Hi all, I am a new member of the forum, currently looking forward to the arrival a beautiful Fox Red Lab puppy (called Rory) on Sunday! My wife and I have done a lot of research (and what seems like a lot of shopping) over the last few months and now everything is almost ready to go. But we still find ourselves with one or two final "pre-planning" questions to resolve before we kid ourselves that we are ready for what is about to come The thing I am wrestling with right now is where to place the crate in our house. The situation is that our bedroom is on the first floor, with living room / kitchen on the ground floor, and my home office (with direct back garden access) in the converted basement. Ideally we would have the crate set up in the home office by day as this is a very puppy proof room (so we think now!); where he will spend his days once my holiday time is over and I return to working here by day; and where we have best access to the garden for "emergency" trips during toilet training / crate training. However, the geometry of the house makes us think that we will not be able to hear the pup stir, or even cry, during the night if he were set up to sleep down in the office. Is there any reason why it might be a bad/crazy idea during the first few months of toilet/crate training to have the crate in the office by day, then to move it up to the kitchen during the evening for sleeping? Or might this be confusing / disturbing for the pup in some way? Thanks!! Pete
A bit difficult to envisage the layout of your house, however, I would site the crate reasonably close to an outside door, meaning in the same room. Consider somewhere where footfall traffic is reasonably low, a quiet area somewhere for your puppy to relax and (hopefully!) switch off. Personally, I like a crate to be in a different room to me so the puppy gets used to being in a separate area, just makes life a bit easier later on down the road. Saying all that, be prepared for all your plans to go awry for the first few nights as pup settles down. We took it in turns to sleep next to our latest puppy for a few nights before moving her crate into the kitchen. Oh, a warm welcome to the forum from the Beanwood gang!
Hi Pete, could you just have the crate in his night time sleeping place where you know he will be secure when you are asleep and can't keep an eye on him, and have a bed for him in your office where you will be with him and can see what he is up to? Or perhaps 2 crates, one in each place - I think you will get tired of moving the crate up and down stairs all the time.
Thanks both for your quick replies, and the welcome to the forum! @Beanwood : I really did do a poor job describing the house layout! The house is built onto quite a steep slope (front is high, back is low). This means that the front door enters onto the ground floor (as you might expect), but you need to go down a set of stairs to exit into the back garden. The only room on this lowest floor (a converted cellar) is my home office, which has direct garden access. So from what you have said I guess most of my instinct was correct that this is the place to have the crate most of the time. I do sometimes take my laptop elsewhere in the house for a "change of scenery", so could also work on a bit of progressive separation in this regard. It just leaves the issue of this being too far from our bedroom to be able to hear the dog stir/cry that makes me wonder about this as a nighttime arrangement (in the longer term... as we are fully ready for a few nights of "camping" by the crate to get started ). @Shaz82 : I think that having a bed in the office and the crate in the kitchen is the long term goal, but for the first couple of months I guess we would want to be using the crate extensively during the day as an aid to toilet training. My wallet already does not know what has hit it in the last month or so, but I think you might be right that a second crate may quickly make its way onto the shopping list!
I had the crate in the kitchen during the day and took it upstairs for bedtime while my pup settled and we discovered toileting needs during the night without any problems. Around two weeks after pup came home the crate was left in the kitchen at bedtime and I knew she was ok until around 5:30 - all pups are different though
I have mine in the utility room and come down to the pup if they need me And welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Keir from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Keir is my fifth Guide Dog puppy, a yellow Golden Retriever/Flatcoat cross and he's nine months old.
