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This is the 2nd part to the 8-part series, ‘Crate training – The complete guide‘.
This second installment in the series answers the question: Why use a dog crate? by listing and discussing the many benefits using a crate provides for both you and your dog.
Later in the article I also address the question that comes to most people’s minds when they first hear the idea of using a crate: Is it cruel to crate a dog?
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: If you don’t already have a crate then check out our favorite: Midwest Life Stages Crate. We bought one for our first puppy, Linus and 14+ years later we’re using the exact same crate!
Why Use A Dog Crate? What Are The Benefits Of Crate Training?
There are a large number of benefits to using one for both you and your dog.
Let’s go through the main ones you and your dog can enjoy:
A Crate Provides A Feeling Of Safety And Security
By providing a crate and effective training, your Labrador learns to see it as their own special place they know as their own, where they go to get away from things for some peace and quiet, to relax and sleep in peace.
It becomes a familiar place where they feel safe and secure and once properly crate trained, you’ll find your dog will sometimes go to it of their own accord as they learn to love it there.
Nowhere else in your house can they truly get away from things because there will always be people stepping over and around them which is not what they want when looking for peace and quiet or sometimes sleep.
A crate provides them the security they’re after when looking for down time and is especially important in a house with children where dogs can find it very hard to have any peaceful time away at all!
A Crate Provides Safety When You Cannot Supervise Your Dog
Crating your Labrador will keep them safe when you cannot supervise them for short periods of time. Especially useful during the puppy and adolescent stages when they can get into all sorts of trouble if left alone.
QUICK TIP: Is your puppy having trouble settling down in his crate? Try stuffing a KONG with his favorite treats. This will give your pup something to do while learning to love his crate.
For the short time you’re in the bath or dealing with a visitor, placing your lab in a crate will remove the possibility of them chewing on things or getting into unsafe places when you can’t have your eye on them.
It’s a sad fact that a large number of dogs are injured (or worse) every year due to chewing wires, eating poisonous substances or swallowing inedible foreign objects found lying around the home.
They can’t do this from inside of a crate.
Crating Speeds Up The House Training Process Dramatically
Wild dogs and wolves are born in dens where they spend the first few weeks of their lives. And dogs are born with a natural instinct to want to keep their den where they live and sleep, free of feces and urine.
You can take advantage of this innate instinct to keep their den clean to dramatically speed up the house training process.
By keeping your puppy in the crate for short periods of time, they learn bladder and bowel control, to ‘hold it’ as long as they can while in there.
Then when you remove them from the crate they’re almost bound to want to go toilet, so you can instantly take them outside and they’ll be very keen to go.
This will help you to form a connection in your puppy’s mind between ‘eliminating’ and being outside.
And because you’ll be more able to catch them in the act, you have more opportunities to praise them for going to toilet in the correct place more often.
Also, if you wish to teach your Labrador puppy to ‘eliminate on command’…and this can be very useful for times when you’re in a rush…then being able to predict when they’re going to go means you get more opportunities to use the command and they will learn it far quicker and more easily.
Finally, putting your puppy to sleep in a crate overnight takes advantage of their desire not to soil their den to cut down dramatically on ‘accidents’ in the home, stopping the bad habit of going to toilet inside from ever forming.
QUICK TIP: If your puppy has an accident in the house it’s important to thoroughly remove the odor. We recommend using an enzymatic cleaner like Puppy In Training’s Stain & Odor Remover to completely remove the smell so your dog won’t be tempted to potty on the same spot in the future.
Safer And Less Stressful Car Travel
[amazon fields=”B01683N2CK” value=”thumb” image_size=”large” tracking_id=”labradortraininghq-20″ image_class=”ais250fr”] Riding in cars can be highly stressful and cause fear in some dogs. It’s an unfamiliar, weird, bumpy and noisy environment where they have no control.
Also, a loose dog in a car is a very dangerous distraction for a driver if they’re free to climb around.
And if there is an accident, even in relatively low-speed crashes which wouldn’t normally pose much danger, a loose dog can cause real injury to passengers, especially Labradors if they weigh 60 pounds+ and slam into you from behind.
Finally, many dogs that survive accidents unscathed are then lost, injured or killed because they’re disoriented after a crash and wonder off alone or into oncoming traffic.
A crate cures all of these problems!
If your dog’s already comfortable being crated, they’ll gladly ride in one in the rear of your vehicle.
Being in their familiar and secure place reduces any stress or fear they may feel, it prevents them distracting the driver, and in case of an accident it stops them being a ‘flying danger’ to other passengers and prevents them wandering off so they will always be returned to you safely.
Making Air Travel As Comfortable As Possible
Though not nearly as common as traveling by car, a lot of dogs will travel by air once or more in their lives. And the only way to fly is to have your dog in a crate in the hold.
This really can be a frightening experience, but one that’s made so much easier if they’ve been effectively crate trained and feel safe and secure in a crate with familiar items of their own for comfort.
Less Traumatic Time In Kennels Or Boarding
If you ever need to crate your Labrador in kennels whilst you travel, or have them quarantined before travel themselves, the experience will be far less traumatic if they’re accustomed to and comfortable being confined in a relatively small space.
Dogs that have never been crated that go into kennels for any reason can find the experience extremely scary and distressing.
By crate training your puppy, you’re preparing them as best you can for the future possibility of having to board in kennels. And most dogs will need boarding at some point in their lives.
Reinforce Chew Toy Habits And Protect Your Possessions
Puppy-hood is a time where habits are formed, both good and bad. And when you leave your little Labrador puppy alone they’ll find things to entertain themselves with, more often than not involving mouthing and chewing, forming bad habits.
If they’re regularly able to chew on shoes, slippers, wires or chair legs, the habits will be hard for you to break and rectify later on.
So when you can’t supervise your puppy for a short while, crating them along with chew toys, especially food-stuffed chew toys like a KONG for example, means they won’t be able to chew on your possessions and form these bad habits.
On the contrary, they will slowly become fixated on the chew toys that you want them to chew on because they spend so much time involved with them.
Occasionally crating a puppy with their toys is a great way to turn them into chew toy addicts and turn them away from habitually chewing on your belongings.
Just be sure to buy the best indestructible dog toys you can find as labradors are little chewing machines!
You Can Use A Crate For Time Outs
Sometimes you may need to remove your dog from a situation for a short ‘time out’ to calm themselves down.
For instance if they get over-excited when playing with children, or get a little too physical in a multi-dog household.
I’m not saying to send your dog to the crate as a punishment, just for a 30 second to 2 minute time out. Not to lock them away!
You can do this without causing your lab to hate the crate, because you will never scold or punish your dog whilst they’re in there. Only by doing so will they begin to hate it!
We’re talking here about calmly speaking, taking them to the crate gently and closing them inside for just a few short minutes until they’re calm and can again be released.
QUICK TIP: You can make this a positive interaction by tossing some treats (we like Wellness Soft Puppy Bites) in the crate or give your puppy a chew toy while he’s crated for his short time out.
When crate training has been truly effective, you will even have the ability to tell your dog to crate themselves and they’ll do so quite happily.
You Can Use It As A Management Tool
When trying to solve behavior problems…and let’s face it, most dogs develop one or two in their lives…The process is usually divided into the two parts of ‘training’ and ‘management’.
The training aspect is where you work on fixing or re-directing the behavior, the management aspect is where you prevent your dog from getting into situations where the problem behavior occurs, preventing it being reinforced and continuing.
As an example, let’s take an extremely boisterous Labrador that likes to jump up on people when they first meet them.
The training aspect will be holding your Lab on the leash and asking people to come near, not letting your lab say hello until they’re calm and relaxed, feet on the floor. This is training an alternative behavior.
But what if an unexpected visitor comes to your home? You can’t use these times as training sessions, yet you don’t want your Lab jumping up and reinforcing the behavior. You need to prevent it occurring.
So you manage the situation by temporarily crating your dog whilst the unexpected visitor is in your home, not allowing them the chance to jump up.
Managing and training for problem behaviors is the best method to solve them and a crate is a very useful tool in this process.
Besides, I’m sure if your dog could speak they’d say it’s far better they relax a short while in a crate and the bad behavior didn’t occur, rather than you get angry and they be punished for when it did :-)
Prevent Bad Habits And Problem Behaviors Forming In The First Place
Effective use of a crate takes away the opportunities your dog has to do things wrong and not be corrected.
If your dog is free to roam around unsupervised it will have all the chances in the world to do something wrong and get away with it, never receiving correction for their error.
And if they aren’t corrected bad behavior may become habit, or they may simply learn they can do what they wish when you’re not around to watch them.
In order to tell your dog they’ve done wrong and re-direct their behavior, you have to literally catch them in the act.
It’s no good telling them off for something they did minutes ago, they just won’t understand.
And telling them off long after the fact will just make them think you’re unreasonable, unstable and get angry for no apparent reason. This can damage your relationship and the respect they have for you.
But when your dog is crated if you’re not there, yet out of the crate and supervised when you are, they will very rarely do anything wrong that you don’t see and are able to correct and re-direct them for.
So they won’t have the chance to develop any bad behaviors or learn that they can do as they wish when you’re not around.
This will massively help them to develop into well-behaved and well-rounded dogs by adulthood.
It Allows Your Puppy To Succeed More, Fail Less And Strengthens Your Relationship
The use of a crate as described above takes away a lot of the opportunities a puppy would normally have to misbehave, get into trouble and need to be disciplined and re-directed.
This creates a greater ratio of ‘happy positive experiences’ Vs ‘confused and negative’ experiences.
Your puppy will succeed more, get praised more, scolded and told off less for doing wrong things and this means a happier dog, a happier you and a stronger relationship between the two of you.
Is Crate Training Cruel? Is It Cruel To Crate A Dog?
This depends entirely on your intentions. How, when and why you use one and how you train your dog to use it.
In the great debate of ‘cruel Vs kind’, lots of people argue that a crate is a cage is a prison. It’s inhumane and causes psychological harm to a dog.
A crate in itself isn’t cruel, but people can be cruel in the way they misuse it…and I stress the word MISUSE.’
If you were to lock your dog away for 16 hours a day, 5 days a week for 12 years, then yes you would be cruel and can cause your dog psychological harm.
I’ll say that again, YOU would be cruel, not the crate, it’s just the tool you will have chosen to misuse for cruelty.
A leash and collar is cruel if you use it to tether your dog alone to a post 16 hours a day, or drag and yank them about by their necks when on walks.
But used correctly, a leash and collar is a useful tool for the safety and management of your dog that benefits both of you.
And think, no dog likes a collar and leash when you first try to put it on them.
You spend time with your dog to acclimatize them to a leash and collar, so they learn to accept it and really do not hate it all. You then use them correctly for the benefit and safety of your dog.
It’s the same deal with a crate. You have to spend time to acclimatize your dog to a crate, teach them to accept and even love it, and then you use it correctly (and sparingly) for the safety and benefit of your dog.
NOTE: Most of the negative attitude towards the use of a dog crate seems to come from campaigns by PETA. The falsity of their claims is discussed and partly debunked by Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C in the following article: The Politics of Pet Dogs and Kennel Crates
But Doesn’t Crating Cause Psychological Problems?
All of the psychological problems the critics say crating causes are a direct result of misusing the crate as a punishment tool and for inhumane long-term confinement and isolation.
Separation anxiety, obsessive habits like licking and chewing, depression, withdrawal, inability to bond with humans, muscular atrophy – these could of course be the result if you locked your dog away alone for 16 hours a day, 5 days a week, with no interaction, no exercise, no life.
But a dog should only ever be crated for a few hours per day at most, and some days not at all.
The crate is most useful for management and training during the puppy and adolescent stages of life, and as most dogs reach adulthood and become skilled at living in a human world, when we’ve properly trained what’s expected of them, the crate is needed less and less.
But until then, the average Labrador sleeps 14 hours+ a day anyway, so spending a few of those asleep in a place where they feel safe and secure doesn’t cause any problems at all.
And for the vast majority of their lives, your dog will spend quality time with you as a loved, respected and wanted member of your family.
Not locked away inhumanely. It’s only the person that can be cruel by using a crate incorrectly, not the crate itself that is cruel.
After proper training, you’ll even find your dog retreating to their crate of their own accord, because they learn to love it as their own little comfortable, safe and secure place of rest.
The ‘Dogs Are Den Animals’ Defense of Using A Crate
Many people argue that crating a dog is natural, because dogs descend from wolves and wolves are den animals. Therefore to den is in a dogs nature.
By providing a crate we’re appealing to their natural denning instinct and giving them what they want.
This is only partly true as Wolves and wild dogs only den during particular times of life:
- An expectant mother will create a den to give birth and live in with her pups for the first weeks of their lives.
- Puppies are born into and live in dens until they’re fully weened and then use the den as a base to explore from. But as they grow they spend less and less time in a den before eventually leaving it completely.
- Sick or injured dogs will seek out a den for a feeling of safety and security to convalesce, get themselves better or at the end of their life, lie down to die.
For the rest of their lives, wolves and wild dogs very rarely if ever use a den.
The same is true for domesticated dogs. They will naturally den as mothers and puppies, seek out a den like area if they’re sick or injured, but wouldn’t naturally use a den at other times of life.
We have to train them to love and want to be in their crate at other times.
Also, there are of course differences between a den and a crate. Both offer a feeling of safety and security in a small enclosed space, but only one can be completely closed.
But after successful training, dogs in crates can feel perfectly comfortable and show no signs of distress with the door to their ‘den’ being closed and they happily go to the crate themselves to relax and to sleep.
So there is some truth to the ‘dogs are den animals’ argument, but it’s not the whole story.
What is true though is dogs are naturally predisposed to denning at certain times of life, so training them to use a den at other times isn’t hard or distressing for them.
It’s a familiar situation and with effective crate training, the vast majority of dogs take to it naturally.
A Recommended List Of Dog Crates
If after reading this long list of benefits that crate training can provide for both you and your dog, you would like to give it a go.
Be sure to read the rest of the articles in my crate training series that you can see linked to at the bottom of this page.
And for a hand picked list of the best and most highly rated dog crates available, please click here.
Conclusion
By providing a crate and undertaking effective training, you and your Labrador can enjoy the many benefits I’ve described above.
But a crate must be used correctly and humanely as a place you teach your dog to love and use for peace and quiet, a place you use to confine them for safety, but NOT a place to imprison them for punishment, for entire days or just to ‘keep them out of the way.’
Being regularly locked away for extended periods of time is a miserable and isolated way of life.
This isn’t what a crate is for and this is when it’s cruel! If you even consider this correct, if you need to lock your dog away for most of every day, then maybe you shouldn’t have a dog at all?
You should only have a dog because you want to share a life with them, spend quality time with them and do the best for them that you possibly can. A crate fits into this ideal.
It is a tool you use for the benefit of your dog, to help them fit into a human life and family more easily whilst providing them a little place of their own for comfort and security.
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: As we mentioned earlier our favorite dog crate is the Midwest Life Stages Crate. We’ve used our exact same Midwest crate with all of our service dog puppies for the past 14+ years.
More information:
This was part 2 in an 8-part series that details everything you need to know about the use of a crate and crate training your puppy. The information applies equally well to dogs of all breeds and not just Labradors.
The Entire series is linked to here:
- Part 1: Crate training – The complete guide (introduction)
- Part 2: Why use a dog crate – and is it cruel to crate a dog?
- Part 3: How to use a dog crate – When and when NOT to crate a dog
- Part 4: Dog Crate Sizes and Styles – A Buyers Guide for Getting This Right!
- Part 5: Crate Accessories – A Buyers Guide. What do You Need for Your Crate?
- Part 6: Guide to Crate Training Your Puppy – Complete, Step-By-Step and Easy to Follow
- Part 7: How to crate train an older dog – Yours or adopted
- Part 8: A List Of Dog Crates Highly Recommended By Labrador Training HQ
I’ve tried to cover literally every question I could imagine on dog crates and crate training in the article series above, but of course it’s hard to cover every question that people may possibly have.
So if there’s anything you need to know but cannot find an answer for above, please feel free to leave your questions in the comments section below and I will happily give all the help I can :-)
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26 comments
Great article!! You have a lot of wonderful information.
I wrote one myself about crate training, and am going to reference you as another source. My article should be up in the next couple days or so. :-)
Thanks for the kind words and for leaving a comment! I’ll look out for your article, always good to get another take on things :-)
Crate training may not be not cruel, but IMO crate housing for convenience is. My neighbor crates her dear little Jack Russell all day long when she is at work and all night long when she sleeps. Also whenever she leaves the house, so her carpets don’t get dirty. This dog is house trained and could easily use a pee pad. She is so glad to see someone coming when she is crated, and so sad when told to go back in. My neighbor says she often goes in there voluntarily, so she must like it. I told her that chronically abused kids often feel more comfortable in an abusive situation and it takes a lot of work to get them comfortable in a ‘normal’ world, so it doesn’t take much to figure out why this baby feels more secure in her cage. The fact she sometimes goes in there voluntarily just reveals the depth of damage done to her. My heart aches for this sweet little dog who has known nothing but a tiny cage for at least 70% of every day for ten years for the sake of clean carpets. People who care more about possessions than their pets don’t need to have any.
That is very sad…that’s why the author talks about crates being misused (you have a perfect example of a crate being misused and an animal suffering damage from said misuse).
People who aren’t home and don’t have the time to care for and exercise their pets shouldn’t have them.
Hi Elizabeth,
I agree that crating simply out of convenience is a horrible way to treat a dog. It’s an owners responsibility to dedicate the time needed to train their dog how to behave acceptably, until it gets to the point where a crate is almost completely unnecessary.
The only reason somebody should bring a dog into their life as a pet, is if they want to spend lots of time with them, care for them and create and share a good, happy life with them. Locking them up for half their waking day doesn’t fit into this at all. And if that’s the likely outcome of getting a dog, or if somebody thinks this acceptable then they probably shouldn’t have a dog in the first place.
I do talk about this in a later article in the crate training series, the exact section where I detail my thoughts you can jump straight to here (this section and the next 500 words or so): Don’t Ever Crate Them Just Because You Want Peace and Quiet.
It’s a sad fact that some people do misuse and overuse crates, but this can be said of most things. Those that use a crate responsibly though are (in my opinion) doing their dog a great service for the benefits they bring. I always use one myself.
I think you should annonamously report this neighbour of yours for the dogs sake. She should be fined for this cruelty and have the dog rehomed.
I live in Louisiana, where 91,000 cats and dogs were euthanized last year alone due to the lack of homes, and where cruel and neglectful treatment of animals is rampant. Just a few days ago, an acqaintance found a live dog tied up in a bag and thrown in a dumpster. It was 96 degrees in full sun. At present I have seven dogs and four cats, all strays. I hate how my neighbor’s dog is being treated but the sad fact is, she’s much better off than the vast majority of companion animals needing a home in my state.
I have just adopted a rescue dog, he is three years old, a Cairn/ Maltese mix and has separation anxiety issues, which I am trying to address. I was advised to crate train him and put him in the crate to sleep at night, which I have been doing. He gets a anxious as soon as bed time approaches and it takes him a long time to settle. We have never had dogs sleeping in our bedroom and have been putting him in his crate just outside the bedroom, where he can see us so he knows we are there. He pants and gets very stressed and often ends up whining all night. Should we be putting him in his crate to sleep at night, or not? We don’t want him sleeping on the couches at night and he hates being in a room with the door shut…help! We love him and he is very well behaved otherwise.
Hi Margaret,
Did you read my guide to crate training an older dog? I have lots of advice in there about taking things slowly to find success at your dogs own pace that I think you should read and work through: How to crate train an older dog
Do you know anything of your adopted dogs previous history with regard to crating? He may have had bad experiences in the past that you’ll have to work past…It’s impossible for me to say.
I would suggest following my advice for crate training an older dog. Associate the crate with all the good things in his life. Ask him into his crate lots of times during the day to find treats, feed him inside his crate, put his favorite chew toys in there and so on. Try to avoid crating him only overnight and crate him randomly at other times for varying periods of time, always making sure he has treats and toys in there to keep him occupied and happy.
Finally, when he does whine at night, the last thing you want to do is go to him and make any fuss at all, either good or bad. If he whines and gets attention, ANY attention, then that will re-inforce the behavior and he will continue to whine as he has learnt it works. Some dogs would rather be told off and scolded than ignored, so even bad attention is a win and will make the behavior happen again. As painful, sleep depriving and annoying as it may be, you need to completely ignore him. And when you do go to him in the morning, take a seat and sit patiently and quietly beside the crate until he is quiet and only then interact with him. Reward the quiet, not the noise. So he learns that being quiet gets attention, not noise.
If after crating you find the crate wet, like he is drooling excessively, or wetting himself, or god-forbid clawing or chewing at the crate, this is a real problem and you should stop the crating completely and go right back to square one with crate training. But if he is simply making noise, I would persevere for at least a couple of weeks and just give him time to get used to it. It will benefit him in the long run once he learns to see it as his place of comfort and calm.
If he really does get into a state when locked in, it might be worth your while investing in an X-pen (dog exercise pen) and restricting him to this overnight while you spend time crate training him slowly during the day, over many weeks, until he is more comfortable with a crate before you can then go back to using it overnight.
Hope this helps!
Great article. Only read #2 so far. Will read the rest soon. Enjoyed reading your comments also.
Thanks, Kelly :-)
One thing im unsure of is everytime i crate my 8week old lab she cries & whines & doesnt seem to ever calm down unless i am in the same room as her unless i am taking a shower, should i keep the crate in the same room as me when i can not supevise her constantly or should i put her in the crate un the primary room she is in free to roam when she is not crated?
Hi Jeanetta,
It’s quite normal, just follow the crate training guide linked to above and she will get better with time. Regarding where to leave the crate – it really is your choice, but in the busy family room is best. You can read more details in the article ‘where to put a dog crate’ also linked to at the end of the article above. I hope that helps!
I just got a lab husky mix pup. I also have a 41/2 year old chocolate lab. The lab was not crate trained and has the run of the house and is very good. I would like to crate train the pup just at night and when I am out. I have a large mud room and a heated floor. I would like to get him a crate, but to leave the door open so he can have the run of the mudroom (he can’t do stairs yet). I will start by leaving his open crate in the kitchen in the day, and then move him at night to his open crate in the mudroom. What are your opinions on this? This new baby mama is exhausted! I don’t want to lock him up but he’d be safe and happy in the mud room.
Hi Cory,
I’m not sure what a ‘mud room’ is, but as it’s a ‘room’ I assume it is sheltered, and you’ve said it’s heated. So that sounds absolutely fine to me.
I love how fair and balanced this article is. Especially the crates don’t harm dogs people do. Just like guns don’t harm people but they sure as hell make it a lot easier. My dad used to crate his dogs and they were def traumatized no matter how much time I don’t with them. It was like walking into a prison. But fair and balanced? No, not even close. Thank you for this unbiased perspective.
I have a 14 week old lab who is extremely well behaved thus far. I know they really start more “exploratory” behaviours at 5 months old, so I’m waiting for that to start, lol. I feel terrible putting him in his crate during the day, but we do have a “puppy play service” who lets him out, gives him his lunch and plays with him etc. My husband is also a teacher so he is home earlier in the day, so he isn’t locked away for an 8 hour day by any means. He does sleep in his crate at night, and has even started going into it on his own when he gets really sleepy.
Over the past weekend, I noticed how settled he was by the Sunday after barely being in his crate except to sleep because we were home with him. Seeing him so chill in the home really gives me optimism that he can HOPEFULLY have the run of the house before he’s even a year old!
hi there i have a 7 month old lab and he is destroying my house, he was so well behaved but recently he has been eating everything in sight. i take him out for a walk 3 times a day and normally i leave him to roam around the down stairs. However i cannot do this anymore due to the things he is destroying. today i have had to put him in the crate of which im sure he will not like but i dont know what else to do. he has bones chew toys and all other goodies so i dont know why this is happening.
Hi Zoe
You did the right thing by putting your pup in a crate. Just follow the steps now to crate train him. Puppies explore their environment by chewing on things and one effective way to curtail this is crate training. You can also try removing small objects like shoes out of his way and replacing with his toys and chew things. You can also puppy proof cables and ensuring all harmful chemicals are out of his reach. When he chews on things other than toys and his chews ensure he knows its wrong and give him no treats, when he chews on toys praise him and give him a treat.
Cheers
Dogs and Puppies if kept in a big Ferret Cages where there is room for playing in a specified area like cage can get a better development compare to Dogs roaming around and making dirty the surroundings. Dogs and Pets can be teach well in a special type of Ferret Cages.
Is keeping a dog in a crate in this situation recommended? ==> The single owner has to leave the state for a week. I have agreed to feed and water the ~60 lb dog and let him out to pee and play several times a day. The dog will be alone in his own home overnight because I will not allow him to live with me since he’s a one-year-old, still a puppy in many ways, and chews on everything in sight if left alone. Is it humane to keep the dog in a crate in between pee/play times and overnight with food and water bowls bolted to the inside of the crate until the owner returns? Both the owner and I know that he will destroy the owner’s home if left to roam the house overnight. A reply to this quandary would be very much appreciated. Thx.
My roommate has 3 America bulldogs. They keep them in Thierry crates 24/7 except to go outside and use the washroom. They are lucky if they get out for more than an hour of playtime a week. The reasoning behind this is: that their dogs fight with one another so he can’t take them all out together. If he takes one out the other ones freak. Guess my question is-
Is this healthy?
What should I suggest to help solve this problem (I suggested rejoining the dogs so they could have a normal life but was shut down quickly)
I really feel so sorry for these dogs, any advice would be great please
Good article. With successful crate-training – and only with that – I think crating a dog is fine. But the dog has to be content whilst confined. Too many owners, in my experience, use a crate like a prison cell. That’s not the way it should be! Take the time to train a dog to be enclosed, and if it’s not possible because of ‘seperation anxiety’ etc then you must give up and take alternative steps!
Loved this article on Crate Training. I brought my chocolate lab home at 8 weeks and we crated him straight away. He loves his house, we only use it at nighttime and he willingly goes into it when we go to be bed. I sleep better knowing that he is safe and secure and he can’t hurt himself during the night if he was left free to roam.
I enjoyed your article very much, we have found ourselves with our daughter and her 25-30 wk yorky back home. We created a pen in the basement for her safety. But she barks and whines all nite long, me being a very light sleeper have had a lot of sleepless nights. That being said I don’t want to get rid of the dog, we plan to try crate training. My question is some say to make the crate home, others articles say don’t put anything absorbent in the crate. It seems inhumane to me to have her in there on a metal bottom? Please advise me, she is stealing our hearts but I need some sleep! Thanks. Patty
When we first start crate training our puppies we put a couple articles in there with our puppy usually a soft blanket and a plush doggy toy. However, depending on your puppy there are times when you’ll have to make adjustments. Some puppies will use their blanket as their potty spot, some puppies can be very destructive, and some puppies will try to eat everything you put in the crate including blankets and toys. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with crate training your puppy.