I crate Okami at night. She likes to sit in bed with us while we are awake watching the tv or if we are playing table top games like Dungeons and Dragons or Magic the Gathering or board games, but she won't sleep with us in bed. She might nap with us for a while but that is about it. She will always go back to her crate on her own eventually, but usually when lights go out she is in her crate.

Link has slept freely since he was 11 months old.....I think? He has a bean bag bed in our room which he starts out on but eventually moves over to the wall, where he sleep upside down with his legs straight up the wall.

Our bed is the one place in the whole house where he is not allowed.

Our rule for his crate is if we are gone for over an hour he is in his crate. Under an hour and he has been walked and we leave him out. He has passed this test under normal circumstances every time.

He has failed the out of crate test and destroyed things 3 times, but granted, under tense circumstances where he wasn't walked in advance.

Yeah Shadow generally does the same thing. He will fall asleep in bed, but eventually make his way back to the floor. He wont sleep in his crate during the night!

Diz acts like he wants to sleep on the couch at night, but as soon as I get into bed. He goes into his alcove or crate to sleep. The other day, I took a nap and my hubby said as soon as I got in bed, Diz went to his alcove to nap. How cute is that? He loves his crate though! He's in there as we speak.

Just read through this whole thing (im usually a little slow on the uptake being a different time zone and all) and I just wanted to pitch in with my experiences...
My boy gets about 10-11 kilometers a day walking (about 6.5 miles if I'm doing the math right) plus we are now biking about 2 k a night on top of that as he gets used to the bike any less than that and he is a terror lol
I am going through the process at the moment of re crate training (bad fail as a pup long story) so eventually Orion will be crated at night - at the moment he sleeps in the laundry on his bed with the door closed. I work on roughly the same rules as Jeff, if I am going out for less than an hour and he has been walked in the last couple of hours and is still mellow then he can chill inside, however if I see even a glint of crazy in his eye then no free roaming. So far the only thing that has been destroyed in our house while Orion has been unsupervised is a feather duster so I'm pretty happy.
I hope things work out for you I think Shadow sounds pretty lucky to be honest, I would love to stare at a fish tank all day...

My girlfriend and I think Diz is pretty awesome, that is cute. Shadow will not go to his crate, but to our bed or the floor. He sleeps when we sleep, and naps when we nap as well!

As for as Orion, that is definitely a lot of exercise. Im not sure if Shadow could handle such an exercise. We took him to the dog park for 1hr and then followed that up with a 2 mile run and he hasn't moved since we came home. He drank all of his water and has been sleeping ever since! You are very lucky that Orion has only destroyed a feather duster. Shadow has destroyed shoes, curtains, cables, and his crate. When he was younger he figured out a way to get out of his crate and destroyed all those things. He was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. He has come a long way since he did all that   

Also, i forgot to mention we stopped by Petsmart and purchased Shadow the large 42" crate. This thing is massive and we are much more satisfied with this version. He has tons of space and a lot of room to play.   

You should also consider upping the weight in his pack. I think the guideline is 1/4 of their body weight is the max you should go to, We pack Tika's with water bottles, and then if they get thirsty they can stop for some and it lightens the load later in the walk. 1lb is not much for him at 52 pounds. Tika is only about 48 and carrys more than that. You'll notice after a nice long walk with more weight (increased gradually obviously) he'll be a lot more tired.
You'll see his endurance build up with the walks. 11km now would likely be rough on him, but you work up to it. Ours get 3k 2 times a day and Tika can bike up to 8k in one stretch (with breaks)
Either way, you'll have to increase it, age 2-3 is when they really peak for energy, so its not going to get better anytime soon.

Jesse & Andrea wrote:

My girlfriend and I think Diz is pretty awesome, that is cute. Shadow will not go to his crate, but to our bed or the floor. He sleeps when we sleep, and naps when we nap as well!  

Aw! Thank you. :)Here is a pic of him enjoying his crate. He always looks like that when I leave for work, and he looks so cozy, it makes me jealous. Ha ha.

Thats pretty impressive! I never thought of increasing the weight really, I was unaware it should be roughly 1/4 of their total body weight. Im going to gradually increase the weight in his backpack as we have just started running two miles per day. It has just been hot here this summer, so we have been inside a lot more. However, that was definitely insightful information.  
Here is a photo with his backpack!


Diz is a handsome fellow. We have yet to snap a picture of Shadow in his new crate. We have been taking him with us all of this week. However, I am sure he will love his new crate. Its spacious and comfortable.