Puppy broke out of her overnight crate and just… chilled unsupervised

[ecaush]

Some context: We still crate our puppy overnight but aside from enforced naps, she pretty much spends the whole day in the same room as my husband and me, no matter where we are in the house. She still needs supervision as she is only 6 month old, but already 60 lbs and can sometimes get a bit destructive/restless/too intense with our cat if left to her own devices.

So, a few days ago, imagine my surprise when we woke up in the morning to a dog roaming around our bedroom! Fearing the worst, I quickly took her to potty outside.

Upon further investigation, we figured out that:

-I had failed to properly close my puppy’s crate when I put her to bed.

-When she woke up and saw the door was open, she… simply went to the living room with her Benebone and chilled on the sofa. (Considering the time she usually wakes up, probably for about 30-45 minutes.)

-When she couldn’t hold it anymore, she went to our bedroom and gently woke us up (no barking or anything).

-No furniture or piece of clothing was harmed during this little adventure.

I am so proud of her! Sometimes, puppies can surprise us in the very best way!

EDIT: Puppy tax as requested in the comments!

https://imgur.com/a/DHLAJjo

EDIT2: Forgot to mention that my dog is a Labernese (Labrador x Bernese Mountain Dog). Also, the cat sleeps in our bedroom so he was fine too! (Probably as surprised as us when the dog walked in xD)

 

[johnnyb46]

@ecaush Congrats!!! Sounds like you have a wonderful pup.

 

[ecaush]

@johnnyb46 Thanks! Raising a puppy can be hard sometimes but moments like that give me so much hope!

 

[gospel_van]

@ecaush Please consider this a request for you to pay the puppy tax.

 

[ecaush]

@gospel_van Haha I added it to the post!

 

[gospel_van]

@ecaush What a cutie! Thank you!

 

[ecaush]

@gospel_van I think so, too I love her wavy ears so much!

 

[pman40]

@ecaush Sweet baby! The first time our pup got to sleep outside his crate, he was so excited and surprised that he couldn’t settle all night! He kept changing sleep spots in the bedroom and sighing like he thought we just forgot about him. He kind of seemed to miss his crate

 

[pristinegraceca]

@pman40 My 4 year old is completely trustworthy in the house on her own but she still prefers to sleep in her crate. We sometimes leave the crate door open when we put her to bed and she typically sleeps until around 5am, then she jumps into the bed for a snuggle till the alarm goes off (and then some, she’d sleep till noon if she was allowed to). Some dogs really like their own safe spot.

 

[vanillasunflowers]

@pristinegraceca My dog is not traditionally crate trained but he loves his crate. he will go in his crate when we're home and has a reset point when he is acting up. Plus, He frequently takes naps in his downstairs crate. He can't stand the crate if we're gone, but Is totally calm roaming the downstairs.

The best part is he still loves sleeping in his puppy crate, which he is too big for! His head always is out of it! We keep that in our room and he sleeps there more than on our bed.

 

[neld1]

@vanillasunflowers Mine is the same. I had his crate attached to a playpen. Now the playpen is gone but I left the covered den (crate) which he uses as one of his sleeping spots.

 

[brokenjoker]

@vanillasunflowers I adopted a full grown cat and a puppy dog at the same. I had a huge crate left from our Rottweiler the previous year. I bought a cat bed which I put in the crate with a dog mat. The puppy was smaller than the 8 pound cat. She was lab/Aussie. The dog ended up sleeping on the cat bed while the cat slept on the pad. Even when the dog weighed 40+ pounds, she thought that tiny bed was hers. Even after I bought a full size bed for her.

 

[von20207777]

@ecaush my puppy broke out of his enrichment enclosure to find the trash and devour everything in it we now have an 11am vet visit scheduled

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@von20207777 Was he okay??

 

[ecaush]

@von20207777 Oh no Hope your pup is fine!

(That is the kind of shenanigans I fear, even though I try to puppy proof everything!)

 

[brokenjoker]

@ecaush Mine has managed to get into the plastic grocery bags several times. He enjoys tearing them up. Tonight he got the box of seran wrap . I am so afraid he will one day swallow a piece of plastic.

 

[tlc1]

@ecaush Sweet bean! They surprise you in the best way sometimes!

 

[ecaush]

@tlc1 They really do!

 

[ihavefavorofgod]

@ecaush Very nice, keep up the good work.

 

[jwyattharp]

@ecaush My puppy is 4 months now and she has been sleeping free since about a month ago. Never had any problems whatsoever, but I do put away most of her toys (specially the noisy ones) so she doesn’t bring them to bed and wake me and the puppy pads are available to her and my other dogs at all times.

Honestly the only times she goes crazy is when I leave during the day, but never at night, and now when I leave during the day I make sure she’s just had a lot of play time so she can fall asleep and not bother my other dogs by being rambunctious(?) while I’m out

I used enforced naps in the crate a lot during the beginning to help set up a routine and so I would also get more acquainted to the new life hahaha. But then I just left her to figure herself out and she mostly follows up the enforced naps times now. But each puppy is different, of course, sometimes Aurora is too hyped up and can’t settle down, so I set up a few minutes of more active games and then take her to drink some water or play with one toy and then, if she doesn’t fall asleep, I put her for a nap on her crate, but those moments are becoming much less frequent now