Advice Please

[EvieMom]

I need a little advice. I've read through the threads on crates, etc but was hoping for a little direct advice.

My Sheltie pup is 7 months old. Housebroken and doing well. Right now I crate her at night and whenever we are not home. When we are home, she is out and about with us. She will find me and whine to go out when she needs to potty.

With that said, I would like to start using the crate only when we are not home and allow her to sleep on a bed/pillow in our room at night. Since she will "hold it" in her crate all night, is it safe to assume she will do the same if allowed to sleep outside the crate? Or at least will "ask" if she needs to go out?

From all your experience, is 7 months still too young to trust her through the night. She would not have full run of the house, only the bedroom.

Thanks in advance.

[corbinam]

I think it totally depends on the dog. Both of my dogs started sleeping on the bed around 1, but I think Bentley could have been trusted before that.

You can sort of gauge it by allowing her on the bed while you get ready for bed, watch TV, read a book right before bedtime. If she's good and well-behaved, you can start to let her stay longer.

That's what we did with our girl, Lexi. She was allowed on the bed until we turned the lights off and then we crated her. She become more and more difficult to move (who knew she could make herself one with the bed? LOL!) and was so well-behaved that we just allowed her to stay.

It also helps if you are a light sleeper because you'll know if she gets up and wanders around and you can catch her right away. Worst case scenario is that she makes a mess and you find out she needs to go back to being crated.

[Trip]

Mine is 7 months and has been sleeping in my room on her dog bed since around 5.5 months with no issues. We got her bell trained though, so if she needs to go she will alert us. The only issue with bells is you got to watch that they don't associate it with playing outside.

[lovemyshelties]

That's a tough call. Depends on the dog. We had one that slept with us from 10 weeks and never wet the bed. Then Zoey came along and wasn't house broken totally for 7 months. Our others came to us as housebroken rescues. Our newest addition arrived in August and is around 3 years old. She wants to sleep in her crate (probably feels safe there) so we're not going to force anything.

I'd say try it, but be prepared for restless nights until you figure out if she'll let you know when she has to go potty.

[Justicemom]

I am not worried about housetraining acciedents but the puppy getting down and chewing something up. I left Diva out of her crate at 9 months old and she chewed up a hamper of clothes if I remember correctly 3 pairs of jeans. 5 tshirts and a bunch of undrwear and socks. Luckily she didn't swallow any of it just had a fun time. I am a heavy sleeper and didn't hear a thing.

So it really depends on your dogs. Justice was out of his crate at 9 months, Ember 1 yr and Diva 18 months and Birch at 13 months still sleeps in his crate because everything goes in that boys mouth and he annoys the others. I don't have any plans of let him sleep out of the crate any time soon.

[Internette]

Can I ask?, do you all use soft crates or the hard ones for bedtime?

[EvieMom]

Thank you all for the words of wisdom. Thinking a few more months of sleeping in her crate will do no harm ;-)

[Justicemom]

Originally Posted by Internette

Can I ask?, do you all use soft crates or the hard ones for bedtime?

I use a soft one at night and a wire one during the day. Birch(and Ember and Diva) can unzip the soft one so when I sit up in the morning he let's himself out. Funny he doesn't do it until I get out of bed

He can let himself out of the wire one too so I need to clip the crates shut if I want to make sure he stays put.

[Internette]

Now that dog is too smart, He is so special I love hearing stories of your dogs.

[BarbV]

My only caution here is that even if house-trained, your pup is still in the chewing phase.

I made that mistake with my forever pup, Timber. He was totally trained not to make a mess, but I forgot about chewing. And came home from work to find my living room couch stuffing all over the floor (and digested too, of course!)

My advice would be to keep it up for now. It's not cruel, its not punishment (its only our human minds that think that way). It's their den!

I compromised with Bacca by having a soft-sided crate inside an xpen. Just gave him that little bit more room to move around.

The soft-sided crate was great. He was not a chewer, so not an issue, and it was so light weight I could easily move it upstairs at bedtime.