Continue to crate while I am off work or not?
I don't want to crate her all the time when I am off-I want to spend time with her (and clean closets and throw out all the stuff we have accumulated over the years, but don't tell David, he is a bit of a hoarder). But should I try to crate her even if it is just for half an hour every day? When I do go back to work, I don't want it to be horrible for her to be crated. She has always been terrific in her crate and gone in happily, but would five weeks of no crate ruin that? Help me, oh wise ones of the forum! |
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| Mady will be fine! I stopped crating Asterisk all together when she was 6 months old. She is free to roam the house but her crate is always up and open for her. There have been a few times I've come home at lunch and found a sleeping Asterisk in her opened crate. Let Mady enjoy having mommy home time! |
I took the door off Kenleys crate 2 weeks ago(when he reached 6 months old) to give him free roam.He still sleeps in it on a night and snoozes in it during the day  He has a lovely big comfy dog bed but still chooses the crate  Is it possible to leave the crate door open and let her choose when to go in it whilst you are off ? I wouldn't worry.If Mady likes her crate she will still like it in 5 weeks. |
I agree with the Capt. Your dog will be fine!!! We do/did that all the time and had no problems esp. if the dog had no problems to begin with ...outside of the sad face  |
| Oh and good luck getting rid of stuff. i just throw it out w/o telling him. He's disorganized so to him... he just lost it. But then again, he will NEVER go looking for it. |
| How old is she again? Under 9 months? I'd put her in there for regular naps, when you want to get stuff done around the house without a bunch of sheepdog shenanigans. That way, she'll still have a bit of a routine when you do go back to work and it won't seem like she was running free for a month and then she had to go back to lock up! Clyde hated his crate so after 9 months, he was done with it permanently. Bear liked the crate but outgrew the gigantic one we had by the time he was 7 months old and since I didn't want a Great Dane sized crate in my dining room, he graduated. Owen is 2 and still sleeps in his crate every night because he chooses to. I've tried to get him to sleep with me a few nights when James is gone and he'll stay for awhile and then he gets up and gives me this look like "Well, I've stayed as long as I can, Mom, I really need to get some real sleep," then he retreats to his room, which has his crate in it and puts himself to bed. It's pretty adorable. |
| I would say it depends on how much she likes it and how much you can trust her. We kept Sammie's crate up for a few months after we got her for night-time sleeping. During the day she's always had full run of the house - never a problem. When she came in from her last-out for the night, we'd tell her - go to bed - and she went right up to her crate. Now that the crate is gone and we have a dog bed on the floor at the foot of the bed, that's where she goes when she's told to go to bed. It's also where she goes when she wants to hide from something. It's her "safe place," if you will, as the crate was when it was up. |
| I would still use the crate - even if just for short times -while you're home for these 5 weeks. It sounded to me like this time as home is temporary, then you are going back to the regular work schedule? She will adjust better when you go back to the normal schedule if you keep things somewhat similar during your time off. Now, I'm not saying lock her up all day - but each day if she has time in it when you are doing some cleaning task, running errands; stuff like that.  |
| Yes, it is just for five weeks, then back to work I go. She isn't crated at night anymore (sleeps on the floor beside the bed) and she isn't a chewer and doesn't get into trouble, but I still feel more secure crating her if we are not home. She just turned nine months old the other day. It is the strangest thing, it seems like yesterday that we brought her home as a little puppy, and yet I can't remember what life was like without her. Right now she is sleeping on my feet after some hard play with her best friend, Irish Setter Kee-va and she is so sweet I could just squish her. Five weeks home with her is going to be so wonderful. |
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