At what age did you stop crating at night?

[Wendy]

My husband wants to stop crating the pups at night and just leave them loose in our bedroom however we have 2 little kids who come into our room so we can't shut Motta and Miley in our room. M & M are 20 weeks now.

a little more background... We take them to work right now during the day. We do have a huge XXL crate that they share but Dh wants to take that down and put them in our large master bathroom to give them more room when we leave during the day or evening or whatever...
Anywho.. they have never chewed furniture although sometimes they steal one of the kids toys from the toy box even though they have thier own toys!! they do bark to wake us up when in their crate around 6 am usually. THey are pretty well potty trained.. have never pooped in the house and only pee in the house usually maybe 1 time a week.

Am I crazy to trust them? They are calm and wonderful ponies.. I mean puppies :) My only complaint is that they don't "come" to their name yet. We need to work on that.

[Lynne B]

We started leaving Beck loose in the bedroom at about 6 months, he outgrew his crate and we debated buying a new one and decided to just take a chance and leave him loose at night. We close the bedroom door to discourage midnight explorations of the rest of the house. He sleeps at the end of our bed and doesn't get up until we do in the morning. If I couldn't have closed the bedroom door I think I probably would have waited until he was a bit older though

[Adina P]

Rosco didn't sleep permanently uncrated until he was 2 years old..though he got a few tries at it before. BUT that doesn't mean you should wait that long...I was just extra cautious. 20 weeks seems young to me but perhaps you could use a baby gate to section off your bedroom to keep the pups from leaving but allow the kids to come in?

[s a r a h&h a r p e r]

Hi Wendy!

I have also had this issue with our little Harper bug, who will be 10 weeks on Wednesday. We crated her the first 2 nights, mostly because Zach was adamant on night crating. I'm all about crate training, however Harper would cry and cry and no one was getting any sleep, so on the third night we kept her out, and she has been great ever since!
Like your pups, she has never pooped in the house, and has an accident maybe once a day? She either sleeps at the end of the bed or on "her pillow", and has slept through the nights for almost a week now. She even let me sleep in today until 10:30, which i'm still in shock over!

I know it isn't a conventional way of training, but it's working for us! So if your're comfortable letting them out, i'd say at least try it! good luck :)

[03pilqobzlvp7]

I stopped crating Duff at night when I got him a dog bed at about 4 months. He doesn't leave my side very often, so I wasn't too concerned about him wandering the house, but we keep the door closed anyway. It might have been a little nerve wracking to leave the door open at first. If you'd like to get them used to sleeping out of the crate at night, you could tether them to a leg of the bed. That way, they'll learn that they should stay put. You also won't have to worry about accidents. Duff now sleeps in his bed at night in our room (or on the floor if it's too hot out), and he stays in his crate during the day.

[Kendra K. Rhoton]

4 months for us... Remington sleeps clear through the night and loves being with us!

[Lynda Kamrath]

Yes, I think 20 weeks is pretty early to have the run of the house (or the master bedroom) unsupervised. My pups were in their crate (actually their playpens) whenever they were not actively supervised until they were fully house trained. Puppies do have a need to chew and will chew on anything they can get their little paws on when they are bored. You do not want that to get started. They definitely can think of things to do to get in trouble when nobody is around to supervise them. Since they have each other for company, that should help.

[Erin and Dexter]

Hi Wendy,
We stopped crating our pup at about 6 months. He was slightly ahead of the game of your pups as he hadn't had any accident in the house in at least about a month. When he got fixed, the cone was very uncomfortable in the crate so we sort of had no choice but to let him sleep in our room. He has done great ever since so we've just kept up with it. Good luck! PS he is still crated during the day when we are not home...and starting to maybe try and trust him a bit more during the day when we are not home.

[Julie M]

Rossi is 9 months old now and has been on and off restriction. There's a doggie door she can use, so accidents aren't a problem, but around 6 months old, she started getting bored with her toys and started on the deck, the floor molding, the staircase and the carpet. Just when I think she's learned, she would try something new. She has never loved her crate (except when I go to work she is fine). So I set up a 'pen' in the corner of my bedroom. She has a bed in there and is close to me. She still whines a bit at first but then settles down. Every dog is different. My older dog was 'free' at 4 months and never touched a thing. Good Luck!

[Wendy]

We have a yard pen (play yard )from the kids that we used for the pups while camping since leashes are too hard and they don't allow long leashes. I think it might work in the bedroom if it will fit. it's only slightly larger than the XXL cage which is 48 in...

We have left them free during the night for 2 nights now and we haven't woken to any accidents or things chewed either yet. Now I need to knock on wood!!! lol.. no really they love to sleep on the cool wood floor of the main living area. It's funny to me that they don't sleep together... they sleep in 2 different rooms!

[Chris & Boys]

4-1/2 months. Fozzy got run of the house at 6 months. I took Fozzy to work with me until he was 4 months old as well. He started out with the master bathroom as well. The only problem, if you have blinds, don't leave them down. Fozzy destroyed mine trying to watch me leave in the morning. You have to start trusting them sometime. If it doesn't work out, put them back in the crate and wait a couple of weeks. Start leaving them a couple hours at a time and go from there if you are nervous about leaving them all day. If they do well at night, they can do it during the day too. Good luck!

[Wendy]

lol about the blinds! Motta is picking at the carpet! It started with a spot that the cat had puked on. I guess it tasted good. I think he gets bored and just decides to pick at whatever he can! They have had free run of the house for almost 2 weeks now. I still bring them to work.

[Chris & Boys]

Oh, so how have they been doing? I was so scared to come into the house the first day I gave him the run of the house for an entire day! But I was pleasantly surprised.