Crate trainers . . . where is your crate?

[Jen]

Hi, our Kai is 15 weeks old. We are crating her when we leave and at night. We have her crate in our living room because that is where we spend most of our time when we are home. She does well overnight in her crate, but every now and then barks in the middle of the night and it's hard being upstairs in our bedroom to really know what she needs and if going to her is necessary. Some have mentioned having her sleep in our room. That would mean bringing her crate up there and she's be crated in our bedroom during the day when we are away. I'm tossed between having the crate in the room we spend most of our time in the house and having it in our bedroom for overnight. It's too big to move everyday adn I'm not really sure I want to buy another crate.

 

Curious where all of you have your crates.

[Becka]

Sadie's crate is in the bedroom, but when she was small enough to sleep in her travel crate I used to move it between my home office during the day and the bedroom at night. When she graduated to the larger crate (which, by the way, she has  outgrown--I need to go crate shopping this week!) I set it up permanently in the bedroom. By that time, however, she was pretty much potty trained and didn't need to be crated when I was home. Now she's only crated when I leave the house.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Jen, our crate was in the kitchen and we were upstairs. I used a baby video monitor for the first few months. This way if they barked I could see what was going on. It worked really well for us.

[Janel and Sophia]

We keep Sophia's crate in the living room/great room.  She is just fine sleeping there all night and has been doing so since we got her.  Like you her crate is to big to move constantly.  I do believe for some brands of crates you can get wheels to fit under them.

I am looking for a nice crate cover, so if anyone can suggest where to find one that has different color choices, I would appreciate it.  The Petco and Petsmart ones are not the nicest.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

BOW WOW dog beds on Etsy do some cool crate covers.

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

thank you for this info

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

LIlly (12wks) her crate is in our bedroom. She has a day bed in the living room that she uses to chew her toys. she sleeps during the day on the floor or on my lap or I take her to the bedroom and put her in the crate if I have to do something that I don't need her help (vacuum, mop, go to the basement to do laundry, etc) If we leave her in the hosue, she is crated in her bedroom. At first I would take the crate back and forth but that got old on the second day. I have to add that we are in a 2 bedroom/ 1 bath cottage while our "country home" is being finished. It is VERY small.

[Judi, David & Maddie Irishdoodle]

We used 2 crates at first - one in the laundry room (its still there) and one beside the bed (borrowed from my daughter)covered with towels or a sheet.  The one in the bedroom only stayed for a month or two and that way I could soothe her by sticky my fingers in her crate and I could also hear her if she had to go potty at night. 

 After that  we only used the laundry room one for bed time or when we went out and she was fine with that - not making a peep.  Maddie is 17 months old and sleeps mostly on the floor or in her laundry room crate which is her choice and we no longer have to crate her when we go out..

All in all it was just easier having two crates for a while.  Good luck with whatever you chose.

[Carlos and Chloe]

We also used 2 crates.  One in the kitchen and one in the bedroom.  At first we only had 1 crate in the kitchen and just kept a baby monitor near chloe so we could hear her if she was getting restless.  When we decided it was okay for her to sleep in our room we just bought another crate for that.  Chloe is almost 2 years old and free roaming.  We still keep the crate in our bedroom just because she likes going to sleep in there.  We just leave the gate open.

[Madeline and Peanut]

We had the same dilemma.  When we brought Peanut (now12 wks) home I did not want to have him in our bedrooms, however, the first four nights he barked so much and we had the same concern as you as to whether he really needed something.  We ended up letting him sleep upstairs in our room and he was much more calm.  I had the same issue about carrying the crate up and down each day so we ended up getting another crate which has made it much easier.  He is only allowed upstairs for bedtime so he seems to understand when he is in the upstairs crate it is time to sleep because he really doesn't make a peep unless he needs to go out to the bathroom. Good Luck!

[Jen, Lachlan, and Declan]

Lachlan has two crates - one in the living room for day use, where he can see and interact with his bestest feline buddy, and the other in the bedroom for night. I know he'd probably be fine sleeping in the living room at night, but I like having him in the bedroom with me. Eventually I'll eliminate the bedroom crate and let him sleep loose, but only when he stops trying to eat the entire world ... I have this visual of waking up one morning and wondering where the comforter went while he looks at me and belches.

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

Harley's crate remains in the Foyer, which is open to the living area.  We could hear Harley when he was a puppy if there were any problems at night, but wanted him where we were most of the day

[New puppy owner]

After much support my the group Waffle's crate is downstairs.  Perhaps I am a bad mommy but I sleep with a white noise machine.  I go down at 6am ( I set my alarm) and never before.  Not even sure if he does bark since I can't really hear him with white noise machine.  I sleep much better now and he has been happy to see me every morning, but this solution my not be fo everyone.  We started this at 13 weeks and he's now 16 weeks.  He used to hate his crate and barked his head but now he goes in happily at ight an during day if he has a kong