Crate Bedding for Puppies

Ambiflyte

My family and I have yet to adopt a puppy, though we do plan to do so in a few weeks or so. (It will be our first.) I'm 14, by the way, but I'll be taking primary care of it and accept responsibility for it as my parents usually work all day five days a week. I've been doing research for the last few months, and I have one small question. We do plan on using a crate, but I'm not really sure what we should use as bedding. I've heard that newspaper would just discourage housetraining, and I don't want to use puppy pads either for the same reason. I've also heard that you shouldn't use any bedding at all until its completely housebroken, but I'm quite sure that a puppy will be having a few accidents so wouldn't it be hard to clean and everything? I'm also thinking about the comfort of the puppy...Er, sorry if this is a dumb question.

Thank you in advance. ^_^

B-Line

Amb,

Good luck on your puppy adoption.

Here's the thing, if you put bedding in for the puppy, it will be:
a) pee'd on
b) chewed up

So if you want to put something in there, don't spend money or use good house hold items. You can use OLD towels, an OLD torn bed sheet, even old clothing that smells like you.

The idea is, keep the items disposable. You will often find that many dogs prefer the cool of the crate bottom, as opposed to a hot bedding. But they often use the bedding to rest their head on.

But don't be afraid to leave the dog in the crate with no bedding at all. That's just fine. You can put some toys in the crate, but don't be surprised if they are ignored while the pup is in there. The purpose of the toys in the crate is more to remind the pup what is hers, what her area is, etc.

And if you do put bedding in, don't be surprised if your dog pushes it to the side and just lays on the crate bottom.

I think in many ways, crate bedding is more for the owners than the dogs. We think it makes the crate more comfortable but in reality, they are equally happy without it.

B

Mac'N'Roe

I started off with putting a towel or something in my crate..but they just peed on it and it was harder for me to tell when they went. The bedding would absorb the pee and it wouldn't be that bad for them to be in there with it. I ended up taking the bedding out and it worked much better. Good luck!

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