Puppy Coming on Sunday! Do we need two crates?

by Molly Shelby
(San Jose, CA)

Hi!
We're getting our 7-week Golden Retriever on Sunday, and we are wondering if we need two crates- one for when he's downstairs during the day, and one for when he's upstairs with us sleeping???

Or should we just have the big crate downstairs, and his puppy bed upstairs with us? Or with us in bed? Just afraid that he might pee through the night.
Help!
Thank you so much!


Hi Molly
I would definitely recommend crating your puppy at night, if you don't it will interfere with the crate training/house breaking.

If your budget allows, I would suggest getting a crate for upstairs and one for downstairs, as it will mean you don't have to drag it up and down twice a day!

It's very important to the success of crate training that the crate not be too big. Just big enough for the puppy to stand up, sit down, turn around and lie down without touching the sides. Obviously this means that you need to buy bigger crates as he grows. You can buy wire crates that have dividers in them, so that you can partition off a smaller area while your pup is tiny, and take out/move the partition as he grows. This would be a good solution for your downstairs crate I think. In a bedroom you may just want to start off with a small one and get another as he grows.

I think you will find my New Puppy Care page helpful. It has tons of advice and tips for new puppy owners, and links to many, many useful articles.

Best of luck with your pup.