# When to start phasing out the crate?



## Shadowrat (Jan 30, 2011)

I crate trained Dresden from day one, and he's always been great with it, always gone in without fuss, sleeps happily at night in it, never a problem. 

But I got it mainly as a toilet training aid, intending to wean him off it once toilet training was solid.
Dresden is 22 weeks old now, and been clean/dry in the house since about 13-14 weeks. He now trots to the door to be let out for toilet, and Im confident he's completely cracked toilet training.

So I'd like to try and phase out the crate (I'd also like that corner of my living room back, as a huge crate is rather unsightly and that room isn't the biggest to begin with!) 
First, is it too early to do that? Do I risk setting him back again and un-doing my good work?
Secondly, how do I get him to realise he can sleep in places OTHER than his crate. He's always slept in his crate since I've had him, only for the first few days did he sleep in the room outside of it.
But it seems now that he doesn't realise he can sleep without his crate. When we take him to my parents of an evening, where there is no crate, he literally will NOT settle down or sleep, even though he is clearly tired. Its just that he isn't used to sleeping anywhere but the crate now, regardless of how many other places he is welcome to sleep. 

He has a nice bed in our living room, and we've been trying to clicker train him to lay on it, but he never seems to be able to settle down without his crate, he'll just push and push and keep himself awake. Then when you do put him in the crate, he'll drop and go straight to sleep like he is exhausted. 

Any tips for how to get Dres to sleep through the night (minus toilet breaks of course) somewhere other than his crate? I'd like him to sleep beside my bed ideally, but at the moment I know that if I took him up with me, he wouldn't settle without the crate!


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## fifemute (May 30, 2012)

Do you leave the crate door open ?
We have Mieko's crate still in the hall but he is hardly ever in it, apart from when he gets a messy treat. He was toilet trained in about 10 day's from when we got him at 8 weeks. He got us up at 2.30am and 5.30am (ish) for a few nights for the toilet and found out he preferred to sleep on the kitchen floor when he came back in, so we now leave the crate door open and now sleeps right through until 7/8am.


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## Twiggy (Jun 24, 2010)

I personally continue to use the crate at nights for my pups until they are over the second (and worse) chewing stage which is usually around 9 - 14 months.

Have you got a dog bed as a replacement for the crate? If so you could put a thin fleece blanket on top of your pup's bedding in the crate and then try putting it on top of the dog bed instead and he may well settle on it.


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