When did you stop using a crate?

[hometownunicorn]

Self explanatory really. Doggy is 1, and has been sleeping fine in his crate, but it takes up loads of space so we've been thinking of getting a bed for him. He sleeps happily on a cushion (when not chewing it to pieces!) or vet bed in the living room so I think he'll be fine with the change. We did get him a basket as a trial but he didn't seem bothered about lying in it. He preferred chewing it or or burying things under the cushion so any advice on what to get him to sleep after the crate goes might be helpful too.

We had a bed in the living room as well as a crate in the kitchen. We took the crate down at Christmas when we just ran out of room. We left a bed under a table so he still had that space to go to. He's been absolutely fine. I have a sneaking suspicion that he spends more time on the sofas.

We sometimes shut him in it if he'd been caught chewing something but to be honest that was a total waste of time if he'd already done the damage so we haven't really missed it at all.

Thanks. He's not supposed to be in the living room without supervision (too many tempting things to chew) but I think he'd happily sleep all night on the sofa if we let him. Might just take down the crate and see how we go without it. He never gets shut in anyway as we couldn't cope with the crying when we tried it.

Well you can always put it back. I've kept hold of ours. Mainly in the hope that we might get another dog!

Ha! I'm tempted to hang on to it in case of another dog too, but I'm pregnant at the moment and one manic dog and a baby seems like enough for now.