Our 8 week Golden is a joy. He has a crate and sleeps from 11 pm till 6 am and has only had 2 wee accidents over night. He has only once pooed in the house and that was on day one and he asks to go out now - clever little boy (Proud smiley required)

In the day I crate him for his naps and after a small protest he settles down. The problem I have is that he has a bed in the kitchen which we move to the lounge in the evenings and he would MUCH rather sleep on that. When he is ready for a nap he goes straight to that not his crate - well wouln't you lol.

Its all trial and error but I feel I may be confusing things leaving his bed down. I want him to get used to being around us clearly, but am I confusing him do you think.

May have answered my own question here but its useful to get another opinion or 10 :-)

Thanx
Rx

Our 2 year old dog has a big cushion in the lounge, and his crate in the kitchen. We have always operated this dual system, and never had a problem. I always say 'in your crate' if i want him there, and 'on your bed' for the lounge one. he always sleeps in the kitchen at night and when we all go out,  though i don't bother to shut the crate door now, (i used to when he was young and liked to chew stuff), now i just shut the doors to the downstairs rooms, he is not allowed upstairs, so he can only go in the kitchen and the hallway.

With my dog he had his crate in the kitchen (where he slept at night) and suring the day and evenings we had a cushion type bed in the frojnt room so he could lay down gently. He never got confused with where his bed was but preferred to demolish the cushion in the front room and lay on the floor so after a while i took the cushion away.
It may be confusing him a little but he seems to be sleeping well during the night and if he goes in the crate during the day without problem then i wouldnt see this as a major issue.
Wouldnt worry too much:-)
So how long have you had him? I've just been looking at puppies available. I want another one:-) :-) Wont be getting one yet though :-(   I'm very jealous of you having a gorgeous little puppy!!!

Thanks so much. Am like over anxious mother :-) I am sure if he  were a child the GP would think I had  post natal issues!
We have only had him for 10 days, and I am sure it will get easier with time. It is so good to know I can come here for a bit of reassurance and guidance though. Am so glad we opted for a puppy now (after much deliberation) If I could get the picture thing to work on here you could see what a handsome chap he is - not that I am at all bias of course lol.

I don't want to crate him forever and I would like to think that by 6 months he will use his bed all the time and stay in the kitchen when we are out. I just want to know he is safe (and so is my furniture) until we get out of the biting chewing phase. He certainly has no issues with the crate - we give him Kong etc, he would just rather be on the bed and frankly I can see his point !

Where is his crate?  When our pup was little we had her crate in the lounge.  It was always left open and her nice squishy bed was inside it. so she always headed there (if she hadn't collapsed in a heap on the floor somewhere after a mad play session.  In that case we scooped her up and popped her on her bed in the crate).

i have a similar problem. ive been using the crate for my 16week old ridgeback since the first day ive had him, he loves it, settles in without a sound, and is happy to use it as his den. he goes in of his own accord and i only shut the door at night and for his afternoon nap. the problem is, he only sleeps in the crate now, i cant get him to settle anywhere else, (occ on the couch next to me) but wont actually sleep anywhere but the crate. i wondered when people start to wean their pups away from the crate. im too worried to leave him out overnight, as i think he would chew the couch if i wasnt around and harass the cat!
have i trained him too well to the crate?

I've only recently got rid of the crate and my dogs one. When he was a pup he had the door shut but as he got older and could be trusted i used to leave the door open. When he fancied some peace and quiet he would take himnself off to the crate. I think if he could have shut the door behind him and pulled a cover over him he owuld have lol, especially when my niece and nephew were around!!:-)

His crate is in the dining room - we have a very old and strange house, the kitchen is at the centre but is long and thin and the dining room runs off that followed by the conservatory and access to the garden. He can see me in the kitchen and conservatory where I spend most of my time. Would much rather have the crate in the kitchen but impossible due to the dynamics of the kitchen (frustrating).

maybe I should put his bed in the crate during the day?

Fredsmum. I too have neice and nephew issues and that was one of the reasons we had a crate - for his sake not theirs ! Luckily they do not come round often and our household is a calm one the majority of the time (or rather it was pre Milo) suspect if they were here for any length of time he may run for that crate much quicker !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily i dont see them very often but the crate is always handy when i do! I think theyre a dogsend although not everyone likes them.
Used properly and sensibly they're really good.

Should say he has Vetbed in crate but other bed is big squidgy and bouncy. Perfect for rolling off of :-)

Well done with the house training - that's great. Freddy is an 11 week old golden, his bed is always in his crate, I keep the crate door open on a night so he can get up and get a drink and go for a wee if needs be.

The crate is also in the dining room due to our kitchen being too small and the dining room is carpeted. I leave a couple of puppy training pads on the carpet incase he needs them, he occasionally misses but it's not a big problem he tends to just go once in the night now.

If we want him in the lounge with us we take the cushion out of the centre of his bed and he sometimes sleeps on that, most of the time he likes the cold stone hearth. If I have to put him in his crate during the day (assuming he is not in there already napping), I usually have to physically put him in. He is not at the stage yet where I could tell him. Even if he understood he would just ignore me lol :)

Best advice - put his bed in his crate

> I don't want to crate him forever and I would like to think that by 6 months he will use his bed all the time and stay in the kitchen when we are out. I just want to know he is safe (and so is my furniture) until we get out of the biting chewing phase. He certainly has no issues with the crate - we give him Kong etc, he would just rather be on the bed and frankly I can see his point !

I wouldn't count on the chewing stage being over by 6 months, usually they have a renewed and intense chewing stage as the big back teeth settle in.

All mine have caught me out at about 9 to 12 months  with chewing things,a nd my friends Dobe totally remodelled her kitchen turning the lino into a skateboard ramp.

If I am reading this right you move his cushion bed around from the kitchen where the crate is to the living room.  I would leave it in the livingroom so that he has two beds  kitchen one (the crate) and the living room one (the cushion).

if he is happy with the crate suz then leave it up, my boy is 3 in a couple of months and he still has his up, although he can sleep out of it at night without getting in trouble!! I think he will always be in it, even if i go away i have to take it and it is a big one too 48" so not easy to transport lol

my dobe also thought it was great at 9 months old to take the door frame off my kitchen!! I thought i would try him out of the crate whilst I went out shopping... big mistake, never to be repeated again!!

You are all scaring me lol

My previous dog was left unattended at about 2 years old, with the Xmas tree. We came back to discover a neat ring of silver paper all round the tree, and all the chocolate decorations eaten. At that time I didn't even know that chocolate is dangerous for dogs, we just thought it was quite funny, he was ok, thank goodness! Anyway the story goes to prove you can never be sure what unpredictable thing your dog might do next, so i always make sure there is nothing tempting or different lying round when the dog is left alone. When we go away for the night to stay with friends or relatives, I still shut the crate door, just in case.

our crate is massive as well, and is in the living room taking up a lot of room. oh dear, maybe wont tell my boyf it may be up for a wee while more.....

What you mean you can use it as a table, nice cloth over the top.

My first ridgeback used his crate for a year in my utility room, whenever we went out - after that I decided to get the biggest dog gate I could (should've got one when we first got him as they're a godsend) and leave him in there.  BIG MISTAKE (amazing how trusting I was at first!).  I came back to the coat hanger ripped off the wall (coats on floor, made a nice bed for him).  Water bowl contents over floor and work surfaces cleared.  I was out for one hour.

Needless to say after this episode the contents of my utility room are emptied everytime I leave the house, be it for 5 minutes or a couple of hours.  My dog walker has even told me he met her as she came through my back door on the worksurfaces!.

So, I don't trust him to be any other place in my house other than the utility room when I'm out.  It's not all doom and gloom though, he hasn't chewed the door (yet), which is left open because of the gate being there, doesn't chew his bed (has nibbled bedding in the past), has stopped emptying his waterbowl over the floor and has only met the dog walker on the work surfaces that one time.  Love him to bits and wouldn't have him any other way.

p.s. He's also cleared the dog gate on one occasion and I found him in my kitchen/dining room/family room area (it's all open plan), but that's a whole other story.....................

I have a crate for my 21 month old weim.The only time he sleeps in it is overnight.
I sometimes use it for time out when he gets a little too excited. Otherwise it just sits at the end of my living room, it is also a 48". I do not crate him when i go out, he is as good as gold and he has a dog flap if he needs to go out.
Just recently he has started to whine in the morning as he wants to get up, he usually waits until i rise.
He does rather like spending time with me, the only break i get from him is at night. I dont quite know what to do do now, as perhaps he doesnt need the crate, but..... i dont know where he would sleep at night.
If he is not in his crate for bedtime he would be upstairs on my bed which i dont want. Bit of a puzzle really.

hmmmmm, a scary post ridgie...my breeder did show me some of the damage her 2 year old male ridgie done when slightly bored. oops!
i have noticed that already my pup can empty a worktop within seconds, despite me thinking he was still too small to reach, im not sure which if my rooms will be best to leave him on once hes bigger. i dont have a utility room damn! hes not too bad for chewing, but i he picks small things up in his mouth and im terrified he'll eat something if om not there hovering over him. he knows the leave and drop command, but if im not there he would eat things. now before anyone says anything, my house is very clean and i dont leave things lying around, but its amazing how he finds things! items i havent seen for months. it doesnt help that i have a cat which leaves socks all over the house all day and knocks things off shelfs and fireplaces! god, i worry so much!!!

Hi it is difficult but if he naps in his bed and you are there to put him out when he wakes i would let him nap in his bed, if you have to go out at nap time put him in his crate with some of his bedding from his non crate bed if possible, as he grows he will learn that whereever his bedding is he can nap, it worked with all my Rotties and Labs, hope this helps.

My dogs don't have a problem concerning sleeping arrangements.  I have two large beds (plastic perla ones, as they seem to hold up to the odd chew!) in my utility room.  My 4 month old girl has just gone into her bed as she had grown out of her small crate and although my utility room is a good size it's not that big to hold our very large crate and a very big bed.  We then have two more perla beds upstairs in our bedroom where they both sleep when we go to bed, each of these beds has separate bedding in them.  I know not everyone likes their dogs in the bedroom with them!

The only issue we had was when we took our girl out of her crate and started using the bed upstairs (nocturnal wandering, usually to my side of the bed).  I found ignoring her or telling her to go back to her 'bed' worked and within the week she was settling down and not moving until the alarm goes off in the morning.  If you've ever had kids it's exactly the same routine when they go from a cot to a bed, so I just used the same principle (ie remaining calm, or just not responding to attention seeking).

Dogs chew, it doesn't matter how many toys, kongs etc you leave for them they will always chew something at some point you really would prefer they hadn't!

My adult male isn't as bad as some horror stories I've heard, and i've yet to go through it with my 'young un', so ask me in a few months and I'll probably tell you another story!

I visited a breeder when Harvey was 8 weeks old, paid for jabs and brought him home once he could go out (no way was i prepared to keep him in climbing the walls till the jabs were all ok!!!)

The breeder brought him into her lounge - seperating from his bros & sis and kept him in/out a crate

When i collected him- he was jumping up trying to chew her telephone wires!!! She told me that pups love to chew-ANYTHING
i was advised to give him a lump of coal, cardboard boxes and dog toys that claim to be indestructable (Kong range)

He loved the cardboard boxes! also a kong especially from the freezer!!! but best of all the metal legs on my kitchen stools (guess i've been really lucky he didn't take to wood, doors or frames)

being small-every time the doorbell went i said bed -off he went into his crate- this was only time other than when i went out that i closed the door

at about 6 months he was having the use of downstairs-no stairgate but he learnt very quickly he only goes up for a bath!
also his crate was left open all night

he has a blanket over his crate and a bathroom washable rug inside it which he oftern bunches up as a pillow!

In the kitchen he has a soft bed which he likes to eat his bones in

during the day he lays/sleeps in the hallway by the front door (wooden floor)

when i come home he lays/sleeps on the bottom landing (carpeted)

and when i'm in the lounge he sleeps dircetly under the Wall mounted TV on a tiled fire surround

He goes to bed for the evening in his crate around 7ish

back out for a walk at midnight
then back in his crate till Other Half is up at 6am
he then lays/sleeps on the bottom landing till i'm up between 7-9am

Guess he's really laid back about where he sleeps (probably cause he does so much of it!!!)

Helen