Crate Free!

[Zuiun]

I was both lucky and unlucky with my boy, Brody.

Lucky in the sense that he was completely housebroken. Unlucky in that his previous owner never properly crate trained him. So even though I try to make it a positive experience for him, he has never trusted the crate and probably never will.

Normally it doesn't matter. He's well enough behaved to free roam the house when we're not home.

Getting our girl, Tsura, at 10 weeks old, I was determined to properly crate train her. There are times when they have to be crated and I didn't want it to be a miserable experience for BOTH dogs. She took to it remarkably well.

Within 3 months, she was able to sleep easily through the night. By 4 months, she even let us sleep in on the weekends. By 6 months, she was spending the nights with the door open (usually helping Brody crowd us on the bed).

Now she's a year old and I feel confident in saying that she has graduated from the crate. For the last month or so she's been spending the days out with Brody and doing fantastic.

I only wish our terrorist cats were as well behaved in the house as the dogs...