Guys, I'm so proud.

Last night we gave Kingsley the option of sleeping outside of his crate next to our bed. Since he's been getting larger, we've been waking up in the wee hours of the morning to the sounds of him tossing and turning. So, we did our usual routine last night. I told him to "go to bed" and he jumped on my bed (something he taught himself to do with no kind of indication from us). Then he laid down for 5 minutes, got uncomfortable, jumped down, and went in his crate. I left the gate open, so he would move out if he liked.

By the time I turned my reading lamp off, he had scooted out of the crate and at the foot of my bed, where he slept soundly until 7am this morning. No accidents, no chewing on anything. When my alarm went off, he woke up as usual. We hung out in the house for a bit while I got ready for work (he likes to sit at my feet while I do my makeup), then went outside to do outside things before I take off for the day.

When we came back in, he saw himself upstairs and went straight to his crate, without any prompting from me. I went ahead and closed the gate since he'd be likely to be a bit more active while the sun was up provided the opportunity. My husband is on summer break, so he sleeps until 10 or so. Kingsley usually sleeps until about that time anyway.

So yeah, I this is awesome. He's growing to be such a mature young dog. 7 months next week!

We're boarding him for the first time on Monday - Wednesday. We have a vet assistant friend who is crazy for him and who has done daycare for us, but she's unfortunately unavailable. So we're taking him to a local boarding/daycare place in town. I've been following them on facebook and they seem to take really good care of their dogs. I wish they had something like a baby cam so I can watch while I'm gone, OH WELL.

Aaaaand, here's a pic just so this isn't all text only.

That's great!

I hope mine ends up like that!

Mine is starting to do the same! Yay!!!! Except she is still in the no trust zone being left out all night lol but congrats!!!!

Good luck! He's still doing great. No accidents, no chewed up furniture!

That's awesome. We tried this about 3 weeks ago. The 1st 2 nights went well... The 3rd night however, I came downstairs in the am and noticed what I thought was a plant chewed up on the floor. I was wrong, it was a nice section of carpet. Back in the crate.

That's great! The few times I've tried it with Yuki she's destroyed something. She's got a grin on her face right now like she knows what I'm typing about. But I'm able to do it with Cloud and Link, I love snuggling with my boys <3

I remember the first time I let Lycus sleep outside the crate, he touched nothing and slept all night! I was so surprised!! And to this day, he can sleep outside his crate if he likes, and he won't touch a thing. I'm so proud of my moose.

Nice! It's so nerve-wracking to make that leap for the first time.

Juneau started sleeping outside of her crate around 10-11 months. You got lucky!

Karli still sleeps in her crate (which is downstairs) but one night we forgot to lock the crate (she will put herself to bed and we'll lock it when we go up.) When I came down the next morning, she was sleeping half hanging out of it, nothing disturbed! I still lock her up, but its nice to know that if I don't, I don't have to worry.

Congrats on him being so good!!