When To Stop Using The Crate For Night Sleeping?

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GoldenSpirit G Hello Golden Community, I have an 11-month-old Golden Retriever who has been crate trained from the moment he arrived. He sleeps in his crate every night, he doesn't seem to love it but accepts it since he knows nothing else. He won't go there during the day but a treat will make him go usually with no hesitation during the night. He is a really non-aggressive, very sweet dog. Here's the thing, he is really big now and even though the crate is large and appropriate for a golden retriever size, it breaks my heart to leave him in that cage. He really likes to take his room and stretch really well when asleep. Also, he feels hot quite often, like most Goldens do, and his crate is not the coldest place for him. He would rather stay on the kitchen or bathroom floor where it's colder. Anyway....my question is, is there a time when we should let our Goldens sleep outside of their crate, or is the recommendation to have them sleep there forever? Are there any hints to tell when he is ready? I really wanted to let him loose limited to the first floor (and block him to go upstairs to go to our room). Will that ruin his behavior or any training we gave him? Does anyone have any recommendations to give? Thank you so much in advance! #1 · May 30, 2017 (Edited by Moderator) Hello Golden Community, I have an 11-month-old Golden Retriever who has been crate trained from the moment he arrived. He sleeps in his crate every night, he doesn't seem to love it but accepts it since he knows nothing else. He won't go there during the day but a treat will make him go usually with no hesitation during the night. He is a really non-aggressive, very sweet dog. Here's the thing, he is really big now and even though the crate is large and appropriate for a golden retriever size, it breaks my heart to leave him in that cage. He really likes to take his room and stretch really well when asleep. Also, he feels hot quite often, like most Goldens do, and his crate is not the coldest place for him. He would rather stay on the kitchen or bathroom floor where it's colder. Anyway....my question is, is there a time when we should let our Goldens sleep outside of their crate, or is the recommendation to have them sleep there forever? Are there any hints to tell when he is ready? I really wanted to let him loose limited to the first floor (and block him to go upstairs to go to our room). Will that ruin his behavior or any training we gave him? Does anyone have any recommendations to give? Thank you so much in advance! Sort by Oldest first Oldest first Newest first Most reactions #2 · May 30, 2017 It really depends on the dog, but at some point we need to take a chance and trust them. We can't know how things are going to turn out unless we give them a chance, I would suggest giving it a try and see how it goes. Perhaps, if it is possible, to begin with confining him to the room that his crate in, leave the crate door open, so that he can choose whether to sleep in it or somewhere else. Minimize the risk of him getting into mischief by ensuring that things that he shouldn't have are picked up and put away. #3 · May 30, 2017 This is exactly what we did. Crate was in bedroom, so we left crate door open but closed bedroom door. He now goes into master bath and sleeps on cooler tile floor, or on his dog bed , next to ours, where the crate was. We have had a couple of issues with him shredding a cotton bath mat while we have been asleep, but 99% of the time he is fine with that sleeping arrangement. I make sure we have a few, choice bedtime only soft toys now for him to chew if he wakes up. Next step is to open bedroom door, but that may not be until he is yr or so old. 0 Reply #4 · May 30, 2017 Try leaving him out of the crate for short periods of time and see how he does. Be sure there's nothing he can get into or eat/chew. If he does Ok extend the time left out of the crate. Are you saying you want to leave him on the first floor without access to your room on the second floor at night? I'm not sure I would be comfortable with my dog not having access to me especially at night but maybe thats just me. My dogs have always slept in my room with me. Good luck! #5 · May 30, 2017 My pup started sleeping on my bed at 5 months. It was out of necessity - I got the flu and figured the best way to watch her when I could barely move was to have her right with me. She was awesome - really, it was where she wanted to sleep from day one. We never went back to the night crate. As your pup will be alone downstairs, I'd start him in a room you can puppy proof and close with a baby gate, like the kitchen and bathroom since you say he likes those. If he does well, gradually give him more freedom. He likely will do just fine. #6 · May 30, 2017 We had a routine with our dogs, we would sit in bed to watch the news together & once we were ready to tuck in, we'd say "Go to your bed Luna", who would jump off our bed, go lay down in her crate. Once she settled down, we would lock it as she was still chewing EVERYTHING she got her mouth on. Now the routine is very similar but we let her sleep in our bed and most nights, she will jump off and go sleep in her unlocked crate. We want her to have her own secure place as our jack russell has his crate for the same reason. We keep our bedroom door closed during the night. She isn't at the point where we can leave her out when we leave the house, so she has to be crated. #7 · May 30, 2017 We usually start leaving the crate door open at night as soon as the dogs are fully house trained. We have the crate in our bedroom so we can hear the dog if it gets up and gets into any mischief at night (at least that is the theory). Seems like they will go into the crate and sleep for about a week after we start leaving the door open and then will discover they can sleep elsewhere and will begin to sleep on one of the dog pillows on the floor in the bedroom....or in the bed with us. Since we have 3 large dogs sleeping in the bed is on a first come basis. I have noticed that they will change places during the night and often the dog on the bed in the morning is not the one who was on the bed the previous night. Wake up time usually involves all three dog on the bed nuzzling our faces to let us know that the want, need, and expect breakfast. Immediately. Lol. #8 · May 30, 2017 Amber will start the night in bed with me, but when I get up for a bathroom trip she gets off and lies on her pillow beside the bed. She has the run of the house, so if she hears something she will investigate. When she comes back, she will usually lie down in the hallway just outside the bedroom door where she can keep an eye on a larger area. By morning, she is usually back beside the bed -- but she never will get on the bed a second time the same night. #9 · May 30, 2017 Lambeau has been totally out of the crate since he was 6months. He's turning 2 in June. It all depends on the dog and how much you trust him. Lambeau has never been a chewer so I trusted him at an early age. He sleeps in my bedroom on the floor. When I leave the house he has the run of the house and he has never got into any kind of trouble. Lambeau I don't think is the normal Golden. He's always been very well behaved even as a young puppy. #10 · May 31, 2017 You won't know if you don't try. My girl has always slept on my bed, when she got big enough to get on and off the bed she has never bothered anything... She has always had the run of the house without issues. We are now 15 months and honestly don't think she ever leaves the room I'm in except for a drink of water, even at night. #11 · May 31, 2017 Depends on the dog... whenever they will voluntarily lay down and sleep on the floor during the day without getting into stuff. If they can't behave when I'm awake and watching I'm not going to turn them loose when I'm asleep. Of my last two pups, I had one with night privileges at 7 months and another that wasn't even close at that age. #12 · May 31, 2017 My girl is 2 years old and still sleeps in her crate every night and is in it when we are away. She is a very active golden that won't sleep unless she's crated. It doesn't bother her at all. We have crate time rules for all of our dogs. We have one (not a golden) that doesn't get crated at night but she is our "protector". Usually sleeps on the couch....she's crashed in bed with my granddaughter at the moment though #13 · May 31, 2017 Like others have stated, it depends on the dog. Foster is a chewer, he has destroyed a lot of our shoes and pillows. We started leaving him out around 10 months during the day with our camera on to watch him from work. As long as the house was clean and items picked up off the floor, he was fine. However, on our trial runs at night he would always get into something. So he still sleeps in the crate for now. He loves his crate though! Often when we are hanging out in the living room as a family he nudges his crate door open and goes in all by himself. #14 · May 31, 2017 I agree with all the others. It depends on when you can trust them to not get into stuff or have accidents. Duke has slept with me since he was about 8 months old. I started bringing him back to bed for a couple of hours after he would get up at 5am on the weekends. Charlie gets free range of the house and will usually come upstairs when he thinks it's time for me to let him out. But when I first adopted Charlie I had to use gates. He would get into trouble otherwise. He was a year old. #15 · May 31, 2017 I don't mean to hijack this thread, but have a question along the same lines. Maya was crate trained from day 1. She slept in her crate until we could trust her unsupervised outside. Now she sleeps wherever she wants and we have never had issues. The few odd times my wife and I actually do something without Maya, we crate her. But with age, and less frequent use of the crate, she has resisted going in off late. She eventually goes in, but her reluctance is obvious. We have never left her alone at home outside her crate. If we are away for longer than 4 hours, we drop her off at her sitter's. She is 2.5 years old. While we trust her not to get into trouble, we don't know if she will be anxious outside the crate, alone at home. The obvious next step is to try it out and see what happens. Any alternatives or other suggestions? Since my wife has always worked from home for the duration of Maya's stay with us, her and Maya are joint at the hip. I am worried Maya will be too anxious at home outside her crate without one of us, especially my wife, being there. #17 · Jun 1, 2017 Best thing is to just try it - with very short trips out. So just act all normal, and if you say the same thing every time you go out and crate her, say those words, and leave. Leave the entire area of your home so she can't hear or see or smell you. But come back in five minutes. if all is well, do 10, then 20, then 30. It's to show them you will come back. It definitely helps to have routine words you say every time, because they will eventually connect that to you're going out, but you will come back. Shala cried as a puppy when I left, so we did this progression. It was not immediately smooth sailing. I did five minutes several times (this is when she was still crated). When I was moving her to being uncrated when home alone, that actually freaked her out a bit, too. So I repeated the progression (this time it took less time, but I just wanted to make sure she wouldn't get too anxious - and she didn't). And we started with a half day, and then my walker would put her back in the crate for the second half of the day. When I was on vacation and home with her all day, I just left her out all day because I'd go in and out all day. And eventually, I took down the crate! 0 Reply #16 · May 31, 2017 We have a male golden puppy, turning 9 months old in 11 days. He's been sleeping with us since 5 months old, when he was completely potty trained. During the weekdays he stays in our room, on the bed, with our female dog and they just chill out together. We blocked off certain areas of the room to make sure he didn't get bored and start chewing on cords. For the most part, (few holes in my bed sheets) it has worked well for us. When we have to leave for any length of time, we take him for a long walk to tire him out beforehand, and they hang out in the living room. We always give them a frozen kong to chew on and his toys left out. Obviously, we close all the doors so he only has access to living room, dining room, and kitchen. It works out well for us. The only time he goes into his cage is to eat. Our other dog is very passive and would surely give up her food to his voracious appetite.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk #18 · Jun 1, 2017 mine started sleep out of crate at around 11 months old. It depend on how well the dog will behave at night. #19 · Jun 1, 2017 All you can do Mayabear is try him out of the crate for short periods of time. Quick run to store, quick dinner out etc. If I'm in my front yard he can't see me from in the house so I would leave him in the house and hangout in the front yard to see how he would react. But I really never had a problem with Lambeau. I bought a cheap home camera that works off of WIFI and I can monitor him from my phone. He usually just curls up and sleeps whenever I'm not home. And I don't work so he is really used to me being there most of the time. But I do like to shop and eat out so I leave him alone than. #20 · Jun 1, 2017 Question: why not let your dog into your bedroom? That's probably where he would most like to be: near you, sleeping at the foot of your bed. And it has the added benefit of instantly knowing if he's getting into anything. Insert Quotes Post Reply

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