My Golden Retriever’s breeder told me about crates - first time I’d ever heard of them. I’ve had dogs all my life and never used one. My dog is incredibly obedient, thanks to lots of obedience training by hubby - we’ve never had a problem with house training any dogs.
I’d also never heard of them until I read about them on this message board actually.
We’ve always had big dogs; two ridgies, then one ridgie than one ridgie and one rottie and now, only one rottie. They had their own dog beds (well, cot mattresses actually), which no one else sat on or touched, bar sheet changes.
They were easy to house train and Al, the remaining rottie, lives with my grandparents now with his cat. He’s very good, picks up on verbal and nonverbal cues quickly and has become bilingual (he knows when they’re talking about taking a walk in Serbian).
Cooper, last ridgie, had a thing for a certain patch of garden; it was a little triangular corner of the front garden, with lots of agapanthas and a small tree. Poor aggies…Mum tried desperately to keep him out of there, plastic chicken wire etc. He somehow managed to get between two layers of chicken wire and lie in the garden bed.
Alvin will chill out on his bed, in my grandparents’ bedroom a lot, or on his smaller bed in front of the TV.
So a crate would be useful if you work all day. What about if you only work in the morning? Can it easily be done without a crate?
How is crating done properly, ie, the dog is willing to go in the crate
So a crate would be useful if you work all day. What about if you only work in the morning?
I think it would be useful no matter how often you work.
Can it easily be done without a crate?
Apparently so, going by the experiences of others in this thread, although I have no idea how you wouldn’t have accidents if you didn’t use a crate with a young puppy. Are you guys all tethering your puppies to you during the day?
How is crating done properly, ie, the dog is willing to go in the crate
My dog’s crate has soft bedding to lie in, (and in the beginning an old unwashed t shirt) and a couple of things to chew on. When we got him, at 2 months old, the crate was set up in the family room, which is where everyone spends lots of time. We’d put him in the open crate, give him a treat, and use excited voices when he went in on his own. If he fell asleep during the day, we’d put him in the unlocked crate. We’d also sit on the side of the crate and hold treats through the bars, so he had to enter the crate to get it. Basically, it was all about food.
As someone else said, we’d take him out, if he used the bathroom, then he stayed out to walk around. If he didn’t, he was crated until we took him back out a little while later. At night, the crate was moved into the bedroom, and he was just placed in it. He did whine, but not all night long. Some people leave a dog in the crate all day long, but I wouldn’t, at least not with a puppy. I think four hours is about the maximum time a sleeping puppy can wait to go to the bathroom, and they should really go out more often than that.
I have a 3/4 Rottie and 1/4 Black Lab mix (Boomer), and he wasn’t crate trained. I think I was lucky because it only took three days to house-train him. I took a week off of work the very day I got him strictly for this purpose. He’s only had 2 mistakes each before he turned a year old.
I spent every minute of the week that I had off watching him like a hawk. And when he’d misbehave I’d do the “momma dog neck grab” and correct his actions. It worked like a CHARM. The only two things he’s ever chewed on (that he wasn’t supposed to) were the corner of a dresser (the first week that I had him) and my ex-wife’s bra strap. When I first met her he hated her & I should have listened!
I admit, nowdays I leave him home for too long since my commute has been extended, but my “#1 Troop” remains flawless after more than three years.
Like a rock… no surprises when I come home EVER. OMG I luv my dog! 
hijack- do ridgebacks generally get along with smaller dogs and kids?
No - most have trouble with smaller dogs, cats and kids if not properly oriented at an early age. It is not in their nature to be friendly with them. However, that being said, our Ridgy is an exercise in Environment over Biology as Grissholm is a very well behaved dog. Stays when told, sits when my wife or I stop walking, heels perfectly. This was from many months of work and trips to the local dog park, which is usually over crowded hence a great place to flood them with stimuli.
But to answer your Q - Ridgy’s are not known for their affinity towards other smaller animals.
Our dogs were housetrained firstly by limiting their movement (closing doors, barriers etc) usually to the family room where we could see them. We put lots of newspaper down just in case. After feeding the pup, we’d put her outside and wait until she went, and then give her lots of praise. At night, we put her bed in the laundry with newspapers. Over the course of a couple of weeks, she got the routine down. Then her bed was moved out of the laundry and into the family room, and that’s where she sleeps.
If we have to go out for a long time, she goes outside (the backyard is fully fenced and gated), if it’s 3-4 hours she stays inside. She’s had a couple of accidents, but that’s only when we forget to let her outside at night.
Our poodle mix was crate trained and it is wonderful to direct her to her “puppy house” whenever someone comes by or we need to keep the door open to bring in groceries, etc. My new Affen was miserable in a crate. He got himself so upset each night that he would cry, whine loose his bowel control and thrash in his own waste all night. After three nights of this I gave up. It took another few weeks to housebreak him but I had heard affens are hard to train anyway. Now he follows the poodle into the “puppy house” when she’s instructed so it all worked out. Poodle is happy in her crate and Max shares my bed.
It depends; we’ve had two males and one female at various times and the first male was very good; he’d sleep under my stroller and always be near me. The female, who we got during the time we had the first male, went a bit loopy when Mum got pregnant with me, so we gave her to our vet, and she became the model for microchipping :D.
The last ridgie we had died about 18 months ago; he was a big sook once neutered, always sitting in someone’s lap for a cuddle. He wasn’t a naughty puppy but he’s always been a tad pushy. He was very good with kids; mainly by just ignoring them.