Let Freedom Ring

Monday night, we went to the Bears game. This meant that Moe was in his crate from 6 to about 1 in the morning. So naturally, when we finally got home and let him out, I was hesitant to crate him again for the remainder of the evening (as is our usually pattern, we let Moe out for the last time and he either pees or goes outside to humor us but doesn't actually pee and then he heads right to his crate to bed down for the night). The past few weeks, we've actually been leaving the door to his crate unlatched but mostly closed. And he has remained inside. But Monday night, I left the door to his crate wide open, put anything chewable up high, and headed to bed. Moe has four different tags around his neck, so stealth is not his strong point. I figured I'd hear if he were up to no good.

He chose to sleep on his blanket in front of the fireplace instead of in his crate. And he did not chew anything (the dog is a chewer--he destroyed both a Scooby-Doo figure and a sleeping bag over the weekend; of course my first question is always why people are leaving stuff laying around for the dog to chew).

Last night, instead of heading to his crate after going out for his last pee, Moe made a beeline for his blanket by the fireplace. The dog has spoken. Let freedom ring.

I've considered working on leaving him out of his crate when we leave the house, but I'm just not sure it's worth it. Three out of the four times we've tried that, Moe has gotten into some sort of trouble. And he seems very confused when we leave without first crating him. Plus, he mostly sleeps all day, and I like that it is currently so easy to get him into his crate (I wonder whether that would continue to be the case if we stopped using it altogether). So for now, freedom will only ring at night...