Mya has been un-crated since she was 3 and does great!

Melissa, so you leave Kody and Mya uncrated while you and hubby are out?

You'll never know how they'll do until you try it. Do you have baby gates? If you don't want to start by leaving them loose together you could put up baby gates and leave them loose in the house but in separate rooms. Maybe gate Storm in a smaller room since you're not sure how he'll do at first and leave Ginger loose in the rest of the house. And they could see each other and be close to each other on opposite sides of the gate if they wanted.

We stopped crating and started leaving Dakota loose when we was 4 yrs old. In the 2 yrs he's been allowed loose with no one home he's been an absolute angel.

with the way i see ginger and storm interact they remind me of jack and sierra, they have the burst of crazy play then they are done. i think you should try leaving them in the house, don't you all ready kind of do that when you are both outside and the dogs are inside? that's kind of how we started it. i would just make sure NOTHING is around that could be broken (the TV) or eaten and if they pee or poo its in an area of easy clean up. i know your lower level can be blocked off but you have a lot there. what about the basement where you have minimal things and is cooler for them? since you have been sleeping there they might be fine as its a place they are used to.

cmanding wrote:

Melissa, so you leave Kody and Mya uncrated while you and hubby are out?

Kody stays in his crate. No way I'm leaving that crazy doggie out..lol. Mya stays loose though

Mine have been doing SUPER well uncrated and confined to the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway. I just puppy proof-- put the garbage in the breezeway if it's near the top, take things off of low places and don't leave stuff around.

You could try it slowly and see how they do I still crate mine once in a while so it doesn't "go away" or in cases when it's a little too messy int he house to leave them loose.

Do you have music or the television on when you leave?

Yes, we have left the TV on for them but he'll still start to 'fidget' in his crate. It's not bad, but it unsettles Ginger since their crate are next to each other. Should I seperate their crates and place them is different parts of the room? Would that help each of them more?

Koda wrote:

You could try it slowly and see how they do I still crate mine once in a while so it doesn't "go away" or in cases when it's a little too messy int he house to leave them loose.

every morning when i get the going to work bone out sierra still goes to her crate like she used to have to do when we crated them! then she gets super excited when i walk to the lining room to leave them out i think we are going on to a yr of them out on the lower level of the home. we also feed in the crate to keep them used to going into it, we don't close the doors though.


Claudia you could more the crates apart but still in eye contact and see how that works, it might be a good idea to test.

I would test them out of the crate together, they're both well behaved and I don't think they'd do a thing wrong! Koda goes bonkers in a crate, but I can leave him in my apartment for 4 hours or so with no worries- I could do longer but don't since he doesn't have access to going to the bathroom. When we had him at my mom's with a dog door to go pee, he was left by himself (with the 3 chihuahuas) all the time and no issues. I've left him at his friend Red's house and a few other doggie friends while I went out with their owners and the result was always fine.

jbealer wrote:

Koda wrote:

You could try it slowly and see how they do I still crate mine once in a while so it doesn't "go away" or in cases when it's a little too messy int he house to leave them loose.

every morning when i get the going to work bone out sierra still goes to her crate like she used to have to do when we crated them! then she gets super excited when i walk to the lining room to leave them out i think we are going on to a yr of them out on the lower level of the home. we also feed in the crate to keep them used to going into it, we don't close the doors though.

We don't feed in the crates simply because their crates are in the basement where it's cool and there's really no place to put them upstairs, otherwise I'd definitely be doing that to keep them trained They still excitedly run down there when we say "In your beds!" because they almost ALWAYS get a treat/kong/bone in there.

jbealer wrote:

Claudia you could more the crates apart but still in eye contact and see how that works, it might be a good idea to test.

The trick is that this whole process is just trial and error.

Would be better if I just put something like cardboard between the two crates instead? Or would that just be trial and error too?

Hubby votes to leave them un-crated....

cmanding wrote:

Hubby votes to leave them un-crated....

That would be my vote too, at least to try for a short time.

I leave my dogs uncrated while i'm out. Odin is the only one who gets the crate because he's reverted back to giving things a random shot of urine every once in a while

I'd try gating them off from each other first and ease into leaving them totally alone together.

So I decided to try one more time with crating them...this time hubby ran them for 15 minutes first, and watched them on the webcam..

Within in the hour we were gone, Storm didn't pace in a circle, but he stood up and sat down a few times and talked....BUT! Ginger sat up and pawed at the gate, as if she was trying to get out!

I don't want her to revert!

I guess we'll start leaving them in the house uncrated, but I think I'll start with them seperated first.

Another thing that's helpful for crate training is making them think treats grow in crates. My dogs are awesome in their crate (both share a huge one) and even take themselves to their crate for naps or to play with the 80+ toys in there. I attribute it to the fact that I have always kept treats in my pocket, and EVERY TIME I walk past it (it is under my staircase in the living room, so that's umpteen thousand times/day), I throw a treat in side the crate whether the dogs are paying attention or not, and whether they are in it or not. If they are paying attn, they run in after it and chill inside it for awhile (and I give them another treat when they lay down and chill in it); if they AREN'T paying attn when i toss a treat in, then they have a pleasant surprise either when I tell them "crate" or when they take themselves to it for whatever important agenda they must address inside it.

hillarycole wrote:

Another thing that's helpful for crate training is making them think treats grow in crates. My dogs are awesome in their crate (both share a huge one) and even take themselves to their crate for naps or to play with the 80+ toys in there. I attribute it to the fact that I have always kept treats in my pocket, and EVERY TIME I walk past it (it is under my staircase in the living room, so that's umpteen thousand times/day), I throw a treat in side the crate whether the dogs are paying attention or not, and whether they are in it or not. If they are paying attn, they run in after it and chill inside it for awhile (and I give them another treat when they lay down and chill in it); if they AREN'T paying attn when i toss a treat in, then they have a pleasant surprise either when I tell them "crate" or when they take themselves to it for whatever important agenda they must address inside it.

Ginger is great in her crate, but since we got Storm, she gets anxious as their crates are next to each other. I can seperate the crates to see how he does like that, but I don't think it'll help Storm.

Storm will go in his crate all by himself to nap as long as the door is open. When the door is closed, even if we're home, he'll get anxious after 30-60 minutes. Sometimes, it'll be sooner than 30 minutes. From what we're told, his previous owners put him in a small crate with a bag of food and left him there. Maybe that's what he stresses about, I don't know.

If I put a toy in there, he'll tear it up and I don't want him to eat it. If I put a bone in there, he'll throw it around instead of it occupy him.

What if you try having them share a large crate? Maybe Storm will feel better with Ginger in there too? Mine share and usually when I come home their either playing tug of war with a toy or cuddling each other. I think they have a grand old time together sharing a room.

hillarycole wrote:

What if you try having them share a large crate? Maybe Storm will feel better with Ginger in there too? Mine share and usually when I come home their either playing tug of war with a toy or cuddling each other. I think they have a grand old time together sharing a room.

Personally, I would advise against this. My two are two peas in a pod, but they do scuffle occassionally. If that were to happen in the crate, there'd be no one there to help and no space for them to cool down. It's just not something I would ever be comfortable doing, so I would hesitate on recommending that.

I totally understand your hesitation with that, Tori. Having them share a crate was introduced with great care, as Volya had his own crate as a tiny pup and Danika had the huge 800-series crate to herself. Since I work from home, I was able to do a lot of exercises to make sure it would be safe for them, but I suppose time can be taken in the evening for anyone who works during the day. It may also be helpful that Volya worships the very ground Danika walks on, and if she so much as lifts a lip when she's irritated by him, he cleans up his act immediately.

However, when it came time for Volya to "move into Dani's room," I actually got in the crate with them both in there with me. I shut the door and latched it from the inside, laid down with them and all their toys and stayed there for over an hour. I did this so that they would know it's MY crate and MY toys and be less inclined to tussle if that was to ever be a threat (I still climb in there from time to time to reinforce that idea in their heads although they've never had a fight in there).

I also introduced Volya to Danika's crate very slowly. First I would have them both in there with the door open, but not invite them out until they both fell asleep. Then I'd close the door and do the same thing. Then I'd close the door and leave the room for 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes. Then I'd close the door and walk out of the house, stay outside, but keep coming back in at random intervals so they'd know a) I'm always coming back and b) they better behave because they have no idea when that will be.

So far it seems to be working. Before they started sharing, Danika went through SEVEN dog beds in her crate, destroying them all anytime I would put her in there and have to leave for a couple hours. She also mangled the door and sides of the metal crate so bad, I have to use metal key fobs at the places she made vulnerable and to reinforce the latches. Since they started sharing, there's been no shredding of the bed and no further mangling of the cage.

Again, I totally understand your hesitation and shared it, too. But I also thing there are some benefits of having them share as long as you can trust that there won't be a fight.

You still have a young pup... Claudia is dealing with two older dogs and one of which is a recent rescue. It's not something I would advise in her situation although I do appreciate the care and concern with which you approached training

Yep, Ginger is 4.5 years old and we've had her for just about a year. Storm is 6 years old and we've had him for just about 3 months. They get along great, but I've seen their play escalate to the point where it could become aggressive. In fact, I let it go once and it escalated to where they went after each other for a brief second. My reaction broke them up as I would hate to see either of them hurt. But I do know that sometimes they need to work it out themselves.

An XL crate for Storm is barely enough or just enough space for him to stand up and turn around. There's not much room for him in an XL crate. I didn't find anything bigger than that unless I went custom. He is a very big boy at 97.5 lbs. After his weight loss, he'll be around 85-90 lbs, but still standing about 25" tall from floor to top of his shoulders...so unless I left him outside, I don't think there's any crate bigger than what I found. And it's too hot to leave him outside.

Oof, yeah, that would up my anxiety over having them share, too. Didn't know that.

97.5 lbs??? wow!!! lol! I thought Boris was a big boy at 82 lbs! Holy crap! I love a big husky

He's got at least 8 lbs to lose...but we're getting there. We've already gotten him down 15 lbs since we got him 3 months ago...

Claudia, do you have a 42" or a 48"? There are 54" that fit great danes in it, we had it available at the wholesale store in AZ. It's $150 + $30 for the pan. I have a 48" and Koda has tons of extra standing room (he is 23.5). If you have only a 42" I can let you see if the 48" works out.

Storm has the 48" crate. Had I known there was a 52" crate, I would've bought that one instead! Ginger has the 42" crate and she's good in that.