Where does your puppy sleep (once house trained)?

[Hannah & Pepper]

Hi All,

Pepper is doing so well with potty training and i'd consider her house broken.  When we leave the house for a couple hours or less, we leave her in the crate, and she barks for a bit, but then chills out. 

We initially had her sleeping in a crate in our living room, but now we have moved her to a crate in our bedroom.  She likes being with us, but she still barks of whines in the crate sometimes.  In the morning, once I take her out in the am, I bring her back to the room and she just sleeps next to my bed and is fine sleeping until we are ready to wake up. 

I'm tempted to get her a bed for our room and not have her always sleep in the crate, because she doesn't fuss at all when she is sleeping freely in our room, vs the crate.  Where do you all have your puppies sleep once they are house broken?  Do you keep them in crates in your rooms, or beds?  Do any of you alternate between crates and sleeping freely so that they are comfortable with both?  Is there any kind of best practice or thoughts here?

Thanks!

[Tucker & My Mom Sheryl]

Hi Pepper! Hope you are well! My mom Sheryl has made me a little space next to mom and dads bed. My bed fits in this space surrounded by a puppy gate (you can order one from Chewys) and allows me to sleep on the cooler floor if I get too warm. I LOVE my space! If I need my mom I can simply nudge her awake to take me out. I love my mommy! Here is a picture of my sleeping arrangement! Sleep well my friend!!

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

Of our 3, Winnie is the only one that we raised from a pup and house trained. Once she was house trained, we left the door of her crate open, and let her choose where she wanted to sleep. Sometimes it was in the crate, sometimes on the floor, and sometimes in our bed. These days, all 3 are in our room. :-) None of them are chewers, so I don't worry about them being destructive during the night. But, I do put a baby gate at our door simply because both my husband and I are very deep sleepers. If anybody got sick during the night or needed to be let outdoors, we wouldn't hear them if they were at the back door. In my mind, there is really is no reason to use a crate once they are potty trained (assuming they aren't destructive). I should also add... we have a "dog bed" in our room, but rarely do I see any of them sleeping in it....

[Ozzy - Courtney]

Hi Hannah and Pepper!!! Ozzy will be 5 months in a week, he's potty trained but has never been crated. I have a baby gate that I put at the bathroom door so he has access to my bedroom as well as the bathroom. He likes sleeping on cool tile floor that's in the bathroom and sometimes he'll sleep in his bed that in my bedroom. In the morning, he'll nudge me or he'll do this low volume bark that lets me know he needs to go out. 

[Kathy Basso]

I gave up on the crate after 3 days. She slept on the bed and when she fussed, usually about every 4 hours, we took her out and then right back to bed...no lights, no talking except to say good girl. Aftern2 weeks she was sleeping 10 hours straight on our bed. Now at 10 months old, she chooses not to sleep on the bed, but either downstairs in the living room, where she falls asleep at around 830 or oddly under our bed. We had to buy lifts for our bed so she wouldn't get stuck under there ( she's 55 lbs). She will usually greet us when the alarm goes off at 630 by coming up on the bed for belly rubs.

[Hannah & Pepper]

Thanks all for the input!! Pepper appears to be potty trained at this point, so we've transitioned her from the crate to our bedroom.  She also loves to sleep under our bed which I think is SO funny, but I guess she thinks it's cozy?  She's never been on our bed because it's quite high, and I'm okay with that.  She has never signaled that she needs to go out to potty, but when I take her out in the morning, she goes right away.  I am also worried that Pepper won't be able to get under our bed once she is full size--she will have to find a new spot then haha!

I think I read or was told that dogs can only hold it for 8 hours, but I don't think that's true especially based on your pup!

Thanks! 

[Hua]

My first doodle, Charlie, slept on a bed beside my bed at first, and then in a crate in my bed room for the first few months.  Then he slept on my bed and well, that was that.  My second doodle, Zoe, who I just got a week ago and is 9 weeks old, sleeps on my bed from the very start.  Although it didn't start that way.  I got her a children's camping cot beside my bed.  She started the night on it and during the night, she'll climb onto my bed, and curl up with her head on my pillow pressing against me.  Charlie and Zoe can both sleep without potty break through the night from the very start, so I didn't have to experience what most puppy parents has to do (i.e. getting up multiple times during the night).  I don't know why that is, maybe I just got lucky.  Charlie was potty trained in about 2 weeks.  Charlie never had an accident on my bed.  He threw up twice though, once after a bad dream, and the other time was because he was sick.  Zoe is doing well, and we crate her during the day (with potty/play break every 3 - 4 hours), but she's already at the stage where she'll let you know (i.e. staring at and stare back at you at the patio door, and sometimes scratch at the patio door) when she has to go outside.