# Adult Dogs crated at night



## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

So, I have read that many adult dogs often choose to spend time in their crate, and willingly sleep in it at night, once trained. For those of you who crate your dog at night, do you still keep the door closed, or do you allow them to have access to the room or house, and they choose to sleep in the crate?

Do you think allowing an adult dog to have access to the bedroom at night and expect them to choose the crate (or maybe just a bed) for sleeping is a reasonable goal to set? When I have to leave the house for a 5 minute drive every morning (drop hubby off at work) I often let her stay in my office/studio instead of the crate, and she does fine then. When I come back nothing has been destroyed, no accidents, etc. She's usually chewing on a bully stick on my chair mat.

My dilemma is that since we allow the cats to sleep on the bed, we have to leave the bedroom door open so they can get out to use their box. As far as I can tell (I am a poor sleeper) they usually don't actually leave the room, but if the door is closed they get upset.

However, I think it'd be nice to allow Sadie to have more of the room at night than just the crate, but I don't want her roaming around the house at night. She does prefer to be in the room with us, so I would assume she'd stay in the bedroom but would it be safe to allow her access to the house? 

I'm curious what others do with their crate trained dogs at night, what might be a reasonable goal for her as an adult dog.


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## swish (May 28, 2008)

I go by the theory that the Alpha dog chooses where to sleep, and as such, I choose where he sleeps. As a result of that, he sleeps downstairs (not in my room which could develop seperation anxiety from me), in his crate with no access.

At the end of the day, it's ultimately your decision


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

I close the doors on the crates at night. But I have 3 dogs and a cat. I don't want the dogs getting into a hissy fit with one another over a chew stick or something. I also just think there is too much stuff for them to get into if they decided to have a party while I'm asleep. And their crates are at the far end of the house, in the family room, not in our bedroom. 

And our cat also sleeps on the bed. I'm thinking you could put up a safety baby type gate across your bedroom door so the cat could jump over if it needs to use the box. But the gate would keep the dog in your room.


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## MyCharlie (Nov 4, 2007)

He actually slept in the bed with us until I started practicing NILIF religiously and now he's only allowed on the bed when we invite him. Soooo we felt bad crating him all day while at work and then again at night while we're sleeping, so he now sleeps wherever he wants (he has free roam). But unlike you and briteday, we don't have cats or other animals for him to roam after at night. We leave the crate door open and sometimes he will go in there and sleep, or under our bed (he's weird), on his bed in our room. Honestly I have no idea when he moves around at night, if he does at all. For all I know, he could be jumping up in bed with us and getting down again before we wake up LOL.


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## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

I personally prefer the animals in the room with me, I'm not worried about her having SA (she does fine when we are not home, but we both prefer to be with each other, so why not?). I like the cats and the dog being in my bedroom just as much as my hubby lol. Sadie wakes me up and before I had her it was impossible for me to get up before 8. Now she wakes me up at 7 and I enjoy that! (She barks a few times until I tell her to hush, and it's the only time she really makes a lot of noise. It's good for us).

When she's full grown she should be about 25-30 lbs. Would a baby gate keep her in? 

(swish I like your logo, cute!)

I am home all day and she is in my office with me, then in the evening she is in the living room with DH and me. So I don't feel bad about her being in the crate at night, she has plenty of time out of it during the day. So I don't mind closing the door at night, just trying to determine if I need to, or if there is any reason not to, etc.

Thanks for the replies!


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## 4dogs3cats (Dec 21, 2007)

Chance sleeps in his crate at night. Reason being our sprinklers go off in the backyard at 6am, and he gets into too much mischief and comes in all muddy and my sprinklers end up broken if we leave him out, lol.

Bailey sleeps ON my legs, its not the most comfortable, but it works for us

Kody sleeps in between me and Erik with his head on our pillows. Call him spoiled if you want, but last night it was hot so I didnt let Kody up and said, on your bed Kody, and he happily laid on his bed on the floor and went to sleep.

I LIKE my dogs on my bed, but Chance is, A. too big, and B. a troublemaker, lol.

ETA: When its time for bed, we walk in the room, and I change into my pajamas and start making the bed all comfy-like, I close the blinds to the sliding door, and turn off the back light, and without fail, by the time I am ready to lay down, chance is already in his crate. he likes it in there, and I keep a blanket on the bottom so hes comfy. he also gets crated during the day, but he is out for 30 minutes before I leave in the morning, and I dont feel bad that hes crated at night and during the day cuz its not like hed be running around at night anyway, he would be sleeping in once place, like he is lol.


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## swish (May 28, 2008)

In terms of reasons not to leave them in crates over night as mentioned, is to avoid fights and basically stop having parties all night (lol, can my Malamute, Chinook and I get an invite?).

If she doesn't suffer from any such seperation anxiety troubles and you like her, in your room as you sleep, then by all means do whatever you and Sadie feel comfortable with really 

P.S. Thanks for the logo compliment! Most welcomed.


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## Spicy1_VV (Jun 1, 2007)

jesirose said:


> So, I have read that many adult dogs often choose to spend time in their crate, and willingly sleep in it at night, once trained. For those of you who crate your dog at night, do you still keep the door closed, or do you allow them to have access to the room or house, and they choose to sleep in the crate?
> 
> Do you think allowing an adult dog to have access to the bedroom at night and expect them to choose the crate (or maybe just a bed) for sleeping is a reasonable goal to set? When I have to leave the house for a 5 minute drive every morning (drop hubby off at work) I often let her stay in my office/studio instead of the crate, and she does fine then. When I come back nothing has been destroyed, no accidents, etc. She's usually chewing on a bully stick on my chair mat.
> 
> ...


No I keep the doors closed, most don't mind staying in there (even at the times when the door is open they curl up inside) and to me leaving the doors open is the same as leaving them unsupervised, well because they are actually unsupervised. If a fight broke out how would I know that I would wake up? Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. It is too risky. 

Can you put a baby gate up across your bedroom door. That way the cats can leave if they like and the dog probably won't be able to get out.


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## melgrj7 (Sep 21, 2007)

I keep my dogs in crates at night and when we aren't home. Occasionally if I take a short nap I will leave them loose (for 20 minutes or so). The main reason we crate them at night is so the cats will feel more comfortable getting to walk around and play. The cats sleep most of the day, and play at night. I doubt the dogs could resist joining in on the chasing back and forth that the 2 cats do with each other.


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## Pai (Apr 23, 2008)

Ice is crated at night, with the door closed because she would rather sleep with us in bed and will pest us about it. Once she's in she doesn't mind it at all, though she will pout for a bit.


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## heidiann (Feb 3, 2008)

We used to crate onyx at night when she was a puppy.

Topaz has been crated since we got him. We crated him at night with the door shut (crate was in living room at old house, it's in the office here) for a long time. 

When we moved here for some reason he wouldn't always settle down in his crate and would bark so we started leaving him out at night. 

His night meds pretty much knock him out, so he sleeps most of the night. 

The dogs do wander a bit, but we have 4 cats so our house is active all night. But it's not at night that they get into things.


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## Xeph (May 7, 2007)

Sometimes Strauss is crated at night, sometimes he isn't. Depends on my mood. He's ALWAYS in my room, no matter what, so he's confined either way. I leave the crate door unlocked for him (he can open it himself) and he'll often "put himself away" at night. Othertimes he'll invite himself onto the bed...sometimes I'll mumble "Get off you goon" (and he gets off) other times I don't care.

Strauss always has access to his kennel and will put himself in it when he feels the need to be away from people


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## Orange County Ca (Apr 6, 2007)

I don't see anything unreasonable with either choice. As to whether or not he will destroy something around the house there is really only one way to find out.

Of course your experience with him already seems to say he'll behave quite nice. I make sure anything attractive such as access to food counters/tables and the kitchen trash can is put away.
My dog then either sleeps on his piece of foam rubber, a 3.9 side corner/dresser combo or at the foot of the stairs where I assume he's standing guard.

He has the run of the house except one room where I keep my can of peanuts. He's a good watch dog and I've allowed this right from the start for that reason.


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## sheltiemom (Mar 13, 2007)

My dogs sleep in the bedroom with us at night. I keep them in by closing the door, but I have a cat door in the door to the bedroom so the cats can come and go as they please. A baby gate could keep my dogs in, and does in other areas, but my senior cat can't jump a gate, so we opted for the cat door. The cats hated having the door closed until they got used to the cat door...they would scratch on the door and I had a few sleepless nights, but now all is well.

ETA: My dogs are crate trained, but never chose to sleep in them on their own and never seemed to use them as a safe haven, so I weaned them off the crates as soon as I could, except Shiner, he's still crated when I'm gone.


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## LMH (Jan 2, 2008)

jesirose said:


> When she's full grown she should be about 25-30 lbs. Would a baby gate keep her in?


I use a babygate and he is 150lbs and he's never attempted to cross it even when company is over and he is very excited. I've had the babygate since he was a baby and it's pretty worn out.


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## Alpha (Aug 24, 2006)

My dogs have luxurious doggy beds. 

I also have cats that like to pop in and pester us occasionally at night, so our bedroom door is left open.

The dogs stay in their beds all night until we get up to let them out.

It's not unusual for Roxy to leave the room to investigate a sound, but she always comes back and flops back in her bed, ALWAYS followed by a grande sigh. At our old house, she would get up around 7am and lie on the couch by the living room window because the sounds never ended, but it's quiet where we live now.

It is totally possible to train your dog to stay in his crate/bed all night, with the door open. I never trained my dogs though, they've just always come to bed with us and stayed there until we were up, but I imagine getting a nice comfy dog bed, and naming it would be a good start. When you go to bed, perhaps keep a bag of treats by your bed and huck one his way every so often for the first week 

Call him back into his bed if he leaves and reward once he gets back.

Good luck


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## jesirose (Mar 27, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies guys!

PS: Sadie is a girl


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## trumpetjock (Dec 14, 2007)

Rocky sleeps in his crate with the door open. Mesquite sleeps on the floor, as we don't have the money to buy a crate big enough for her (they're EXPENSIVE when they're that big!) with moving into a new house this weekend and all. Both have free access to the bed, and will take turns up on there intermittently through the night.

Eventually I'll give them free roam. Maybe. It makes me nervous


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

My dogs sleep in bed w/me, along with the cats. 
I work nights, so I'm sleeping during the day. 

When I'm getting ready to leave for work (or go anywhere), all three dogs go into my bedroom and into their respective crates, where they remain until my return. The doors are not closed or locked. I do close/lock the gates on the crates of my foster dogs.


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

Jesi
It's pretty simple, Sadie will tell you what to do. You can see after reading other replies everybody's got a program that works for them. Some dogs are crated all their life some not, it's the individual dog's attitude and you got to read her and adjust as needed. Through the years I have had some dogs that I trusted implicitly with our home. Other dogs I didn't trust when they walked in another room. Aren't choices fun?
Good Luck


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Summer is fine with a crate, but the baby gates don't work. She gets a little bit anxious, and it's worse with the gates for some reason. I have the tallest one I could find and that 6 lb papillon has no problem scaling it and escaping.

So... she's crated. She's much calmer that way and we're both happy.


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