Suggestions please! Sleeping outside of crate - Door open for cat?

[Abby Christos]

Hi Everyone!

Bob is 22 weeks now, and I feel like we may be getting to the point that we could let Bob sleep out of his crate. The only problem is that we won't be able to shut him in the room, because we have a cat that likes to sleep in our room and meows incessantly at closed doors.

Do any of you have a situation where you can't close the bedroom door? How do you keep your pup from roaming the house? I've heard people say to tether them to a piece of furniture. Have you tried that? 

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Baby gate at door?

[Abby Christos]

You would think that'd be a genius idea, but the darn cat can't figure out that he needs to jump over it! You'd think that a creature that can jump 7' on to something could jump over a 3.5' baby gate!

[Adina P]

They have baby gates with cat size doors at the bottom.

[Pat and Traveler]

He might surprise you and just sleep at night even if the door is open.  Trav might wander a little bit, but he mostly just wants to sleep at night.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I agree with this. My feeling is that if a dog is reliable enough on his house training and manners to sleep uncrated in the bedroom, he's fine with access to the whole house.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

We use a baby gate but we don't attach it to the door frame. Instead we lean it against the door opening with one side slightly open (cat sized opening)  or the bottom sticking out far enough that the cat can go through the opening but the dog can't.  Tara doesn't jump on the gate so it works great and everybody's happy. :)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I have gotten extremely technical when preventing the dogs from going down the basement. I prop up a large Rubbermaid lid. They could easily push it down or go over it, but they never do, and it seems the cat can get over it, but she never does, unless our dogs are gone :)

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

We have a gate that has a small cat opening on the bottom!  We never used it as we don't have a cat-but you can get one at Petsmart - just google pet gate with cat opening- here's a picture but kind of small.  good luck.  

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Now that's clever.

[Diane and Alma]

We use this gate and it works great.  It has a hinged door so people can walk in and out plus a small hinged door on the bottom for the cat.  We put this in our upstairs hallway so our dog, Alma, can't get into the kids rooms with all their toys or the laundry room.  The cat knew if she needed space from the dog she could go to that end of the house.  The cat passed away a few years ago but we still keep that gate up.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Carlson-0941PW-Extra-Tall-Walk-Thru-White/dp/...

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Boris has been sleeping in our room with the door open since he arrived with us, he didn't even sleep one night in the crate even though he happily stays in it during the day. He mostly sleeps on the floor in our room on his bed or in the hall just outside on the tiles where it is cooler, or on our bed where he comes for a snuggle at 5am every morning. Riley does much the same. They don't play or do anything destructive in the night mostly just sleep. If you can't come up with another solution perhaps let him sleep where he wants? Dogs mostly like to be with their people at night time. 

[Adina P]

Maybe even install a cat door in your regular door.  We keep our bedroom doors closed to keep the dogs in and because I like having closed doors.  It feels like 'closure' for the night.  Also it keeps my dogs asleep and QUIET.  They see and hear neighbors, squirrels, etc if they can get to the living room and dining room...and that leads to barking which leads to ruined sleep for me.  This morning Boca was jonesing for something outside (squirrel?) that had gotten her attention when Clark came home late so through the night she kept resting her chin on my side of the bed to get my attention.  I assumed she had to go potty and took her out...twice.  Nope.  Then at some other ungodly hour, they managed to sneak out of our room (since I hadn't latched the door) and I woke up startled to Rosco barking out the dining room window.  It was a looong night.