When to put the crate away

[Anonymous]

My lab is 6 years old. I’ve had her since 8 weeks, crate trained and kept her crates anytime I was gone until age 2. A sitter left her out full time for 3 days and nothing happened, so I decided to give it a shot. She’s had full run of the house ever since with no chewing or potty accidents.

We have lived in apartments most of her 6 years, but have moved into our long-term home. I always kept the crate out in the apartments because I would crate her for maintenance to come in and because she didn’t have many hiding places to hang out. I would just leave it with the door open and she would go in to nap or hang out and people watch when friends came over.

With the house, she has more or less claimed the guest room as hers. The bed is easy for her to get under and is right by a window. She alternates hiding underneath and waiting to terrorize the delivery people all day. Has not touched the crate since everything got moved in and settled in the house. The best place for the crate was the dining room and, if she’s not going to use it, I’d like to put it away. We have a bonus room that I usually keep the door closed to, but I could put it up there so it’s still around. We use it as a second living room, so it’s usually open in the evenings.

Has anyone abandoned their crate all together? Do I need to keep it accessible 24/7? I need her to stay comfortable with the crate for when we travel or when there’s contractors, so that’s a consideration as well.

[Anonymous]

We were at a similar crossroads and decided to keep it for the reasons you mention at the end. We use it whenever we leave the house, not because our dog needs it anymore, but he goes there out of habit when we get ready to leave and seems happy in it. Our compromise was to spend $$$ on a sleeker crate that we would be okay with keeping out forever.

[Anonymous]

Try a few nights without the crate before deciding. We kept ours for nighttime because it calms our dog down being confined. Otherwise he was up barking at any bump in the night, and no one was getting sleep.