# How long to crate for?



## Lottierachel (Mar 3, 2013)

I have just set up Tilly's crate for when we bring her home in 2 days (yay!!) and it is both larger and uglier than I had imagined, even with vet bed and nice blankets etc in So a couple of questions:

Did you ditch the crate once your cockapoo was fully house trained? Or maybe at another age?

If you used a crate, did your puppy have another bed as well, or just sleep in the crate for all sleeps?

All help much appreciated!!

Lottie x


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## dmgalley (Aug 19, 2012)

Jake slept in his crate until after he was fixed. I wanted to make sure he was contained at night that week. I knew once I let him out of the crate at night he would not want to be put back in. He was fully potty trained at the time so as soon as he was healed he got to sleep with us.
The first month he went in the crate for every nap and sleep. This was so I could control taking him right out the second he woke up. Once he got better at his control, he only went in at night. 
He still has his crate set up and open and he does like to go in for a rest or to hide toys. It is his place.
He also has several beds (that he shares with the three cats) and a towel in front of the heater that he goes to when he comes in all wet and snowball covered.
Hope that helps.  Good luck with your new fur baby. Potty training seems for ever when you are in it, but really we got Jake in aug and he was 100% by November. He was fixed in December.


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## tessybear (May 1, 2011)

I used mine only for house training. It worked a treat but I never crate them now. They love the freedom of having my whole house to play in and don't like to be shut in. When I am out they prefer the cold hard kitchen floor to lie on or to be in my bay window looking out. When I am at home they like to be with me the whole time.


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## flounder_1 (May 12, 2011)

We stopped using the crate for Lolly when she was about 8 months old. We needed to start leaving her for slightly longer periods of time 2 days a week while I was at work and didn't feel it was fair to leave her crated for longer than a couple of hours.

By then she was fully house trained and I was confident she wasn't going to chew the furniture. She never loved her crate so I think she was delighted once it was gone.


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## Von (Nov 1, 2012)

I used crates for both our dogs. In the very early days we closed the crate at night to help with house training, it meant we were getting up very early, and going to bed late to cope with small puppy bladders!

The next stage was leaving the crate door open, but with a puppy pen enclosing the space that the door led in to. We used this arrangement when we had to leave the puppy for any length of time, (good for 'time out' too) although they had the run of downstairs the rest of the time. Meadow is still at this stage now, at 8-9 months, 

The latest stage for Jenna was to remove the door of her crate completely, as she loves her 'den' and spends several times a day in it, and the open door was in the way. I can't see Jenna ever not wanting to use her crate.

Meadow hops happily in to her crate at night and will VERY occasionally go in during the day, usually to retrieve something she has left in there. I think there will come a time when she won't use her crate at all, in which case we will remove it.

There are three dog beds in the lounge! Meadow always chooses to chill out in one of these during the day, Jenna uses a bed occasionally, but prefers her 'den'. Meadow also plays with the beds- hence the number - we are trying to get her to use just one for play, and when she has managed to tear through the bottom of it, or disembowelled the cushion it will go out. (She hides her toys in the bed and then amuses herself trying to dig them out, or hides them under the bed, then picks the toy up from inside the bed, and wanders around with the toy and whole bed waving about from her jaws - silly dog!!)


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## wiz1908 (Apr 19, 2012)

Enzo loved his crate when he was younger (but also had a bed outside the crate which he soon destroyed), like you we didn't like it in our front room so once he was potty trained we left the door open at night with a stair gate so he couldn't go upstairs but he would cry if we left the door open so went back to closing it. Over time though he gradually used it less & didn't want to go in at night so really he told us when he didn't need it anymore. I think he was about 8 months when we got rid of it then the stairgate shortly followed & he now sleeps happily in his bed or on the floor of our bedroom


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## mairi1 (Mar 12, 2012)

Molly is still in her crate at 13 months!!! 
She's only in it at night. 

The only reason is that to date she has never objected and she sleeps like a :baby:
I wake her every morning... Always after 9am

xxx


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

Yes we still use the crate at 13 months too! I am lucky though as ours is pretty much tucked under the stairs, I may have made more of an effort if it was in the middle of a room. Think Dudley would be fine overnight in a bed but he barks a lot less at outside noises when he is in the crate, and settles much better in it when I have to go out during the day, so think we may have ours a little while yet.


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## strof51 (Sep 26, 2009)

We still have the crate set up in the living room. 
They have the run of the ground floor of the house and we have a gate at the top of the stairs, they sleep on the half landing at night. The crate is their safe place and they will sleep in it during the day and go in without a problem. We stay away from home quite often so having them happy to use the crate, they go straight into the crate when we go into a hotel room without having to be told, no worrying about them jumping about on the furniture.


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## Hfd (Aug 19, 2011)

Billy still has a crate at 20 months! It's in the kitchen and he only goes in it at night, he always sleeps till we get up no problem. During the day he has the run of downstairs if we are out and has a bed in the lounge. When he was younger we used to shut him in his crate if out and then had it open with a puppy pen. He progressed to the kitchen then more recently the whole downstairs. He has slept in our room on a couple of occasions but seems to be more settled in his crate so we will carry on using it. Good luck and enjoy your puppy!


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