No Crate at Night- When do you know?

[Pam & Trixie]

Trixie is one of the Pups that can not take the heat..And its not hot here at all yet!

The kennel we have in our bedroom is not a wire crate.  Nor is the one downstairs....but if we buy a wire crate- it will replace the downstairs crate- where she stays when we are not home.

 

She breathes so hard during the night & tosses & turns in her crate- because she is hot.  it was 55 last night with the window wide open & the ceiling fan on & She still was roasting.  She is keeping me up all night.

 

So we would like to try her out of the crate for sleeping.

How do we know shes ready?  She doesnt get into much trouble during the day (no chewing, etc)

She has not had an accident during the night & Has slept through for about 6 weeks now.

 

Any suggestions on this?  Do we just give her a dog bed & hope she will sleep there all night?  LOL

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Since she is still so young it might be a little early. I would first see how she does with the crate door open before I would put away the crate....can you keep the door of the bedroom closed?

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Both of my doodles have slept on the bed since the day they got home.  Now that they are older, 1+ and 3+, they rotate from the bed to the floor to a chair in the bedroom.  I have been lucky that they both have slept all night and not gotten into anything.  I think "when" depends on your doodle.  I'd just give it a try and see how it goes and close the bedroom door so she can't leave during the night.  When it was hot I would put a crate divider in front of the door and leave it open just to have more air!  Good luck.

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

Rosey loves to sleep in her bed... and she stays in it all night!  We started her off with it as part of her play so she became really comfortable with it.  She slept in bed with me until she was 6 mos old and she decided she was done with that... lol so she started sleeping in her bed.  If she is hot you might want to try one of those cots....  good luck!

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

Maybe just try something new out and if it doesn't work, experiment with different sleeping arrangements until you find a solution that works for everyone? My dogs sleep wherever they want to, and I don't mind that they move around as long as they don't wake me up :)

 

[Pam & Trixie]

Thanks for all of your input.

Jessica the cooling Mat sounds interesting.  I had never heard of it.

 

I also wonder if one of the Cots might help keep her cool...Instead of the Traditional Dog bed.

Maybe not.  I have never used a cot for a dog.

 

We do sleep with the door closed...So that wont be a problem. 

[Jenny & Henry]

Hey Pam, you got me wondering the same thing now with Henry.  These twins seem identical in so many ways.  The past week Henry has started panting in the crate at night too.  :(  I keep the AC on too because I myself don't like to be hot.  I wonder if we should dog proof, shut the bedroom door and open the crate door.  Hmmmmm....

[Pam & Trixie]

They sure do seem alike...Except Henry doesnt shed!  LOL

I picked Trixie up today really quick before I was leaving & My Black Shirt was White!

 

We were going to try Trixie loose last night.  But we got home later then Usual & she was wide awake  & I hadnt looked under the bed yet...

[Kelly & Monty]

My dog did the same thing.  So hot at night he'd start panting and kept us up.  We decided at about 12 months to try him in our gated kitchen.  He's now 14 months and it's going well. He doesn't get into anything and is also a good watch dog for us. 

[Melissa & Porter]

I'd uncrate and close the bedroom door.  Also use a wet washcloth to wet down her belly...fast cooling.

[shelly]

For us, tori just started to bark when we would close the door of her crate at night... she just didn't want to be left alone in there I guess... she started off in her crate in my son's room, then wound up just going in the downstairs crate at night whenever she got tired that we just would shut the door and go up... but then one day - I guess she just had enough... she now roams during the night, but mostly is in my room. (which I NEVER would have ever thought I would do!).  she was 3 in March and I'd say she's been crate free since about that time...

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

We tried letting Luna roam free at night for the first time last weekend (at 9 months old), and she did great!  We did put everything out of her reach, and her crate was there.  We also closed the bedroom, bathroom and closet door so she had nowhere to wander to.

To our surprise - when she realized the crate door was open, she wandered around for 5 minutes...then slept the whole night as usual!

 

We probably could have done it a while ago, but a few weeks ago she tried to make a meal out of our (unplugged) electric blanket... so we weren't sure what she would try to do with it at night.

[Pam & Trixie]

Trixie always gets to Cuddle with us on the bed for awhile before we put her in her crate for the night. She then goes right to slee