Anyone crated their dog for long periods of time??

[rainbowinthesky]

We will be crating our dog for 2 months and only letting him out to the toilet and hopefully short walks- all done on teh lead.

Anyone done this before? How did the dog and you cope??

btw it's for medical reasons- not cause we're mean!!

I know there are people on labrador forum who have done this when their dogs have had to be rested - might be worth searching the site.

Good luck

We had to crate our 11 month old lab for two months February-March after an operation for elbow dysplasia, and honestly she's been fine. The first couple of days she hated it and I felt cruel, but now she's used to it and goes in of her own accord - she just sits nicely waiting for her biscuit! A couple of weeks ago we opened the crate and she ran out of the dog flap into the garden, had a wee, then ran back inside and went straight in on her own - like she thought "oh no, going to be locked up for a few hours, better have a wee first"

Her elbow is better now but we had to crate her for a few weeks extra because she came into season (six horny males around us!), and now she's so used to it that we're carrying it on until the chewing phase has passed. We left her loose in the kitchen for 2 hours last week and she dug up all the lino on the floor and chewed it to bits, so for the foreseeable future she's going to be crated whenever we go out! When we come home she's usually still fast asleep, so she doesn't seem to mind.

We got the biggest crate PAH did and she has four cheap vet beds from Ikea (£6 each) piled in there, one of those non-spill waterbowls at one end, and lots of chews and toys that she's only allowed to have in the crate - we rotate them so she has something new every day. The other dog has a bed next to the crate, so she's not lonely when we're out.

Not done this with a dog but have had to do so with our incredibly loving but fiercely independent Tom cat, following a collision with a car . He absolutely hated it for the first few days but he finally came around to the idea. We put the crate in our sitting room so he could have lots of contact with us. We also used Feliway - which is a cat pheromone treatment to ease stress - perhaps there is a dog equivalent which may help?

I think the key thing to remember is, as much as they may complain or hate it, we are doing it for their long term welfare's sake.

However, if you do notice that your dog is becoming depressed as a result of being crate bound, do not hesitate to speak with your vet. I felt a bit of a berk telling our vet that our tom was depressed but actually he was understanding and gave me lots of great ideas on how to both soothe him and keep him interested in life in general during his incarceration