Crating a new puppy
 

I am crating Henry at night and during nap time or when I can't directly supervise him. He does cry at first, but eventually settles down. I am wondering if I need to crate forever or just until he is well-trained? I would like to him to sleep with me...someday. Has anyone had experience with this? Thanks!

No not forever. :) You are getting him used to his crate....you'll be surprised but eventually you won't have to PUT him there...he'll go by his own choice. Mine routinely goes in hers to nap while at work. Sometimes she takes treats inside to eat them too.

I know some people on here put their puppy in bed with them when they first brought them home. For me I waited until Lucy was fully house trained and that was at about 5 months. So now if she wakes up in the middle of the night she can just jump off the bed and go to her pee pad.

Also if you put your pup in the bed with you then a good idea is to lower you bed to the last notch. I don't know if all beds are like this put I can move my bed up really high or make it as low as the couch sits. Just in case the roll out of bed or just get nosy and want down

Crystal

i had lexi in a crate also when she was a baby,, as soon as she was
trained, and could jump, i took her crate away cause she didnt want to go
in it anymore, she rather be on the couch and eventually go on my bed..
she has the full run of the house and she is 1 years old...

Thanks everyone!
 

I appreciate your help. Henry is sleeping nicely in his crate right now.

We crate trained and Loki is now 1 1/2 and completely housetrained. He still goes in his crate when we are both not home (not often, a few times a week for a few hours) and when I am washing the floor or painting or something like that. Otherwise it's open and he goes in there sometimes. If I give him the "crate" command he bolts to his crate (I was sick of chasing him, this is easier) and waits for his treat. Sometimes he'll go in there to sleep. Sometimes he'll go in there to try to get a treat! He sleeps wherever he wants (usually on the floor of our room in his bed, he only cuddles if it's cold).

I built Loki a box to get onto our bed, rather than buy pet stairs. In case anyone is interested I used one of those $10 wood craft crates from Michaels (with a 40% off coupon!) and covered it with some batting and fabric and secured it with a staple gun. It's small where I don't trip on it, and Loki uses it like a trampoline. He will even circle around the bed to use it (It's on my side) so I know he likes it because he chooses to use it.

Also, we had 2 crates when Loki was little. One upstairs and one downstairs. We had the smallest size wire crate then too. Now he has a few sizes bigger.