Ike's graduated to sleeping on the floor instead of staying in his crate at night. Funny thing is, he still dives into his crate at bedtime. Habits die hard. Remember that when you're raising your next pup. If you start them out with good habits, chances are you won't have to undo many bad ones.
Ike's still in his crate when we leave the house, of course. We're not crazy.
I'm still trying to figure out if Ike prefers the crate or the dog bed on the floor for his night-sleeping preference. I know I like having Ike sleep on the floor. It's a lot quieter when he's not flailing about in the crate.
I put Ike's dog bed in the exact same spot his crate's been for the past five months. Again, old habits die hard. To Ike, that's his sleeping spot. Only now it's minus the crate.
By the way, we shut the bedroom door at night to minimize the roaming abilities of this seven-month old adolescent Labrador. Again, we're not crazy…
We’ve decided to keep Honey’s crate up although we never use it. She’s perfectly trustworthy in the house (hallelujah) at 1 year old.
I just have a feeling we need to keep her using it on occasion just in case we really need to some day. I’d love to have the floor space back but I’m afraid I’ll regret it if we never have it around.
Ginger LOVES sleeping in her crate.
I gave her the option to sleep with me the other night, which doesn’t happen very often. She was polite and curled up on the end of my bed for 20-30 minutes but eventually got restless and when back to Her bed.
It is SO helpful to have a dog who is comfortable sleeping in a crate.
I have a neighbor who I pet sat for once. I had to spend the night at their house in their bed with the dog on the bed. Because this is the way the dog has always had it and he gets seriously stressed if anyone interrupts this routine.
Mary