Honey is getting to where she rarely has accidents in the house, and she's been getting up every morning with a dry training pad. When did you stop crating your dog? She is 3 months old now.. I got her a bed and was thinking I could just let her sleep in that at night and leave the crate open if she did need to potty. Any suggestions? I hate keeping her in that thing all night. :rolleyes

I know that with our family dog that lives back home with my mom, was crated everynight becuase he got used to it, it was his home.

If she's doing well in the crate now, honestly I would just let her have her crate at night. It probably isn't bothering her and she'll probably be more comfortable in it and you won't be worrying all night if she's staying out of things and what not.

My parents have a dog at home and she is crated every night. She sleeps better in there and doesn't wake my parents up all night by being in bed with them.

Kenneling is helpful for more than preventing "accidents" in the house, it also provides a safety net for your pet. By kenneling you are keeping her safe while you are asleep and, thus, unable to provide supervision. You can sleep much more peacefully knowing that the pupster isn't going to electrocute herself by getting bored and chewing a cord (even dogs who have NEVER chewed before have been known to up and start, especially if they are awake at night when everyone else is sleeping - they get bored), get into something they shouldn't that could make them sick or destroy something in the house. Done properly, crate training actaully sets it up to where the dog WANTS to be kenneled at night.
We are actually unable to kennel our dog as she has SERIOUS kenneling issues from her previous "home". We still, however, confine her at night. She is allowed free roam of our master bedroom which I have "dogproofed" - we use a baby gate to block the door. This way we have the best of both worlds - she is comfortable and I am able to sleep knowing she is safe.

Yeah, 3 months is really young to leave out of the crate still. Some dogs are ready at 4 months, some are ready at 3 years...each dog is different.

we don't crate, our puppy sleeps with us and wakes us up if he needs to go. we also pick up food and water about an hour and a half before we go to bed to help curb any in bed accidents

We never stopped caging our dogs...we say it's time to go to bed and off to their cages. Based on the snoring coming from the "dog room" I doubt they are suffering too much. LOL We have had to stop caging our 14 year old mutt because she suffers from disorentation and wakes up in the middle of the night all freaked out so now she sleeps in our room in the corner on a blanket surrounded by a "doggy play pen" thing.

my boxer has also always been crated at night. He is 1 1/2 now. He actually puts himself to bed at night. The door is left open all day and all evening until we go to bed and then we close it up until morning. He loves his crate. It's his special spot that he can go to and not have anyone bother him. In fact he has gone back in there this morning for a nap.

Thanks ladies! You've all brought up some good instances that I didn't really think of. I guess if she's comfortable with it, then there's no real reason to change how we're doing things right now. Thanks again :)

My dogs love their kennel. They are so good at going to it too when we are going to be. They dont even have to be told. They just know :)
Sometimes I will be walking by the dinningroom where their kennel is and Fefe my pit will be just hanging out in there. LOL I guess she likes it.

i got my puppy at 3 months old and i kept her in her cage at night for 4-5 months.. now she is almost a year and she sleeps in our bed with us. She had a hard time potty training. You should try it and if she has an accident, go back to the cage for a little while. She only stays in the cage when we arn't home

Yeah I might try it in a bit... all the responses have me thinking it may not be the right time yet, but I'll definitely see if we can do it soon. She was awesome potty training... she knew exactly where to go from the first day, it took about a week to get her to alert us when she needed out. So hopefully we can make it through without many accidents. :)