To crate or uncrate?

Good day to all! My chocolate, Cooper, is almost 6 months old. Since we got him at 8 weeks he has been crated at night and has done wonderfully (besides a few howls the first two nights). He has never had any accidents in his crate and in the 4 months we have had him has only had 3 accidents in our home (our fault, not his). My question is this...as he gets older should we think about replacing his crate with a dog bed? We live in an apartment and while the crate does not take up too much room it would be nice to just plop down a bed and be done with it. He likes his crate, for the most part. He won't spend much time in it unless it's bedtime or every now and then he falls asleep in there during the day. Should I just keep him crated for the time being? As he gets older I want to be able to just let him roam the apartment when my wife and I are at work or we go out somewhere that does not allow dogs. Thanks for the help!

 

Hi - I personally think this is very much a personal choice. When Bailey was about 4 or 5 months old we replaced the crate (which was only used at night time) with a bed for him and he adapted wonderfully. He didn't stay all night on it, but it gave him the freedom to lay wherever was coolest for him (we had some very in-British weather at the time it was hot day and night!). Now he's bigger his favourite place is our bed - but we are fine with that.

During the day there is a bed for him downstairs and he chooses between his bed, the floor, the sofa or one of our laps - whatever takes his fancy and whatever he can get away with!

I would go with whatever suits you and Cooper best! Good luck

 

We de-crate ours at six months, so far so good!

How is he for chewing stuff when you are around?

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Luckily he only seems interested in his toys! He has never chewed anything we own. He chewed the edge of his blanket when we first started crating him but nothing since. That could just be because mom and dad are there to let him know what he can and can not chew but so far everything has remained in once piece.

 

Thanks so much for the reply! I suppose the only thing we worry about is the potential for him to chew things when mom and dad arent around to correct him and the potential for accidents while not being confined to his crate

 

I'd say give it a try and see what happens.

Bitter apple spray on furniture etc can help


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@Boogie pretty much said it all - you are never going to know until you try - all our dogs are different and there is a certain amount of puppy-proofing you can do to help any chewing issues