Full run of a large crate?

[Darcy & Millie]

The recent discussion of crate size makes me wonder when everyone let their puppies have their full crate?  Our crate is 42", and plenty big for Millie right now whom is around 30 pounds (17 weeks).  I've had it partitioned off for her, and she's never had any accidents in there.   So... this other recent discussion on crate size has pushed me to decide to give her the full crate.  She loves this particular bean bag and sleeps on it often.  I just opened up the whole crate and put her bean bag inside of it.  She promptly went inside and laid down!  She sleeps in her crate at night, and occasionally when we are gone during the day (maybe once every other week).  Otherwise, that's it.  Hardly ever during the day.  She doesn't mind when she's put in there though, and settles down immediately after going in (even knows to go in there on command).  I think I will give this a try, and just keep a very close eye on the other half of the crate, to make sure it stays dry.  I'm hoping she won't start going pee in there now that she has more room.

When did you let your doodles have more space in their crates?  And did any of them start peeing when they had more room given to them?  TIA!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

We gave Luna more space as soon as she had trouble fully stretching out in the portion of the crate she was given.  She got the whole crate when she was probably about 4 months old (smaller crate and smaller doodle than yours though). 

She didn't pee in there - when she was home alone we had her crate inside a larger playpen with a pee area though.  She did pee beside the crate in the little area for a couple months, but stopped when she was about 8 months old and could just hold it all day.

[Lori Rietze]

Jessie is 14 weeks and is 22lbs. She has had a 42" crate from the day we brought her home at 8 weeks and has always had the full crate. I read about sectiong it off, but I never had the heart to do it as her favorite position to sleep is fully stretched out. She has never had any accidents in her crate. She sleeps in it every night and if we leave during the day. For the first few weeks we had her, I was up religously every 2-3 hours to let her out. But the last two weeks she has been sleeping clear through the night (11-6:30). Maybe we got lucky with her, but she is such a good girl and she loves her crate. She will sometimes sneak off and lay down in her crate if she is tired and lay in there with the door open for hours. This is a picture of her napping in her crate by choice at 9 weeks. Love my sweet doodle girl!

[Vivian & Mojo]

I didn't give my puppy more space until I was sure he was potty trained. After 2 months with no accidents I got the larger create and he never had an accident. A few months later I bought an even bigger create because he really stretches out and is very tall for a 65 pound dog at 16 months.

[Robin & Josie]

If she does have an accident after you give her more room, you can just put the divider back in. After we had our quandry last week where Josie ended up sleeping out of her travel crate Friday and Saturday with our daughter with no accidents (and sleeping til 9!), we decided that we would still put her back in her regular crate at home (our terms - not hers...we have stay on her or she'll take over the house....) She went in without a fuss, but I thought, as a reward, I would put a nice cushy pillow in there with her. We had not put anything in prior to that, per our instructions.

She was fine with that at night, but on the third day, I went out for a couple of hours during the day, and when I got home (was having a challenging day already....), her pillow was soaked. She had a lot of water pretty close to my putting her in, so it was probably my fault (I feel like all her accidents are really my accidents anyway), but I was in a rush to get to an appt. (I know...bad mommy...) 

Anyway, I, obviously, washed the pillow, cleaned out the crate with enzyme solution, gave her a bath and she's now back to staying dry. We were told that we should not put anything in the crate that can act as a "diaper" until she's dependable.

Bottom line is, you can always experiment and then go back. I'm sure we'll put the pillow back in sometime in the future. Josie is now 14 weeks, so I guess she just wasn't ready. And, also, unlike some other doodles here, she's not particularly in love with her crate. 

[Darcy & Millie]

So Millie has not peed in her crate - yay!  However, she's not using the bean bag in there much.  Silly dog.  She's sleeping in the same spot as before..  I'll have to see if she starts using the bean bag.  If not, I'll take it out, and watch to make sure it continues to stay dry.

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences!