Do you crate new dogs/puppies overnight?

PWCorgi

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#1
The other thread that LostandConfused made got me wondering whether those of you who let dogs loose at night started that right away, or whether it was earned?

Right now we are crating Siri, but eventually I plan on letting her loose to sleep where she wants. She'll stay in an xpen/playpen style setup when we go to work, probably forever.

For those who started letting puppies sleep loose right away, how did that affect your housetraining?
 

JessLough

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#3
We've never had a crate. Rosey basically went from a stray to having free roam in the house. She took up house training right away, I don't think it affected her. I mean, it really wasn't any different of a process... we'd take her out every so often to empty outside, them bring her in and repeat. Then at bed time she slept for 8 hours and then went out as soon as somebody woke up.

She has always thought that pottying in the house is HORRIBLE, to the point where if we didn't realize she had an accident (had the runs) and let her out, she'd refuse to look at us or come back in. So that probably helped.
 

Fran101

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#4
Merlin is crated at night. Sleeping out and about is very much earned privilege he is just beginning to earn.

I am JUST starting to allow him more freedom at bedtime and wandering around because he is now alerting to go outside and HOLDING IT when inside (instead of it just being a management thing of me taking him out every hour or so)

I would never be able to sleep with an unhousetained puppy on the bed. From house traning accidents to waking up to a puppy finding something to chew on in my bedroom :rofl1:

Right now after our nightly walk he is allowed to do what he wants. Oddly enough.. he mostly puts himself to bed in his crate :rofl1:
 

SpringerLover

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#5
Well, the last two "foster" dogs I've had were most definitely crated, for varying reasons... I can't even imagine the destruction that would have been Ruca without a crate. I also didn't trust Reba's "housetraining" enough to leave her loose for more than a few minutes before lights out.
 

Red Chrome

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#6
My new puppies are crated typically for the first night. After that it depends on the dog or puppy.
 

OwnedByBCs

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#7
My dogs sleep in crates, so basically with new puppies I start with an x-pen with a crate in it and pee pads just in case- I sleep really heavy and would miss it if a puppy were to cry to go outside. Then I transition them to a crate and let them have a small area to roam around, and that area gets gradually bigger assuming they haven't had any accidents.

It has worked beautifully for me so far- helps me not kill puppies immediately, lol
 
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#8
I have always started puppies out in an exercise pen with a crate. The door of the crate is open and I train them to a pellet box much like a cat box. It seems to make it a lot easier to switch them to going outside rather than puppy pads or newspaper. In the wintertime I do not try and take them outside at night as it is just too cold and snowy and as soon as they are going all night without an accident, I start to crate them overnight. They do go outside during the day and get treats when they go and lots of praise.
 

MandyPug

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#9
I lasted all of half a night with Izzie in a crate. Since then she's slept in bed with me, first on my chest as a wee pup and then moving to under the covers along my leg.

For her eye surgery though she had to sleep crated and she had no problems. I never formally crate trained her, she just is a good girl.
 

Upendi&Mina

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#10
I start puppies with crates and then they earn the freedom to sleep out! It's worked great for me, I can't remember the last time Cara was in a crate with the door closed.
 

*blackrose

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#11
Future Puppy will be crated at first, then as he matures and I trust him to not pee/poop/eat something/wake me up in the middle of the night he can start staying in the bedroom with me. (Crate is in the bedroom, if that makes a difference.) That is what I did with Chloe, and although she wasn't a chew-happy retriever puppy, it worked really well for her. I think by the time she was 6 or so months old she was left loose in my room at night.
 

Cali Mae

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#12
We crated Cali for the first week or so, we had a cat crate (since she was two and a half pounds, it was the perfect size) so I would just put it on the corner of my bed. Not a good idea... there were times when I'd wake up to find it knocked over with the door facing the floor. She never even made a peep surprisingly. I ended up feeling so bad that I just broke down and let her sleep with me. She did poop on my bed once but I think she immediately realized that not only did she poop on my bed, but she pooped on her bed. It didn't happen again and she's been rotating between my bed and my mom's ever since. :)

I have to say, it's a nice feeling to wake up with five pounds of adorable cuddled beside you under the blankets. The only con, she knows exactly when I'm up and usually jumps right up, licks my face and demands that I take her to the bathroom, but she settles down when I bring her back up.
 

tzigane

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#13
Freedom is always earned. Chester doesn't need a crate at all anymore, but he has major crate anxiety and he's also bombproof house/chewing trained. He was crated at night and when I was gone for the first few years, then slowly let out.

Same with Jag.
 

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