Weaning of a crate

Holly is now 8 months old and she has a crate for when I am out and at night.

It now getting a bit small so thought I would slowley wean her off it. So I have started just leaving the door open in the afternoons when I go to work, but she has started messing in the kitchen.

Not sure how to handler it, do I tell her off but I was not there to catch her in the act or should I leave her a bit longer in her crate.

Any ideas

Thank you

Jenny

Roly is one and has a crate too - but we are keeping it - it's his safe place and he sleeps so much better in there than the few times we have let him sleep elsewhere. We take it with us when we go away from home overnight and he settles instantly as it's familiar.

So, if it was me, I'd be looking for a bigger crate!! Roly has his actual crate permanently open as it is within a larger "playpen" that we close at nighttime/when we go out etc - so we know where he is and he's not getting into mischief!

I would say that if leaving the crate door open is resulting in messing in the house then maybe it's too early to be giving greater freedom when you can't be there to supervise. I agree with you that you can't discipline a dog after the event.

Good luck x

No telling off when you come home and find a mess - she wouldn't know what it is for.

Rhian stayed in her crate when alone until she was about 6 or 7 months, but it was a big one from the start. She sleeps there, too (it's in the bedroom), but apart from maybe a week when she came the door is always open at night. There was a time when she did wander round a bit at night, but not for long.

I started leaving her alone outside the crate just for short times like fetching in the mail, hanging up the washing, that sort of thing. For her this was less stressful than being shut inside the crate (she started to eat all the bedding there), but for your dog it may be just the other way round!

I'd think of a bigger crate too, if she is relaxed in there. If you leave her in the crate for more than an hour, it should be big enough to take a step or two and lie stretched out on the side.

We talked about doing the same with Bailey Jenny, but we decided against it, we might leave it open sometimes, during the day, but as Nikki days, it's her safe place. When we took her away for the first time the other weekend she slept lovely in the kitchen in her crate, because it was familiar.

I'm going to keep going with it for now. So I reckon the answer might be a bigger crate too!

Good luck!

Yep, bigger crate!
Moxie's 15 months and has been in hers from day one. Door open all the time after the first couple of weeks.
She sees it as her "safe place"
I got mine from a friend who had a spinonie pup, and didn't want to keep it after she was trained, so it is huge!
Try looking in the local ads for a second hand one. You could put the smaller one in when you have a new one, to keep the cost down.

Thanks for the good advice. Have decided to get a bigger crate, and may be try again in a few months.

She was difficult to toilet train in the first place so don't want to upset her.

Jenny