Are cages just a trend?

Poppie68

Thanks everyone for some great tips, even though I'm a long-time dog owner we have always been lucky with our grumpy old man as he has always been well behaved and never had any issues... well apart from him not liking little kids, but he took to our DG from the day she was born and after keeping watch over them together for the first 2 months we can trust them both in a room alone... he even snuggles up to her in bed..
Again thankyou .

catkins

With 13 dogs over the years we never used a crate, had never even heard of them. We mainly had older rescue dogs so they were already housetrained and none of them really tended to chew or damage anything.


Then just over 3 years ago we decided to get a puppy. We live in a much smaller house now and the downstairs is open plan living/dining room with stairs going off and the kitchen is to one side with no door on it.


It seemed pretty difficult to make the living/dining room part puppy safe because of tv wires, computer wires, stereo wires etc. The kitchen is quite small and although the puppy could have been in there overnight and when left we just were not that happy with that idea.


I don't work so was going to be home with pup all day - I did though do the going outside for very short periods just so he would not get used to someone being with him all the time.


His breeder uses crates so although he had never been locked in one he was used to them and sometimes slept in one if he chose to. So, on the advice of our breeder, we bought a smallish crate before we got him.


For the first couple of weeks the crate door was left open during the day and he often went in there to sleep and overnight it was closed but we took it in turns to sleep downstairs with him. We started with the crate next to the settee so if he cried in the night we could stroke him through the bars and speak softly to him. Most times he went back to sleep but if he didn't we took him the garden as we assumed to need to toilet. He was toilet trained in a week.


Until he was about 6 months he slept in his crate with the door locked - we bought a much bigger crate and after that we left the door open.


We fully intended to get rid of the crate totally by about 6 months but found that he chose to sleep in it about 80% of his sleeping time and if he was ever worried or not feeling too good that is where he always chose to go.


He will be 4 in July and we still have the large crate in our quite small living/dining area. Really it is an eyesore but we just can't bring ourselves to remove it. Our dog sitter has crates and she says the same, that he almost always chooses to sleep in one.


There was a discussion recently on a dog forum I go on and a lot of people were saying they are cruel and only lazy owners use them which really annoyed me. A couple of posters who live in Sweden and Norway said although crates are sold in those countries it is illegal to use them with the door closed. I asked how on earth that could be enforced and was shot down.

mellymoo74

If they are there a 30 year trend. We bred and showed dachshunds growing up and they had crates.

Faith177

I have two huskies and would be lost without their crates/cages they are a God send! I never had crates for my boxers I had previously but the huskies seem to respond so well to them.

They love their crates and often when we come home they have put themselves in there for a snooze (we keep the door open most of the time). They tend to only put them in there myself when I'm cleaning as they get under my feet, if the cats are in the front room for a bit as our male doesn't like cats they stress him out but he's ok in his crate and when it's dinner time as the girl tends to try and nick the boys as she can be a gut bucket. I don't ever use them as a punishment though that would be too cruel they are just there as their space. They have blankets and cuddle toys and allsorts in there. In the summer it gives them some shade as they are in the far corner away from my big patio doors and in the winter I cover them with a duvet so when the doors are open at night the have something to keep the heat in

It's also handy when people come over as they are so big in fact the boy is taller than me at 5'5 when he stands up!! I just have to call "Good Huskies Cages" and they are in them in a second.

I don't think I would ever not have them going forward they are just too useful

teddysmum

After having three dogs, two of whom destroyed things when we were out , we had two cavaliers who were fine loose, but then acquired a third. As he was a young puppy, I thought it best to have a crate so he was safe, while we were out, should any argument occur with the older dogs.


The new crate arrived and was erected, upon which dog number two climbed in , lay down and took possession. He was 5 years old and had never been crated, but he loved the thing. (I have had internet friends who posted photos of six small dogs, all in one crate, piled on top of each other;door wide open, so no coercion ).


My current two like to use the crates as havens and the younger one used to go into one and close the door (up and over type) when he was in a grumpy mood. Crates are where 'treasures' are 'buried' under the duvet and we've often had one dog lie on top of the other as the first one in took up too much floor space.


They are also handy, if workmen who are wary of dogs arrive,both reassuring the man and making sure the dogs don't touch anything they shouldn't.


I would never be without a crate (or two), as they are also good for house training, separate feeding for greedy dogs and provide restricted for rest after ops.. (Teddy flies to his crate if dinner bowls are out).

Soundgirlrocks

I was unsure of crates too when I got my Pap, I bought two one for work and one for home. He hated the one at home, at night he would hook his front paw over the bars stand on his back legs and howel like a prisoner in cell block H, we managed a week of interrupted sleep before letting him out, (he now steps on the bed so I guess he won that round) but I also have one at work and he takes himself off into it for a snooze, hides things he's pinched from the bin and generally is his default location if nothing fun is happening. Door is only shut if I need to separate him from a client for some reason. It's his safe space

MallyGirl

I tried crate training my first malamute puppy as she was a chewer but she absolutely hated it and we just managed by keeping room doors shut when we went out, restricting her to the large hall.
Enter malamute puppy no 2. He is a really greedy boy and a fast eater whereas she ignores food or walks away from it. In order for him to survive to adulthood (she may not have wanted her food but he certainly wasn't allowed to have it) we have always fed him in his crate and he is not allowed out till she has finished or walked away and we have picked up the food. He also pees up the wall when left - we think it is a protest as he then settles down and is absolutely fine but it has killed the paintwork and carpet. He is also really strong and wants to chase the cat so I had to get an ironmonger to make a stairgate to keep her safe after he destroyed 4 stairgates in a short space of time. So he is crated if we go out and Malamute girl has the hall.
They sleep in our room at night, not in crates.
Bizarrely we have moved the crate from the dining room (where it was inaccessible except at mealtimes) to the open plan conservatory/kitchen for Christmas and every time I go past it she is in there asleep! Little madam. We will probably leave it there till the summer when it will get too warm for him to be shut in it.

Katiehound

I have used crates for the first months with my rehomed / rescue hounds. This is particularly because they are not used to living in houses and have a tendency to find crunchy plastic and wires to eat! I used them for about 6 months and then gave them back (the crates!) to the owners. In the car my two have seperate crates purpose built to fit the car and they just curl up and go to sleep in there. They don't bat an eyelid.
A big vote from me as I have always had rescue dogs and the crates made life so much easier and house training was quicker.

krlyr

Person_one wrote: »

I just wish somebody would invent/design a range of cages that are a bit more attractive rather than sticking out like a sort thumb in an otherwise nicely decorated room.

In fact, maybe that's an idea for Dragon's Den, would anybody except me be remotely interested?

There are some, like the Orvis ones, but they're a pretty penny too!



Crate covers are a cheaper option for the wire style, available in different patterns or to custom specifications

lisa110rry

Just to add another perspective, perhaps an unusual one, when I rehomed Miss Leigh from Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, I was loaned (lent?) a cage. It was useful until I could get a dog guard for my 4wd because at first she came to work with me and stayed in the car (in the shade) while I worked, with a walk at both breaks and a good long walk along the Humber at lunch time. However, it was never used in my rented accommodation for work, nor at home, because she had been trained, being a rather small dog, to sleep on the tiniest, furthest corner of the bed so as to be able to wake me when the alarm went off or alert to the phone and doorbell. She is now approaching 11 rapidly and has stopped sleeping on my bed. I no longer work away and my husband is retired, so we use bungees to secure the bedrooms in the day, just to stop her depositing fur if she decides to sleep in one of the beds; she has never chewed an inappropriate thing.

Love the idea of 'good husky crate, though, and I can certainly see the point. My friend's American Cocker also loves hers.