Hey everyone,

I feel as though this is my 1,000 post about Royce being kennel trained, but the consistently great advice that I keep getting makes me feel comfortable to keep coming back to you all!
Royce is now 4 1/2 months old. My wife and I have crate trained him since we got him when he was 2 months old. The first week was a nightmare, as he would literally not stop crying throughout the entire night. After awhile, it was to the point where he would cry for about 5-10 minutes, then stop completely. He would sleep for about 3 hours, then wake up and go back to non-stop crying. No matter what we did, it never seemed to change. I lost a lot of sleep and would wake up aggravated and exhausted throughout the entire day and especially at work. Even though he would do this, we wouldn't give up and every night (even still today) we would put him in his kennel. I usually do everything that is recommended, before putting him in his kennel: Play with him, so he's tired and wants to go to sleep, take him out one last time and put his favorite toys in the kennel with him. Nothing seems to make a difference.
As of right now, I am currently unemployed (not because of what I had said above), so I am at home all day with both of our dogs, which pretty much means that during the day, I don't put Royce in his kennel. He's pretty much in his kennel during the night, and that's it.
I'm at this stage now, where if I (or my wife) have to wake up around 6 or 7, I will leave Royce out of his kennel and free to roam the living room, where he only causes damage to during the day, but when he sees that he is alone, he immediately falls asleep. He's usually left out by himself, while we sleep in the bedroom, with the door shut (since we can't trust him to roam around the entire house, just yet) for about 5-6 hours. I've been doing this for about 2 weeks now and in those 2 weeks, he has only peed twice and never pooped in the house. He seems to be getting MUCH better at it, so I'm considering, once his bladder is a little stronger, just to leave the crate open at night and he can choose where he sleeps. It just seems as though, at this point, Royce and his kennel will not become the great friends that we had hoped they would be.
Royce is almost 100% potty trained, but he's not there yet, which is my only concern of leaving him out all night. Once I get a new job, I will place him in his kennel, until either me or my wife will come home, which I will assume will get him better accustomed with his kennel, but until then, I'm stuck with this current situation.
Is it a bad idea to want to leave him out throughout the night? Is he too young? Our goal is to one day, either have him sleep on the bed with us, or be fully potty trained to the point, where he can choose where he wants to sleep.

You are doing great by the sounds of it. It took me 1 1/2 to train my first husky not to potty in the house. Very nerve wrecking. But she will still potty in the house if she is not in my bedroom. I got her at 6 weeks old and emediatly started crate training. She cried and whinned then would potty in the kennel. Even after I would take her outside and she would go. I put her in the kennel and she would go again, I think just for spite. She would also roll in it to make sure I would take her out and clean her up. I then thought of treats and leash training. I would keep her on a leash and by my side at all times so when she woke up I would take her out then feed her and then take her out again. Yes, I did this for a full year. She is 3 1/2 now and is fine with being in the house. I have one room in my house that she has designated if I do not get her out to the yard in time she will go in just that room. Why, I have no idea. When I first moved into my house we had to rip the carpet up because the previous owners kept a dog in that room that used it as a bathroom as well and never cleaned it up. She is an alpha female and no matter how many times I sand, polish, and wax that floor she will still go in that one room. And if yours does what mine does walks and poos at the same time. So, it's never just one nice pile but many piles that trail off to clean, bleach, and mop. Other then that she stays by my side or my husband's side and the moment she gets up and moves around it's outside we go. She doesn't bark or run in circles to let me know she has to go like my husband's husky who he had before we met. Which is why I got one myself. "Once you have one husky, you have to have more." She would get up and walk to the door then come back and put her paw on my leg. After that if I didn't get up she would walk away and go to that room. Bad thing is it just so happens to be my son's room. I have no idea how to get her to stop. I've used every thing to deter dogs from potting still wont work.

I don't see a problem with what you're doing. Callie's 5 months old and she's been sleeping with me for a month or so now. And she's not housebroken yet. During the day, she will squat where ever she feels like it though lately, she has at least been going to the door first. But she holds it through the night. Our dining room has been converted to my bedroom since I'm about to move out so that means a good wide doorway. (I had curtains, dogs rip them down -_-) So basically at night the chi goes in his crate, which is facing Callie's crate. Her crate stays open for the night since if I leave the door open and hook it to Pooka's crate, it "blocks" off that big open space. She has long since figured out how to hop it but for some reason she doesn't do this at night. Also, she hasn't had any accidents throughout the night except for one instance where she had an upset tummy.

So I think it's possible for you to continue what you're doing. Callie is only crated while I'm at work. Otherwise, she's got free reign. It's not a bad idea to let him stay out during the night, but that could all be personal preference as well. My goal is to one day have Callie where she doesn't need her crate at all, so allowing her to stay out at night is working her up to that.

Even though he's going in his kennel quietly when my wife and I go to bed, it's always around 2 am when he starts barking up a storm. I've tried to ignore it to a certain extent, but when I do take him out, he always goes to the bathroom, so it's like he's telling me, "I don't want to be in here, but I really do need to go outside."
One thing that I've noticed, is that when Royce is awake during the middle of the night, he will run and grab his toys and bring them to me, hoping that I'll throw them, so he has something to chase, but when he realizes I won't do it, that's when he lays down and goes back to sleep. My wife usually wakes up between 6:30-7ish to go to work and I will wake up for a few minutes to, just to make sure Royce doesn't dart out the door behind her, or do anything crazy, then I'll usually go back to sleep a few minutes after she's left and once Royce is calm. The funny thing is, whenever I'm home alone with Royce and the other dog, Royce doesn't have an accident. He has once or twice, but that was my fault, because I didn't take him out after he had eaten. But, if she has a day off, she will wake up hours before I do and relax on the couch. During that time, Royce won't even give her a hint that he has to go to the bathroom. He will just go wherever and whenever he pleases. If I were up with her, he would go to the door and paw at it, letting me know he has to go outside.
I know that Husky's are known to love everyone, but they only listen to and respect one person. I think he is at that point, because if I call his name, he will look right at me, but if my wife calls his name, she has to call it a few times, before he even glances over. This really concerns me, because if I were to go out with friends or have to be gone for a long period of time, that he will be hell on earth for my wife. The month of October is going to be insanely stressful on her, so I don't want to give her the, "you need to more attention to the dog," speech, because that's just too much on her plate, right now.