Transitioning out of the crate?

[MaggieDog]

The crating thread got me thinking: how do you go about transitioning your young or new dogs into sleeping outside of their crate at night?

 

Transitioning during the day seems easy enough (just build up over time), but at night you're asleep so you can't build up and you're not as likely to be able to catch the dog doing something he shouldn't.

 

I started leaving Maggie out of her crate during the day waaay before I left her out at night, but now I'm looking at doing the opposite with Z. I'm gone 9 to 10 hours during the day with a short break midday so it's hard to work up to the 4 or 5 hours she'd need to be loose during the day *and* Z's housetraining has just now turned the corner (she now tells me when she needs out instead of pottying if she's not let out proactively every hour or 2). At night I'm at least available for her to "ask" to go out if needed or if something else happens. This morning she slept with me for an hour after being let out and she's slept with me on the couch for several hours before with no problems, but nothing approaching the 8 hour mark and nothing without her touching me the entire time.

 

Thoughts? Pointers? How'd you all do it with your dogs? How did you know they were ready?

[diane allen]

I had my pup's crate right next to my bed, in a corner. He was always VERY good in it, sleeping till one of the other dogs woke him up! When I thought he would sleep through the night uncrated, I put the same bed on the floor, and put up my soft x-pen as a 'barrier' between the wall and the bed. He COULD jump up on the bed to get out, but I would wake up at that point. He never did this! I gradually just opened up the x-pen. Occasionally I would find him out on a chair (where he is allowed to hang) in the morning - but most of the time, he just stayed right there in the corner. What a good boy he is!

 

diane

[Root Beer]

Sammie never slept in a crate. He always behaved in our bedroom at night.

 

Since Speedy was a puppy when we got him, he did sleep crated for a few months. Finally, we puppy proofed the room as much as possible and left him out one night. He had an accident, so we knew he wasn't ready. We tried again a few weeks later. Still not ready. Finally, he made it through the night and after that he slept out. Interestingly, he is the only one of my dogs who prefers his own sleeping spot at night. I don't know if it's because he slept in the crate for the first months of his life, or if that's just him.

 

Maddie resisted sleeping in the crate from the get-go, but we started her sleeping in the crate anyway. She was 2 years old, but I was convinced that she had to start out in the crate. After we had her a month and a half, we went on vacation and decided to let her sleep out at the cottage. She did fine and she was always out after that.

 

Dean spent the first night with us on the bed loose. He has always slept free, except for a couple of nights when he wouldn't stop playing and I ended up having to crate him to get some sleep. That seemed to teach him to play quietly enough not to disturb us!

 

So, I guess my answer is trial and error!!

 

I'm actually finding transitioning during the day a bigger conundrum with Dean. I trust him out when I'm not home for an hour or so. I'm not sure about leaving him for a whole work day unsupervised yet. I've been taking him to work most days to avoid having to make the decision of how to handle this!

[silhouettestable]

With pups I've always had their crate beside my bed so I could get up easy to let them out (when they're little) As they learn to hold it and sleep through the night, that's just what they do, sleep. Once I'm sure that they're housetrained, I just start leaving the crate door open at night. I can't remember ever having a problem doing that. It's the daytime hours I'd worry more about, when they're awake and looking for things to do. My pups Rain and Storm are now 10 months old and I still crate them most times if I'm away during the daytime. I've run a few tests, leaving them loose in the house for short periods (once even up to 2 hours) without incident, but I wouldn't yet trust going out for hours and leaving them loose, just in case they get into something. I think it's easier to prevent unwanted behaviours (like chewing stuff), than it is to stop it. As they mature I begin to lengthen the test periods until I feel that they're 100% trustworthy to be free in the house while I'm away. Some dogs are easier than others. We had a great dane that was destructive if not crated until he was at least 18 months (probably more like 2 years), but many of my dogs have been okay to have full run of the house by the time they're a year or so. Storm still goes into his crate to sleep at night, I just don't close the door now, but Rain sleeps on the bed with me and usually Lightning. Sometimes after DH has gone to work I'll wake up to find Thunder or Storm also on the bed, though often Storm will tell me it's time to get up by putting just his front feet up and bouncing the bed a little.

[Guest SweetJordan]

I had one pup who never slept in a crate. She just didn't need to. She needed to use it when I was gone for a little over a year, but never at night. Had another pup who slept in his crate at night until he was about five months old. I just sort of knew when I could trust him to be outside of his crate in the bedroom at night. I also did a room check at that time making sure it was puppy proof and that there wasn't anything he could get into. I even crawled around on the floor and got up on my knees to see if there was anything he could reach on his hind legs. During the day he needed his crate for a good two or three years.

With Riley she was already 15 months when I adopted her. She had been so use to her crate that she had to use it for a couple of months at night otherwise she would get nervous. Then what I did was I slowly reduced her time in the crate which is located in my bedroom. I would put her in there then when I woke up a few hours later I would let her out or the other way around. I know it's at night and I didn't set an alarm or anything, but I never sleep through the night without waking up a couple of times. Eventually she learned not to be nervous being outside of it. Now she will still spend some of the night in her crate but it's voluntary on her part. I have a feeling that I could leave her out of her crate when I'm gone during the day(as she is so well behaved in the house), but being that she is a young BC I'm not ready to completely trust her. Though I have left her for short periods of time loose after she has just had some exercise.

[hoku's mum]

We just tried leaving the crate door open one night for Hoku at about 9 months, and he was fine. He now sleeps in his open crate, just stays in there till we get up, or at least are awake and laze about talking for a while on weekend mornings. We really like that he's in there at night, coz that means we won't trip on him when we get up in the night (our old dog was not crate trained, and he slept sprawled on the bedroom floor, and I always tripped on the poor guy in the night ). Plus, when we travel with him, we have a soft crate, and he is quite happy to have his safe place in a strange house. So we really never thought about transitioning him 'out' of the crate, just giving him more freedom.

[Shetlander]

Transitioning during the day seems easy enough (just build up over time), but at night you're asleep so you can't build up and you're not as likely to be able to catch the dog doing something he shouldn't.

 

I actually find night much easier than day as far as leaving the puppy or dog loose. I close off the room (gate or door) so the pup doesn't have too much temptation beckoning while the world sleeps. I try the puppy on the bed and see how well they settle for the night. If they've been sleeping through the night fine (I keep their crate in my bedroom) and if they easily go to sleep or quietly chew on a nylabone when put on my bed, then I give it a try for the night. I'm pretty tuned in to my puppies moving or making noises. Plus the other dogs would probably react to a youngster going AWOL from the bed. And the puppy can't get out of the room, at least not without making enough noise to wake me (knocking over a gate).

 

My puppies are usually on the bed within a few days of coming home (whereas they're generally close to 2 years old before left completely loose in the house all day). Quinn was close to 6 months old before he willing to settle and stay on the bed. I tried a few times before then and he hopped off almost immediately, so back into his crate he went.

[MaggieDog]

I close off the room (gate or door) so the pup doesn't have too much temptation beckoning while the world sleeps. I try the puppy on the bed and see how well they settle for the night. If they've been sleeping through the night fine (I keep their crate in my bedroom) and if they easily go to sleep or quietly chew on a nylabone when put on my bed, then I give it a try for the night. I'm pretty tuned in to my puppies moving or making noises.

 

That's pretty much what I did with Z last night - she ended up spending the whole night on the bed curled up by my knees. We'll prob try it again tonight, but I do think I will crate her at night several nights a week just so she can be if the need arises (her crate is in another room).

[Samson]

I crated Samson at night for a couple of months and had to wake up at least 2 times each night to let him out. As long as I didn't feed him or give him water he'd be fine for at least 3-4 hours before needing to go out. After about 4 or 5 months I'd have him in my room sometimes on the bed, sometimes on the floor in the corner uncrated. It was similar as I'd have to wake up at least 1 time a night to let him out but around 5-6 months he was good through the night. Now he always sleeps uncrated on the floor at the foot of the bed. As a lot of other people have said already, the hard part is during the day. After exercise, I trust him for an hour or maybe 2 uncrated, but even with a lot of exercise, I don't trust him uncrated for more than 2 hours (he loves to chew anything that has my sent on it).

 

Best way for night time crating/uncrating is to not give him any water after 9pm and let him out at least 1 time at night until he can go the whole night without having to go