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Post by Basket1lady on Dec 23, 2022 17:12:49 GMT
I’m am completely opposed to crates. I think it’s cruel to lock a dog in a cage. I know some people say they feel “more secure in their safe place” but I disagree. I use baby gates and give my dog a room or two with access to go outside to the backyard when she’s alone. I think the baby gates are a great alternative, especially for a smaller dog. We used a crate when Emma was training and we were fortunate that we had a large tiled eat in kitchen that we could gate off from the rest of the house. She could roam freely and I brought my laptop to the table and could work in that space that was safe for her. But if your dog is big enough to jump over or knock down a gate, it’s not going to work all the time. If you are gone for work, or even to the grocery store, you can’t have a 6 month old dog jumping the gate and wandering the house, getting into things that aren’t safe. We have labs and I’ve heard story after story of surgeries to remove socks, toys, trash, etc from their stomachs. We’ve had dogs who love their crate and will hang out in them during the day and others (<—Emma!) who merely tolerate it when it’s absolutely necessary. For us, our dogs don’t need to be crated during our absence after about 18-20 months. But not all dogs can handle that responsibility. Just like kids, you have to find what works for the individual dog.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 23, 2022 22:17:24 GMT
I’m am completely opposed to crates. I think it’s cruel to lock a dog in a cage. I know some people say they feel “more secure in their safe place” but I disagree. I use baby gates and give my dog a room or two with access to go outside to the backyard when she’s alone. We’ve had several dogs that absolutely LOVED their crates and would go in there voluntarily when they wanted to sleep or get away from some kind of chaos, those were the dogs that we crate trained from puppyhood. Once they were house trained we took the door off so they could go in and out at will. The ones who really didn’t like it was the one that was kenneled outside and the ones that we got from a rescue and we didn’t know what their history with the crate was. Our current lab will not go into a crate willingly under any circumstances (he’s one of the rescues), but he is happy to be confined to the dining room when we leave if I bribe him with a piece of cheese. I say if you can start a dog on it early and don’t use it as a punishment, it can end up being their nice cozy little cave where they actually like to be.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Dec 23, 2022 22:24:33 GMT
I’m am completely opposed to crates. I think it’s cruel to lock a dog in a cage. I know some people say they feel “more secure in their safe place” but I disagree. I use baby gates and give my dog a room or two with access to go outside to the backyard when she’s alone. I think the baby gates are a great alternative, especially for a smaller dog. We used a crate when Emma was training and we were fortunate that we had a large tiled eat in kitchen that we could gate off from the rest of the house. She could roam freely and I brought my laptop to the table and could work in that space that was safe for her. But if your dog is big enough to jump over or knock down a gate, it’s not going to work all the time. If you are gone for work, or even to the grocery store, you can’t have a 6 month old dog jumping the gate and wandering the house, getting into things that aren’t safe. We have labs and I’ve heard story after story of surgeries to remove socks, toys, trash, etc from their stomachs. We’ve had dogs who love their crate and will hang out in them during the day and others (<—Emma!) who merely tolerate it when it’s absolutely necessary. For us, our dogs don’t need to be crated during our absence after about 18-20 months. But not all dogs can handle that responsibility. Just like kids, you have to find what works for the individual dog. This makes me laugh because when we rebuilt our cabin we put up vertical cable railings on the front of our deck but standard square metal tube railings on the side with the stairs and gate so we could (in theory) confine our dogs to the deck if needed. Yeah, NO, the little dog figured out pretty fast that she was skinny enough to fit through the bars at the gate and she will sneak through and run over to see her friend next door every chance she gets! So much for that plan, LOL.
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Gennifer
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,158
Jun 26, 2014 8:22:26 GMT
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Post by Gennifer on Dec 23, 2022 22:32:28 GMT
I’m am completely opposed to crates. I think it’s cruel to lock a dog in a cage. Dogs that go into a crate when they are roaming the house free would beg to differ. With our litters, we have a crate available that is connected to their pen. The puppies can go into and out of it freely, and it’s never closed. There are always multiple puppies sleeping in there. It’s not trained into them, or punishment, it’s instinct.
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