How to "uncrate" at night

[Jan and Shelby]

Hi, I've been reading the posts about when your puppy is ready to have more freedom but haven't found an answer to my specific question.  Shelby is 10 months old, sleeps in her crate (in the kitchen) at night and when we are not home, however we just started leaving her in the house uncrated for a few hours when we go out and she has done fine, do destructive chewing or accidents.  We'd like to try leaving her out of the crate at night but we do not want her to sleep in our bedroom.  We keep a gate up to close off the bedroom section of our house.  It is a ranch house so she has free access in the kitchen, dining room and great room.  Would like to set up a bed in one of these rooms for her to sleep at night, but not sure the best way to introduce it vs. the crate. She is also close to outgrowing her crate and we are debating on buying a new one or going without. Any advice would be most appreciated!

[BetteB]

We introduced a bed to Agnes, while she was still using the crate. I put the bed near her crate at first, and she seemed to know right away that it was for her. Then I moved the crate and the bed into the living room (she had been in the bedroom, but w/ the heat-on this winter, she was hot). Once we felt we could "trust" her -- mostly not to attack/chew the bed -- we let her sleep outside of the crate. She rarely comes into our room, just in the morning. Most of the time she sleeps on her bed or on the couch (which we allow). She hardly ever goes into the crate now. Like Shelby, she's also gotten a bit big for the crate (and we decided not to buy a new one). Good luck!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

We did the same thing with Guinness. He had his beds that he slept in during the day, and he only used the crate at night. Once I was comfortable there would be no chewing or "accidents" we took the crate away and he basically had the run of the house. He always chooses to sleep on his bed in our room. He was about nine months when we started this, and there have been no problems.

[Camilla and Darwin]

We tried to free roam Darwin at night a few months ago. He was about 7 months old at the time. We found that he could only go six or seven hours before becoming bored and chewing things. He usually sleeps in his crate for 8-9 hours during the night. We lost a pillow, blanket, shoes, and some other random things. We puppy proofed the room but he still managed to find things to chew. I think perhaps he was too young. Either way, we have just continued crating him during the night so we can avoid further incidents. However, when we stay at people's houses, he doesn't sleep in a crate, just in the bedroom with us. He's never done anything destructive during those times.

I think you should start with one room, perhaps the kitchen. If she has too much room to roam, it may increase the chance of her doing things she shouldn't. Then you ca build up. Darwin never chewed anything during the day, so it surprised us when we woke up to find things destroyed.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I agree with Camilla - don't give her a ton of room to roam and she'll be fine. Leave the crate door open and put her bed closeby. She will probably gravitate to it.
In our case, after Peri was spayed at 5 1/2 months, we started letting her sleep in our room on her bed. She still sometimes gets restless, but will usually settle down. Without fail, about 5am, she plops up on our bed, right near my feet. DH always said "no more dogs in bed"...uhoh. But it sounds like you are going to put her the kitchen/dining/great room, which is totally fine as long as crate and bed option are both there.

[Azure & Muppet]

We recently made this transition out of crate at night. In the beginning, our puppy was crated when left alone until housetrained and trustworthy to start leaving uncrated during the day. We started with small amounts of time and limited space (using gates), and gradually increased time and expanded the space. But we still crated him at night until about 10 months old. To help introduce the dog bed as a place to sleep, we placed it next to the crate by the door and left the crate door open. Then we used a leash attached to the crate to give him enough freedom to go in and out of the crate, so he could choose to sleep in the crate or just outside the crate on the dog bed. After a while, we removed the leash and also moved the dog bed to a different location. But still limited his access to rooms that were puppy-proof so he didn't get into trouble at night.

Another idea could be to place the dog bed you'd like her to use inside the crate (if it fits), and she can get used to sleeping on it there, then when you move it outside the crate she'll know what it's for and already be comfortable sleeping on it.

But if the dog bed won't fit inside the crate, you could use a towel or blanket inside the crate for a while that she'll associate with sleeping on. Then you can lay the blanket or towel she slept on in the crate over the new dog bed. This would help her transfer from sleeping in the crate to the new bed instead.

[Jan and Shelby]

Thanks, this sounds like it may work best, since we cannot close off the kitchen as we have an open floor plan for the rooms she has access to. I would like to get a larger bed since she has outgrown the crate, so I'll try the towel idea in her crate and transfer it to the new bed, along with the leash for the first few nights. Appreciate the advice!

[Natasha]

i would like to caution you not to use the leash when you are not in the room. It is, unfortunately, too easy for a dog to accidentally get wrapped up (their paw, back leg, even their neck). Slim chance that it will happen, but not worth the risk.

Some dogs prefer sleeping in their crates (not most, though), so placing the bed just outside of the crate and then seeing what she does naturally is a great recommendation.

Too bad you can't cordon off the kitchen. Can you maybe create a mini barricade (like with chairs) to temporarily see how she does? Or perhaps there is another room that can become her nighttime cave? :)

[Laura & Chewie]

I was happy to see this discussion as this is something I also have been considering. Chewie, now 10 months, still sleeps in his crate in my bedroom. I started leaving him out when I leave the house a couple months ago. It's normally not longer than 3 hours or so and he has behaved perfectly. Overnight he will stay in his crate until he hears me getting up in the morning. We did have a dog bed for him for during the day use in the family room. He would go on it to play or chew on something, but never slept a wink on it. He eventually chewed holes in it. If I were to leave him out at night, I would still keep him in my room...just have no idea if he would sleep as well all night as he does in his crate...hate to spoil a good thing.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Fudge slept in a crate in our bedroom and I just started leaving the crate door open. Sometimes, she would stay in the crate and other times she would come out of her crate and sleep on the nearby dog bed or floor. We started doing this at 6 months and she never had an accident. We confine her to our bedroom at night.

[BG and Gavin]

Gavin has a dog bed that we use in the living room as his "place." We are trying to transition out of the crate too as we will be heading up to our cottage soon and there is just no room in our little cabin for a large crate. I really need to get a baby gate, but in the mean time we have been putting his bed in the spare room beside his crate (with open door) and putting the crate divider across the doorway leaned against a chair. Like I said we really need a baby gate. Anyway he has been sleeping on his bed at night. He could easily knock over our make shift gate, but he crashes out at night and does not stir until we get him up in the morning. During the day when no one is home. its into the crate with a special Kong. I figure him to get into much more trouble bored and awake, during the day time, than at night.