Benefits of using a dog cage....

Halfpass

Halfpass

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As you all know I have just got myself a labrador puppy.

I have 1 lab alreday but got him at 9 months so am new to all this puppy stuff.

Now my plan had been to use a cage for him but I am having second thoughts as he obviously hates it and keeps me my OH and my neighbours awake at night and disturbs them in the day.

He seems to be getting the hang of house training and providing I leave a pad down at night he goes on that and during the day I can usually tell when he needs to go.

So before I totally scrap the cage idea can anyone please tell me the benefits of him being cage trained.

My house is half built and the dogs can have the run of the unfinished extension so there is nothing in there to ruin.

Thoughts on this very much appreciated.
 
I used a cage for my rotty pup to minimize messes in the house at night and to stop him wrecking the joint. However, we only really used it at night and it was in the bedroom as that is where all the dogs sleep.
We didn't really use it as they should be used but it worked that way for us.
 
We have 5 dogs. All were housetrained without any great stress. All sleep downstairs in their beds through the night.
Not one was crate trained and it is something I am not a fan of/agree with. Nothing wrong with hard work and spending time with the pup whilst laying down the boundaries.
Actually, I lie. One had a crate when at grandparents. She now sleeps in the stables with one of the others and loves her bed there.
 
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Thats great to know TSandH I just wonder what the benefits are really when I'm not worried about the odd pee or poo.
My other dog wasn't cage trained and he sleeps happily in his bed where he is told to.
I think I may invest in a baby gate to block of the kitchen to the rest of the house and keep them contained there.
I'm not sure why I felt I needed to cage train him. Just thought if someone could give me some definate pro's then I would persevere!!!
 
Otto is crate trained (sort of!) and I am really glad we did. He becomes a very stressy dog when away from home, and takes ages to settle when staying at my Parent's house.
As they look after him whilst we are away it is a bit of an issue that he spends his time there stressing, running around and worrying his weight off (which is hard to keep on at the best of times!).

The crate is his "safe place", it is the one constant thing no matter where he is, once in there he will settle straight away, and will often take himself off to it if he doesn't feel safe sleeping in the "open"
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It also means my Parents can put him in there for a bit of peace and quiet and know that he is happy.

He now sleeps in there a night with the door open through choice, and gets in when we leave for work in the morning and settles back down.

At our house the crate is not really necessary for him anymore. It was invaluable for when we were house training, as we got him at 5 months having never been in a house before, he really had no issues about where he would go to the loo, but he never once soiled the crate! He is now perfect in the house, but if we hadn't been able to crate him when we weren't around I don't think it would have been the same.

ETA - Bar one, my Parent's dogs have never been crate trained, however my Mum is always at home with them, so it has never been an issue.
 
We have a crate for our puppy. This is the first dog we've done this with. He chews a lot so it is handy to be able to put him in it when we are too busy to watch him all the time. He goes in andputs himself to bed at night and it is handy to have it in the car or horsebox.
 
I bought a crate for our then puppy, I think I did it to try and save my house from being chewed to bits and it did serve its purpose. He is now a big dog and I just felt cruel shutting him in it for any length of time (soft I know) Its the largest you can buy and he can stand turn arround and lie down but no more. To be honest I wish we hadnt bothered, it did give us peace of mind that he wasnt wrecking the house though. He was happy in it at night but would howl when left in it during the day. I cant wait to see the back of it now as its just so big but now feel bad taking it away as he does see it as his little house. He sleeps in it but the door is left open.
 
I also think it is better to do the crate trianing when they are small and reletively easy to ignore, than wait for there to be an issue (ie. Labs can be destructive) and try to crate a 6 month old dog - They are a darn sight louder than it tiny puppy!!
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Here goes.........I dont actually crate any of my own dogs, but Im patient and l know exactly what to expect from a new arrival and the quickest route to train, often a smaller confined space can be jsut as effective as a crate, and my dogs are exercised to the extreme, they have no energy to misbehave
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obs u cannot do this with a puppy, but a crate can be phased out eventually it's not forever, even though some dogs love them
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The reason we crate all our rescues....because we get alot of rescue hand in's between the age of 6-12months old, the reason, labs/springers mostly for destruction and seperation anxiety
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we ask if a routine or a crate was introduced, and the answer is, we tried but said dog cried and howled so we gave up, at the age the dog is handed in, it's alot worse to begin to crate, as they are noisier and more capable of causing destruction to crate, but we immediately crate them, and establish a routine to aid us to rehome the dog, otherwise it's a body bag from the owner point of view
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New owners are not so tolerant, they don't want their house chewed either or want to listen to whinging.

We also use crate, because we try not to place our rescues in kennels, so they are in home environments, and if we have a rotti and a shepherd for instance and a new puppy arrival or a smaller dog, world war 3 could break out, and basically we could end up with a dead dog, so SAFETY, also to stop and destruction, I for one don't want my kitchen eaten by a new rescue
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For puppies, to establish a leave alone routine/safety/broken bones from falling/electricution, and to stop them getting into any bad habits a larger space with no confinds would offer(passing motions/chewings/wallowing of foreign objects e,t,c, and as they are less likely to pass faeces and urine in a smaller space, it helps with house training

As Hen suggests it helps them settle in new environment if they need to stay away from home, as the environment changes but the familiar safe place(crate) stays the same.
Fab for car journeys as again the crate can be used, no bouncing, yappy and unruliness in the car, and often helps with travel motion problems.

Not every dog will need a crate, but just beacuse someone says, my dog never needed one, does not mean the next person won't, my dogs don't but I still don't advise others not to use them, every dog and every sceanrio, and home situation is different. (some ohave the luxury of being at home most of the time, having a calmer breed, or the company of another dog that they can sleep together with and it heps them settle, with puppies this is a no no for me, one bite could mean a fatal result.
 
My dogs were born in a crate and live the first 8 weeks of their lives in their with time out for play time.

So when we got them home they saw the crate as a safe place. They don't spend the night there as my daughter (whose dogs they are) has them sleep in her bed. (I know...) However, they do go in there when we go out and if the house if full of people and noisy the first place to look for them is their crate - it's their safe place. I would like to phase it out as part of me feels it's mean - but they obviously value it. They do have a huge crate to share and basically the moment they go in there they curl up and go to sleep.

I think the use of it is that it's a calm environment and a safe place - if they don't feel that it is then I don't think I could do it.
 
I have 3 labs, 2 of which are pups, they are 10 months now, a dog & a bitch, the bitch is the naughtiest and would completely trash the house the minute she was left, would empty the bin, clear the worktops, just go beserk, which was strange and she was not left alone, she was with her mother and brother. So we got her a cage very early on, and most of the day she stays outside, but at night and on the odd occasion she stays in, she goes in the cage, she likes her cage and sleeps in there even when the door is open and shes in the house. In the day I never leave her for more than 2 hours in her cage, but obviously at night its more 8 hrs. Its been the best thing, we couldnt be without it now, although we went to bed the other night and accidentally left the door open and she still stayed in it all night.
 
Useful if you need to visit non-dog friendly parents. OH and I can only have dog with us when we visit either set of parents if our dog is in his crate. It's the only time we use it, but we've taken it on holiday just in case the place we're staying is likely to be awkward about dogs....
 
I think crate training is an important part of a dog's upbringing...much as having a horse used to a stable! You may not have them live in it all the time or even half the time - but it's good to know that they can. The other thing is that the dog will have spells of time where he will be required to live with other people - ie visits at the vet, groomer, or other places where kennels are the norm for their safety. And if the dogs are used to kennels/crates they are so less stressed than if they suddenly have to be in a box that they have never been in before.

Also, for travelling purposes, cages are a safter way to go than travelling loose in a car on a seat (I had a customer of mine tell me a horror story recently about how he lost his old cocker that was travelling in the boot of a estate car. They were on a motorway and the boot opened suddenly and the dog which was laying against the door rolled out. They stopped the car to look for the dog - it was unconcious and had rolled away off the side of the road. They went searching for the dog in the dark and then as they were coming back to the car, the dog awoke, staggered in to the road and was killed by an oncoming vehicle).

My dogs have always learned that a crate is a haven for them-- a place for a sleep and it's safe from the hoover, small children or whatever. I haven't used the crate in the house for years, but it does come out when we are going someplace where it may not be entirely dog friendly. Its really handy to use when there maybe a reason that the doors in the house maybe open lots and there's a worry that they may slip out the door unnoticed.

One thing is for certain - they know what the crate is for and they love it. When I take mine out of storage, they are nearly inside it before I get the door all the way open!
 
Thank you guys its all food for thought.
I tried last night without the crate and just secured both dogs into the kitchen area of the house ( quite a large space )
Burtie (puppy) had his cuddly and his hot water bottle and Benji (older dog) was in his own bed next to him. The was no howling or barking when we first went to bed and Burtie only barked when he needed to go outside (or to tell me he had actually already been!!!)
He woke me at 0030, 0230, 0400 and 0600 but once he had been outside he settled straight back to sleep again.
I have woken this morning feeling much better after more than 3 hours sleep.
I am not going to dissmiss the cage straight away I will still introduce it for car journeys until he is bigger and see how we go.
I am lucky in that I have a very dog friendly family and my dogs should never (other than at vets) need to go into kennels.
I hated to see the little one so stressed when I knew he would be far more settled not confined.
Since being born he has spent most of his time outside in a big wide space so I can imagine suddenly being in a smallish pen would have been quite unsettling for him.
My new cage isn't as huge as I thought it was going to be and would not fit a full grown lab into it so my other concern would be that Burtie would grow out of it too quickly but be dependant on it.
Thanks again for all your help and advice.
I am loving the doggy forum everyone is so friendly.
 
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