Harley hated the crate from day 1 overnight, but was fine in there during the day when I went to work for a few hours each day. She actually put herself in there as I got ready for work as she knew she would get a Kong and could snooze for a bit. She was de-crated by 6 month but was never a chewer. All the the foster dogs I've had have needed to be created for various reasons, and in all honesty they all went in willingly and would often put themselves in when they got tired. I think people should respect others wishes, especially when it comes to looking after foster dogs.
When the cat nips into Annie's crate for a nap, Annie get really upset and comes and get me to get him out of her bed
I was converyed to using a crate in recent years with my latest dogs and have to say life is so much easier knowing they are safe from harm while going shoping etc. Peace of mind is priceless. In fact after de-crating herself at 7 months I had to go out and buy a fabric crate and my girl absolutely loves it. I've been trying to encourage to give it up but she's having none of it. I don't crate train as per the 'norm' but use a totally difeent method which gives tge pup/dog the choice of going in and cing out of the crate and it is never used for punishment/timeout.
I used a crate without a huge amount of thought, I just thought it was the done thing. My brother had a crate for his pup years ago and friends with dogs all had crates, the stuff I'd read about crates made sense. Plum was locked in during the day if I was out, and overnight once she was toilet trained. She took to it straight away, I didn't have to train her into it. I used to put a bed outside of her crate too, still behind the gated kitchen, and when she started to get in the bed more often than the crate, I stopped locking the door of the crate and then after about a month I took the crate down, I really wanted the space back! I guess she was 6 months when I took it down but when I'm out she is still in the kitchen behind the gate.
We never crate trained Ella as a puppy as we used baby gates to section off a safe space for her. I do use a soft crate now though. Once we started doing obedience work, I needed to be able to put Ella in a safe place while I setup/walked the ring etc. and Ella is much happier being inside her crate than being tied up somewhere. We keep it setup in the lounge room as she also needs a place to escape from our toddler when he's behaving like a tornado.
I would definitely train a dog be ok in a crate because one day they'll need to be in one at the vet. But I don't like the idea of confining an animal to a small space for too long in the daytime because I think it's not good for their joints to be not moving or weight hearing for long periods. A crate at night when they are asleep is fine in my book. We use a crate (fabric) at Flyball competitions where it's compulsory but we take Obi out every 20 mins or so for a leg stretch.
I ended up putting Tibor in the crate after all last night. I put him in there with a yummy (but safe) chewy while I had my shower and he was already conked out by the time I got out. So we both got a really good night's sleep and this morning I got him out and he's one the bed with me now having a cuddle. No ill effects suffered. My friend did come over last night and we had a better chat about the crate issue. The bottom line is that she doesn't agree with using the crate but at the same time she knows how I treat my dogs and trusts me 100%. She also said that she thought Tibor would really benefit from having some training, which he's not had yet in the three months he's been out of Romania, and she knew I would tackle that. I took that as a real breakthrough, since as I mentioned in my original post, "training" is kind of a dirty word with her. So in all, I think these are good baby steps!
My two still have their crates. Each crate has a cloth over the top, partially extending down the sides, so it is more like a den. The crates are left open during the day so the dogs can use them when they like (Tuppence often uses Wispa's!), but they have beds elsewhere too. They automatically go into their crates if I go out because they know that they will get a Kong there, but the crates are not closed. It's also been invaluable to have them crate trained for post-operative recovery and for when Tuppence cut her leg badly. i close their crates at night, although I recently tried leaving them open - big mistake! I was woken by the sound of playing dogs at about 3.30am!
Poppy was fine with the crate and I used it with her at nights and while I was out during the day until she was about nine months old. Merlin hated the crate with a passion and waged war against until I thought he would really hurt himself in it. As soon as I let him sleep in his dog bed next to Poppy (after six weeks of trying with the crate) he slept straight through the night. I do worry about having to use the crate at some point, but for now I'm just concentrating on other training. He is calm and quiet with Poppy around and I can leave them alone in the hall (with other rooms baby gated off) for an hour or so. I think crates can be a very useful tool, but it depends on the dog - and on the owner. I fear they are often misused by people who leave their dogs in there for long periods of time while they are at work.
Mine's a biring khaki colour but si eady to fold and put in the car for holidays, training days etc. and only has to bars which clip in to sockets in corners and has plenty of ventilation panels for hot days
I chose useful tool too. With my Abby, who died in March at age 13, I was single and worked full-time during the week and part-time on weekends, but had a good deal of flexibility, so I was able to go home every couple of hours for some playtime and for her to have a pit stop. She slept in it with the door closed until she was about 18 months old, when my husband came on the scene. She was such a puppy still, but he was home, so we never had a problem (unlike when crated she ate 1/3 of the comforter on my bed ). With Honey, our new girl, we are definitely using the crate. She's 2 (reportedly; we actually don't think she's quite that old), but much like a two-year-old person, is not ready for any unsupervised time at all. She sleeps in it, door closed, and has naptime in it. Occasionally she goes in to calm down when she gets wild. The door is always open and sometimes she goes in and has a rest on her own, especially if someone is vacuuming. We would love for her to sleep in our bed and hope that this winter she'll be ready to try it. At the moment she struggles not to get wound up and nippy if she's at eye level with us (on the bed), so she only gets to come up by invitation and only for a short snuggle at bedtime. DH home with her too, so no need for crating other than those times. I can understand how you feel and for what it's worth see it the same way you do for Tibor. In what must be a scary, overwhelming series of changes, I would think the crate would be a place where he can feel secure.
Emily, is "obedience is a dirty word" a common mentality amongst your German friends? Or just with this friend? Crates seem to be fairly common in NZ. I followed Pippa's crate training guide from 8 weeks old and it was very successful, although Xena never loved her crate, never went into it voluntarily. I decrated her during the day at 9 months (in small increments) and at night at 12 months. She was a chewer of furniture and eater of doors and I'd hate to think about how much worse our house would look without having used the crate! I was very happy to be able to fold it down because our house is small and that honking big crate took up a huge corner of the living room.
Although dubious about crate training when we got Buster, it has turned out to be a life saver, we only ever put Buster in there at night, during the day if we were out we left him in the kitchen so he can move around, but now over 3 yrs on, he still sleeps in the crate, it is his safe place when there are noises or smells he doesn't like, he has a fear of noises now so when ever he is scared he will go in the crate.
I don't think it's representative in any way of the German population at large. I have one good friend here (with Fine the Chihuahua) who is a first-time dog mom but has trained tiny Fine with amazing results. But she also didn't use a crate when Fine was a puppy. She isn't violently opposed, but it never occurred to her. My other group of friends who do rescue are die-hard followers of Cesar Milan and are more proponents of the "all natural" method. For them "obedience" is not for pet dogs...for rescue, service dogs...fine - but not for a dog who is purely a member of the family. The "all natural" approach consists of (from my observations), hoping that your dog behaves or comes when called or doesn't eat your house...but if he does, you just live with it. The results of this vary, but amongst the group there are dogs that I would never ever trust off leash with my dog and dogs that I would never ever trust un-crated in my house. One has done thousands of Euro damage but her person won't even consider trying to crate train her - which means that multiple people must take her throughout the day so that her person can go to work or run personal errands without having her dog eat her front door off it's hinges. Again. These are all very nice people who absolutely love their dogs - it's just not my style. I like to feel like my dog is a partner and my best buddy... not holding me hostage in my own home.
Oh Emily how awful for you. I have a very good friend who refuses to crate her Labrador puppy and now her house is chewed to bits. She keeps asking for advice and I keep saying you need a crate, some puppies are chewers and that's that. She won't have it at all and sort of half suggests that it is cruel to keep them in a cage. I just don't see it like that, my girl loved her crate it was a safe place, a really comfy den. My mum once commented that there were better blankets in the crate than on her bed.
Thanks but it's pretty much sorted now after a lot of initial tears and scolding. It was a bad day last Saturday and Tibor's former foster human has now refused to help me when I can't keep him (I'm going to be gone for a few days soon) which was a condition of me taking him, so that's the worst of it. Otherwise my friend who actually runs the rescue group is just sort of turning a blind eye to it all (oops - no pun intended). And we'll figure something out for him for when I'm gone. The irony is that now after only five days of crate experience, Tibor today started going in there to sleep or chew on his bone. I wish my friend or the former foster mum would just come over and see him happily go in there and the set up - as in your case, there are better blankets in the crate than my bed. I kind of wish I could fit in there for nap time!
