How Long did you continue Crating your Dog?

[Sandy]

Toby is almost 14 months old, and I am at the point where I leave him out (with all the bedroom doors closed) if I am only leaving the house for an hour and a half or so, but anything longer than that and I crate him. I don't think he go potty in the house, but he might get bored and start browsing around, looking for trouble. Just today, for the first time, he got into a bedroom where the door wasn't closed tightly and rummaged through the garbage!

[Adina P]

Rosco was free in the house with our other dogs a little before 2 years...for short periods as you mentioned above. But we didn't retire the crate completely till he was 2 y.o.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We crated at night mostly and quit at about a year. We still confine him to our den/kitchen when we leave home. He uses a doggie door to go outside whenever he wants.

[Caroline]

With Christy, I crated at night and and puppy penned her in the day until about 6 months old. Then I moved to a new place, and she suddenly discovered she could jump over the puppy pen, so I got rid of it for safety reasons, and chanced it after that. She was used the crate with the door open at night for a while after and now doesn't seem to want to use it any more.
I haven't really left her for too long periods, but she has the run of the kitchen/ living room & bedroom. NOT the bathroom as she does an "Andrex" puppy with the toilet tissue. I do leave her a lot of stuffed kong type chew toys though (and the tv on LOL).

[Kyoko]

I am curious t see the in put from others, too. My old Chow, never got into things even as a puppy. ( He came to us at about a year old) So, we could leave him alone in a house free and never had to worry about him getting into things.
Charlie WILL get into things if we left her free. I am still crating her whe we are not home for the safety reasons rather than potty reasons. But I would like her to be able to roam free in the house one day....

[Sandy]

Toby is crated all night, every night - but his crate is in our room. He doesn't mind that at all - he's with us, he's safe, and he knows that it's bedtime, and he needs to be quiet and stay in his crate until we get up. That works very well for us, and I don't see that stopping, well, ever. I would like to leave him out in the daytime while I'm out eventually, but not yet. :)

[Tamara & Giada]

Put the crate away at about 11 months old, but do still confine her to the laundryroom/back entry while we are away which is not much couple hours a couple days a week. She is 21 months! We saved the crate, for travel, and she still will go in it without hesitation.......my older dog too!

[Paul & Michele]

Funny I had a black lab that used to do the exact same thing and I never ended up taking the kennel down either. I would throw all his toys in there to keep them off the floor and then I would be walking by and he would be snoozing in the kennel. Even thought he had the run of the house. He must have just felt comfortable in there.

[Erin]

We got Hershey at a year old, and she had been crated as a puppy. We continued with the crating for another 6 months or so, and then gradually let her out more... Started with closing our bedroom door, and not crating her at night - she did just fine and curled up on the floor at the foot of the bed. Then we let her out during the day if we were just going to be gone for a bit. Important things to remember before leaving the house: Are all the upstairs doors shut? Are the shoes picked up off the floor at the front door?

She's rarely gotten into trouble, but developed a small fetish for chewing foamy flipflops, which apparently was a gateway drug to other types of shoes. So we help her to avoid that temptation.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

My dogs use their crates for their entire lives!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

We are certainly no where near moving out of the Crate Castle in our home. The weekend was devoted to buying a new laundry hamper--the old one was chewed. Socks, bras, pencils, shoes, garbage..... everything was once again cleaned up and secured. New waste baskets with lids were also purchased. My once, very mellow doodle, has become a teenage terror. So happy to hear we may only be a year away from freedom. I really don't want to do this his entire life.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

I only crated at night beside my bed. But when Abby was 7 months old we got Kaela and needed the crate for her. Abby always fell asleep in the family room anyways so we left her there and she was pleased as punch (never liked going in the crate anyways.) Kaela was only in there till 4 months old. She now sleeps in the family room with the the other dogs and is as pleased as punch about it (another crate hater). They dont get into any trouble, they fall asleep at about 9 pm and there they stay till I get up the next morning. The family room/kitchen area is blocked from the rest of the house so they are contained that way just in case.

So 9 months old and 4 months old and we are done with the crate.

[Sandy]

Hmmm....I don't know what Toby would do at night out of his crate. He's always slept in it, in our room, so I think he'd still want to be with us. And I have a feeling he'd want to be on the bed, which would make it very crowded - you know how dogs stretch out. He doesn't mind going into the crate at all, so I'll likely stick with it at night, anyway.