To Crate or not to crate?

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TayloredEq

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So I haven't been to keen on the whole crate idea but when I brought the puppies down to the house tonight they stayed outside to go about their business and then they all seemed very keen to come in. Their bed is in a corner of the kitchen surrounded by a little cage to keep them contained, then overnight we open it up so they have a bit more space.

So with how keen they seemed to get in their space I was thinking that maybe I should look into getting a crate for Bear (assuming I can persuade my Mum that he can stay!)

So what size would I need for a GSD? what sort of cost should i expect to pay? Are there better makes? and any good or bad stories that people want to share?

thank you.
 
We crate our 5 month puppy Alfie. It must be only used as an aid to housetraining and not as any form of punishment. Alfie is crated at night in our bedroom and he sleeps from about 11pm till about 8 am without waking up!!

During the day he is sometimes left in his crate whilst we go out but has never been left longer than 3 hours. Its best to get a crate just big enough so they can lay down and turn around. If you get too bigger crate to start off with they will wee and one end and lie at the other!! If its the right size most dogs wont wee and sleep in the same place thus it help with the training on holding their bladder till you get home!

If you dont want to keep buying crates as they grow you can always make/buy a divider that makes the crate smaller, and move it along as they grow. Alfie has the biggest one you can get in the bedroom as he is in it a good few hours and he can really stretch, plus he doesnt soil the crate at night. During the day he is in a smaller one. You can see in this pic we made a divider for ours but as he has grown its now been removed
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He nolonger soils the crate and is doing well with his housetraining!

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I buy my crates from robinsons as they are cheaper than anywhere else..
 
We had a crate for our puppy, and she still uses it now at nearly four years old, although the door is open now and she comes and goes as she pleases! She seems to love the security of it and other dogs who come to stay are keen to nip into her crate as well!

As I'm sure you are aware, puppies and dogs should not be confined to them for long periods of time - and most horror stories you will hear about them are likely to relate to cases where they have been used inappropriately.

I found using a crate a great aid to house-training. Puppies often want to go to the toilet as soon as they wake up - the trouble is when they are having a nap the owner tends to get stuck into something else and miss the moment the pup awakes until they get that unmistakeable smell wafting towards them! Because the pup is not keen to soil its bed unless absolutely desperate, using a crate means that it gives you time to notice that pup is awake and whip it out into the garden sharpish!
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Crates must be introduced properly though - if you only put the pup in the crate when you are going to leave him, then he will soon have negative associations towards it.
 
I've used crates for the last 2 dogs I have had from puppies, and have found they are a great help for house training, and if used correctly the dogs love them and treat them as their own secure space. The crate I have for Evie is huge because I bought it from a house clearance sale held by a Great Dane breeder! As you can see from the pic she and Buffy share it. Evie is bigger now but they both still fit in. She sleeps in it overnight still, but other than that is never left in it for longer than 4 hours, and I always make sure she has had plenty of exercise before she goes in there. I would eventually like to get rid of it as it does rather fill my kitchen but for now I find it very useful.
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i crate my 4 (nearly 5) mnth old puppy, we have a rosewood one, its the 2nd from largest. He is a border collie, and it is a tad too large for him at the minute, but doesnt do anything like wee in it etc. It means at night I cant put in him, he settles, I settle and we both get a good night sleep! the first 2 nights were a bit rough as he got used to it, but once he accepted it, he is quite happy to go in it now!
 
As superbly explained by everyone else, I would also say TO CRATE, save alot of strive later, when you decise you have no choice but to introduce one at a later stage, as problems such as seperation anxiety or destruction begin to occur, crating at puppy at 6 months on for the very first time, can be very stressfull for u and puppy, believe me
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As explained, start small and increase the size, as suggested already, section the crate off, if u don't want to keep up sizeing.
 
I did slightly different to everyone else and it worked great. I bought the biggest I could get as I didnt want to keep getting bigger ones,(not knowing before hand what everyone has previously posted about size).
My vet said it was unfair to expect a young puppy to hold its bladder all night as it just isnt able too, so I half papered and half bedded the cage and it worked great. Maybe I was lucky? When he grew too big to fit in half of it I was concerned what would happen when I removed the paper but he was great. He never dirtied his bed, he did get us up a couple of mornings at first to go out but then he was fine.
Im really glad to read people leave their larger dogs in them for a few hours as I was starting to feel a bit unfair as my boy is growing fast and I was wondering what the next stage was without risking a 7 mth Lurcher chewing my house up.
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As you can see from my pic above, I have a large crate and papered half when she was tiny. When she grew bigger I removed the paper(she had taken to eating it anyway) and she has an oval dog bed in the crate now.
 
Im quite lucky, my pup just goes to sleep in the kitchen when I go out - shes never chewed anything or destroyed things (well shes pulled some threads out of the rug but thats it)
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I have a gate on the kitchen door so she doesnt go anywhere else - she just gets into her bed and dozes
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If I had an open plan house or something I probably would of got a crate, they are good so long as the dog sees it as their safe hidey hole
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