How long did you use a brave for and when/why did you ditch it?

[applegate]

So springer puppy is six months now and generally very good. He doesn't chew and has been pretty easy as puppies go! He has always been crated at night and if we are out in the day, which I am sure has helped with him being good as if we are not about he has no opportunity to do naughty things as is crated.
He has a crate in the kitchen and another bed in the sitting room, he tends to sleep wherever we are but does seem to prefer the sitting room.
So just wondered how long people have generally used a crate for and what made you stop using them??
This is the first dog we have had as a family although I grew up with then but we never previously used crates.

[PurpleFrog]

I was intrigued with a "brave" - thought it was a new piece of dog equipment I hadn't heard of!

Anyway, our lab is 2.5 yrs and we are still using the crate! I am not sure I would trust him 100% if he was left alone in the house for 3-4 hrs. With the crate we know where he is and know he is safe.

[Jayne266]

I started at 6months old and still use it for them now (2years later) it now a comfort place for them.

[Floralnomad]

I used ours for 6 months ,but my dog never chose to go in there ,although settled well when put in . After 6 months we fenced him off an area of our hall with a stair gate and then when he was about 1 we moved the stair gate to the stairs and now when we are out and overnight he is left in the hall. It's quite large and there are plenty of things he could get into mischief with but he doesn't. He doesn't have a bed as such but a pile of blankets as he destroys beds ( the blankets are very holey!) .i think if your dog chooses to go and sleep in the crate I'd be tempted to keep it but if not I'd find another solution .

[Floralnomad]

Forgot to say mine is now 2.6 years and is currently asleep on the setee, I think the setee is the reason he never chose to go in his crate .

[thegriffon]

My lab slept in crate till he was 8 months, it got too small for him and we didn't want to buy another. He was still a chewy dog so went in the utility room at night. At around 14 months we trusted him to have the run of downstairs, bed still in utility room but mostly sleeps on settee unless room too hot for him.

[tabulahrasa]

Monster puppy is about seven months, it was supposed to be until he was housetrained and a bit less chewy...he managed the first bit fine - I'm not sure that he'll ever be not chewy enough to leave uncrated, lol.

His first crate I borrowed from a friend, her dog (different breed but similar size) was out of it before it was outgrown, so I had no plans to buy one. I gave in a while ago and just bought one big enough for an adult monster puppy, it's horrible and huge and takes up half my blooming living room, but it stops him electrocuting himself or worse, lol, and as he's currently on crate rest after an operation I'm glad I already had it.

[applegate]

brave! darned predictive text on phone, sorry!

[applegate]

It is big and definitely has plenty of room left I guess I had just not thought about whether it would be long term or not. However it definitely gives me peace me mind to know what if can and can't get up to when we are out so that can't be bad and if certainly doesn't dislike it, just prefers the bed under the radiator!

[CatelynStark]

My Staff sleeps in a huge crate in my bedroom at night. I've never put him in it when we've left the house though.

[Bakingtins]

My dog is 14 and still sleeps in her crate. She's not usually shut in during the day unless we have dog shy visitors but she chooses to snooze in there a lot of the time. It's very useful to have somewhere secure to put the dog from time to time.

[MotherOfGirls]

We planned to use the crate while our collie x was a pup but have continued (he's almost 2) as he is happy with it and we can take him to other people's houses for overnight stays and know he'll be happy in the crate. He also goes in it whenever he's home alone.

He had an upset tummy a couple of nights ago - we were relieved to find the results were confined to the crate! (It is generously sized, so he had been able to keep himself out of the mess.)

Can't see a reason to stop using it.