Crate for how long??

buzzyhoneybe · #1 03-28-2005, 08:01 PM

Hi All -

I've had my newest addition, Krissy - rescued flashy fawn spayed female tail docked ears natural - since January. We had some trouble adjusting her to an indoor atmosphere because she had obviously never been allowed indoors before. House training was next to impossible. As soon as she came inside, she'd go to the bathroom. I finally pulled out my old crate and I've been crating her throughout the night when I can't watch her. All my babies stay outside while I'm at work until my boyfriend wakes up (from about 8am until noon) and then are inside (& uncrated but confined to the kitchen) from noon until 3:30 then put outside until I get home from work at 5:30. They then stay inside with me (uncrated but confined to whatever room I'm in - normally the kitchen) until bedtime.

At bedtime, my other three dogs come to bed with me and Krissy is crated in the kitchen. We've had no problems adjusting her to being crated at night but I hate it. I like having my pups in my room with me. I've never had to crate train any of my other pups. (With Cubby - who I bought the crate for, I crated him for one night in our new home and he's never had an accident since...) They picked up on house training without any problems so my crate has only ever been used for my foster pups.

Anyway, how long do I have to keep crating Krissy before I can start trusting her more outside of the crate as far as housetraining goes? She's never had an accident in her crate and has only had one accident since we started crating her (in the kitchen because she refused to go outside to potty since it was pouring) so I know she can hold it for long periods of time - I just need her to do that outside the crate as well. We've only been crating her for about two weeks now. And like I said, she's only crated at night or if she's inside and I can't keep an eye on her.

Any suggestions? Should I move her crate into our bedroom and keep crating her in there at night for a couple more weeks before trusting her in our room? Any other ideas? When we first brought her home, she did have an accident on our bed so I don't want her to associate our bed with a potty place.

Thanks for any advice!!

Mellissa and Krissy

buzzyhoneybe · #2 03-30-2005, 04:07 PM

any ideas are helpful!

ROROSHELTON · #3 03-30-2005, 04:52 PM

About a month ago we got a 16 month old fawn male boxer Brutus that was primarily raised in a crate. I mean morning, noon, and night. We didn't want that for him anymore so for the first couple of nights in his (our) new home kept him in the crate at night. We started leaving him out of the crate with us at night. He does NOT sleep on the bed, but sleeps anywhere he wants on the floor until I can get him a bed and pick out HIS spot in the room. He has been great. Has not had any accidents and we have been lucky.

My suggestion for you is to take a chance, leaving him out at night with you in the bedroom. Or if you have room put the crate in the room with you for a few nights and work your way up to leaving him out. Close the door to keep him in the room and make a bed for him. Make sure you take him out to potty right before bedtime. As soon as I get up in the morning I take our Brutus out. I don't wait, but we do go to bed no later than 11 at night and get up at 6am. I'm certainly no expert, but I hope it helps.

buzzyhoneybe · #4 03-30-2005, 05:20 PM

Thanks for the suggestions... :-)

All my pups sleep in bed with us except her because of the crating deal. I'd like to be able to let them all sleep with us. I hesitate to "take a chance" because she has had an accident on our bed before. I'm not too worried about the carpet because I'm going to be replacing that room's carpet soon anyway. We're getting all new carpet throughout our house but can only afford to do it one room at a time and we left our room until last just to make sure everyone was potty-trained before we did!!

Anyway, thanks again!