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Do you put your dog (not puppy) in a cage while you are out?
(This is NOT a debate I am just curious why or why not?)
EDIT: Adding my own answer.
I asked this because I felt like a bad fur mom after reading time and time again that people crate their dogs. I am assuming it depends on the dog though. I do not crate our Pom mix. She is a grown dog & fully house trained. We have come home to find shoes (once) or toilet paper (a few times) chewed up. But we fixed that by always putting shoes away in a box & keeping the bathroom & the bedroom door shut. We also have a baby gate so we can put her behind it on either side to where she can only roam the living room & kitchen or the bedroom and hallway but we only use it when we have guests over so she doesn't jump on them.
We have a 12 week old puppy who gets caged while we are out. But our 3 year old gets free roam of the house. As I like to say, he's graduated from the crate :)
Nope, mine have a doggie door and go in and out as much as they like. It became a necessity since we're away from home 10-11 hours a day (sometimes more).
When they were puppies, we did cage them because the two of them would get into too many things they weren't supposed to. (and we'd come home to "look what we destroyed today - isn't is great??") But we have always made sure to exercise them in the mornings before leaving so that they can get some of the energy out.
When he was really young, we used to cage him when we went out (he would chew everything and pee where he'd wish). After he hit about a year, we stopped caging him.
When we first got our lab, we crated her when we were gone. But once we knew we could trust her, we stopped.
She now gets free reign of the kitchen and living space all day (we do close the bedroom door when we leave).
I crate my 2 year old lab when we leave. We have left him out and he generally tears everything in his sight apart. We walk him daily, he gets tons of affection and attention and play time, he just has a lot of anxiety when we're gone. He goes in his crate happily and will often lay in it when we're at home. He has a bed in it and we put a blanket over the top to create a safe space for him.
If we're gone for a short time, we don't. But if we're gone for a really long time (more than an hour or two) we crate him because he gets into stuff. Once we left him uncrated and we came back and he had eaten like, 12 fun-sized candy bars.
We were baby gating our dog in the kitchen so she had space to play but not the chance to run around the whole house, then I started letting her have the whole house for part of the day (I go home at lunch) and today was her first full day to be out of the kitchen so we will see how she does! She's really good, and all she does is sleep while we are gone so I think she's fine.
ETA: we close all the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, so really she can only roam the kitchen, dinning room, living room and hall.
We got our dog when she was 3, so no we never crated her. But if there were behavior problems, we could always get baby gates and use the kitchen as a cage. She's never been caged, so I couldn't imagine doing that to her now (she's 9)
Omg Yes. My dog is turning 11 in a few months and he is not to be trusted. I blame my DH (our dog was 5 when we started dating). Its a giant pen and we leave a blanket in there for him to cuddle on but our house would be a wreck every.single.day otherwise.
No, we leave her in our sizable master bedroom suite (which has hardwood floors) and a doggie door to the backyard when we go out. She would have free run of the house but she sometimes poops upstairs in the (carpeted) loft when we're gone so she has lost her full house roaming privileges. :)
When my family got our dog I was a senior in high school. I remember we had a crate and hadn't had a dog before so, we figured that she would be safe there. She was so calm when we got her.lol I was the first person to get home that day and I went downstairs to let her out and the little monster had ripped the plastic part that she sits on to shreds! There were pieces of chewed up plastic all over the room. When she saw me she was just sitting there giving me that "What?" look. lol So after that no more crate.
Yes, we crate right now because he is still only 5 months old and cannot be trust to have free run of the house. When he can be trusted, then we'll leave him out.
I do crate my 2 year old Maltese-Poodle mix. We actually put him in our laundry room and close the door (bigger than a typical crate). He is house trained and we do have to make sure that doors are closed and shoes are put away with him, but we tried trusting him and it worked for a while. But about 4 times he started to chew the carpet where it attaches to the wall and ruined it pretty bad :-( So I just don't want to take the chance because he's bored. Luckily, he's only alone for a 2-3 hour inbetween period when my SO leaves for work and I get home from work. It makes me feel sooooooo guilty lol the little look in his eyes when I pick him up to put him in there :-( BREAKS MY HEART!! lol
I have a 5 year old dog who we recently (we've had her for 3 months) rescued. She doesn't really understand the whole house training thing. As in, she goes absolutely every time we take her outside, sometimes asks to go out, but will also go in the house if she decides she needs to go. We have her on a pretty regular schedule, with the exception of meals. Shes generally suspicious of her food, and takes a while to decide to eat it. Which sometimes means she skips meals, and eats them later than shes supposed to. She lost her den instinct, because as a breeder she was crated her whole life and literally lived in her own waste. Since we got her, she is much better, and only goes in her crate every now and then (having gone right before we put her in and only been inside for a couple hours). My fiance and I are both students, so we have very irregular schedules. During the day shes never in for more than 4 consecutive hours, and we exercise her a lot. We just don't trust her to not go while were out. If she improves a lot, we might start leaving her alone in the house, but I'm not optimistic. All that being said, growing up I always had dogs crated as puppies and confined to the kitchen while we were out. I think if we had a different dog who was a little more trustworthy we would not crate them. And I do love my dog to death. Shes great despite her difficulties with housetraining. Also I should probably mention, our dog loves her crate. She goes in all the time even when she has free range of the house and knows to go in if we look like we're getting ready to go somewhere.
@Mrs.Estep: I started feeling bad too I understand. We tried leaving our poms out and they didn't like it, started developing anxiety and seperation issues. Our vet told us to continue crating them together as always (their crate as mentioned on another thread is HUGE).
I guess like you said it just depends. If you have the ability to leave your dog out and they are happy to be free then do it...that isn't always the case.
@Treejewel19: Oh I didn't mean I felt bad for the other dogs I meant I felt like I was doing something wrong by not crating her! lol
I very much understand when it needs to be done! But if it has to be done then it has to be done. I am very lucky that Sophie doesn't do any "no no's" while we are gone. lol
Yes, we do crate our dog. We haven't always, but he likes it because he has anxiety. If we leave the house and don't crate him (which we sometimes do) he may end up humping one of our couch cushions. This is a sign of anxiety. It is just better for all parties for him to be put in his crate. If we are going to be gone for a while then we will let him out to do his business right before he goes in the crate and right after he gets let out of the crate.
The good thing is that right now I work from home full time so we are not crating him for several hours during the day.
He is 7 years old and has been house broken since we got him when he was around 2
Yes, we crate our dog if we are gone for a long time. He has a lot of energy, and if he isn't crated he is really destructive.
If we are only gone for an hour or two, we will leave him out and he behaves himself.
@Mrs.Estep: Ahhh, I see! Well either way if she is a happy pup out and about then why not let her roam. :)
Our 1.5 (ish) year old lab gets crated, as he will destroy everything. We tried to give him a dog bed once, he destroyed it. We even put him in a playpen to give him more space, but came home to a hole in our carpet!
Now, our 2 year old lab mix is no longer crated. He has roam of the living/dining room (which has only 2 couches, 2 book cases and a wine rack, no other real furniture). He still has some destructive habits, so we leave him in here. We have learned that if we say "bye Milo" when we leave (if he's at the top of the steps looking at us), he will go eat something, but if we don't say anything and ignore him he's fine. The other dog is in a crate in the same room, so they are together.
In my family we always crate-trained our dogs, but once they proved that they could behave when we weren't around, we left them to their own devices during the day. We had a dog door leading into a fenced outdoor kennel so they could go out and do their business as needed.
We kept crating them at night because they liked having their own quiet space to sleep in. Eventually our dogs started putting themselves to bed when they thought we were staying up too late!
I always find it kind of funny and backwards - our lab mix gets destructive if we do put her in a crate but is fine if we leave her out.
Even after we zip-tied it in place, she broke the zip ties and slid the plastic bottem out of the crate and ate the carpet underneath. She also shreds any bed or blanket we put in there.
We have a 5 year old pomeranian and she has the run of the house.. she doesn't get into anything while we are gone (very rarely the bathroom garbage). She is too small to do any real damage (4 lbs) and she HATES being in a crate. we tried it when she was a pup but she never got used to it!
We crate our two-year old because she would tear the house apart otherwise! She loves her crate though. Even when we are watching tv at night she climbs in there. I think she knows its her quiet place.
On another note, the guilt of having her in the crate all day has led us to allow her to sleep with us. Not something I would recommend!
@Mrs.Estep: I have one dog that prefers the crate and another that doesn't. Our little one gets separation anxiety (was hospitalized in isolation for 14 days after we got her) and I think she TOTALLY remembers it. We kenneled her once while gone for 30 minutes and she chewed her mouth bloody and scratched her paws bloody, and had stooled in her crate so it was all over everything... She is left to roam the house free while we are gone. However my other dog, a 60 lb yellow lab, was shown the crate at a young age at night and she now prefers it. She can tell when I put my shoes on that it's time to go and runs into her crate (and it's actually hard to get her out sometimes). It's her home and her safe haven. She likes breaks... So she is kenneled all day =)
Well, we tried, but it failed. Our great dane is somewhat of a magician and can break out of the crate. So, we do not crate her when we're gone. We do close all the doors to the rooms and hide the trash can and pray she doesn't ruin the couch though. lol She's been a good dog so far, just "nervous potty" accidents.
@Mrs.KMM: haha thats what mine did! But she ate the plastic bottom (well maybe parts she ate,but ripped it apart and tossed it around the room!)
Mine is a border collie/beagle but I think she's got lab in her too!
Nope! My fur baby is 9 years old. She's a Chocolate Lab, and is so spoiled. If I crated her she would just whine all the time. She pretty much just lays down on her bed and sleeps while we are gone. She has had a few accidents, but for the most part she is house trained.
I totally understand people who do crate their dogs though. Sometimes it is just the best decesion for you and your pup!
We have a 4 year old lab and an 18 month old lab. The 4 year we did crate train while in our apartment till he was 2; but for the last 6 months of that he only was crated at night. By the time he was 18mths he was trusted in the apartment. We moved into our house when he was 2 and he no clue what to do with the space and freedom and has been fine.
Now our baby we've had since he was 6 weeks old. We TRIED so hard to crate train him but he has severe seperation anxiety and he did everything out of the norm when he was crated. It was much easier to let him be with the older dog and house breaking him. He hasn't had an accident unless he's super excited in over 7 months. Yes he chews things but it is things that are easily replaceable like blankets etc. We know what to do and what not. He became a much better dog this way and his SA has decreased some.
We don't cage them, but we put them in the bathroom when we leave. They have room to play and move around, and if there is an accident then the bathroom is the easiest to clean.
DH and I don't have a dog but my family dog (who I really consider more mine than anyone else's) is always put in her 'bed' if we're going to be gone longer than a few hours. Her bed is filled with fuzzy blankets and some toys so she actually enjoys going in there - when she's tired of attention or a bit cold, she'll go in there and push the blankets around until they are all on top of her with her little nose sticking out - it's actually quite cute.
We've put her in her bed when we go out ever since she was a puppy. As she's quite little, she tends to have accidents after a few hours, but for some reason in her bed, she never has an accident - go figure! When we leave, we just tell her she's gotta go to bed and off she goes - we do give her a treat once she gets in her bed so that may be part of it, but she honestly doesn't seem to mind. Now that it's just my mom at home with her, she puts her in her bed every night (no treat at bedtime though) and the dog never seems to mind. In fact, if my mom is up later than normal, our dog will usually take herself to bed at the normal time and all my mom has to do is close the door.
I think because she's little (half shih tzu and half bichon-frisse), she likes the comfort of being in her little bed, rather than running around a big house when she's so small.
My dog Chopper spends the majority of his time outside (he's in when we're in) and he has a run to hang out in.
His run his about 4 metres long x 2 metres wide with a flash-as kennel in the corner, it's also raised off the ground (it doesn't have a roof). Chopper has heaps of blankets in his kennels and is in a sunny spot close to our back door.
We had to start keeping him a run from when he was little to stop him chewing our windows when he got bored. Thankfully he's grown out of chewing!
I have no issue with crate training providing the dog is comfortable and still getting the necessary exercise :)
Yes I do cage him but he is starting to get a little older past 1 year and we are starting to trust him to not chew stuff up. He was out of cage for 3 hours by himself today and he was fine. He was previously caged before now. Some dogs outgrow the cage and other's do not. Some dogs prefer their cage like my dad's dog it is like their little safe haven/their den and is not a place for punishment. He is out of cage when we are home and he sleeps with us in our bed. I have a 1 year old Golden Retriever.
My Baby
We crate our almost 10 month old puppy whenever we're out of the house and sometimes when we're home. Now that she's well potty trained, she has a nice big fancy crate that she loves. She has a cushy bed, a whole bunch of toys inside and shades we can draw to keep it dark for a nap.
During the day (if someone is home) we leave the door open and she goes in whenever she wants some space, needs a nap or if we need to keep her contained for some reason. Sometimes she gets a little wound up and needs a mandatory nap lol. She also sleeps in there at night with the door closed so the cats can have free reign of the bedroom. When she's loose in the house we have a doggy door for her though she prefers us to come outside with her so she can play fetch as well :)
My dog really isn't left alone all that often, but when he is, he's not crated/caged. He's 8.5 years old so he's really good about not chewing on things, getting into things, going to the bathroom in the house. I'm pretty sure all he does when we're gone is lay on a chair and wait for us to come back.
I chose other since I have three dogs, 2 of which get crated, 1 gets free roam of the house. My 4yr old pointer is such a good dog that we've never had to lock him up, as soon as we leave he goes and lays on our bed, that is his choice spot, you can always tell by the amount of white fur left behind and the bed is toasty warm in the spot he lays when we get home so we can tell he's been there for a while. Our other two get put in seperate crates, they are well behaved when we are home but play so rough and chew on things that half the house would be destroyed by the time we get back. That and we've already had to have surgery done on our 2yr old lab once for eating something that didn't pass and even with the employee discount (I'm a vet tech at an ER animal hospital) we CANNOT afford another surgery
Yes, we crate our dogs.
We have 3 dogs, and they don't always get along. I don't want any fights while I'm not home.
Also one of our dogs, an older dog we adopted from the shelter, marks terribly. We've worked with him and worked with him, but concluded he can't be trusted loose in the house without wearing a belly-band. Leaving him out during the day, he would either soak through the pad or get it off (he knows how to remove it if he wants).
We don't crate our dog. He's 8 and fully house-broken and doesn't chew. Honestly, he's a huge dog (135 pounds) so he actually enjoys being left alone to sleep on his doggy bed all day. Sure, we often come home to find him in the living room which we don't normally allow him in because he drools all over the hardwood floor, but that's a minor issue in the big picture so we aren't going to crate him for it.
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