Crate training- do I have to?

[marmiteandhoney]

We've reserved a rescue puppy who'll be coming to us once they're sure she's clear of any nasties she may have picked up in the pound.

We haven't had a dog since before children, and she was an old lady dog when we got her. She didn't have a crate (I don't think people went in for that in those days) and just had a dog bed that she ignored in favour of the sofa

Before I go out and buy a crate, has anyone any experience of having a dog from puppydom without? Any arguments for and against? Although we have four fairly young children, we have a few nooks and crannies in the house that I can imagine a dog bed would fit into, and this would become the dog's space, for children to keep well clear of.

Thank you!

crates are meant to be excellent for house training purposes as a pup will, apparently, not soil in their bedding area. Also probably v handy for containing pup when you need to be elsewhere with teh children. But then. I have no actual experience of crate training as my dog is coming in 3 WEEKS

I'm pro-crate for toilet training purposes - but had to put up with loads of comments from older family members who thought it was cruel. It gave our dog her space - I'd recommend covering it with a blanket so it becomes a den - and helped us establish some sort of routine so she knew it was time for a nap when she went in the crate.

I'd recommend as big a crate as you have space for too, you can always block half of it off with a box when she's tiny. We got the recommended size for her breed but it soon looked really cramped. We still occasionally use ours, when she's ill and we need to keep an eye on her at night but don't want her vomiting on the bed for example! And we took it camping for a few years until she was used to it (and better behaved off lead!)

Good luck!

You don't have to but you need somewhere safe to leave pup, especially when at the manic chewing stage. Pups are supposed to like their crates but mine hated it and I soon gave it up.

I've done both in the last 2 years with 2 different pups.

I'm not convinced of the benefits of crate training as a blanket fix all, tbh. It depends on the dog, it depends on the house and it depends on how YOU want to work with your dog.

The crate made no significant difference to the length of time it took to house train the dogs; it did make sure that pup1 didn't have any chewing type disasters, but the flip side of that is that pup1 is more noisy which was absolutely caused by wailing to come out of the crate to pee in the night - she is more needy on a general level though, and has been since forever - nothing to do with the crate.

A crate is useful for peace of mind. You will absolutely know that your pup can't hurt herself, eat anything dodgy, she can be popped in there if someone comes to the door and you KNOW she can't bolt out of the door.

I wouldn't rush to crate train again, tbh. It does work, it isn't cruel as long as it is never used as a punishment, but it has to be right for you.

Are the pound crate training? If they are, I would continue with it so the puppy continues with what she's used to.

No need for a crate IMHO so long as the dog has a safe quiet place where she can hide and sleep.

this thread is food for thought. I had thought that everyone swore by crate training. I msut confess dh is not all that keen and I have been dogedly determined to get one for pup. Now I am not all that sure.

Thanks for your thoughts. Dh is a vicar, so working from home (and as soon as pup can go out, she'll be his furry helper at church and doing visits etc.). I'm a sahm at the moment, too. I can't imagine pup is going to have vast amounts of unsupervised time.

Will think on it some more, but at the moment am leaning more towards several 'dog spots' around the house.

Crate training very much the exception rather than the norm in my (big) circle of doggy friends.

MrsJohnDeere - it seems that everyone on this site is a fan of crates. I had thought you HAD to have one if you want an easily housetrained contented puppy who had a safe place to retreat to. Is this subject to debate?

I'm pro crate for numerous reasons

1. They feel secure in it. my dogs love theirs and if they don't want to go for the last wee at 10pm they hop in their crates and refuse to get out usually if its raining

2.They don't soil their own bed (like others have said)

1. It helps with seperation anxiety if you have to go out without the dogs

1. It helps with teething problems. If you're not in and they chew your shoes, handbags, DC's homework (yes it has happened in this house) you'll wish you had a crate.

1. I think it helped with bedtimes. They know where they have to go at bedtime they get in and it is peace and quiet

I've done both - crate and no crate. The reason I switched to crate second time round was I went nearly crazy, tied to the kitchen all day, as it is very difficult to leave a very young pup by himself anywhere in the house. Aside from the wide distribution of wee and poo, they will chew anything, including electrical cables, and furniture, and escape through the tiniest of gaps. I ended up puppy proofing the back yard and putting him outside to keep him safe (which was far from ideal). Second pup was crate trained, so he was in all day, and safe when I was out of the room.

Do what works for you. If you have a puppy proof safe area where you can leave your pup without him escaping, injuring himself or wrecking your house you probably won't need one. Puppy pens are another alternative.

I have crate trained our 1st DDog. She was ok in there, wasn't too fussed either way but from about 10 months onward stopping using it.

DDog2 hated the crate. It really stressed her out no matter what we did so she had the utility room instead. DDog2 was housetrained much quicker than DDog 1 inspite of DDog1 having the crate so I'm not sure they aid all dogs to house train quicker iyswim.

They are brilliant if they work for your dog, certainly keeps them out of trouble and if they love it, perfect.

we're only one week in so hardly an expert.. but I can say crate has been helpful, even more useful though is our old playpen which I have used to divide the kitchen: puppy, kitchen units, crate and door to garden on one side; kids, rug, toys, table on other side. I can leave them all in the same room (briefly) and don't constantly have to pick up toys.
only problem is kids all object to her being shut behind gate or in bed and beg for her to be let out.

I haven't used a crate per se, more of a partition really. It is good for containment in an emergency, and at night to limit the scope of accidents. Mind you I have a pug and they're hardly hard work to begin with :o

Hi

If it is a long time since you have had a puppy, then I would suggest you start off with a crate and see how it goes. The downside is the crate takes up a lot of room, but the upside is that the puppy always has somewhere safe, away from the kids and their friends. IMO it is easier to tell the kids the crate is a no go area and the 'puppys den', than a bed in the corner.

The crate can also be moved upstairs - next to your bed to start with, so you can reassure a worried/lonley puppy (putting your hand on the crate and saying 'settle down'), for the first couple of days, before moving it across the room, onto the landing and then, all of this over a period of a couple of weeks, down stairs and into the kitchen, without the dog being stressed and the neighbours complaining!

If you give the puppy a last wee/poo around 11/12ish, it should be OK until around 5ish, but when it wakes up, carry it down stairs - don't let it walk, or it will pee on the way!

There is a lot of information about crate training, the important thing to remember is that it is a 'good' place, don't shut the puppy in straight away and never send the dog into it for being naughty - although I could think of a few times I wanted to send my dd in there !! (joke!!!!!!).

Despite what anyone says, it does help with housetraining, the theory being that puppys need to pee every hour or so, they need to pee on waking, usually after eating etc., when you put your puppy outside and it doesn't go, you bring it back in and put in the crate (you have trained it for the crate first), the puppy will usually not mess in the crate and you know it won't wander off and pee/poo behind the sofa, because it can't....you wait 10 minutes, put the puppy out again and continue this, until the puppy 'goes', you then make lots of fuss of the puppy and it can come in and you know you are safe for puppy to wander freely around for another hour or so and the puppy starts to understand what is expected.

There is a great book 'The perfect Puppy', by Gwen Bailey, which is excellent for the basics and has great pictures for the kids to look at too.

You don't always have to shut the door to the crate, but you will find your puppy will naturally go in there when it is tired.

By the way if you visit your puppy before you get it, take an old towel and ask it to be put in with Mum and then bring it back with your puppy when you collect it - it will help the puppy settle the first few nights.

I have never used a crate with my dogs and my current pup [english springer ] has not had one either and I find it ok. It is just that I do not like the idea of caging up my pup and I agree it is not as common as you may think especially with my doggy friends also. We have put a stair gate on living room though so kids know when to leave them be and he knows when it is our dinner !!

We are 2 weeks in with our new pup and have been using crate training.
Going OK so far, he has learnt to use his toilet area when he can't hold it through the night, etc. But in general he uses the toilet outside whenever we let him out in the garden.
He knows it is his bed and sleeping area, but he does prefer to sleep around us in the lounge for example.
He whines a bit in the night but self settles after 5 mins max.
I wish we had room in our bedroom for the crate (its massive!) as we would put it up there with us.

If you do decide to go with crate training, I would recommend THIS company on Ebay, where we bought ours. (for the reason that if you don't continue with it then you've not shelled out masses of £££)
I was at the prices in pet shops - we wanted the XXL size and all were £70 in black only in all the shops.
We got a silver one for less than £37 delivered free the next day!

good luck with whichever method you choose!

I really don't like the idea of 'crates' however I don't have anywhere safe for our puppy to be when we're not around, and at night so I compromised with a puppy pen [plus OH says it will do for when we have babies too... I hope he's joking ] it's been affectionately dubbed his bedroom

£30 on eBay brand new and it folds into a carry case so when he stays over with friends if we are away he has his own space with familiar smells etc.

It's been invaluable and i don't know how we would've survived the last 4 weeks [or will the next 12 months] without it.

is it a proper pen for dogs?

I do agree with KTk9 in some respects and I think for 1st time owners it is a particularly good idea.

Our Ddog2 wouldn't take to being in a crate so she slept in the kitchen/utility and she didnt mess in the night at all.

I just think sometimes one thing doesnt suit all dogs iyswim?

Ian Dunbar has a lot of good advice on crate/toilet training.

Puppy Pen I Bought

They come in a variety if sizes btw, loads on eBay to chose from, we took it to my in-laws when we took pupster round to meet them the first weekend we had him so he had somewhere to go when he got tired and we had lunch, it's basically a travel cot for pets

Would a crate along with a baby gate be overkill?

We are waiting for our puppy and the layout of our house means that she will have the downstairs bathroom and laundry area as hers (with a doggy door out to the yard for when she gets bigger).

The downstairs shower cubicle is where I am planning on putting her bed (we don't use it at all), should I put a crate in there or will a bed be sufficient? She is a keeshond and therefore very clever so I assume will be able to open the glass door of the shower eventually and I think I would prefer not to involve glass at all really. We will block the whole area from the toddler with the child gate to start with and then as the get used to each other (and the toddler potty trains) possibly get rid of that.

Haven't crate trained before. My previous Keesies were adopted as adults so I am new to the puppy experience. They both came with impeccable manners so no need to house/toddler proof them. Unfortunately there is not an adult female Keeshond to be had in Australia at the moment and I really have no interest in any other dog, so a puppy it is.

Scarlett- I can see that could be useful, but if it's made of fabric does it not get chewed to smithereens?

Yeah it probably will eventually but it only costs £30, and it's more of a canvas than a fabric iykwim so it's pretty durable? I'm not really intending it to last forever, just until he's about 12 months, training dependent of course!

Pupster chews anything & everything he can get his mouth on and he hasn't started on the pen yet, it's big enough to have his bed, his food/drink, a puppy pad & lots of toys in there.

So far we seem to have had all the benefits of crate training wrt keeping him contained when we are out or otherwise engaged, house training etc but without the actual crate...