Using two crates for one puppy?

[gritsar]

We are getting prepared for our new GSD pup, that we'll be bringing home end of January/first of February.
When we started crate training with Jax, we had his big crate (with the dividers in it to make it smaller) in the living room, so he was with his people at all times - except for nighttime, when he was locked in his crate in the living room. When he reached the point that he was housebroken and didn't need his crate door closed all the time, we moved the crate to our bedroom; so he can sleep close to his people at night. He comes and goes out of it whenever he wants during the day.
Now we're about to purchase an identical large crate for the new puppy. We already have a small, baby puppy-sized crate. Our plan is to start out with the small crate in the bedroom, next to Jax's crate so that the pup can sleep close to us at night and have his large crate in the living room for daytime use. This way we're not moving a large crate back and forth and the pup is not isolated in the living room at night when everyone else is in the bedroom.
My question is whether having two crates will confuse him and make housebreaking harder?

 

[Tala]

I don't think it will hurt. Once he recognizes the crate as "home" then anywhere the crate is will also be "home" If you have a big crate for daytime and a small one for sleeping, he may consider the big one more of a kennel but I still don't think it will mess anything up.

When my puppy was in her mid-sized crate, I guess she was about 2 months old, DH and I had a big fight and I took her with me (crate and all) when I stayed different places. She always slept in her crate, and stayed in it when I had to leave her alone in strange places, and we never had accidents even with all that weirdness.

edited to say: we also have multiple crates, a slightly smaller one for travel because I ain't disassembling and lugging that XL one in and out .... anyway, Dusti acts the same no matter which crate she's in - generally quiet, lays down or sleeps.

 

[Wildsky]

I have two big crates for my girlie, because we sleep upstairs and I wasnt' about to carry a crate up and down. We very seldom now close her in it, but its her safe place away from the kids (unless they're in the crate

)

 

[lemurchaser]

Shouldn't be a problem at all. You can call them different things if you want to be able to tell him which crate to go to. So "kennel" might be in the living room, and "bed" in the bedroom.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
GREAT idea! Since with dogs each word has only one exact meaning. We call Dusti's crate her bed too, so we kinda have to be careful when talking about going to bed if we don't intend to give the command.

Dusti goes to bed, me and DH go to sleep, also her big dog pillow dog bed is called a "pillow" not to confuse it with her crate.

 

[CaGoatLady]

I think it should work out fine; I did it with two Old English Sheepdog puppies and a baby goat at the same time...the goat knew which crate was his.

 

[Wildsky]

We use the word BOX for both, the word is easy to hear and understand and can't be easily confused, can be heard clearly, and said in a hurry if needed.
Ginja doesn't get confused, if we say "box" downstairs she goes into that one, if we're upstairs she'll go into that one - just the closest "box" I think and she knows what we're talking about.


(I did actually steal her "box" upstairs and its now in the garage in case of a chicken emergency - I had a chicken on our patio in Ginja's Box for a few days last week)

 

[Brindlebtch]

We always have 2 crates for any puppy we get! One for the bedroom and one for the livingroom. When we travel to a show we have 3 crates per dog! One for the hotel room, one for the show site, and one for the car. Very convenient.

 

[gritsar]

Thanks y'all.