Locking in a crate all night..

Just a query to all of you who crate your dogs. Winston sleeps in a crate at night but obviously at 12 weeks he isn't locked in it as he has to get up in the night to go to the loo .. I have newspaper spread on the floor for that. Well anyway we noticed he is getting stuck into the wood architraves and the door! in the room where his crate is. We have moved his crate to block out some of it, and I put vicks on the wood as well. Just wondering if any of you folk lock your dogs in a crate overnight..and if so roughly at what age do you reckon Winston will sleep through the night without wanting to go to the loo, so he can be locked safe and soundly in his crate. I honestly can't remember back to when Jethro was a puppy and what age he was when he started sleeping right though the night. Thanks everyone !!
Forgot to say when we go out in the ute and we put Winstons and Jethro's crate in the back, he is more than happy to be locked in it.. so he doesn't mind it at all...

billy is no longer in his crate, but when he was, we locked him in there and split the crate up and put newspapers in one side and blankets in the other, this worked brilliant, we did not have to worry about him, he was nice and safe. Then when he got older we still kept the crate locked, but took the newspapers up. About 2 weeks ago, we just took the crate away, but closed the living room door and he sleeps in there on his bed.
We did try him in our bedroom, but my god can he snore, so he is in the living room with the door shut.

For Archie i split the crate from day one with paper and bed. I remove the paper in the day so its just his bedding. Then in the night i put paper down for him.
Ill probably use the crate for the 1st year of his life cause my living room is open planned and he already started to cotton on about the stairs. Being a pup i dont fancy him climbing up.
Actually i do think he likes his crate cause i caught him the other day with one of the wife shoes proudly trotting towards it.

I always locked the door with kaos from 11 weeks, he had a bit of paper in there till about 14 weeks then he went through the night. If he has an option to leave the crate and wee or a place to wee in the crate then he will use it. By removing the toliet area and locking the crate he will train himself to hold it, of course u will have the odd accidents but he will rather hold it than wee in his bed x

Vanessa I've never used a crate in either of my situations.
When Kita was young she was locked in the built in laundry/triple length carport both day and night till she was about 4 months old. I slowly started leaving the side door open during the day when I wasn't home and would only leave it open at night when her big BM bro was in town as he was 5 months older than her.
As for Izzy, she had our inside laundry to sleep in at night, (we used the "baby" type gates to section areas in the house). I just checked my photos (her first night allowed to sleep on the "inside bed" with Kita) and she too was around the 4 month mark.
I'm a pretty light sleeper so any movement and my antennas are up and listening, didn't mean there were no "accidents" unfortunately. I was lucky as Kita slept on her bed in the family room for full heater effect and not in our room.
I also have the rule that the last one to bed had to take them out one more time just in case. I also try and limit my pups/dogs thirst at this time

thanks everyone... Winston always goes out just before we go to bed for a wee and poo ( so does Jethro ) The reason we are thinking about locking him in a crate at night is because when we look back at all the damage Jethro caused when he was a youngtser... shredding.. chewing.. ripping ..destroying...etc etc... and Winston is already heading down that path!! I had never even heard of crate training or anything till a few years back when Jethro went absolutely berserk in the canopy of our ute and destroyed all the electrical wiring and lights and spare battery cover etc etc...that we had just had put in... far out.. that was a bad day! How I didn't end up in the divorce courts I will never know... so anyway we got a wire crate for Jethro and he gets locked in whenever he goes in the ute with us.. he loves going in there and we feel safe knowing he can't destroy things!! Winston is such a little scallywag when it comes to chewing things he shouldn't..and I don't think my marriage could survive another destroyer doggie!!

I bought Jett a crate when he was 10 weeks old because it was getting to the point that I was sleeping on the sofa and he was jumping up every 10 minutes all through the night.when I first got him the crate i put paper in one half and his bed in the other.at about 12 weeks I just put his bed in it.Now he happily gets in his crate at 11/12 everynight and sleeps until 5 or 6am (9am this morning because i overslept...ooopps!)

Little Winston a scallywag..... surely not!!!
However, I'm hearing you loud & clear (although it's hard to imagine Jethro being such a little ratbag)
I have this "once bitten twice shy philosophy" and figure if I've thought of it, so have they and probably apply "overkill" as one can't be too cautious. Hope the vicks works and you don't have too many more issues with the wooden architraves.

when harvey was in his crate it was locked all night, with his bed and blankets oneside and newspaper the other, although now he can hold through out the night he now sleeps upstairs with us in bed, but still have the crate setup down stairs just incase we need it

Woody has been in his crate overnight since day dot. he never used his puppy pads just shredded them so they went and he has always lasted thru the night

uh-oh.....naughty winston.

Sorry, i ca'nt offer any help re: the crate. Roxy has always gone in the laundry at night time with her bed and snugglies(teddies) and is great in there.....but we have metal door frames and nothing really for her to chew except for the blinds, and touch wood she has not bothered with them.

Good luck though

nicolalouises wrote:Woody has been in his crate overnight since day dot. he never used his puppy pads just shredded them so they went and he has always lasted thru the night

wow.. sounds like Woody has a better bladder than mine !!

oh he makes up for it when we are out, ive never known a dog wee so much!!!

Hi Vanessa, Charlie was crated in the night from day one, I too split the crate with bed and paper. t worked fine. My mistake was leaving the paper in too long and worrying cos he was still using the paper at night then shredding it up and making a mess. Caryll suggested taking the paper out and seeing if he could go all night and he did.

thanks everyone. I have ordered a wire crate for him....at the moment he is sleeping in a plastic airline crate that was Jethro's when he flew over east with us. Jethro has a wire crate that we keep in the back of the ute canopy but obviously Winston is going to need his own. Once it arrives we are going to start locking him in at night....

Dempsey was locked in his crate at night from 7 weeks! But as my oh does early shift work I got up at about 4am every day & let him out for a wee. He only ever had an accident if he had a bad tum!

Now, of course, I don't need to lock him in because he has got over the destroy-everything-I-can-get-my-teeth-around stage.

Caryll wrote:Dempsey was locked in his crate at night from 7 weeks! But as my oh does early shift work I got up at about 4am every day & let him out for a wee. He only ever had an accident if he had a bad tum!

Now, of course, I don't need to lock him in because he has got over the destroy-everything-I-can-get-my-teeth-around stage.

you are so lucky Caryll.. Jethro has NEVER gotten over the destroy everything I can get my teeth into stage!! :-<

Oh, I only mean at night!!!!

During the day he's as destructive as ever - well, maybe not quite as bad as he was, but he'll still eat the cushions and any soft toys he can get hold of.

vanessa wrote: thanks everyone. I have ordered a wire crate for him.....

Where did you order the crate from please? And what size? We have pretty much decided to go down the crate route, as the whole 'littermate syndrome' thing appears to be kicking in with gusto.

http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/dog-cage-galvanised-portable-104-63-71cm/

not sure if this link will turn out Trevor but the place is Deals Direct. I got Jethro's crate from here too a few years back. It is $79.95 plus about $10 delivery.. the cheapest I found anywhere.

Caryll wrote:Oh, I only mean at night!!!!

During the day he's as destructive as ever - well, maybe not quite as bad as he was, but he'll still eat the cushions and any soft toys he can get hold of.

Caryll thanks for clarifying that!! I don't feel so bad now... surely that little angel faced Dempsey doesn't eat cushions and soft toys !!

Just got one last night on ebay for $60 plus $24 delivery so about the same all up.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200616885123

vanessa wrote:

Caryll wrote:Oh, I only mean at night!!!!

During the day he's as destructive as ever - well, maybe not quite as bad as he was, but he'll still eat the cushions and any soft toys he can get hold of.

Caryll thanks for clarifying that!! I don't feel so bad now... surely that little angel faced Dempsey doesn't eat cushions and soft toys !!

I'm afraid he does other things to them as well..................