TO Crate or Not to Crate
A couple nights ago I put him to bed but left the crate door open. A short time later he put his front paws on the bed on my side sort of like "Dad, you forgot something." I pushed him off and in a few minutes I heard him rooting around under our bed (we have a very high bed). When my wife got up the next morning he was asleep on the bathroom tile. We have a playpen for him in the kitchen which he goes into for a nap periodically but has never gone into his bedtime crate on his own, in fact he has to be persuaded each night. It works for him to be contained for a while after my wife first get up in the morning but other than that we don't see any benefit in him sleeping in a crate. He has no toilet or chewing issues. We will keep the crate for his "brother" Baxter in the future, after my wife retires sometime in the next 15 months. I plan to just take the door off the crate so he can get in it if he choses. Why else should we go through a nightly hassle of talking him into his crate? |
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| I would keep the crate up for a little while. Sheepies can be sneaky and devious. They lull you into thinking that things will be fine and they can handle it. Then when you are comfortable and sleeping they canvass the house to see what they can find to play with. Test it out for a few weeks and then if they continue to sleep through the night...maybe then take it down. |
Sounds like he may be ready, but I agree, keep the crate handy. I really don't think you'll need it. I do think you might have misinterpreted the paws on the bed, it was really move over I'm coming in.  |
| I agree. Keep the crate around, but you can try him overnight being free, but hopefully someone is a light enough sleeper to wake up for any strange noises. We've always tried to transition our dogs out of crates at night as soon as possible. Rudy, for example, does great overnight in the bedroom, or even given the run of the upstairs (he just sleeps beside our bed). He still cannot be left free during the day for more than an hour or so. Apparently during the day he gets bored, and a bored sheepie is a threat to himself and others. (And having a sock removed from a canine bowel is not only terrifying, but also about the cost of a nice vacation.) So, he's still crated during the day and I would HATE to pair that with being crated at night too. That's just way too much for me. I'd try it cautiously. But then again, I'd also invite him up on the bed and let him hog it too. I have spent many a night sharing with a hubby and two enormous sheepie bums. And I've lost my pillow to a big furry head many a time. |
| I gotta say, I love this forum! Dex is not allowed on furniture so getting in bed with us may not cross his mind. Not allowed on furniture is relative; when he puts his front paws on his mom's lap he is as good as on the couch and she is VERY slow to say "Off." He is loose during the day to harass his retired dad at his leisure so nighttime is the only time he is contained. My wife works from home 3 days a week so I love it when she can share entertaining the sporadically hyperactive youngster. Worthy of note: Dex doesn't seem to be very interested in getting on furniture, neither did his predecessor until he got older and slower and we would catch him asleep on the couch whenever we came home. |
| We stopped the crate at night as well. Dahlia just turned 8 months old yesterday. For awhile, we contained her in our bedroom by closing the door or using a gate.... Then, we gradually allowed her to have the entire upstairs and she enjoyed that since she likes sleeping on the bathroom tile. After that, she had full house priveleges minus the living room and dining room. Now, she can go anywhere and she actually goes to sleep at night by the back door downstairs in the kitchen and then by morning she is on the living room couch. She has full furniture access...something that doesn't bother us. We just removed her crate from our bedroom about 2 weeks ago since she had no desire to go in it even though the door was off. We do still put her in a very large "pen" when we are not home with a couple of Kongs and some water. I don't trust her that much to not get into trouble when we are gone. |
| Izzie's nighttime progress went like this: In little crate next to my bed. Too big for little crate, gated into my tiled bathroom with little crate in there to take up room. "Housetrained" so she was only gated into my bedroom...with her collar on so I could hear her if she was up to no good  Gate across the stairs so she had to stay upstairs. No gate now...I don't think she ever goes downstairs during the night...she is usually snuggled on my bed. |
We are crate-training Benson right now. She's only been with us a week and a half, so we don't trust her out of our sight, let alone out of her crate at night!  As for our last two dogs, they had their crates available 24/7 until the very end.Max came to us at 7 months old, and had been abused. (Every time the 7 year old petted him, HE got beaten and thrown in the laundry room because the parents thought she was allergic.) Nina arrived at 6 months old, having never been inside a house before, let alone a crate. We both worked, so crating was critical during the day. We fed them in their crates (with doors open) to encourage them to feel comfortable there. We also wanted to have a crate available in case we had guests with small children (Max didn't do well with kids), or who had a fear of dogs. It didn't happen often (love me, love my dogs!), but it was nice to have the option. Max was initially unhappy with the confinement (no surprise there). It took nearly a year with us, but eventually it became his safe haven. If we had trouble finding him, he was always curled up in his crate, napping. And it was the best place to hide from a severe thunderstorm. Over the years, we confined them less and less, but they chose to use them more and more. I agree, once they are housebroken, there is no need to actually confine them in a crate overnight, as long as there is minimal trouble for them to get into. Once ours were housebroken, we kept them in the master bedroom with us overnight. For me personally, barring unforeseen circumstances, I wouldn't consider having a dog without a crate available their entire life. |
| I don't want to repeat anything but we don't create for the same reasons above. We do keep the door closed to the bedroom and she switches between her bed and the hardwood. We keep it closed because she sleeps later in the morning then if she is sleeping somewhere else in the house |
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