Will she sleep all night?

[SoapySophie]

Normally Sophie, 9 months, is put in her crate to sleep for the night. Lately, I've been feeling guilty for this, partly because she's also in the crate while we're at work (I come home at lunch to take her out for exercise and potty break), and partly because I'd really love to be able to trust her while we're asleep.

Tonight when I went to put her in for the night she plopped down on the floor instead. She's clearly not sleepy enough to stay down, as she's been up and about ever since (hubby is still up), but what are the chances that she'd sleep the night with all the lights out? She'd be restricted to the upstairs level with access to the room that has the crate.

[ZoeysMommy]

Give it a try, put a bed next to yours, or let her in bed with you, whatever you want, put a baby gate up on the doorway and tell her to lay down.

I felt guilty like you because i work all day so ive never crated any of mine at night. When i turn off the lights and both me and my husband are in bed, they all get in there spots and go to sleep. If one of us are awake, they are restless and stay up until both of us are in bed

I wouldnt have her in a separate room, she will want to be where you are. She might not settle if she isnt in your room

[Murphy030813]

I don't remember when exactly we did it, but sometime between 9-12 months we started leaving Murphy out of the crate at nighttime and he did just fine. We felt the same way because he was in the crate during the day and wanted him to be out more. When we first left him out, we wanted him in our bedroom, but he didn't like the bed we bought for him, and he didn't like sleeping in our bed. He has one couch he can get up on anytime he wants and he usually slept on that. Fast forward to now...he sleeps with us maybe 2-3 nights a week, and other night he's on his couch.

[Georgia]

Sam was free in the house at night from a pretty young age (around 4-5 months) and never got into trouble. Our house is thoroughly dog proofed though. No remotes or food within reach!

[Moby and Barley's Mom]

Sam was free in the house at night from a pretty young age (around 4-5 months) and never got into trouble. Our house is thoroughly dog proofed though. No remotes or food within reach!

My god! Your dog was free in the house from 4-5 months? I don't trust barley in the house alone and he is a year in 2 weeks! But then - I have not tried it - really ever. Maybe I should just give it a go and see what happens. (And yes - - I am afraid!)

[Georgia]

My god! Your dog was free in the house from 4-5 months? I don't trust barley in the house alone and he is a year in 2 weeks! But then - I have not tried it - really ever. Maybe I should just give it a go and see what happens. (And yes - - I am afraid!)

Sam always hated the crate at night so we just gave it a try. He was much happier and so were we. He was also fully housebroken so we didn't worry about accidents. After a couple months of night time freedom we tried short day time freedoms. A quick trip to the grocery store, or while we were at church. That kind of thing. After we could trust him on weekends, we tried all day while we were at work. For a while I only left him out on the days our dog walker came and I left instructions for her to crate him if he got in trouble. Again, the house was dog-proofed. It was a leap of faith but worked out.

[doubledip1]

Sam was free in the house at night from a pretty young age (around 4-5 months) and never got into trouble. Our house is thoroughly dog proofed though. No remotes or food within reach!

Luna too. She graduated to free during the day around 6 months.

You'll know when they're ready, and it sounds like Sophie is ready to give it a shot. Just make sure everything is dog proofed :-)

[SoapySophie]

Update! We removed the couch cushions from "her" room (which is our sitting room) and put the usual baby gates up. Put her to bed as normal in her crate - she walks in no problem on her own, as she knows it's bedtime - but didn't close the door to it. Walked away, said "nighty-night, Sophie", and that was it. She pretty much immediately left the crate but settled on the floor.

We live in a backsplit, so this room is one half level lower than our bedrooms. With my bedroom door closed I could hear that she moved about a couple times during the night to pick a new spot to lay, but it wasn't until morning that she broke out of jail - she'd already figured out how to open the one gate and come upstairs.

I'm happy with this so far and hope that it goes as well tonight! Yay!

[Meeps83]

We did this with Maverick for a few months. In around January he had a setback where he went counter surfing and continually pulled everything off of the counter. We had to go back to crating him at night, but we're exercising him more during the day. Good luck with Sophie!

[SoapySophie]

Having a puupy, I used to miss sleep. Now this trial is making it worse! Oh dear...

On Sunday evening I went out, leaving hubs with the pup. I got back home late and he had already put her to bed, so she was in the sitting room. He said she missed me, so of course once I arrived home she was up and jumping for joy. Try to tell a pup to go to sleep after that! We tried leaving her out but ended up having to put her back in, as she jail-breaked the gate after all lights were out. Plus, the darn cat was being a pain in the butt, meowing to go outside in the middle of the night. Bugger.

Monday night was a normal night - bedtime was around 9:30pm for me and hubs was up a little later. Sophie was put to bed at her usual time of 9:45 or so. All was well until 12:30am when I heard her bound up the stairs like it was playtime. Ugh. Back into the crate she went.

I could really use a night of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe our neighbour will take her for a night...he loves dogs. lol