie bed to sleep on at night.
