# No bed effect development?



## brookoser (Jul 23, 2012)

I am new here and wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but I hope this will work..
So I just adopted a new GSD about a month 1/2 ago. He's 6 months old. He chews on everything, which I'm aware that is normal, but he has chewed up (destroyed) the two beds I've put in his crate. I've only put the beds in there because someone warned me that as a puppy he can't sleep on a hard surface because it will effect the development of his bones. Is this true? Or can I take everything out of his crate at night so he'll stop making a enormous mess! haha!:smirk:


----------



## pyratemom (Jan 10, 2011)

My dogs have always slept on bare plastic crate floors. Soft fluffy beds are only for when out of the crate here. We live in a very warm/hot area so bare floors are cooler. During the winter I put a mutt mat in the crate but no fluffy stuff for her to eat.


----------



## Twyla (Sep 18, 2011)

Luckily Woolf values his bed lol

Now, my lab on the other hand, a different story. She is stuck with having a towel in her crate to lay on. If she starts chewing towels, it will go to the bare plastic.

If your pup has already gone through a few beds, time to give up on the soft bed for him. Try a pad or a towel, and if he persists on the chewing, bare plastic. 

If he swallowed any of the bedding, could end up with a blockage. Expensive for you and dangerous for the dog.


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

brookoser said:


> I've only put the beds in there because someone warned me that as a puppy he can't sleep on a hard surface because it will effect the development of his bones.


Total nonsense. It's not only expensive to put things in the crate that your pup will only destroy, but it's potentially dangerous too as your pup could be eating some of it.

I never put anything in a crate with a puppy. Once they are older and can be trusted not to chew things up, you can put a crate pad in there.


----------



## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

Elaine said:


> Total nonsense. It's not only expensive to put things in the crate that your pup will only destroy, but it's potentially dangerous too as your pup could be eating some of it.
> 
> I never put anything in a crate with a puppy. Once they are older and can be trusted not to chew things up, you can put a crate pad in there.


^Yep


----------



## Angelina03 (Jan 9, 2012)

Elaine said:


> Total nonsense. It's not only expensive to put things in the crate that your pup will only destroy, but it's potentially dangerous too as your pup could be eating some of it.
> 
> I never put anything in a crate with a puppy. Once they are older and can be trusted not to chew things up, you can put a crate pad in there.


This. Take everything out of the crate.


----------



## Discoetheque (Nov 2, 2011)

The most my dog had as a puppy in her crate was a towel or a blanket. She had a fluffy bed once at about 5 months, someone got it for her for Christmas, and within a week, she had stripped the cover off of it and de-stuffed the pillow, so she was put on a stuffy bed ban. She never bothered the blankets or towels, and to this day, it's all that will be put in the bottom of her crate. She turned out fine (good elbows, excellent hips, healthy as can be), so I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of it affecting his development.


----------



## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Nothing is in the crate here. Hans is a chewer/destroyer/eater. He actually prefers to sleep on bare floors because they are cooler.

If the bone thing were true, a lot of working dogs would have been a mess. You think they had fluffy dog beds at the Czech/DDR kennels where they bred and kept their dogs?


----------



## Cassie44 (May 3, 2012)

Cassie never ate her beds, but when I'd check on her she would always have them pushed to the side and be sleeping on the cool plastic. I still put a one-inch patio chair cushion in with her just in case she wants to lay on it...rarely does but I feel less guilty. If she was a major chewer/eater I would take everything out for sure.


----------



## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

Mine chewed his plastic thing when he got bored once. Never got him another one and just put a soft bed type thing in there. Hard things won't do anything bad to the bones. My dog to this day prefers to sleep on hardwood floors and tiled floors because they're colder. If a cold floor is available, you won't be able to convince him to lay on a couch or carpet for anything.


----------



## Blitz-Degen (Jul 22, 2012)

My two pups have beds and they generally ignore them. We live in a very hot summer and cold winter climate, so the floors here are generally cooler than the beds. They each have a fleece bed and they each have an overstuffed feather bed. The feather beds stay in our bedroom, the fleece ones get drug around the house. They don't chew up their beds, which is shocking to me. But we curbed the behavior pretty quickly I think. I hadn't heard of it inhibiting or causing issues with their growth though.... but wolves and wild dogs don't sleep on feather beds either.....


----------



## Scarlettsmom (Jul 12, 2011)

Scarlett is clearly a total princess. She LOVES her bed, my bed, the leather couches, the persian rugs AND the tile floor. She starts in my bed at night...goes to her bed...goes to the closet carpet and then finally to the tile floor. Around 4:00 a.m., she visits my bed again and that's where we finish the night.  She ONLY chews up leather items and expensive sunglasses. (But everyone knows that about her on here...)


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

my dog never liked any bedding in his crate. i stopped
putting bedding in there. my dog is 5 yrs old and shows
no sign of "no bedding in the crate".


----------



## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Mine didn't like anything in the crate either. She would scrunch it up and move it to one side of the crate...I tried a bed and a blanket. Finally I just gave up. She was fine and now she's out of the crate and has no problem sleeping on a dog bed.


----------

