Crating

Laurelin

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#1
On another forum there's an argument about whether crates are cruel or not. I stated they were necessary for Mia because she escapes other types of confinement and if left in a 'safe room' she proceeds to remove the flooring and/or chew the walls.

This was the response:

If Mia is doing that ... sorry but honestly you never properly taught her how to feel comfortable and confident being left alone with out being crated. Some dogs develop a problem where they become co-dependant on their crates to manage impulse control and never develop that trait when left alone in a home well simply because they were never exposed to it when they were young. Crate training hinders the teaching of appropriate house manners well why??? Simply because the dog is never granted the opportunity to screw up and be corrected. So being in such a tempting situation with out the proper coping tools, I'm not surprised you end up with destructive behavior because the stress of all that freedom again causes anxiety.
Thoughts?
 

MandyPug

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#2
Why would you ever want to set a dog up to fail just so you can "correct" that?

Jeeze, some people. I mean i don't crate, but i don't have destructive dogs and they've never been destructive.
 

corgipower

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#3
Stay away from other forums. ;)


Simply because the dog is never granted the opportunity to screw up and be corrected.
Wow...how about a crate prevents destructive self-rewarding behaviors from becoming established and allow you to set your dog up to succeed while you're there and not set him up to fail while you're not there.

And how do you correct a dog for behaviors he does when you're not there anyway? :rolleyes: You don't...you can't...which is why preventing them is ideal.

As for impulse control? Yea, Mia may be lacking in some of that. :rofl1: But for some dogs, impulse control is nonexistent until they're older. For some dogs, it may never be fully reliable when unsupervised. Dogs do what works. If they get pleasure from it, they'll do it again. I can't imagine ever leaving the malis uncrated when I'm not home.
 

Fran101

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#4
I dont agree

I mean, its not like mia is NEVER outside the crate. shes just in there when you can't watch her
chances are, even if you catch her chewing on nails/the floor, catch her and stop her. she would still do it again once you aren't around. and could end up hurting herself

I think Mia is a confident lovely dog.. but shes smart and when bored, looks for something mentally stimulating, like chewing stuff! so the crate is for her safety as well as your apartment

Romeo had a shoe chewing thing.. loved high heels. but now, if im home, I can leave ALL my shoes out and he wont touch them
but if I left the house with all my shoes all over and went to work and he got bored.. Im not sure what he would be but he would probably chew
Why would I set him up to fail?

so instead letting my shoe closet potentially face the wrath of romeo, he stays in a room with no shoes. for both his safety and my sanity! lol

if it wasn't just shoes, and like Mia he chewed walls/nails, he would be in a crate. that would be for his own safety and my apartment

Not to mention, Romeo likes his crate. he brings toys/food in there..so its not like he HATES being in there. its not a punishment..its a safe place for him to be

I think as long as crates are the right size, and are dogs aren't in there 24/7 and they are used properly. they are great tools!

Oh and I dont think romeo OR mia has seperation anxiety or whatever because they chew stuff when we leave.
I think they are just..bored. and its fun to do lol
 

Laurelin

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#5
Stay away from other forums. ;)




Wow...how about a crate prevents destructive self-rewarding behaviors from becoming established and allow you to set your dog up to succeed while you're there and not set him up to fail while you're not there.

And how do you correct a dog for behaviors he does when you're not there anyway? :rolleyes: You don't...you can't...which is why preventing them is ideal.

As for impulse control? Yea, Mia may be lacking in some of that. :rofl1: But for some dogs, impulse control is nonexistent until they're older. For some dogs, it may never be fully reliable when unsupervised. Dogs do what works. If they get pleasure from it, they'll do it again. I can't imagine ever leaving the malis uncrated when I'm not home.
Lol, yes Mia is slightly lacking in impulse control. :rofl1: I wonder if this person has ever dealt with a Mia type... All my past dogs could be left out free while we were gone, but not Mia for sure. At least not now. She is only 14 months so that may change (please? lol)

Supposedly this person is a behaviorist too.
 

Laurelin

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#6
This was the advice:

You can certainly start introducing her by building her confidence by confining her when you are home and able to correct and redirect ther behavior when it happens. You do the same desensatizng exercises you do when you have a dog that is sensitive to your leaving. Start at short incriments 5, 10 minutes then come back and praise when there's no destruction, and the goal is to increase the time with each successful short leaving. If you make it for 5 minutes for a few days and no destruction or anxiety then you go to 10 and then 15 and so on. It absolutely can be done if you have the desire and commit the time and energy to it, but it wil be hard since she has become crate dependant.
I can't see how a dog would understand they were getting rewarded for not being destructive?
 

ACooper

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#7
And how do you correct a dog for behaviors he does when you're not there anyway?
This was the question I wanted to ask.

And I don't think her answer really covered the "correction" part of her statement, LOL

I don't agree with her either. I can tell you that when Orson was younger, he also chewed up the wall in a 'safe room' (and we have block/plaster walls) chewed up a couch (while I was home in the next room for a very short amount of time!!) and other things that were UNSAFE for him not just our belongings.

He needed to mature, not be allowed in the habit of doing those things and creating his own 'fun times' so to speak. He didn't do those things out of separation anxiety, he was perfectly fine when we left, never cried.......heck, he would do those crazy things when we WERE RIGHT THERE! hahaha, so I don't think SA training would have helped him in anyway. I'll never know now because it's over and he is fine, but that's my thoughts.

Now he can be trusted out in the house no matter how long I intend to be gone. He doesn't destroy anything that doesn't belong to him, he doesn't even counter surf! If I hadn't used his crate, I believe he would in the habit of doing what he wants, when he wants and my home (or him) wouldn't be safe from destruction, LOL

EDIT TO ADD: And then you have the NON crazy dogs like Phoebe (and your other dogs Laur) Phoebe never needed a crate, we didn't even own one until Orson came along! So yes, I wonder if that person has ever lived with a "mia" or "Orson" type dog too! hahahaha
 
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#8
i dont know what i would do without my crates. i have 3 of the 42" crates for my girls. i will have to get a bigger one for Abbi realy soon. they need time to themselves as well as i do. when one dog gets on anothers nerves, they go in the crate just to get away. they have their blanket and toys and like being in there. i also fee in the crate. when someone starts getting out of hand, the crate is used as a time out for a few minutes and they know that. i am fair, but i dont want my dogs to fail. when Abbi is tired, she wants to chew things, so the crate is where she goes. she goes there and goes to sleep and will sleep forever if you let her. when i leave and will be gone for longer than about 2 to 3 hours, i use the crate. my kiddos dont complain and come when i call. i have family that is afraid of them, so they have to get put up. again the kiddos dont mind being in there. it works great. can you imagine a Mastiff size pile of poo on your carpet. i dont think so. lol
 

Amber

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#10
I think Junior would hurt himself if he wasn't crated, so IMO it would be cruel to NOT crate him. He would do anything to try and get out of a "safe room" and injure himself doing that, or ingest something that could kill him. He enjoys his crate, too. He goes in it if he gets scared or overwhelmed, so, again I think it would be cruel for him to not have a crate.

But yeah, I don't think it's completely a matter of training for Mia.
 
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elegy

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#11
oh pish. pups and young dogs are just that- pups and young dogs. it's normal for them not have self-control enough to not eat the house while they're alone. i've seen way way too many young dogs get themselves in serious trouble, and i see no good reason for that when crates are an option.

sure there are dogs who are never successfully weaned from crates for one reason or another. so what? if the dog is happy in the crate, the crate is appropriately large, and the owner is providing appropriate bathroom breaks and exercise, what difference does it make if the dog is sleeping in a crate or sleeping on the couch?

when luce was a sweet young thang, she freaked out if i left even for two seconds without crating her. she'd scream and fling herself at the doors and the windows. if i crated her, she didn't make a peep. this continued for a number of years, but then somewhere down the line she grew up. now i can leave her uncrated a whole day with no concern at all.
 

oakash

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#12
If I ever happen to won a dog like Mia or Orson, I would use a crate. Suzie is not destructive, she will sleep on the couch all day if you let her! So I think they are silly, they are cruel if the dog spends all day in it, even when you are able to watch it, but if you use it right, it is helpful.
 

Zoom

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#13
Her advice is similar to what I did for Virgo (who was simple unable to be crated) but I don't know that it would work for Mia. Mia's issue is impulse control as you've stated, not necessarily anxiety. Sawyer was crated when I first got him because of sep. anxiety and then we slowly worked on being chill when left out and alone. It took a few months, but it worked and he hasn't been crated in like...4 1/2 years (with the exception of when he stayed with Cheza back in March).

But I agree with CP, stay away from other forums. ;)
 

BostonBanker

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#14
sure there are dogs who are never successfully weaned from crates for one reason or another. so what? if the dog is happy in the crate, the crate is appropriately large, and the owner is providing appropriate bathroom breaks and exercise, what difference does it make if the dog is sleeping in a crate or sleeping on the couch?
That was my thought. Who the heck *cares* if she is dependent on her crate? I don't see it that way exactly, but I also can't see what the harm is. It isn't like she is running into the crate to escape the terrors and stresses of the world; you are using it as management tool when you are unable to supervise. As long as she doesn't care, why should anyone else? Heaven knows, you give her an enormous amount of time and attention outside the crate.
 

corgipower

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#15
sure there are dogs who are never successfully weaned from crates for one reason or another. so what?
So very true...and while I could probably leave Ares and Morgan loose, I cannot leave the malis loose and even if I could, I can't leave everyone loose together without supervision - they will fight. I won't have one or two running free while the others are crated - that seems wildly unfair and causes stress and overstimulation issues. So yea, they're all crated when I'm not home.

I also had one dog who was allowed to sleep on the bed. Once. She never moved. The whole night, stayed in one spot, didn't so much as roll over. I woke up feeling very proud of her. Until she got off the bed and there was a huge hole in the sheet right under her mouth. :eek::rofl1: She never was given another opportunity to be loose while I was sleeping.
 

elegy

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#16
So very true...and while I could probably leave Ares and Morgan loose, I cannot leave the malis loose and even if I could, I can't leave everyone loose together without supervision - they will fight. I won't have one or two running free while the others are crated - that seems wildly unfair and causes stress and overstimulation issues. So yea, they're all crated when I'm not home.
i don't have any problems leaving one bully loose and the other (and steve) crated. mushroom is loose in the morning, luce in the afternoon. we've been doing that for awhile now, and it seems to work well. but those are my dogs, and all they do is empty their kongs and then sleep.

at this point, i don't know if steve will ever be able to be left alone unsupervised if i wish to come home to a house :eek:
 

corgipower

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#18
at this point, i don't know if steve will ever be able to be left alone unsupervised if i wish to come home to a house :eek:
Yea...with corgis and malis, over stimulation is a bit easier. ;) Especially because it would be the corgis loose, and the malis crated - and worked up simply because there was a dog walking across the room. :p

I find coming home to a house a pleasurable thing, btw. :lol-sign: I'm pretty sure my landlord agrees. :p
 
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#19
The comment from the other board doesn't make sense to me either. How can you correct behavior when you're not there to correct it? As far as dogs that don't outgrow the crate, I think that may apply to mine. They are 4(?) and 2.5, and a recent experiment with leaving them free while I was at work led to a destroyed cell phone. They also figured out how to get into my closet and pulled all my shoes out of the shoe rack (they have a taste for real leather), knocked down the blinds, and shredded several papers. I can't afford that much damage on a regular basis! I also think they also feel more secure in their crates when I'm gone. When I've left them free, they are absolutely frantic when I get home, whereas they're much calmer when in their crates.
 

PlottMom

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#20
The hounds have decided they are no longer housetrained, so I'm pretty sure my landlord and I agree Liz's crate is a wonderful thing.

Daisy gets baby-gated into the kitchen, because you can hear her in New Jersey if she howls and she will howl if crated. She'll hold her bladder FOREVER in the kitchen (because it's linoleum and god forbid she has to stand in it) but if left on carpet and I run upstairs for something, quickly, and leave her downstairs? She'll piddle before I get back, even if I've just taken her out. Any good trainer will tell you dogs don't do things out of spite... sure. Whatever. lol. She *has* gotten better about that...
 

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