To crate or not to crate, that is the question...

grandmaweloveyou

grandmaweloveyou

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My OH (vet nurse) wants us to have a crate in the house for the new arrival (2-3year olf staffie) whereas I have never had a crate for my dogs before....what are your thoughts?
I think sending them to their bed / basket is enough, knowing their place...but OH is keen on the crate tactic.......she has not had her own dog before so maybe I come at it from a softy loving approach whereas she comes at it from a veterinary point of view, neither of which is wrong or right, we just need to be united....thanks :)
 
please dont think of the crate as a bad place.. it can be a nice den for them if you put a blanket over three sides and just leave the front open. as long as crate training is done sensitively, most dogs find the very comforting and its a big advantage for traveeling in the car or if you go to stay in another house, the dog has their own little area and will feel more secure. CAYLA on here is the expert and has helped lots of people to get started. my lurcher often puts herself to bed in hers during the day and loves iit. i have a blanket over it to make it nice and dark for her and dont ever need to shut her in. hope this helps:):)
 
crate

although I trust Harley, I still crate him when I go out. I feel so much happier knowing he's safe at home

also, my friends rescue dog had never been crated. Then he damaged a muscle and had to be crated for 3/4 weeks! It was so stressful for the poor lad. Much better to have them used to it. You don't have to shut the door that often!
 
I wouldn't unless new dog is expected to be a problem and you have no secure room to close him in. I don't think they are an acceptable place to leave a dog for any length of time (shut obv) personally.
 
I have never crated before but have just got an Italian Greyhound to add to our 2 German Pointers.
We decided to crate purely for safety reasons, they certainly can't be left to bed down together in the same room, the GSP's would do him serious damage if they got overly excited with him .... and he does a good job of annoying them too, so they do paw at him.

The first night we put him in, he cried quite a lot (he was crated with his Mum and brothers), so I moved the crate upstairs. I had it up there at night for about a week and then put him downstairs. He now pops in there quite happily :).
He is in there during the day for up to 3 hours (when I do the horse etc) and whenever I get in, he is fast asleep. I have never once come in to him crying.

He is also a gannet and a thief and bloody fast at it as well. If my kids happen to have a game out with small parts/counters, he is popped in there again for safety's sake.

So, the short answer is, I am converted and I wouldn't hesitate to crate :).

It also means if we go away and take him with us, he can go in his crate at night and won't keep us all awake with his whining as it is where he knows he sleeps :).

Just to say we have had him approx 8 weeks.
 
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Definitely crate, but as SP45 says it should be a nice place for the dog, their den they can retreat to if they want to. My puppy sleeps in his and loves it. When he is older ( and not chewing anymore) he will progress to a dog bed if he is happy to.
 
The softie answer here is crate! The crate is a private, secure, cosy area your dog should love, so any softie would want their dog to have one! The trick is to allow the dog to choose the crate. Make the crate nice an inviting, e.g. blanket or bed, feed in the crate and don't shut the door to begin with. Once the dog is used to the crate you can begin to close the door, but leave him with some nice chews to occupy himself. Never use the crate as a punishment or leave a dog in one for too long (8 hours overnight should be fine for an adult dog, but 4 hours at a time during the day in between exercising, playing and training is enough).
 
Crate.

Also first time user with new terrier puppy, now 6 months old and a complete convert.

Pup is very small and crate is huge (more of an indoor run with a roof really). There is a bed, toys, a toiletting area and drink/food bowls.

She was crated with brothers and sisters, so I brought a mattress downstairs and slept near her crate - chucked her out in the garden for a wee every time she cried. She had a hot water bottle and a teddy bear with her, we got into a routine doing the same thing each evening.

After 3 days, I moved my mattress away in the next room with the door open, then with the door shut, then back upstairs to my bed. In 1 week, she was happy to sleep through the night by herself downstairs.

She also stays in her crate when I'm at work. 45mns - hour-long walk in morning, then day in crate, then comes with me to do the horses for a couple of hours in the evening - Neighbours who work from home say they can NEVER hear her (and, we're talking about a terrier in a terraced house here!!!).

I believe she would not have been this happy with things (bearing in mind I am out 8.45 - 3.45 every day) without the safe routine provided by the crate training.
 
Crate, from a behavioural, nurse and rescue point of view;) it is better to atleast try and crate, than wait too long have issues then try and introduce a crate at a later stage, and there is also a way to go about crating in a positive manor, staffs suffer seperation issues commonly esp ones we let go from our rescue and we crate train them all before they go.
If u want a crate training guide PM me your e.mail and I will send u one.
 
i have 3 staffies the oldest is 14 years old never used a crate just got a staffie x gs puppy he is not useing a crat,the only resuse i got was 4 years old he is now 10 he was in a crate all his life only let out for a few hours a day he is ok now but when i got him he had no nails and cuts across his nose and was in a very poor state and very ipo so please just us a basket
 
Crate for definite. We have never used one before we got our last dog - jrtx. We didn't havee one for some weeks, and were getting nowhere with house training. On this forum people advised getting a crate. i was very reluctant but can honestly say its the best thing. her house training came on a treat and now she's pretty much clean. She goes in at night and when I'm at work. she used to mess while we were out and chew thngs but now she's safe and the house is safe!!
 
I will send the crate guide as requested, also to add, in the case of a rescue dog the best time to introduce a crate is when they have come straight from a kennel, as they are already used to being in a confined space so should be easier to introduce a crate, the problem is for instance.... if this staff has been handed into rescue for lack of toilet training or destruction and her last owners decided not to tackle it but to hand her to a rescue where a kennel will not have helped toilet issues at all (in most cases made them worse), then her next owners are the ones that are left to tackle the issues:rolleyes:, and this is why! so many kennel rescue dogs are returned, and the kennels will give little guidance and they will have minimal history of the dogs past or will have been unable to assess the dogs sufficiently as it's impossible in a kennel to tell "a new owner" what the dog is like in a home.

So if for instance you take that dog home, lavish it with love, attention and constant company (alien to a kennel dog), then u return to work and take all that time away "problems start" and trying to introduce a crate now/leter at a stage where the dog has been used to spending its time with you "will create bedlam" esp with a staff, they can destroy any crate within minutes and make horrendous noise, so IMO it's far better to use a one from the get go and phase it out, than to try and inroduce a one later and have issues that get so bad the dog is returned to the kennel.
 
KINGLIAM said:
he was in a crate all his life only let out for a few hours a day he is ok now but when i got him he had no nails and cuts across his nose and was in a very poor state and very ipo so please just us a basket
Click to expand...

That's not because he was crated. That's because his previous owners were irresponsible - crate or no crate, it is irresponsible owners who create damaged dogs...
 
thanks everyone and thanks cayla. i have rescued a staffie before and they provided me with a crate but lydia did not mess, i just had her in my small hall over night with paper and let her out every hour through the night then over the next few nights lessened it to no overnight trips, i guess i got lucky. i think 2 accidents in a year (when a new rug came in funnily enough)

incidentally, our new arrival was found running around with a harness and lead attached....we dont know if she was let go of / ran off or what but i think its very sad that a gorgeous little dog obviously trained to sit on command has not been chipped / tagged nor sought after.

i discovered today she isnt particularly food orientated ie for training and she walked out wth a friend of mines dog today which is a first, my last dog only walked out with one other dog, it is going to be soooo nice having a dog friendly staffie again.

now, we are onto names now of Dasher / Emerald / Storm / Tiny / Mini - your thoughts?
 
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