# Crating - when to stop?



## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

I have a 7 months old GSD, she's pretty much too big for the crate right about now. We have an option of getting her a bed and forget the crate or we can buy a larger crate and keep her crated. 

What is a good age to stop crating? She's potty trained and very well behaved in general, does not chew on anything but this could change since she'd be out of crate in the kitchen for the majority of the day?


----------



## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

When she can be trusted. Some dogs can do it at 6 months, some 3 years.

I test them for varying lengths of time before going without the crate all together. I start with a 15 min trip to the store and do that a few times. Then maybe I will leave them out for an hour or so. Then a couple of hours etc. I gradually build up the time that I trust them loose. 

If you are going to confine her to the kitchen, just make sure there's no food on the counters and that she can't open cabinets. Good luck!


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

You can start by leaving her loose at night and see how she does. Then you can try leaving her out for very short periods of time during the day and then slowly increase the time. 

Your dog is still very young and may get bored in the kitchen and decide to eat the cupboards. I would not do it yet and just get a larger crate.


----------



## kiya (May 3, 2010)

Lakota is 11 months now and we started leaving the crate door open at night about 2 weeks ago. I took it down over the weekend. I keep her confined in the "puppy proofed" kitchen during the day or when we go out, she's deffinately not 100% trust worthy but the night time she's been fine. 
The worst thing is we do allow the dogs on the bed for "family hugs" and such, but when we go to bed they are not allowed. The first few nights I had to chase her off but she's got the hang of it now and goes to her bed.


----------



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Jax was out of the crate by 1 year old. Sierra is 4 and still can't be trusted to not get a bug up her butt and destroy things.


----------



## ZAYDA (Apr 22, 2010)

Sleeping would be the easy part but if you plan to give her full range of the house all day that is where you get your answer. I would not give a dog full run of the house until I have tested her over and over again.


----------



## chicagojosh (Jun 22, 2010)

i can leave my 1 year old out at night as of about 6 months with no (well very very little) damage ever being done.

tried it during the day....disaster lol

gsdraven's suggestion is great


----------



## kidkhmer (Jul 14, 2010)

Karma is out of her crate overnight......and outside ! She has a kennel she could sleep in if she wanted but she much prefers the smooth cool polished concrete porch. She just stretches out sideways and that's it. In the morning she is either still asleep, awake and looking through the glass doors with ears on radar nuclear strike alert or throwing her water bowl around like a frisbee ;-). I doubt I would trust her inside. She just loves toilet rolls.


----------



## CPH (Sep 8, 2010)

We stopped crating our puppy at night at 5.5 months and he did great, never got into anything. At the same time we stopped crating him during the day but kept him confined in the kitchen. He chewed his bed once, never did it again though and never had any accidents or chewed anything else.


----------



## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

Jake is now 10 months old and there is no way I would trust him not to get into mischief when I am not here....I think each dog is different and matures different. I live in a two story and there is no way I could hear him getting in trouble downstairs...luckily he runs to his crate after his last potty of the night for his bedtime cookie. I venture to guess it will be a long time before he is given freedom of the house....


----------



## GSDOWNED (Mar 16, 2010)

Mia has always been loose in the house while we're home. We just started leaving her out of the crate at night about 3 weeks ago. She's 15 months old. She's doing really well, hasn't destroyed anything yet. Mia has always been used to going to bed the same time we do. We figured leaving her out overnight would be a good test. She sleeps the entire night and I wake up to a big black nose in my face around 8am telling me it's time to go potty. In about a month, we'll start leaving her out for short periods of time while we're not home.


----------



## Jacek (Jun 28, 2010)

Thanks everyone for the input, good stuff.


----------

