Moving a doodle from a crate at night to a "bed"

[Jess and Pippin]

Hi Everyone.  Our 6 month old doodle has been doing really well in his crate at night.  No accidents and generally sleeps through the night.  The past couple of weeks, he has been whining at night and generally not wanting to be in his crate.  He is a "busy" sleeper, and loves to move around.  A lot!! We tried settling him in the kitchen (gated and puppy proofed), but he didn't like being separated from us and wants to be in our room.  So, a sleepless night.  Out of desperation, we set up the ex pen in our room with his favorite bed in it and he had a great night!  (I'm certain that desperation is the reason for many a good invention!)  I'm wondering when and how to transition him from the ex pen, to just sleeping on his favorite bed.  That ex pen takes up a lot of space in our room  :)

[Camilla and Darwin]

I would clean everything off of the floors, end tables, etc. Anything that he can potentially find and destroy, get rid of. Keep the door to the bathroom closed if you can. That way, if he does get off of his bed to wander, there won't be any trouble he can get into. Then just do it! Take away the ex pen, lay out his bed and go to sleep. See how it goes. :-) My guess is that he will do just as well, maybe with a bit more pacing during the night.

[Jess and Pippin]

Great suggestions.  What age? (Pippin is 6 months.  Too young??) Our previous dog was crated at night until 1 year old.  Our friends who were looking after him when we were away noticed he was really hot at night and let him sleep on a mat in their room.  Sam was "bed" trained by the time we came home from vacation :) so we haven't had to do this before!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I don't think 6 months is too young, but it all depends on the specific dog. You know best. :-)

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

I'll be watching this post for suggestions myself.  Harley  is 5 months and does great in his crate at night, no whining, sleeps through night, but he also is a busy sleeper.  usually find him on his back with head and legs in various positions.  lol  We have carpet in our bedroom so I'm really hesitant to try.  BTW welcome to doodlekisses, I am learning so much here.  Pipin is a doll.

[Jess and Pippin]

Hi Kathy.  We have carpet in our bedroom as well.  Pip is still having the occasional "oops" but not when crated.  I'm reluctant to let him loose until this is really solid.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

I agree with Camilla - just try it.  As long as you puppy proof, you'll be fine and once you realize that he isn't going to cause any problems - you'll all be sleeping better!!!!  We'll be moving Stuart in out room at some point - he is way to young right now, still crated in the kitchen.  Rooney (21 pds) sleeps on our bed - Stuart who will be a large dog will get a nice cozy bed next to ours.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It depends on the individual dog...does he get "into things" during the day?  Murph was five or six months when we took him out of the crate at night.  He was just very uncomfortable, even though it was a very large crate.  He likes to really spread out when he sleeps, and he just couldn't do that in the crate....so he just kept moving around all night.  He was really good at that point about not chewing things inappropriately all day, so we "dog proofed" the bedroom, gated the door, got him a new giant bed, and let him try being free during the night.  There has never been a problem, and he's been so much happier.  Good luck, and let us know how it works out.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

Sasha is almost 18 months and Oliver will be a year on Thursday, I still crate them both at night. Both are very quite at night and tuck in well. A few months ago I let Sasha loose at night and she did really well without getting into any trouble. My bedroom is very small and the doodles are not allowed in because I have white carpet. When I went to bed and left Sasha loose she would come into my bedroom walk around the bed then exit and find some place to sleep and was fine. I was agreeted in the morning with a beautiful doodle face smiling at me and a tail wagging :) After about a week of no problems, Sasha I guess had a sleepless night and decided to chew on the woodwork in my dining room (she finished what Oliver started arrrrgggg!!!!). After that she has been created at night. I may let them loose since I will be off from work for about 6 days so if I wake up to a disaster at least I don't have to go to work - LOL

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Just go with it.  We went from crate in another room to Peri on her bed in our room in one night. No turning back.  She loves being near us in her bed.  She does not move.  I wake up sometimes and she is all 4 paws up in the air.  We allowed her to do this at 7 months.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

I say remove the pen and get a nice large bed to spread out on. Maybe you can leave the crate door open in case he misses his crate as some dogs do. As long as the potty trainng and chewing aren't issues it should be fine. Myla went frn her crate (at night) and slept with us she would scream all night long otherwise, They both had to be crated during the day until recently.Our 2 sleep wih us but we have a gate to block them in the same room with us overnight.

[Pam & Trixie]

We went through this with Trixie about a month ago when she was 4 months old.  She was too noisy in her crate because she moved around so much.  So we moved everything she could get into - which wasnt much in our room.  Checked under the bed too & let her sleep with the kennel door open a few nights.  We let her choose if she wanted to sleep in it or out of the kennel.  Then at night 4 we took the kennel out of our room.

She has done great!

She still moves around alot on some nights...Trying to find the coolest spot in our room (She is always hot-even when it is only 60 degrees)

Other then that is has gone so good. 

[Jess and Pippin]

Thanks for sharing everyone.  Pippin is a major thief (always has been) and still not completely reliable as far as potty training.  I think we'll keep him in the ex pen at night until these things have settled down a bit.