Hey everyone,

Currently, Rylai is 3 months old (soon to be 4 months on May 5th) and I have her in a small plastic kennel that was originally for my cat because she pooped in her wire crate, stepped in it, and stood up and put her paws all over the sides so I had to take it back to my parents house to clean it using their hose. She has definitely grown accustomed to this smaller crate but she is unable to stand up fully and is hunched inside so I figured now that I have cleaned the large wire crate (with a divider), I should transition her to it full time now. My question is, should I transition her to it slowly? This week is my first week back at work (full week PTO, then WFH all week after so I had two weeks to train her after getting her) and yesterday was my first day of success back in the office where she didn't have any accidents in the crate when I went home for lunch and after work. I am concerned that if I just start using the large wire crate, she will have accidents since she is not accustomed to being in there. Last night though, I had her in the wire crate for most of the evening to get used to it as well as had her sleep in it - she maintained her habits from the small plastic kennel and did not whine at all while we slept. Do you think I should give it a few more days of having her in the small crate while I'm at work (to maybe keep up her success with no accidents) and use the large crate when I'm around so she will get used to it? I was tempted to just leave her in the wire crate this morning before I left but got a little bit nervous that she wasn't entirely used to it yet and would end up getting anxious/stressed and having an accident. How did you guys tackle transitioning if you needed to?

Since I don't crate my response is "how would" rather than "how did I", hope you don't mind ...
Since she accepted the new crate without a problem overnight, I think I'd just go ahead and go with it. Remember that you want her to have enough room to stand up, turn around and lay down (stretched out like Husky's do). If there's much more room than that, I'd consider a divider to close off a part of the crate until she grows into it.

Al is right on....I would also give her a stuffed kong or something safe for her to nosh on, keep her mind off of being in it, and she can associate the crate as eating and not potty in it.

Both answers above are spot on.