Hello! My GSD, Gus, is 16 months old. He is crate trained (since we got him at 3 months old), and is in his crate for much of the day and at night as well. For the past couple months my husband and I have been building trust with him to be outside of the crate while we're not there.... at first we would just go upstairs for 5 minutes (we have a door that closes off the upstairs from the downstairs).... then we graduated to going outside while Gus stayed in the house, or taking very short trips, like to the gas station. We also increased the time we do this, up to 30 minutes at a time. He's been PERFECT... no separation anxiety, nothing in the house is destroyed, he just lays down in his bed, chews his toys, and "keeps watch" until we return.

We would eventually like for him to not have to be in the crate all day and all night. I know that won't happen until he's AT LEAST 2 years old. But lately I've been feeling bad about all his time in the crate, and decided to try having him sleep upstairs with me (on HIS bed, not on MY bed :-) But after I sent him to his bed, he kept pacing around the room, and wouldn't settle down. I just ignored him, but then he started whimpering. So after about an hour I took him back downstairs, and he practically made a bee line for his crate!

I know dogs are creatures of habbit, and that Gus feels very comfortable in his crate, but I still feel bad that he spends so much time in there. I think we've got a good handle on transitioning him into being outside of his crate during the day, but it seems the sleeping routine is trickier.... does anyone have any suggestions for a good way to transition a dog from sleeping in his crate to sleeping outside of the crate?

P.S. Adding to my guilt is that he only has one of those hard rubber horse mats in his crate.... He can't have anything soft and cozy in there because he loves to chew it up and eat the fabric and stuffing, and we don't want to risk intestinal blockages!

Liz, it's not just the crate that he's used to sleeping in, it's the location (downstairs) as well. I would keep trying every night or two, and he'll be able to extend the time he can sleep out of the crate, little by little. It might take a while since there's those 2 factors (downstairs and the crate).

When you bring him upstairs to sleep and have him lay down, give him a couple of treats and some praise, so he knows that YOU are happy he's there with you. When he starts pacing, call him back to you, have him lay down again and treat and praise.