# First day out of crate! :D



## CatK (May 29, 2013)

We've been letting Morris have short periods out of his crate when we're not about and he's been really good. Now that he isn't peeing in his crate at all, and growing so fast that he's not able to stretch out in his crate, we thought it was time to trust him to a bit more of the house!

I got back at lunch time and he greeted me at the door of the room looking sheepish as if to say 'i honestly didn't break out, you forgot to close the door, I swear you left it open!' But he was all happy and we said our hello's for a bit then eventually he went outside for a big pee and got LOTS of treats as a well done!

Felt his crate bed, and it was warm. So even though the door was open and I'd left out a big fluffy blanket for him to sprawl across if he wanted he had chosen to sleep in his bed.

Happy puppy, happy me.


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## MilesMom (Jun 21, 2012)

That's great!! ;D


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## lilyloo (Jun 20, 2012)

Great news! We started leaving Ruby out of her crate as well. The only bad thing that has happened so far is that when we return home she's usually curled up on our living room couch --- and she's not aloud on the furniture! Little stinker.


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## CatK (May 29, 2013)

I need fun new toys to make sure he has plenty to do. He's growing out of his puppy toys so I'm passing them on the friends' smaller dogs, he gets well stuffed kongs every time we go out, he loves his buster cube, any other suggestions for hardy, engaging toys that will keep him occupied when we're at work?

Took him a little bit longer to settle last night, as if he was protesting at being out all day then shut in again at night. Just a few gentle whines and cries but went on for 45 mins maybe?

My thought is that if he doesn't go in at night then he's going to forget how to be in there for when we do need to shut him in for some reason. Plus he seems to settle faster (normally) when crated at night. Just keep at it until he figures out the new routine?


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## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

I would just give him a quick "sshhh" when he's whining in his crate. Other than that ignore him.

Routines work well for dogs, but sometimes they get shaken up so they need to learn how to handle that. 
Watson goes in his crate when we decide he does. Sometimes we leave for 10 minutes and leave him out, other times we put him in. When people come over, sometimes he's out, sometimes he's not. He's adjusted to the fact that he goes in when we want him to, and not to associate being in there with anything specific. 
Of course he'd rather be out glued to someone, so he'll give a low grumble/sigh, and settle in. 

One more thing. Something that will definitely help with transitioning him out of his crate is to exercise him plenty before leaving him out. He's less likely to be destructive if he's too tired to destroy anything! 
I don't have any toy suggestions, as Watson has pretty much destroyed every toy he's had. We do leave his giant antler for him to chew on when he's left alone in his crate.


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