Complete Crate Convert

[katieb]

Lola is now 11 weeks and she has just been in an ordinary bed. My old lab had an ordinary bed and much as I listened to others I thought crates sounded nice but not for me.
Well house training hasn't been a breeze this time round and however many times I took her out Lola seemed to still regard most places as fair game for toilet going. She'd go outside but she'd equally happily come back in and do it there.

Anyway yesterday I finally decided I'd try a crate, I was a bit concerned 11 weeks would be a bit late but I put her pad from her bed in there and rewarded her for going in , slowly working up to closing the door (inbetween screamin at the children to leave her alone when she goes in her crate)

Last night was her first night and she went to bed no problems. I had to get up twice but with young children that doesn't phase me that much. There was an element of urgency to her cry and she hadn't cried the rest of the night and sure enough first time straight out for a wee and 2nd time raced off to where she likes to poo (strange girl likes to go in the redundant pig pen).

It was so nice not coming down to wee or poo on the floor and the kitchen smells a fair bit better already.

Put her in this morning as I had to take eldest to dancing and singing thing and she was there for 2 hours with her Kong. No accidents round the house so far at all. I'm not exp[ecting miracles but already huge improvements. I'd rather get up in the night for a few weeks than have a river of wee greet me in the morning.

[inglenook]

Im really pleased it's working so well for you so far!

Tess is 7 months old and has slept in a crate since the night before we brought her home (lovely breeder kindly did that for us so there was one less "new thing" to deal with). I must say it's been marvellous for my peace of mind, and Tess seems to like it - she'll chip off into it if my daughters are being too noisy

[_Jules_]

[_Mary_]

Good to hear the crate is doing the trick for you, Lola will love it too, somewhere to go when she wants some quiet time

[sue51]

Glad to hear things have worked out for you - all mine sleep in Crates until they can be trusted (which in Moz's case I suspect might be when he's about 15 )

Needless to say, with 3 relatively young dogs, I have strategically placed crates around the house if needed - the youngsters get most indignant when they can't get in them because the oldies are there

[Margaret]

A crate fan here too.When Tara was a pup,we started off with a crate.She loved it and felt it was somewhere she could go, to get away from us if she needed to.When she was older she had beds in different rooms in the house
,but in the beginning wasn't very impressed ,loved her crate too much.I would never have a pup without a crate,it gives peace of mind for all concerned.

[AmyCS]

Glad Lola's settled into her crate so well ... it'll be a nice refuge for her too when the children get a bit over-excited... I know that Mojo does. I'm a big fan of it too... It's great to be able to pop him in there when he gets a little too rambunctious and needs to have a bit of down time. It also gives me peace of mind when I need to go out and about - not least because he has the nasty habit of going through the catflap if I don't stop him and that's just not good if we're not home.

[dotandmegan]

Welcome to crate-sanity

Used one for the first time for Megan after several lab pups over the years - can't believe the struggles we had before that trying to control wee/poo AND give the pup peace away from small kids All round win-win.

Mitch was sleeping in his crate when we went on hols right up to Christmas when he was 9 months, and it's still there in the kitchen corner and he still curls up in it from time to time, so sweet given the size of him now

[vix_w]

We're crate converts too - gives them their own space and helps no end with house training! Cover it with a blanket to make it like a den and it was just what Jess needed. At 10 months, Jess is half way through her 4 week trial of being left with crate door open when we're at work, before getting a big girls bed! Fingers crossed! Like you, my kitchen smelt soooo much nicer when we shut the crate door so she couldn't mess in the kitchen

[Topseyt]

Huge crate fan here too.

Charlie slept in his from the age of 9 weeks until he was over 18 months old. It not only speeded up toilet training (hardly ever any accidents in the house after we introduced it ), but it saved my sanity because he was such a chewer. It meant I had a house to come back to if I had to pop out, and also that I could be confident that he could not get into mischief.