When to stop using a crate?

[Brinks]

Brinks is now 13 Months old. During the day (while were at work) he stays inside a 54 inch crate. We have a dog sitter that brings him out at four hour intervals while were at work. When he was six months old, he started to sleep outside of the crate at night, while we are home. He has never been destructive. We would like to eventually have him stay outside of the crate during the daytime while we away. How do you know they are ready? At what age did you stop crating your Mastiff? How would you approach this?

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

You'll know, I crated Thor ( 7 years now) until he was about 2 years. I just felt better that he would be more mature. My 8 month old Stone has gotten out of his crate once, while their were no damages. He has a potty problem, so until that stops...in the crate he goes.

 

[Smart_Family]

We still use crates for our brood. Azzy's 13 months, Tess is almost 2 and Kane is 6 but he's only been with us for about two months.

 

[ruthcatrin]

IF you think he's house trust worthy enough try leaving him out for a short run down the road. He does well you can expand it to slightly longer trips, and so on. It varies between dogs. Apollo was good by 9 months. Arty may never be good.

 

[Smokeycat]

There is no set age or sign that tells you that it is now ok, each dog-owner relationship is different. Jiggers was ok overnight by 5 months and during the day by 7 months, he liked to chew. Kryten on the other hand was ok during the day at 4 months but not overnight until close to 8 months. He didn't wake me up if he needed to go when he was loose but did crated.
I started by leaving him out for short intervals. After he had proven he was ok for 1/2 hour I increased the time to 1 hour and so on until there was no longer any need for the crate.

 

[seeknoxrun]

Knox was 4 months when we started leaving him out overnight, and 10 months when we started leaving him out while we were gone. We started by gating him in limited areas of the house and, as he proved he could be trusted, we expanded his access. He's only ever chewed on one pillow, and only ever had one accident (but I think he had an upset tummy, and he was kind enough to have it on the tile floor instead of the carpet... so I didn't hold it against him).

We weren't able to leave Roux out of the crate overnight until about 8 months, and even then we'd still find accidents every once in a while. At nearly a year, she still is crated while we're gone. We tried testing the waters by gating her in our laundry room, and she chewed a sizable chunk off the hutch (we use it to store all the dog supplies and such), ate her way into the dog food container (thank god it was close to empty), and put a good effort into chewing her way through the gate to freedom... all in 3 hours. I don't think we'll test those waters again any time soon.

 

[Robtouw]

Cruiser began the transition from crate to a dedicated bedroom at 4 months, at 6 months he earned freedom to roam the house instead of being locked up. We've had a few angry moments where we've discovered he has chewed on something that he souldn't have, but overall he has done well. We had purchased a large piece of vinyl flooring to go over the carpet in his room to protect it when we stopped using his crate and he was pretty good about having his "accidents" there. He hasn't done any business in the house in months, but that large piece of flooring is still in there just in case. Eventually it will come up. When we began letting him roam at night we started with two hours, then four, then six and went from there. Each time he got in trouble, he was put back in his room for the night. Eventually he got it!

 

[DennasMom]

Denna has run of the house when we're home, and free run of the bedroom at night. She's been accident free since she was 5 months old (she's 9 months old now). We were letting her have run of the bedroom when we went out (baby gate at the doorway kept her in) - but she got destructive when bored, and we're down a few pillows now that were 'de-stuffed'... so she's back in the crate again until this phase passes (hopefully in a few months). We'll try again for short trips away (2-3 hours) until we're more confident she'll not chew something inappropriate while we're away.

 

[Brinks]

Great advice everyone! Thank you for sharing your experiences!

 

[swalls21]

Briggs has been house broken since he was 10-11 weeks old, and has only had two accidents since then (he is almost 7 months). Both accidents happened during month 4. We started leaving him out at night and during the day around 4 months. Yes, he has chewed on a few things he shouldn't have, but he does pretty good. He does not have access to the whole house ever, just the main part.