Un-crate training...advice needed!

[Cinder & Smoke]

we crate-trained him when he was a puppy
because he was soooo nawteee everytime we left him by himself ...

Last summer, we tried to un-crate train him ...
we came home and found that he had gotten into the closet ...

So we decided he wasn't ready for it, and re-crated him when we went out.
(By the way that is the ONLY time he is in his crate is when we leave ...
he likes it in there and willingly goes in there and we don't have any issues).

And a time or two in the past he has had a touch of separation anxiety.

Do you think I should leave well enough alone and leave him crated?

Good Heaven's, YES!!
You've got a Good Thing going - LEAVE Well enough alone!!

I think Malone is *trying* to tell you that he LIKES IT being in his crate/house
when you leave him alone - he feels *safe* and comfortable waiting for you
to return when he's in there ... when you "lock him out of his house" -
he gets worried and bored - and you know what happens.

Use the available weeks to find a New Spot to put his crate in - away from
the construction zone - so that he can become comfortable in his "house with
the New View" and accept that as his new comfort zone & crate spot when
you need to leave him alone.

Malone ~

Ask 'em to straighten the pictures on the wall after the Big Move.

[Twisterdog]

IMO ....

WHY would you want to un-crate train a dog? Isn't that rather like un-house training, or un-leash training a dog?

You said he likes his crate, goes in it willing. Why fix what ain't broke???