Who crates? Who doesn't? And what are the alternatives?

[MarnieBlue]

Very helpful Madra!! Thanks so much. So when he first came home and slept in crate and held on all night to have a pee in morning, how come he now pees on pads through the night? I might have misunderstood? So the plan is to keep her in a crate in our room and if she needs to pee in the night, will she let us know so we can take her outside? And through the day I'll pop her crate in a playpen in the living room with pee pads etc x

[Madra]

Originally Posted by MarnieBlue

Very helpful Madra!! Thanks so much. So when he first came home and slept in crate and held on all night to have a pee in morning, how come he now pees on pads through the night? I might have misunderstood? So the plan is to keep her in a crate in our room and if she needs to pee in the night, will she let us know so we can take her outside? And through the day I'll pop her crate in a playpen in the living room with pee pads etc x

Initially we didn't have the playpen and we were using our old hard sided cat carrier as his crate. No room for him to have a pee spot in there which was the intention. In the morning he started whimpering and making high pitched barks and he was taken straight out for a walk. No opportunity to have an 'accident' inside. Now that we have the playpen, we use a slightly bigger carrier (he grew a lot in a month!) and inside the pen we have the pee pad, he sleeps in his crate and has 24 hour access to food and water. The pee pad has bought us about an extra hour of sleep in the morning :> In my online research, it seems they are able to hold it for as many hours as they are months, plus one. So a 4 month old pup should be able to hold it for 5 hours. I'd try that as a gauge for when to pay attention to his crate noises maybe? Bear in mind I'm speaking from a grand 7 weeks of experience here

During the day when we're at work, he's alone for anywhere from 3 hours to 5 hours. During this time he's in the pen. Sometimes he uses the pad, lately he hasn't been as much, and goes straight for a walk with whoever gets home first. The goal is to have him completely trained to 'go' outside, and we're hoping to have that solidly imprinted before the snow flies The pee pad is more like the 'emergency I gotta gooo!' spot. I hope.

[RaeS]

I use a crate as well. Brought it a few days after bringing aoki home. We only put her in it when we leave our apartment

[Britster]

Originally Posted by DvlshAngel985

Kaji started in an ex-pen, and now nothing. He sleeps in his own bed when he wants to or sleeps in mine. I prefer he sleeps with me. The only time I use a crate is to transport a really sick foster baby from point A to point B. It really is all about personal preference. Do whatever you're most comfortable with, or whag you feel is giving you the results you desire.

Although, I will say, isn't adding a pad to the crate counter intuitive? I though the pups were suppose to identify the crate as their sleepinf domian and not soil the inside? I may be wrong though as I didn't crate train myself.

Yeah that.

I knew all along my dog was going to be in my bed with me, so I did the crate thing in the very beginning for potty training purposes but it didn't last long.

We graduated to expen while I left but otherwise he had free roam. By 6 months he was pretty reliable.

Now he just gets free run of the entire house when I leave and has since about 9 months.

[life4life]

We only crate them when we are not home. We have X large crate so they ca move around in with water bowl. We try not to be gone longer than 4 hours.

[Kimbieann]

Hello. I am new to this site. I have a Yorkie named Bella who is 5 months old, 6 months on October 18th. Before I got her I got an excercise pen from Wilco so it takes up one whole wall of my kitchen. I liked this idea better than a kennel and the breeder had a similar set up for the newborn puppies in her home. She has her indoor dog potty on one end, toys and food in the middle and her bed on the opposite side. She has slept great since the first night I got her. Might have whined for maybe 15 minutes the first night or two but you have to ignore them and they will go to sleep. I also put a ticking clock under her blankets in her bed so she would think she could hear her momma's heartbeat. We also got her a doggie playpen from Petsmart because I brought her to work with me for the first week so we could bond.

She does great in the playpen when I take her to my inlaws to watch her when my hubby and I want to go out somewhere without her. I haven't had any problems with Bella staying in the excercise pen during the day if we are at work and at night. I leave the radio on at night and during the day so she doesn't feel alone. I hope to eventually let her have access to all of the kitchen and leave her excercise pen door open but she likes to chew the baseboard and kitchen cabinets and I am not having any of that.

The only thing bad that my little Bella does is she manages to open the indoor potty and take out the potty pads and chew it up and make a HUGE mess in her excercise pen. And I think she does that when she is irked at me. Also only when she is upset with me or my hubby does she pee where she is not supposed too. I would say now 85% of the time she goes on her indoor dog potty and outside. But my little Yorkie is great! She mostly goes indoor but took to going outside immediately once I had all her shots done. That was a blessing to take her outside! We dont have a backyard and live in a townhome so I couldn't wait until her shots were done. We take her everywhere with us so she is a great car traveler!

[tinalove]

I still use the crate while I am at work. Both my girls have their own personal crate. They are life savers for me. Once I come home, I walk them and then they have free roam of the house. I only crate them when I am out of the house. They both have large crates that stay in my family room. I kept the crates from when they were small puppies. I only use the small crates when we are travelling out of town.

[tinalove]

For some reason if I don't crate my girls when everyone is away from the house , we would get small surprises once we return. However, I don't experience that situation if they are crated unless someone has an upset tummy which is very rare. I work all day and I know my house would be a mess if they had free roam. My bichon loves to tear up paper as well. So the house would be in turmoil .

[TiffanyandTeddy]

At the moment Teddy and Lola share a crate at night downstairs. Our xpen will be here within the next couple days so when nobody is home they can both run around in their pen and have a section for their crate along with their puppy pads. During the day when Teddy is sleepy he doesn't like being in a bed or anywhere that he can move around too much as he rather be in his crate in a small corner and sleep comfortably. Once they are both potty trained they will get free roam but still be crated at night as they love being together to cuddle and are trouble markers who can't be left alone right now lol

[Rhiannon224]

I have two yorkie babies. DaVinci is 8, Jeter is 3 mos and neither are crate trained. My mom lives with me and is retired so there's always someone home and the baby is 90% potty trained already! Jeter has been sleeping in bed with me since day 1 and had only one accident in the bed on the first night which was my fault. Both boys are pad trained and the older boy I have since he was 4 mos old and didn't crate him because I knew with my work schedule I couldn't always get home to let him out and knew he couldn't hold it. I did gate an area for him until he was trained. The puppy is doing great, I do have an x pen for him for when we both go out, not because he will do anything but because I don't trust my cats 100% with him yet and I can put him in his pen to keep him from messing with them when no one is home.

[TiffanyandTeddy]

I have two 10 week old pups who use a crate, play pen and get free roam of the kitchen. We haven't started taking them out to potty train yet as there's too many dogs running around our neighborhood, some that owners clearly do not care for and since ours aren't UTD on shots yet we have been puppy pad training them. During the days they will be running around the kitchen supervised and if we need to clean or do other things that we can't supervise them, we'll place them in their play pen that has their bed, water, and puppy pads. At night time both are crated and they love it. They will crawl right in on their own and go straight to sleep. It makes them feel safe and secure.

[Tetleyteabag]

My dogs have their own room which contains 3 crates and a "cave" - an old bed base with sliding doors. This has been an absolute godsave over the past few years with all my rescue yorkies being fostered.

It has made it easy to separate the little monkeys if they have a punch up and gives them time to calm down.

The crate can be a hiding place from thunderstorms, with a temporary cover over and radio playing, making them feel safe.

Smaller crates kept in the car, and well anchored down, keep my babies safe when travelling - and remove distraction from driving safely !

Unfortunately, some of the rescue dogs I`ve looked after have come from places where crates have been used cruelly though, with dreadful consequences too.