When to let pup sleep out of crate???

[luke4275]

I have a a 4 1/2 month shepherd that I got 6 weeks ago. He is crated at night in a different room than the bedroom. bec he was a whiner and etc etc.. I know that a housebroken pup is considered thus after 1 month of no accidents. He has gone probably 1 week without an accident and it might have more to do with my effectiveness than his. He goes into the crate at 11pm at nite and stays the night till he starts to whine at about 7:30 am, which is great. . My question: When will I know if I can keep him in my bedroom, with the door closed with no crate in room? I suspect that he might pee/poop if he wanted to during the middle of the night while I was sleeping. What guidelines would one use to know when a pup can sleep outside of the crate?

[doggiedad]

there's no set time when your dog can be
out of the crate. it's different for all dogs.
from 4 months old to 8 months old our dog
would wake one of us up to go out at 4:00 am.
one of us always took him out when he asked.
when he 8 months old he stopped asking to go out
at 4:00 am. let your dog stay in your bedroom one night
and see what happens. you could always take him out
in the middle of the night to be on the safe side.

[Kittilicious]

My GSD is 4 months old and even though I know that he wouldn't pee or poop in the house overnight, I have no intentions on leaving him out of the crate overnight in anytime in the near or distant future. It's not the accidents that I would be worried about, it's the amount of things he can chew up or, in my case, swallow while I'm asleep.
His crate is next to my bed... always has been. I put him in around 9pm and I don't hear a word from him until I get up in the morning. Well, I hear his snoring & grumbles & groans, but he waits patiently until I let him out in the morning (usually around 6:30).

[Cassidy's Mom]

Any guidelines are entirely your own. At the very least I'd say when the dog is 100% housebroken and reliable about letting you know when they need to go out, and 100% reliable about not chewing or getting into stuff when unattended.

My dogs still sleep in their crates in the bedroom at 6+ and 3+ years old. I'm sure they would be fine all night even if I didn't crate them, but I can sleep in on the weekend and they hang out quietly in their crates until I decide to get up, rather than jumping on my face at 5:30 when the alarm normally goes off on work days!

[qbchottu]

Puddi has slept outside the crate since day one. I got her at about 3 months old and took about 2 weeks to house train. She HATES the crate because she was a neglect case and lived the first few weeks of her life in a crate. She slept next to me and whenever she got restless, I took her outside. We had accidents, but I would rather clean up pee than let her chew herself to bits inside the crate. If I ever have to confine her, I put her in the laundry room which doesn't bother her like the crate does.

Whiskey was in his crate the first couple of weeks before he was allowed to sleep outside at night. I got him at about 6 months old and it took me 2 weeks to house train him. He still prefers to sleep in his crate with the door open.

Wiva only spent one night in the crate. She came to me at 10 months though so it's different. It took me about a week and a half to potty train her.

I just make sure to cut water at about 9. Take them out for potty at 10 and they should be ok till morning. My dogs will wake me up if they have to go out during the night (in case of emergency diarrhea). So as you can see, every dog is different. Just make the change when it feels right for you.

[kitmcd]

My pup is 5 months and I have wondered about this too. Of all the dogs I've had in my life, she is first one with which I used crate and honestly I really can't remember how I did it without one!

She is in a crate at the foot of my bed and has been quiet all night since first day home. She goes in crate when I go to bed, usually around 11pm and is quiet until the other dogs get up, usually around 7am. Even then, she doesn't whine or cry, just moves around waiting to be freed.

I think I will probably leave her crated indefinitely. She likes her crate (will rest there with door open during the day) and like another poster, I like knowing nothing will be chewed on during the night. Another reason I will leave her in crate is that I have a "senior" boxer/pit who sleeps in the bed with me and I know if left free, she will want to be up there with him (and that is HIS special place).

[chelle]

I've never crated any of my three (2 are non-gsd if that matters) in the overnight. (But they were confined to the bedroom with me.) I think when the older two were little, we did have a pee in bed episode a couple times. I was prepared and had one of those plastic backed sheet protector things on the bed. Not that it was fun to get up in the middle of the night and change that, though. By the time dog #2 came around, dog #1 preferred to sleep in the living room, so new pup came right into bed. Zero issues with her, she loves to just snuggle under covers. Dog #3 had a crate in the bedroom he could go into at will and he would sometimes. None of them ever chewed anything in the overnight or messed the bedroom, other than the couple mistakes mentioned above. I'm a somewhat light sleeper, so if they fussed when they were little, I woke right up to go do a potty break. Maybe I'm just lucky, I don't know.

[PaddyD]

Is there some reason you can't crate him in the bedroom? 4 1/2 months is still young ... you should be prepared to take him out after 5 or 6 hours. If you can do that and set a routine maybe you could start leaving the door of the crate open and the bedroom door closed. Just a suggestion, one that worked for us. Good luck.

[HeyJude]

This was in the wall plug, he pulled it out, it was destroyed in minutes. I was lucky, he didn't get to the batteries. He is almost a year old, won't be out of the pen again anytime soon. I say depends on the dog.

[bocron]

My current 3 were all different. My now 4yo Lancashire Heeler was crated until he was close to 2. Partly because he just liked his crate and would sit in front of it until I put him in, and partly because he would potty in the dining room every time I thought he was housebroken. He never, ever went in the house during the day, just at night.
My 2 1/2yo male GSD was never crated, not even for one night. When I got him, my daughter had borrowed my puppy crate and I had to leave him loose in the bedroom that first night. I had forgotten she had the puppy crate so just didn't have it. He made it through the first night without a potty incident or chewing up anything, so I decided to try it again the second night, then the third...He never once has had even ONE potty or chewing problem in the house. I can't say it has anything to do with my great puppy raising skills , he is just naturally a good boy I guess. My now 1yo female stayed in the small puppy crate (which I got back from my daughter) until she didn't fit in it anymore, I think around 5mos old. She also never had a single accident.
The one thing I can say is that my dogs do get a ton of exercise, training and social stimulation pretty much every day, so the more happy they are to sleep the less likely they are to get into mischief during the night.