Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

We just started crating our dog who has NEVER been crated before because she's going to have to be in our new apartment. So far it's going ok - she even seems to like it!

Do you crate your dog every time you go out? Like if you come in the house for half an hour and then go back out - do you let her out and then crate her again, or do you just let her stay out the second time...
Also, do you crate her overnight? Our main concern, more so than overnight, is during the day when we're not home, although we've been crating her at night now to get her used to it.

Looking for any info you can share!

Thanks!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

When the dog is still a puppy... always crate/gate train the dog when you cannot supervise... even if that means while you're showering!

Whenever we leave the house, we gate our puppy in the bathroom (whether its for 10 minutes, 30 minutes or more). He is almost 7 months old and can still be destructive so its necessary. Plus it helps with the potty training as well.

At night, he goes in his crate!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Posted by aliwnec10

When the dog is still a puppy... always crate/gate train the dog when you cannot supervise... even if that means while you're showering!

Whenever we leave the house, we gate our puppy in the bathroom (whether its for 10 minutes, 30 minutes or more). He is almost 7 months old and can still be destructive so its necessary. Plus it helps with the potty training as well.

At night, he goes in his crate!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Yeah - I've been giving her one of her milkbones - but only once a day - don't want to give her like 3 of them! So, the other times I've just been telling her she's a good girl and giving her kisses through the bars!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

We crate our puppy everytime we leave the house for errands...When we come home, we let her out...and if we go back out a short time later, she goes back in again...we are not crating her at night yet...b/c she is very young, so she snuggles with me and DH and the second she starts to whine, we take her out to potty...in a few weeks we will start keeping her in the crate over night.

with our other dog, we would tell her to go in her "house" and then reward her with a small low cal milkbone..
she also slept in the crate during the night... eventually we would leave the door open at night...that is how we started to see if we could trust her in the house.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

We've been leaving the door to the crate open and two times now I've caught her sitting in the crate on her own!

Meant to say earlier - we've had out dog for 4.5 years and she's NEVER been crated before!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

We only crate Misty on the days we go to work. She is out all night (sleeps in bed with us) and if we go out on weekends for a few hours we don't crate her.
Basically, if we are going to be gone for more than six hours she gets crated. Otherwise she has the run of the house.

And she wakes me at night if she has to pee.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Posted by mrswask

We've been leaving the door to the crate open and two times now I've caught her sitting in the crate on her own!

Meant to say earlier - we've had out dog for 4.5 years and she's NEVER been crated before!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Posted by Nicole728

Posted by aliwnec10

Posted by Nicole728 we are not crating her at night yet...b/c she is very young, so she snuggles with me and DH and the second she starts to whine, we take her out to potty...in a few weeks we will start keeping her in the crate over night.

This might lead to bigger problems down the road. Once you let her sleep with you, she's not going to like sleeping in the crate instead... AT ALL! I'd be careful of this because once you teach them one thing (that her bed is your bed), it's going to be much harder to undo it.

Thanks for your concern...but this will prob only last till the end of the week, b/c I'm coming to NY for a month and DH will be home with her, therefore she will be in the crate....We do put her in there for a little while...but i'm a very light sleeper, so for my sanity its easier to keep her with me...plus we let our other two dogs sleep in bed with us and they are fine..they sleep on their own beds now, so i guess we are doing something alright

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Posted by aliwnec10

Posted by Nicole728

Posted by aliwnec10

Posted by Nicole728 we are not crating her at night yet...b/c she is very young, so she snuggles with me and DH and the second she starts to whine, we take her out to potty...in a few weeks we will start keeping her in the crate over night.

This might lead to bigger problems down the road. Once you let her sleep with you, she's not going to like sleeping in the crate instead... AT ALL! I'd be careful of this because once you teach them one thing (that her bed is your bed), it's going to be much harder to undo it.

Thanks for your concern...but this will prob only last till the end of the week, b/c I'm coming to NY for a month and DH will be home with her, therefore she will be in the crate....We do put her in there for a little while...but i'm a very light sleeper, so for my sanity its easier to keep her with me...plus we let our other two dogs sleep in bed with us and they are fine..they sleep on their own beds now, so i guess we are doing something alright

Yes i'm a light sleeper as well, so i completely understand. It took us 4 months to crate train our puppy! The first 2 months were h*ll and i was lucky if i got 4 hours of sleep a night!

Whatever works for you!

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Katie was crated during the day till she was about 6 months old. Now we keep her gated in the kitchen where she has access to her crate. She has a bed in the kitchen also but she well rest in either or.
At night she is always crated.

ETA: We say "crate" and she goes to her crate and gets a treat... everytime. She looks forward to it.

ETA again: We put a cover on the crate. She loves that... makes her feel like it's her private room.

Message edited 7/2/2007 10:05:38 PM.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.

Re: Those of you who crate their dogs...a question.