I've got a 6 month old boxer puppy who is fully house trained and at the moment sleeps in a crate during the night and will usually sleep through from around 10pm until 7am. As he's growing so quickly and his crate will soon be too small for him we are wondering how to take the next step of getting him a bed and leaving it in the kitchen or hallway for him to go in as he pleases at night. We fully appreciate that to begin with as he'll have some freedom he may cry to go to go outside to the toilet as he does during the day and are prepared for this!!

I just wondered if anyone had any advice or tips on the best way of doing this.

Thanks
Helen

I would suggest 2 things,

If he doesn't have a bed in his crate get one so that he gets used to it in the crate first.

Start by moving the crate where you want him to sleepfor a couple of nights, and then just leave the door open and see what happens for a few nights so it's a gradual thing.

Thanks for those suggestions I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing that!!!

Our pup is 7mths, and about 5mths i wanted her off the crate, so we put her in the crate at bedtime but left the crate door open for 3 nights then we left the crate door open but didnt put her in it but laid her on the bed with our other dog and she never slept in the crate again.