Does anyone crate 2 together?

[Jackwabbit 0]

Zoey has a very large crate, it's a 36" length. Ideally, if I get a new puppy I would like to have them bunk together..... any thoughts?

[ShihtzuBeauty 47]

I don't crate but I would be worried that w/the baby being soo small any "accidents" could happen I think he/she would be safer in a seperate space.

[emmasmom 14]

I have never had 2 pups at the same time, but I would agree with Melissa. Also, any pee/poop accidents, how would you know which one had the problems?

And what do you mean IF you get a new puppy????? :)

[Kae+Gizzy 5]

Our two have always been crated together, not really by choice as Bella would often follow Gizmo into the crate when we first got her, now she is fully grown I think it's time to buy a larger one as Bella gets to sprawl out while Gizmo makes room for her. Such a Gent :23_11_5:

[loewenthal.anna 4]

Lolly and Cash share a crate, BUT (and it's a huge but) from a training standpoint I would never suggest allowing that. Personality differences aside, the young puppy will have a MUCH harder time learning not to potty, be quiet, and build confidence alone if he/she is allowed to stay with a roomie.

Many here have heard me lament that I didn't force Cash to be out and about on his own, and I count it as one of my largest as most devastating training mistakes to date. He hung out with Lolly in the house, when we walked, Lolly came too, and he never built up any confidence being alone, inside OR outside our home.

He's now my only dog with separation anxiety, my only needy barker, and my only dog who was never fully able to grasp obedience training because he get SO upset not being around Lolly that he can't focus. EPIC fail on my part.

Lucky for me they adore each other and it is generally easy to keep them together and happy, but it seriously limits where I can bring him because he won't interact with other people or dogs unless Lolly is there, and if he stays home he barks the whole time. Not cool.

So, please feel free to use me (who absolutely should have known better, shame on me!) as a cautionary tale about why it is SO very important to allow a new addition to be their own dog, in their own space, right from the start. Had I heeded my own advice there is no doubt I'd be the owner of two therapy certified Tzu instead of just one. All of my "but he's so tiny! He needs company" boo-hooing has turned out to be a bullet in my own foot and I'll be darned if I knowingly let someone else make the same mistake!

[spygirl 0]

Lolly and Cash share a crate, BUT (and it's a huge but) from a training standpoint I would never suggest allowing that. Personality differences aside, the young puppy will have a MUCH harder time learning not to potty, be quiet, and build confidence alone if he/she is allowed to stay with a roomie.

Many here have heard me lament that I didn't force Cash to be out and about on his own, and I count it as one of my largest as most devastating training mistakes to date. He hung out with Lolly in the house, when we walked, Lolly came too, and he never built up any confidence being alone, inside OR outside our home.

He's now my only dog with separation anxiety, my only needy barker, and my only dog who was never fully able to grasp obedience training because he get SO upset not being around Lolly that he can't focus. EPIC fail on my part.

Lucky for me they adore each other and it is generally easy to keep them together and happy, but it seriously limits where I can bring him because he won't interact with other people or dogs unless Lolly is there, and if he stays home he barks the whole time. Not cool.

So, please feel free to use me (who absolutely should have known better, shame on me!) as a cautionary tale about why it is SO very important to allow a new addition to be their own dog, in their own space, right from the start. Had I heeded my own advice there is no doubt I'd be the owner of two therapy certified Tzu instead of just one. All of my "but he's so tiny! He needs company" boo-hooing has turned out to be a bullet in my own foot and I'll be darned if I knowingly let someone else make the same mistake!

I whole-heartedly agree with this. I also have a client who has a horror story about crating together. She was doing private lessons with me with both of her dogs, roughly the same age. Both played very well together, had no food aggression towards each other, didn't fight for attention, etc. They just needed some basic training. She crated them together. One day she put them up, gave them a couple of toys, and left for a couple of hours. She came back to a bloody nightmare. The female had bit the male on the face pretty badly. Need stitches and everything. Turned out, they fought over a toy and in being in such a confined space, the male couldn't back away. The male healed fine and they never had another issue because they started to crate separately that night.

We have to remember what our dogs use to let each other know their feelings. They use teeth, noises, and if they feel the need for it, a bite. Always keep that in mind.

[chloechanel'smommy 2]

Chloe is not crate trained. I don't even own a crate anymore. But I think that if I get another puppy it will be crated.

[Whisper 2]

I have been meaning to make this very thread for days, but hadn't gotten around to it. When we upgraded Tucker from play pen to kennel, he was very much potty trained, so we wanted to let him have room to sprawl out, have his little drink station, cooling mat, blanket, a chew.. So it's a massive kennel. Then we got Finn. I thought that it would be nice to EVENTUALLY have them kenneled together. My aunt has her two boys in a kennel together when she leaves the house for any length of time, and they've never had the first problem in three years.

That being said, Finn is a baby, and isn't potty trained, so he's in a play pen now too. We bought him a kennel, half the size of Tuckers, but he pee'd in it the other day, very odd, since he hasn't peed in his play pen in, shoot.. four weeks now, so we thought he was ready, (even though he still has no problem peeingon my FLOOR. *sigh* lol). We definitely weren't planning on kenneling them together until Finn was a: potty trained and b: a little older, and hopefully.. a little more independant. Do those of you who are against dual-kenneling think that after two dogs have established who they are.. that dual-kenneling can work? Or is there never really a good reason for it?

Our house is comfortable, but it isn't huge by any means.. and with Tucker's giant kennel, and Finn's smaller kennel, and Finn's living room play pen, and Finn's bedroom nighttime play pen, and the little doggie house window look out thing they have.. and two huge pet beds...... it's starting to look like this is Tucker and Finn's house, and hubby and I are just guests, lol.. So I was hoping to downsize once Finn was grown-ish. Any thoughts? Opinions? Advice?

Bryan, I hope you don't mind me co-sharing your thread.. you totally beat me to the punch, haha.

[Kae+Gizzy 5]

Amy have you thought about getting a play pen? I love ours, it's huge but the crate fits inside it so one in the crate and maybe the puppy in the pen or vice versa. They still share the same sort of space but are not both in the crate.

Anna Cash sounds like my Gizmo. He is the one with separation anxiety. Again our fault as he was always with us, never left alone. He can almost handle not being around Bella but he HAS to be around us. He too will bark like mad if left alone, he will also self harm, biting his back till it bleeds. It's hugely upsetting for everyone. If I new then what I know now, we would have given him his own space. Luckily he hasn't done it since last June, when my son was admitted to hospital. We were gone for several hours and he couldn't handle it. We have been leaving them both for longer and longer periods, building them up over several months and all has been well so far.

[bluesy 2]

I wouldn't crate them together either. I've heard so many stories like Anna's. I wouldn't feel safe, because so many things can accidently happen.

[loewenthal.anna 4]

As far as the qquestion of "eventually" I think you will find that when crate training is done correctly, each dog looks FORWARD to their alone time and own space. Even if tbheir personalities are such that they would get along in one space.

Take Poe and Doctore: they LOVE each other, cuddle all day in the yard, but Poe will go ballistic if our boy gets even CLOSE to her crate. It's her space and she wants it to herself. Both dogs eat, sleep, and get chew toys only in their crate and will often choose to be in there when allowed to roam the house, which is how crating should work. If you are using it solely when you leave or the dog is" bad" then they may learn to resist going in there. When I tell the big guys to crate it could be for anything so they are eager to see what they may get.

Lolly and cash by contrast do not spent a lot of time in their crates because@ 2 and 5 are housebroken and not destructive. For those of you wanting to minimize crates my suggestion would be to work toward not needing one at all I stead of sticking them both in one. Many people do this with older dogs and then they are allowed to hang out without being forced to, should they want to be alone.

You could even shut some rooms off to limit their space, we don't allow the little guys in any of the bedrooms but they have free run of the kitchen, living, and dining room which works great for us.

[Jackwabbit 0]

I really appreciate everyone's input, and so glad that Amy joined in on the discussion. This is part of the reason why I LOVE this forum.... it's such an invaluable resource of information and first-hand experiences. There have been things brought up that I wouldn't even have thought to consider beforehand.

Looks like the pups will be getting their own separate little spaces.... wish I hadn't gotten Zo such a huge crate to begin with, but 2 smaller ones will work out better in the long run. Zoey quite likes her crate and will go put herself to bed at night on her own. It would be ideal to allow them full run of the house as well-behaved adults, but it's a stretch at this point to imagine either one ever reaching that stage.... Zoey found a feather-duster yesterday and was kind enough to pluck it for us right down to the stick! She's such a little gremlin.

[Whisper 2]

Wendy, We have two play pens for Finn, (the baby), they're only three X three though, so not really big enough for a crate and space to move. We just use one for putting Finn to bed in, and the other for when we leave the house for a couple hours.

Bryan, thanks for not minding me crashing the thread to get some extra info. It looks like we're in the same boat, and I shouldn't have bought Tucker such a ginormous crate either, haha.. Ugh.

Tucker is trained to "kennel" on command, and hopefully when Finn grows out of his dummy phase, haha.. he will be too. I don't know that I'll ever allow them the run of the house though. Tucker has been 110% potty trained since he was three months old, so it wouldn't be that. I just like knowing they're safe in their space and I don't have to worry about what he might be getting into while I'm gone.

The boys aren't protective of their spaces.. Tucker has had his kennel for more than a year now, and doesn't seem to mind Finn being in there at all. They will nap in there together, or dual drink from the bottle, etc.. and even though we bought the new smaller kennel for Finnley, Tucker likes napping in there too. Finn is usually in Tucker's kennel though, since he's tethered to my ankle, and that one is right by my desk, lol..

For trial runs.. (the last couple weeks, before reading this thread, of course), I've been giving the boys the kennel command, and a treat, and kenneling them together, if the carpet cleaners were here, or the plumber when we had a pipe burst, or we needed to vaccume, etc.. but only when I was able to sit nearby, and make sure they were doing okay. Without toys or bones to fight over, I can't see them getting into a squabble over something, but I guess...it's possible.

I had counted on kenneling them togher, but now... maybe not. I have no idea where we will keep Finn's kennel full time. Like I said above, with two playpens, two kennels, two huge pet beds, and a doggie window look out, it's getting to be a little cramped, *sigh* lol..