Crate or bed?

Bed in crate!! Crate training worked well for us. Lolly toilet trained really quickly and I felt confident that I could leave her for short periods knowing that I wouldn't come home to find chewed shoes! We only used the crate for the first 8 months until I was sure I could trust her to be left alone outside one.

Bed only for us. Max has been with us for less than two weeks and has been dry the last two nights. We put him and Mandy in the utility room, they are fed there too, put paper and puppy pads down for ease of clearing up. His tummy has taken a while to settle but I think he is doing brilliantly. He is 11 weeks and had no toilet training prior to coming to us.

We put bed in crate and Benson has never soiled in his crate, he is now too big for the bed so has just got a big cushion in there now. We decided not to put water bowl in there and that worked for us, some do though, He cried for first few nights and we had quite a few weeks of his waking at 5 am but now he goes in any time between 8 and 9 pm and wakes up after 7 now. I put him in crate when we go out as he would destroy whatever room he was left in and I know in the crate he can come to no harm so I would always recommend a crate for peace of mind alone!!

In the early days for me it's a crate.
Now our two sleep on a bed together, but because of their curate training they are happy to travel in the crate in the car. We also spend a lot of time away from home at weekends, camping or staying in a hotel, so the crate lets us have a stress free nights sleep.

We also our first puppy as a couple. But had dogs my whole childhood up until early 20's. My family never crated our dogs. We slept with them even when they where pups.

But now I'm getting a new dog. I was trying to make that decision. My husband and I decided we will sleep with our dog in our bed.

We brought our Bucky home in mid-May at 10 weeks. We purchased a playpen that we set up in our family room. Inside the playpen we had a small canvas style crate and a small bed. The canvas crate has a zipper closing, but we never close it, keeping it rolled up. We thought we would use this in our car as well, but we never did. The playpen is about 4x4 feet and there is an area where he can stretch out as well. When we have to leave him home alone, this works out very well.

He outgrew the small bed and we replaced it with a larger bed. It took him a few days to decide he liked the new bed. Mostly he slept overnight in the crate. He is now 7 and a half months old and is about 16 lbs.

We noticed a few weeks ago that he was chewing bits of the zipper opening on the canvas crate during the night, and he was taking up the whole space in the crate. We ordered a new, slightly larger plastic style crate, but decided to leave the door off.

The first few days we had it we put his pink blanket in it, and left it sitting outside of the playpen, but he really wasn't too interested in it. If we left a treat in it, he would go in it for the treat, but come back out.

Friday night, we removed the green crate from the playpen and left the new crate in its place, with his pink blanket and a treat. He goes in for the treat but comes right back out. The first night he cried a lot. But after that, he decided to sleep in his bed. Stubborn little fellah!

The first picture is the two crates for comparison inside the playpen. The second is Bucky modeling his new red coat.