A puppy is ready to sleep out of its crate once it turns seven to eight months old. Nevertheless, it can take 12 to 24 months for your puppy to transition out of its crate.
Crates provide your puppy with a safe home where it can stay out of harm's way, especially at night.
Apart from that, puppies will need to become detached eventually from their crate. Your four-legged pup will be ready to sleep out of its crate once it maturely develops and becomes potty trained.
Factors that Affect Your Puppy’s Readiness to Sleep Out of Crate
Besides its age, other factors may affect whether your puppy is ready to sleep out of the crate or not. Here are some below.
Training Process
Transitioning away from the crate requires training. If your puppy is already apt at training, this should be an easier process.
Puppy training mainly relies on habit. Once your pet masters its habits, it can eventually develop the habit of sleeping out of the crate.
Puppy Breed
A puppy’s breed can affect how well it transitions away from its crate when sleeping. Smaller breeds are more likely faster at training to sleep out of their crate.
This is because small dogs mature faster. They become adults after 10 to 12 months, while larger breeds are still considered puppies at that age.
Signs Your Puppy Is Ready to Sleep Out of Crate
If you’re still stumped on whether your puppy is ready to sleep out of the crate or not, signs can be a lifesaver. To notice these signs, you’ll need to be highly observant of the puppy’s behavior.
Check them out below.
Sleeping Soundly at Night
Your puppy’s sleeping pattern can tell a lot about its readiness. If it's completely asleep all night and not making any noise, then it’s likely ready to move out of the crate at night.
Bathroom breaks also count, in other words, if the puppy can hold its bladder throughout the entire night, it’s ready. Meanwhile, if your puppy is struggling to sleep soundly, then it may not be ready yet.
That includes if the puppy tries to break out for either attention, bathroom breaks, or it’s just plain bored.
Puppy Is Comfortable Inside the Crate
How is your puppy doing inside its crate? A crucial sign that your puppy is ready to sleep out of its crate is that it’s properly crate trained.
If the pup is yelping, barking, and crying to be let out of the crate at night, then, chances are, it’s not crate trained.
Once your puppy isn’t trying to prison break its way out of the crate, then it may be time to give some liberty at night. That’s why you need to ensure that your crate training is going smoothly.
You can’t break and let your dog out once it shows signs of discomfort. In this case, consistency is key.
Puppy Is Potty-Trained
One of the most crucial determinants of your puppy’s readiness is whether it’s potty-trained or not. If the puppy isn’t properly potty-trained, then you may wake up to a smelly surprise on your carpet.
In addition to this, it might also develop the habit of peeing in your house at night. Luckily, potty training is usually easier to complete once your puppy is crate trained.
It usually takes about four to six months to potty-train a pup. Nonetheless, each puppy is different and can even end up taking a year to be fully trained.
Puppy Is Not Teething Anymore
Imagine waking up to see your shoes all chewed up. This can happen if your puppy is out of its crate before its teething phase stops.
This stage begins when the puppy is about three to ten weeks old and stops usually after six months. If it gets its teeth on your belongings at night, it may become painful for its gums.
One of the ways you can prevent this is by exercising the puppy before its bedtime so it becomes plenty tired. That way, your shoes are saved and the pup’s gums will be relieved.
How to Prepare for When Your Puppy Sleeps Out of Crate
Before you decide to let your pet sleep out of its crate at night, you’ll need to make sure its surroundings are puppy-proof.
Examine the area and make sure there are no live plants around.
Electric objects such as your chargers and remote should be kept out of reach. You may also need to cover electric outlets just in case.
Additionally, try to keep your belongings safe, like shoes, keys, and sunglasses.
How to Transition Your Puppy to Sleep Out of Crate
Training your puppy to sleep out of its crate doesn’t happen overnight. The process needs to be gradually done, so the pup can feel safe out of the crate.
Here are a couple of things you could do.
Purchase a Comfortable Bed
The first thing you’ll need to consider is finding a comfortable bed for your pup. You can’t expect it to move straight away to the bed, so you’ll need to gradually introduce it to the puppy.
You can start introducing the bed during the daytime when it’ll be placed in the living room. That way, it’ll be the puppy’s napping station, so it can get used to it when it moves to the bedroom later.
For the best results, we recommend moving the bed to where the crate originally sat, or preferably next to your bed.
Modify Its Schedule
To give your puppy the best crate-free experience, you may need to adjust its schedule. That includes its feeding, potty, and playtime routine.
When it comes to its feeding schedule, you may want to bump up its supper a bit earlier. Accordingly, this will give the puppy extra time between feeding and bedtime where it can have its potty break.
You can play with your puppy for about two hours before it sleeps. Hopefully, by then, its energy will be drained and you can both sleep in peace.
Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.