When to stop crating????
Heart is only crated when we are not home. The rest of the time and at night she allowed to run free like the other 2. I was wondering at what point do I allow her freedom when we are gone? I have left her 'out' when running to get gas and back home about 15 minutes and she is fine. She is not destructive when we are home (except for the 'wallet' incident in November) and she is totally housetrained. I am thinking I should continue to let her free for short periods of time and gradually work up to completely out of crate. Any thoughts???? Thanks in advance.... (after I get your opinions I will have to break it to Pearl and Cos that their lazy, sleepy days of relaxing ....ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!) |
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I do exactly as you are doing, Val. 
Yep, better apologize to the big girls in advance! |
| Mine are never allowed to roam free at night or when I am gone (which isn't very much). They have access to one room in the basement (where they have crates) and the kitchen with a baby gate. So basically they have 2 rooms and the basement steps. Maybe I am mean!  but I don't leave them with toys either. They could choke or fight over them. Mine are house trained too. So letting her roam free is completly up to you. |
| Oliver is confined when we are not home as well. Not in a crate, but to his room and the hallway.
Val, maybe you could start that way. Move into a confined area for awhile before "total freedom". I think many dogs like their crates though, it's their safe place. |
jcc9797 wrote: Oliver is confined when we are not home as well. Not in a crate, but to his room and the hallway.
Val, maybe you could start that way. Move into a confined area for awhile before "total freedom". I think many dogs like their crates though, it's their safe place. Heart is going in her crate in the evening when we are watching TV and the other dogs are resting. I really think that if I leave her free for limited periods, she will just go into her crate because that is what she is use to. Thanks for all your great suggestions... |
| Chewie, Maggie and Tazz all love their crates - they go lay in them when they want to during the day and evening. |
Belle - at 10 1/2 and after years of complete freedom - has taken to sleeping in an open crate at night. It started roughly around the time the hooligans were allowed to sleep loose at night (at about a year old?) For a while they'd get the zoomies on the bed between 1-3 in the morning. Had her crate been just a bit bigger I would have joined her. Nothing like being awakened by a herd of hairy elephants stampeding across the bed in the wee hours 
Kristine |
| if marley is in a room with an open crate she is in it.
we actually picked up all the crates for a while to get her over her possessiveness about them. now with the puppy its a little trickier. she luckily has reclaimed her crate and so far is leaving all the additional crates alone. |
| None of our three sheepdogs were ever confined to a crate. Our crate usage was over when we picked them up at the airport.
We began noticing peanut shells on the floor whenever we were away from our first sheepdog. We though perhaps we had a mouse but traps never worked. We finally discovered it was Grizzly cracking the nuts and leaving the shells on the floor. That is the extent of the damage we incurred. Our last sheepdog, Riley, confined himself to our back room where he pouted till we returned. We never had any problem letting them have the run of the house day or night. Only four more weeks till we pick up number four !! |
Quote: WildAboutSheepdogs
Only four more weeks till we pick up number four !! Congratulations!!!! on your new puppy..... I guess I just want to get Heart on the same page the other 2 are on----she is very well behaved and I feel I should try her out of the crate to see if she is ready. We just went to the store and left her out. I have a baby crate between the kitchen and the living room. When I left, Heart was standing by the baby gate----When I came home, Heart was standing at the baby gate..... 
(maybe she thought I had forgotten to put her in her crate and she was waiting for me to remember !!!!  ) |
| I have started this too Val. The other night after the "Polka" lol....Addie was alone in the kitchen all night. She seems to chew a bit on the chairs. That is about it, but that is not a good thing. So ...I am SLOWLY doing this. |
| duffy is 4 months old nd hated the crate so i leave him alone about 4 hours at a time nothing done when i come home .. of course i walk him first a long one at that |
| I began phasing out the crate between 3-4 months of age, once I was satisfied that my pup was securely housebroken. (The crate was such a fantastic housebreaking tool, and I thank this forum for directing me to this technique!) He is now 7 months and is mostly an outdoors dog.
He is left alone outside when I'm not home and is perfectly happy. When I'm home I leave the front door open most of the time, and he is welcome to come in or out as he pleases. He has a pad indoors and a pad outside (in the sheltered porch) but prefers to spend most of his time outside (including sleeping at night). It has been working well. The only little problem we have is if I am home and yet need to lock him outside for some reason, he'll scratch the front door. He used to scratch the front gate as well when I left the house without taking him, but I think he has gotten used to it and has stopped. |
| Archie still uses his crate - apart from when Toast one of our cats lays claim to it.
He isn't locked in it. He hasn't been for months. When he gets bored or knows we are off out, he sometimes just wanders back to his crate and settles down, like yesterday he'd had his breakfast, we'd been out on a walk, he could tell I was going out in my car (I had the keys) he just went and lay down in his crate. He has the run of the kitchen and utillity room when we are out but he seems happy in HIS den. |
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