# What age to sleep outside of crate/unlocked?



## julliams (Oct 27, 2010)

When did you allow your dog/pup to start sleeping without being locked up in their crate? 

Zali is only 5 months but sometimes I so so tempted to try it because I think she would manage well - she sleeps from 11:30pm - 7am. But I avoid temptation because I figure if I do it once, that will be it and I won't be able to get her to accept the crate again.


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## lynn1970 (Feb 6, 2011)

I'm wondering the same thing. Rileah is house broken and the only time she goes into her crate is at night.


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## sameli102 (Aug 23, 2009)

I let mine out of the crates at night as soon as they sleep all night and are housebroke. I do, however, put a gate across the bedroom door to discourage leaving the room. As long as they are confined and there are no toys around they sleep very soundly. My youngest is 8 months and he has been loose for a few months now.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

It depends on the dog..... my youngest dog could be out, even as a young puppy.... my 10 yo, only started last year and if that was if I removed/blocked access to literally everything but the essential bedding, and even then he did gnaw on the wall a bit one night.

Some things for success:
- Be sure the room is puppy proofed.
- Exercise heavily right before bed
- Get into the habit (now!) of a bit of puppy loose time before putting puppy in his/her crate (so that the night where the crate isn't used...nothing is out of the ordinary).
- Provide a good chew item.
- Only have puppy out for part of the night initially.


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## Braccarius (Sep 8, 2008)

Pretty much depends on the dog. Miri only became trustworthy outside her crate at about 8-9 months. Harley was trustworthy on his own from 10 weeks old. Some dogs don't have a propensity to gnaw on things others do.


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## inge (Sep 20, 2009)

Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but I never understand why people are so eager to have their pups sleep outside the crate as early as possible...For Tess at night is the only time I close the crate, if she wants to go in her crate during the day, the door is always open. I'm sure she would prefer to sleep on the couch at night, but I just sleep better knowing she is safe and sound in her crate. It makes life a lot easier, knowing that she is ok being put in a crate at the vet's or when she is being boarded. As long as your pup is happy in the crate, why bother?


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## Braccarius (Sep 8, 2008)

inge said:


> Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but I never understand why people are so eager to have their pups sleep outside the crate as early as possible...For Tess at night is the only time I close the crate, if she wants to go in her crate during the day, the door is always open. I'm sure she would prefer to sleep on the couch at night, but I just sleep better knowing she is safe and sound in her crate. It makes life a lot easier, knowing that she is ok being put in a crate at the vet's or when she is being boarded. As long as your pup is happy in the crate, why bother?


 
I don't know about you, but I hate having a crate laying right next to my bed or laying around the house. I think they look tacky! So I try to get my guys out of them ASAP so I can put it away! If your dog is trustworthy why leave an eyesore laying around in your house!

Now, I know there's going to be people here saying "crates aren't eyesores" or "thats what you signed up for". So before you do, allow me to say this: PHBBBBBBBBBBBBBBTTTT!


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

Last month I started letting Jaro out of his crate which is in our bedroom around 2 am when I got up to use the bathroom. Now we don't crate him at all at night but the room is puppy proofed and the door is closed and I am a slight sleeper so if he is moving around I wake. He is not allowed alone in the house when we are gone unless he is crated. I am not so much worried about stuff being hurt as I am about him eating something he shouldn't and getting sick. He still is eating sticks and leaves and rocks and anything else. He will be a year April 15.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

I don't care for the 'crate look' either and have never used one after it was necessary. We do have a safe room, the laundry room with his bed, bowls & toys. It has a gate that Hank (Maggie used it as well) goes to when we have people over or he needs a place of his own to go.

With Hank, we put the crate away at around 8 months. At night I did gate him in our bedroom for a few months so he didn't roam.

I understand the idea behind accepting a crate at a vet's office/kennel easier if they are crated at home, but years ago before crate training was done, I don't remember any problems when at the vet's or boarding facility with my dogs.


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## oakleysmommy (Feb 20, 2011)

im a bad bad mom!! my pup is 9 weeks and im home all day so he is pretty much out of his crate all day. barely any accidents in house. at nite he will start off in crate but he ends up w/us and of course he sleeps so soundly!!!


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## GoldenMum (Mar 15, 2010)

As soon as my pups slept through the night, I started leaving the crate door open (but my bedroom door shut). Calvin would still sleep in his crate, Hobbes, would not. For some dogs, a crate is their place.....it is good to know if you had to board them, they'd be OK with a crate!


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## MelMcGarry (May 2, 2010)

We let Tucker start sleeping out of his kennel at about 7 months. He usually sleeps by the end of the bed for most of the night then will move to the living room for the rest of the night.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

inge said:


> Maybe I'm the odd one out here, but I never understand why people are so eager to have their pups sleep outside the crate as early as possible...For Tess at night is the only time I close the crate, if she wants to go in her crate during the day, the door is always open. I'm sure she would prefer to sleep on the couch at night, but I just sleep better knowing she is safe and sound in her crate. It makes life a lot easier, knowing that she is ok being put in a crate at the vet's or when she is being boarded. As long as your pup is happy in the crate, why bother?


I have to say, I agree 100% with this. My pup was in her crate when I was at work and at night until she was nine months old. She had been perfectly housetrained since 11 weeks old. But I wanted to know she was safe when I wasn't able to watch her.

The ONLY reason I let her sleep out of the crate at night at 9 months was because we were in a major heat wave, I didn't have AC, and I feared she would be uncomfortable and hot in the crate. I wanted to give her the option of a cooler tile floor in the bathroom or by the balcony door. She chose my bed, and has slept there every night since. But I kept the crate up in the living room for the first two years of her life, and only took it down because we moved. She went in when she wasn't feeling well, or was just feeling overwhelmed.


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I never crated Vendetta at night. She slept with me and she would whine when she needed to use he bathroom. I have had her since she was 4weeks old. She does have a crate and I use it alot as she is DA towards my sisters one dog. But she is good a girl never chewed up anything not ever her own toys.


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## MittaBear (Mar 9, 2010)

It definitely depends on the dog. With Chester, we started letting him have full range of the bedroom at 7 months. We left the door closed in the beginning since we knew we could at least trust him in the bedroom. Once we started trusting him more, he had full range of the house. But he prefers to sleep in the room with us...usually on the bed.


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## ManyQs (Feb 20, 2009)

Agree, it depends on the dog. Jackson, my male, never did like the crate and spent very little time in it. By the time he was 4 months he figured out how to open both latches. Sommer, my female, did OK in the crate so she was in it longer She is a little more spirited shall we say, but a doll baby most of the time.


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## Bell (Jan 23, 2010)

oakleysmommy said:


> im a bad bad mom!! my pup is 9 weeks and im home all day so he is pretty much out of his crate all day. barely any accidents in house. at nite he will start off in crate but he ends up w/us and of course he sleeps so soundly!!!


Why do you think you are bad for not closing your dog?Honestly,i feel sorry for some dogs-there are cases in which they spend half their puppyhood and sometimes adulthood in crates.In my opinion it's highly possible a dog becomes nervous and restless thisway. I only know one person that uses crate,and it's mostly for shows(they show their dogs)Here it's only for transportation,trip to the vet,etc.In conclusion-puppyproof,puppyproof and...puppyproof.


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## Debles (Sep 6, 2007)

Sasha is 7 months and we recently started letting him sleep outside his crate.(mainly because he is close to outgrowing it) We don't close the bedroom door , our house is puppy proof and he stays in the bedroom with us and Gunner.

I recently started letting him free in the house while we're gone too. So far we have only left him loose for a couple hours but he has been perfect. I don't work so it's never longer than that and he is with Gunner.

As someone said, all dogs are different.


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## elly (Nov 21, 2010)

Chester still sleeps in his crate at night as I tried to decrate him a couple of months ago and he barked and whined until I let him back in it and closed the door! He has free run of the kitchen when we go out with a gate at the door to the hall as its open plan but even then wants the crate door open rather than shut. Its obviously his space, he loves it. When his new bigger crate arrived we were assembling it in the kitchen and before it was completed he jumped in and laid down smiling and waggy tailed as if it xmas! He wouldnt move for ages, like a child with a new big present! I guess the crate is staying with us for a while!


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

I started out by leaving the crate door open. The first few nights was hard on Lucky...he was excited over the new situation and kept moving from place to place trying to find a comfortable "out of the crate" bed. he kept jamming his wet nose in my sleeping face. He was too excited to sleep and dropped a kong on my head.

But eventually he found his "outside the crate" sleeping place.

But he still found comfort in his crate and went to it willingly throughout the day. Until I gave it too my son for his puppy.


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## Rhapsody in Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I have three Goldens, ages 4, 3, and 2. We never used crates. We had one that I gave away. We found our x-pen to work the best for us. I set it up in the kitchen and it was easy to get in and out of for clean-ups. During the early weeks, I slept down stairs in the family room so I could hear any ruckus - and I stuck to the potty schedule. Someone was (and still is) always home, so the x-pen worked well and all three were accident free by five months old. At that point, we removed the x-pen and set up baby gates to the kitchen entrances. If we were not going to be home, the puppy stayed in the kitchen. We had that set up until around 8 months old. From then on, the three of them have pretty much slumbered in the family room. 

When my college-aged kids are home, I always know when someone is coming or going late at night - our pups tails hit the foyer walls. 

We just found by trial and error that our x-pen method worked best for us - that and being consistent in the routine - and I guess it really helped that someone was always home. I would use the same approach if I were to have another puppy.


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## LauraJ (Mar 30, 2010)

Ideally out of a crate is good... But only when everyone is ready. 
I'd love to have my pup in our room.. But I love sleep too much to worry about her.. When she is older, more trained..definitely!


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

I adopted Ranger at nine months and he never spent a night in his crate, only when I was leaving the house. He was always calm in the house and never got into trouble (unless I wasn't there) so it was a non-issue for us. Honestly, I never even thought about it. I think the first few nights I got up everytime I heard a suspicious (usually imaginary) noise and I'd find ranger blinking sleepily at me from his bed in the living room. So i moved his bed into my bedroom and he started sleeping there, but I'd wake up every time he got up and listen to see what he was doing; he'd always just be heading out to his other bed in the living room or getting a drink of water. But I think I was spoiled as Ranger was never destructive in the house so i just didn't think about it.


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## julliams (Oct 27, 2010)

Thanks everyone for your help. Zali just doesn't think her crate is all that great. She has to go in there when I go out so I think she sees it as "that place I have to go to when you aren't home". She will go in, but not of her own accord.

I'm almost certain that if I left her out of the crate, she would just sleep the whole night through, maybe gt up to move position - that kind of thing.

Our place is reasonably safe but it's not entirely puppy proof. There are wires around that, short of putting them under the floor, I don't know how else they could "be". Zali isn't destructive in the house but if she does find a post-it note or something like that she will chew it up.

I don't find the crate "too" bad but gee it would be nice to be able to put it away. I guess this is one of those "all in good time" things that really isn't that far away now that she is 5 and a half months.


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## HudsensMama9 (Dec 17, 2009)

Hudsen was 5 months when I started let him sleep outside of his crate. He was completely potty-trained and he rarely chewed anything other than his toys. I closed the bedroom door so he'd only stay in our room and puppy proofed. For a while, I kept the crate in our room with the door open and he would always end up back in there by morning. He has his own bed next to ours that he sleeps on now. We never lock him in his crate now- and I'd love to put it away as it takes up so much space, but he LOVES it and naps in there throughout the day. He goes in there when he wants his "quiet" time. Looks like we won't be putting it away any time soon.


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