People tell Horror stories of training their dog with crates i.e. "My dog screamed all night, or screamed the whole time s/he was in there" etc…etc…
When I was a kid we didn’t use crates…at all. I’ve heard all manner of response for people using crates and people not using them. Pro’s and con’s for each.
Our pup is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and we did not use a crate. Grissholm learned quickly where his place was in the house, he had the breezeway and that was it. The yard was his domain and he had free reign of it. He is very well trained, knows his limits and knows when he can push my buttons and when not to. We spent months when he was a puppy training him very much like the Cesar Milan. We used Exercise, discipline and affection. We (my wife and I) were the alpha from day one. The three commands we emphasized were sit, stay, heel. Everything else is a tangent from that.
He did great without a crate and now years later Griss is a well behaved dog. We do not need a leash except in designated areas, he will sit down when I stand still and not go up to other dogs or people. We get compliments all the time on his behaviour and I guess all I can say about it is that consistancy and training are the way to go. Over, and over and over…
I think he got a faux crate training experience from the gated area we had him in. I must admit I have a problem with the enclosed locked feeling of a crate, I know it is supposed to act like a den, but I would rather a den where the dog can come and go as needed, not dependant on when I wanted to take him out, or around his feeding times. Griss had a structure I built for him, it looked like an indoor dog house, it was painted like the walls so it matched, and it had a arched entrance so he could come and go. Ithad his favorite blanket in there. But he was free to come and go as needed…This worked wonders. He never had an accident in the sleeping area because he had the ability to go on the paper we put down outside of his area… He could walk out of his enclosure and poop or pee as a puppy. He wasn’t confined in an area where he may have been forced to pee on or poop in.
We did have a baby gate set up so he couln’t get into the other parts of the house, that lasted about 3 months. But after he learned where he could go and not go, we simply took it down.
What are your experiences with or without a crate?
My beagles were toilet trained very quickly. Catch them, admonish and direct them to the breezeway to the back yard. No hitting ,no screaming. They want to please. Communication is the trick. My house is the dog crate.
I’ve done both- My sharpei I trained without a crate, but the stray I adopted really had to go by the crate method. Absolutely nothing else worked, and I really do mean absolutely nothing else. The funny thing is, the stray no longer needs the crate, and the sharpei loves it. We ended up getting one for him just because he really does enjoy being in his private little place. Crazy dogs.
I’ve done both, and my semi-educated experience is that crate training is almost required IF you’re not going to be home all day, and totally optional if you are. When I was home with the dogs and they were my other kids, then I could spend the time exercising and supervising them enough that they didn’t get into trouble. They wouldn’t get into trouble even on the days I did have to leave for extended periods.
Working full-time, however, turned me onto crate training, and it’s awesome. I think it’s just impossible to fully bond with a socialize a dog when you’re out of the house 10 hours a day and sleeping for 8. You can do a lot, but not like you can when you’re there all the time. In that situation, a crate takes a lot of stress off of you and the dog. He doesn’t make “mistakes” and I don’t have to yell when I get home. We get to jump right into being (hierarchical) buddies.
And yes, your breezeway was your crate. It was his “safe spot”. I didn’t close my last dog’s crate for the last 10 years I had him, I don’t think. He was technically free to go in and out, but he knew when to stay in by reading me. Dogs in packs DO defer to their leader when it comes to where to stand or lie or when they can move. It’s communicated very subtly, but it’s there. If a dog steps out of line - whatever line the leader sets - they are corrected very quickly with just a flick of the ear or a change in posture. It’s NOT mean to be the boss - it’s mean to leave the dog without a strong boss. But that can be done with crate or without, depending on your situation.
Oh! I meant to add: I trained the stray when he was about 1 year old. He didn’t carry on and cry or anything like that at all. He was introduced slowly. I started feeding him in there, making it into a big, fun treat (giving him soft, yummy food that he normally didn’t get). Then whenever I picked up his toys, I’d put them inside the crate so he would have to go in and retrieve them. I sat next to the crate and if he wandered in, I’d shut the door for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, etc. Then I’d shut him in and leave the room. Then the house. If you have a dog that seems stressed by the crate, I think the very most important thing is that you introduce it gradually and always positively, never as a punishment or in anger.
if someone says: “My dog screamed all night, or screamed the whole time s/he was in there” I would assume they did not introduce the dog gradually and just shut them in a confined area and left them there, which would be very stressful to any animal.
One pro for crating, IMHO- if your dog is sick and needs overnight vet care or has to be boarded, at least that won’t be his first introduction to being confined. Mine were 100% happier being boarded after being crate trained.
My current dog is the only one I adopted as a puppy, and he has never had a crate. When he was home alone, he had a bed and dishes in the laundry room where the back door/doggy door is located. He wouldn’t use the doggy door, though, and would sometimes pee in the laundry room, but that was easy enough to clean up. I’d also leave chew toys laying around, but he’s never cared for them. Even as a puppy, he wasn’t a chewer.
Eventually, he stopped having any accidents, so he had free reign of the house while I was gone. When the weather was nice he stayed in the fenced-in back yard, which he came to rule.
He’s 10 years old, now, and has never used the doggy door.
Not related to the OP’s question, but I want to take the opportunity to say that my dog is my friend and I love him.
I didn’t have a crate in the beginning when I got my rescue dog, but after a week or two he developed the habit of trashing the place whenever I left.
The layout of my house is such that there’s no way to “enclose” him anywhere except the living room or bedroom (where I don’t want to enclose a destructive animal!) or the bathroom (which just seems cruel to me). So I would shut him in the main room which serves as the kitchen/dining room/entryway, where he would promptly knock everything off the counters and chew up anything made of wood, fabric or plastic - if nothing like that was in reach, he would become even more creative about climbing the fridge to knock off the stuff on top, or opening cupboards, or climbing bookcases. One time I left the house, realized I’d forgotten something, went back in (I was out the door for about thirty seconds in total) and by the time I got back in he was already standing on the counter.
So he is crated when I go out. He is quite happy in the crate and goes in without a fuss when I ask, and sometimes even when I don’t. He is always quiet when he’s in it, even if I don’t let him out right away when I come home.
Happy dogs don’t trash houses, so I can conclude that he is much happier in the crate when I’m not home than not in it. Perhaps as he settles in more, and becomes more confident that I am in fact coming home (and that I don’t want my stuff trashed, thankyouverymuch!) he won’t need it any more.
But for now, the crate is his home when I’m away from home, and we’re both quite happy that way.
7 Jack Russels (4 girls 3 boys). No crating, no problem with potty training once I put the doggy door in the right place. Apparently, the door was too far away from where they normally play (wherever I am). I installed a doggy door in a window of the living room and they immediately started using it and accidents practically disappeared. They really want to go out, but as puppies they had poor timing. Now they have the run of the house while I’m gone and only chew the toys I leave them. There are lots of forums out there that just love talking dog issues, I belong to JRO.
We trained without the crate. My wife did not like the idea of crates and I am not sold on them, so no crates for us.
We did poorly with our first pup, she took a long time to train.
The Border Collie puppy learned quick with just newspaper.
Our current dog Beckie, a labby mix was already 18 months and has only had 3 accidents without much work to train her. All 3 accidents were tied to her getting too much table scraps.
I wouldn’t try training without a crate. Beagle puppies are known for taking a long time to house-train, but my dog picked it up super quickly, and I think crating, along with consistency is the reason for that.
We trained our mutt (lab/pit-bull/chow/etc.) with a crate. But we only used it for nighttime sleeping, really. She wasn’t home alone for a good 6-9 months, I’d guess. It worked great, she slept well, seemed to like having her own little den, etc. It also made taking her to visit relatives’ overnight much easier.
She’s not in the crate nowadays–she’s older, calmer. Plus, the only place we could put it in our new house would be the garage, and I find that a bit grim.
I’ve done both. It really depends on the dog, time of year, etc. It’s a lot quicker with a crate.
I can’t remember not having a dog. When I was growing up and my first few dogs they didn’t have crates. The few dogs after that I adopted older dogs and it wasn’t necessary. With puppies, I use crates now.
It’s much quicker to crate train for housebreaking as well as chewing. After my dogs are housebroken I don’t use the crate. I’ve talked to people who have dogs that love the crate even after they’re trained, but my dogs didn’t so I got rid of them.
Neither had I. Reading the descriptions, it appears that my dog (a golden retriever) treated the smallest bathroom in our house as her “den” – anytime she wanted a quiet place, or a nap, she went there. (Of course, the nice cool-sided tub and the big air vent on the floor may have been a big part of that, especially in the summer.)
My reasoning for crate training are strictly housebreaking. Once that’s done, I’ve never used them again.
Even though I was with my current dog all day she was extremely active. The most active dog I’ve ever had. Wild! It helped me a lot in calming her down and housebreaking.
The other dog I crate trained, I wasn’t home all the time but my family was. And they weren’t good about taking her out. I asked my son to feed her once when I was out and he took her to McDonalds. She’d pee right in front of my husband and he’d be reading and never notice. So I crated her when I wasn’t home. If your not consistent, forget it.
