When to stop crating?

[delila]

I was wondering at what age you all stopped crating your dogs?

My dogs are all very young soon. My male is 1.5 yrs, and my females are 3 and 9 months.

To be honest with you all I would trust my 9 month female over my 1.5 yr old male.

I cannot trust the puppy because she still has accidents. The 9 month old might be okay if left uncrated - my male though gets into everything still.

I have heard that they can take until 2 years old to be really trust worthy.

They are crated at night when we sleep. They have their own room where they sleep in their crates - which are all lined up together.

What did you all do? They are great when we are home, but we have tried leaving them out and something always winds up eaten.


[ June 27, 2001: Message edited by: delila ]

[Thomas Peuschel]

Our two older bitches have never been crated and could been trusted from very young age on.
Our two boys from our recent litter have been crated from eight weeks on, we also used the crate to get them housebroken. (This worked super!).
Now, with an age of 9 month, they are still crated if they have to stay alone at home.
We have eperienced, that both love their crate and the 3 to 4 hours stay every morning. One of boys can only relax if he is in his crate.
As long as they will go into the crates from their own decision we will let them do. Once they will show, that they do´nt need it anymore we will let them free in the house.

Thomas Peuschel
Rottweiler "von der Zant"

[southerncomfort]

This will not be much help as Zeus is only 8 months old, but he sleeps in our room uncrated on the floor at night and does fine. During the day he spends 2-3 hours in the morning at my office and the rest at home in his crate.

[rottmommie]

mine is about a year and a half...
when we are gone, we crate him....but during the summer that isnt very often.
He doesnt mind, he jsut wants out when we get home.

[mightyrebel]

Yeah, I think it really just depends on the dog in question. I don't think you can establish a 'schedule', per se, for all dogs, etc. Actually, my 12 year-old Kees. was more destructive as a pup than my Rott has been. (And he's only 17-18 weeks old.) I quit crating him at nite after 10 weeks, and let him start sleeping with me, and he's done great. And I routinely leave him out for 3-6 hours at a pop in the daytime, and haven't had a 'mishap' since about 12 weeks. He doesn't tear things up now (I just make sure he has LOTS of his own stuff to chew on.), and rarely (other than when I was gone for about 8-9 hours straight the other day when I broke down, which wasn't his fault, as young as he is.) even has accident's when left alone. He's lucky enough to have a very well-trained older dog to 'parrot', and keep him company though, which I really do think helps a lot. His crate is now just something he wanders into once every few days to sleep in for an hour or two, and to travel in sometimes. I guess it really just boils down to when YOU feel comfortable leaving him out of it, etc. If he was a terror when I left...he'd still be 'communing' with his crate's 4 walls. ;) Sincerely, MihtyRebel :p :)

[Atti's Mom]

I agree, I think it's different with each dog. :) With Atticus, We crated him from the time we brought him home and it worked great...especially for potty training! ;) I don't remember for sure how old he was when we quit, but we did it slowly... starting with leaving him alone for a few minutes and gradually increasing the time until he was able to handle being alone for a few hours without ripping stuff up. :) One thing we did do, was we left his crate exactly the way it was, but with the door open and for the longest time, whenever we came home, he would be asleep in his crate even though he was free to roam the house. (with the exception of bedrooms, we closed those doors.) Oh yeah, we closed the bathroom doors too.......I got tired of cleaning up the toilette paper!! Now he is almost 17 months old and doesn't bother anything when we are gone! :D Good Luck!! :)

[MJAYK]

My boy, Diego turned two in April. He was crate trained since I brought him home (7 weeks). I would crate him whenever I went out and at night. Just before his 2nd birthday I put a gate across the door to the room where his crate is kept and left the crate door open while I went out for a few hours. He was fine. I continued to leave his crate open while gradually increasing the length of time I was gone. I also gradually increased his access to more areas of the house. He now has total access to all rooms in the house 24/7. He still goes in his crate for his "cookie" when I'm going out and at bedtime :D

[DogLover]

We got Carl at 1 year. About a year after we got him, somebody forgot to put him in his crate that night. He didn't eat anything he wasn't supposed to, or mess anything up. From then on he sleeps outside of his crate, about 95% of the time when we leave, he has freedom to go all throughout the house.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to leave my 2 year old German Shepherd alone when she's not in her crate. We tried it one day. BIG MISTAKE!! I'm glad we confined her to just 1 room, otherwise the WHOLE house would've been a complete disaster. She's fine during the night, but I think it's a case of seperation anxiety if we go out during the day.

[ June 29, 2001: Message edited by: DogLover ]

[RottiMomCT]

I adopted Ben at 18 months old from NERR in Feb 2000, and he was crated while we were not home, and at night. He earned the privelege of being in the bedroom with us the night he came home from the emergency vet after jumping 12 feet off our deck (on April Fool's Day last year!)...he had been sedated so he could be X-rayed, and as typical worried parents, my hubby and I let him sleep on the bed with us, and carried him outside for 2 days (85 lbs of dog!!) until he could put enough weight on his front leg to be able to lift the back one to piddle - nothing broken, just some pulled muscles...!

Anyway, back to your question...he was still crated during the day until about 3 months ago, and has had a few accidents in the house, and I have thought many times about setting up the crate again, but I always give him 'one more chance' and he's been accident free for about 2 months now. I'm not sure when he'll earn complete run of the house, but when he earns it, I'll have to make sure there are no empty pizza boxes on the table near the sofa or he'll eat them for sure!!

I still crate him when we are traveling, and when we go to adoption events for NERR, and he crates up willingly...he knows that in any new place, that his crate is a place for him to go for quiet time (maybe we as people need that!!)

[Carol Burke]

As everyone has pointed out, it depends on the dog. My 19 month old is totally reliable when I am at home. If I go out and leave him loose something will be destroyed. I have a six year old that is crated at night because if left loose will, on occasion, have an accident. The only one that has free run of the house at all times is my 7 1/2 year old male who has never, since I got him at 16 months, destroyed anything or had an accident in the house.