What do you do at night?

[LauraLynn]

Dp you crate your Golden overnight or are they allowed free reign?

[Goldenglittergirl]

Well of course my puppy is only 9 weeks so yes I crate him. Although, I have had older dogs and fosters that still used a crate when they were older.

Personally, each dog is different as if they can be trusted alone in your home. I don't feel comfortable with the thought of letting my dog roam free at night until he is a little older.

[kristyrenee]

Rockne slept in his crate for about 2 weeks and then when he was able to hold it all night and not wake me up to go out- he was able to sleep on our bedroom floor next to me in his dog bed (b/f says no dogs on the bed :mad: ) He hasn't had any accidents during the night so far :029

[lvngold]

Beau is 8mos and has full run of the house. He usually will sleep in his bed(beside mine) or in the bathroom on the ceramic tile. He has had full run at night since he was about 18 weeks old, very good at potty training with only 1 accident and I consider that my fault, not his.

[Gryffyndor]

Gryffyn was crated until he was 8 months...then my boyfriend went away to a conference, and I got weak...those cute puppy-dog eyes :) He has been sleeping in our bed ever since. As much as I love cuddling with him, if I had it to do over I would never have let him up that first time. He has just begun to blow his coat...and wow. I can not explain how the fur gets everywhere :happy2 I have to lintbrush the duvet cover 2x a day. Guess who the boss of our house is :woofpup

[Karefl]

Jake is 3 & has semi-reign of the house at night. He can go into any room but ours at night. I've decided that it's easier to not let him in our room that listen to my husband complain about the dog hair on his work clothes. With our other dog it would end up ALL over the pants when he sat down on the edge of the bed to put his shoes on. She slept at the end of our bed for 12 years & the bottom of the spread was *always* covered w/dog hair. So Jake usually sleeps in with my 2 older boys or right in front of their room. I really wanted Jake to stay & the bedroom thing actually helped in his decision! :) Now he's away on business for a couple of night & I "must" remain strong & not let Jake into my room! LOL

[angenbear]

When I'm home, he's free reign, at night, he sleeps in my bedroom and I close the doors. I make sure nothing is reachable for him to chew. He now discovered how to climb up my bed, I don't mind, but he will get down, he prefers the carpet.

[MegM76]

Cooper is 5 months and I crate him at night. I have been thinking about letting have free roam of my bedroom at night. I'm just so worried about a housetraining relapse. But, I will try it for a night soon.

[GoldCountryGirl]

Our small dog who is close to 8 years old has been crated in a small Vari Kennel since we brought her home at 10 weeks. Right next to my side of the bed. She still sleeps there every night. I have a dark towel over it and that's her cozy little "bedroom". She doesn't make a peep until I take her out in the morning. (Unless she happened to eat something that caused her to have diarrhea, then she might need to go out sooner :eek: ...luckily that has only happened a few times.)

If I were to get a Golden pup, this is the way I would do it, too...at least throughout puppyhood...and that could be a couple years. ;) I would need to play it by ear as to whether he or she could be trusted enough to sleep outside the crate/kennel. I know we don't have any of our pets sleep on the bed. I need all the space I can get! banana


Dp you crate your Golden overnight or are they allowed free reign?

[Westin]

Westin has slept in his kennel up until a few weeks ago. He's 8 months. He has his own room and for the most part it's Westin proof. We started leaving him in his room with a gate up at the door, his big pillow bed that's usually in the living room, and his kennel door open, a few quiet toys, a little water, and the blinds up for him to see out the window. The funny thing is the first few nights we did this he whined and whined from his kennel. We couldn't figure out why he was whinning and then we finally closed his kennel door and he stopped whinning. He just wanted his kennel door closed. So, crates really aren't that bad...Westin loves his. Anyway, he's past that now and has no problem sleeping in his room with the kennel door open. Sometimes I'll walk by and he's in his kennel and sometimes he's on his pillow bed. I will never let my children sleep in our bed (unless they are sick) and neither will Westin ever sleep in our bed.

[goodtim'n]

All 3 of mine live OUTSIDE the box!!! what I mean, the have total freedom of the house at night and during the day, I have no problems with them. The 2 goldens sleep in the bedroom with us and my lab sleeps on the couch all night!!!

[coopersmom04]

Cooper is in his crate at night. But he's only 12 weeks old. Not a potty issue because he's housebroken, but I just can't trust him to not get into things while we're asleep, so he won't have full run of the house until he's much older. My 7 year old dog has full run of the house at night, but she mostly sleeps in our bedroom on her bed.

[alliebear]

Allie also has free reign of the house at night. She sleeps up in the bed with me, I also wish that I hadn't let her start that. The bed gets kind of crowded!

[Harshy]

Harley slept in a crate & then a pen until she was about 16 months. She now sleeps on blankets in our family room downstairs but also has a bed on the floor right next to our bed. She seems to prefer sleeping alone but has the option to join us if she wants to. Usually she will come upstairs & wake me up at about 5:30 or 6:00 AM. I love when she sleeps in & I get to wake her up (this happens very rarely). Her eyes will half open, her tail starts to wag & then her whole body starts to wiggle with excitement! She also has free reign of the house at all times now.

[Chase and His Mom]

Chase has had free reign of the house since we brought him home. He was a rescue, a very calm casual golden at that so we just tried it out one night, him sleeping next to our bed and we've never had a problem. He's a good boy.... :woofpup :woofpup

[spindog]

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b5df22b3127cce9dbe67ffc72700000016108AcNW7Nq0ZN7 Spin will be six months at the end of Feb & we still kennel up at night. I would let him sleep w/ us but my husband says he is a bed hog. We took him on a ski trip this past weekend and let him sleep with us and I would have to agree ........ he took up the entire bed! rofl3 When the husband goes away I always let him sleep w/ me! :laugh2

[AmyDW]

Molly is 14 mths old and has had free reign for about 3 mths. I check before bedtime and make sure everything is out of reach. She sleeps with my 16 yr. old who pulls out the trundle of her bed. They sleep like 2 babies. If she ever needs to go out, she wakes me up, not my daughter, who sleeps like the dead!!!

[Trilby]

My dogs are crated at night & or when I leave them home. I worry about earthquakes & fires. I like to know where I (or my neighbors) can find them in a hurry!

[goldenlover]

Trilby, what a good point you raised! Ralphie is 11 mos. and we crate him at night and when we go out. We were considering giving him free reign at bedtime in a few months, but maybe we shouldn't, especially since he's so timid. Without his crate, I don't know where he'd go in an emergency like a fire.

Maybe we can decorate the crate like a Christmas tree -- make it the focal point of the whole family room! I have a feeling it's going to be part of that room for a loooong time. Fortunately, Ralphie loves knowing his crate is there when he wants to use it.

Mary E.

[lovie1]

Doc has never been crated and used to sleep in his own bed next to our bed didn't seem interested in our bed untill he was about 5 months from then on ...hes now 10 1/2 months he sleeps in the bed with us ...between us...thankfully we had just purchased a king size be. lol...Happiness is waking up next to a golden. :D

[SuGaR]

My 9 mth female gets free reign of the house in the night when we sleep, but most of the time she just sleeps on her bed (on the floor beside my side of the bed). On nights when she's really mishievious and we really need our sleep, we'll close the door but she'll let us know when she needs to have a toilet break. :)

[goldenlover]

Could someone give me a little advice? Ralphie sleeps in his crate every night. He’s almost a year old, but he’s only been with us about three months. He’s got serious shyness issues, but is improving. He started obedience training last week. He’s bonded very strongly to me, and seems to like sleeping in his crate. I didn’t want to let him have his freedom at night yet, in case he had to potty. He’s still adjusting to living with us, but hasn’t had any accidents in the house for a good month. Sometimes he piddles a little when we approach him to attach his leash, but only when it’s my husband.

When he hears me getting up and moving around the house VERY EARLY in the morning (5:00, 5:30), he wants to come out. I don’t want to start letting him out that early because I think he’ll expect to go outside right away to potty, which is our normal routine. I’m not ready to attend to him until I’m dressed for work, because I usually have to take him outside on the leash. (If I let him out by himself, he’ll get muddy. It’s cold and wet here in Jersey right now.) If I thought he wanted out because he was desperate to potty, I wouldn’t want to make him wait. But I feel that he is just excited to see me, and start the day. He always sleeps later than that on weekends.

How should I handle this so that he stays in the crate until I’m dressed and ready to take him outside? Or, should I just let him have his freedom at night so he gets used to holding his urine without sleeping in the crate? I hope this doesn't sound selfish of me, but I think at almost a year old, he's old enough to adapt to our schedule, rather than the other way around.

[Peggy]

Why not leave the crate open so he can decide? If he's shy he may feel more secure in there, I don't know. As far as making him wait to go out, I'm not a good one to ask. Murphy (who has free run of the house at night but sleeps beside our bed) usually gets me up about 3 AM to go out! So, if he waits until 5 when I get up, I feel lucky. But, we have a fenced in yard, so all I have to do is open the door for him.

[goldenlover]

Thanks Peggy. What a dedicated golden mommy you are! If Ralphie were real young, I would expect to take him out through the night. But he's almost a year old now. At his age I expect him to hold his urine through the night. He has never peed in his crate overnight. We take away his water by 8:00pm. He can hold his urine all day, when necessary. But usually he doesn't have to wait that long.

When the weather gets better (warmer, drier), I should be able to just release him into the fenced-in backyard. But right now, if I do that, he'll get filthy. Also, he's so attached to me, that sometimes he's hesitant to go out the door without me at least standing on the deck, watching him.

I guess the only way to know how if he'll hold his urine without sleeping in the crate is to try it. Today, when I released him from the crate, I purposely did not take him outside right away. I let him wait about ten minutes, while did a few kitchen chores, and filled his bowls. Maybe if I keep doing that in the morning, he will be conditioned to waiting a little while after being released from the crate, and before going outside. Does this sound fair? His last potty break before bed is about 10:00pm. I would like to take him out to potty in the morning at 6:00am. I don't want him to get too uncomfortable trying to hold it, or create a situation where he develops a urinary infection. But eight hours doesn't seem like too long to hold it, does it?

[Merlinsmom]

Merlin sleeps by our bed-on the floor-on his bed at night!(well-ok-he comes up for cuddles at about 6 30am-because he knows thats when we wake up!)

We have our bedroom door shut-so it's about 8 hours for him without going to pee-he does fine!We let him out first thing in the morning and he goes then-and he's almost a year old-so-your dog should be fine :)

[mtee1958]

Bailey is 7 months now and he sleeps in our bedroom. He has from the beginning. The difference is he now has free reign of the room. I stopped crating him a few months ago. The closet door has to be closed (socks are the best toys around!), but other than that - he roams. He seems to like the bathroom as his initial resting spot. I know he is settling down when I hear that thud on the floor! This works pretty well -except on weekends when his internal clock gets him up at 6:00!! I want to say -- no Bailey it's Saturday!! I just let him out, give him some water and back to bed we go.

I would think your dog should be ok for alittle while before you let him out. Bailey doesn't rush to the door in the morning and sometimes he's looking for toys and I have to call him to go out.

[kinseysmom]

so to speak. Actually, she can't wait to jump up in bed and go to sleep. Yes, she does have a huge wire Ultima kennel in our master bedroom. We also have 2 large pillows for the guys but....Finny loves to sleep on the pillow under this computer table. And Kinsey loves to sleep with us. It's fine. We have a pretty big master bedroom and our bed is one of those really big "kings"...and somehow, we've all grown quite used to our routine. Finny and Kinsey even laugh at Letterman's jokes. rofl3
I do close our bedroom door at night to discourage anyone from taking a "walkabout" in the middle of the night. Of course, when Kinsey needs to pee/poo mid-night, she tells us. How?? She walks on us with all 4 feet and just stares at us until we finally give in and say "okay, okay...outside!" Oh and no....she's a very smart little girl. She knows to walk on Daddy not me!! :604

[diiorio]

Play it by day to day.

However when young, their are to many dangers the pup can get into. it's not just potty breaking tht is the reason for crating.

They can choke on thigns at night, chew electrical wires, get into dangerous things. When you are asleep, you can't watch your pup.

You wouldn't leve a human baby unattended when it can get into mischief. We use play pens and cribs for human babies, and crates for our yougn dog babies.

When you are certan that they will not get into stuff and eat dangerous stuff, or chew dangerous stuff, then they can be lef out of the crate.