Is it bad not to crate?

[Fluffer85]

I haven't posted on this forum..usually I post on the rabbit forum, but I thought I'd come and ask all you doggy savy owners a question...

I adopted my dog fall of 2004 and she is now 2 yrs old. I have never crated her. She's had probably 4 accidents in the house since we've had her, only because I didn't see that she was giving me a sign that she wanted out. Am I giving her more control than I should with being out and about while I"m gone. Or are there dogs that are just able to be out. She doesn't chew anything. Never has an accident when someone isn't home and is the perfect angel.

I also want to get her a friend and the thing I'm concerned about is having to crate the other dog and not her. Should I adopt another dog that is able to roam the house? *sigh* THanks for the help guys.

[LUVMYSWISSY]

Just because you other dog isn't crated is no reason not to crate a new puppy. Your puppy needs to be confined if not for any reason her own saftey.

Crate training can be an efficient and effective way to house train a dog. Dogs do not like to soil their resting/sleeping quarters if given adequate opportunity to eliminate elsewhere. Temporarily confining your dog to a small area strongly inhibits the tendency to urinate and defecate. However, there is still a far more important aspect of crate training.

If your dog does not eliminate while she is confined, then she will need to eliminate when she is released, i.e., she eliminates when you are present to reward and praise her.

Be sure to understand the difference between temporarily confining your dog to a crate and long term confinement when you are not home. The major purpose of confinement when your are not home is to restrict mistakes to a small protected area. The purpose of crate training is quite the opposite. Short term confinement to a crate is intended to inhibit your dog from eliminating when confined, so that she will want to eliminate when released from confinement and taken to an appropriate area. Crate training also helps teach your dog to have bladder and bowel control. Instead of going whenever she feels like it, she learns to hold it and go at convenient scheduled times.

Crate training should not be abused, otherwise the problem will get drastically worse. The crate is not intended as a place to lock up the dog and forget her for extended periods of time. If your dog soils her crate because you left her there too long, the house training process will be set back several weeks, if not months.

Your dog should only be confined to a crate when you are at home. Except at night, give your dog an opportunity to relieve herself every hour. Each time you let her out, put her on leash and immediately take her outside. Once outside, give her about three to five minutes to produce. If she does not eliminate within the allotted time period, simply return her to her crate. If she does perform, then immediately reward her with praise, food treats, affection, play, an extended walk and permission to run around and play in your house for a couple of hours. For young pups, after 45 minutes to an hour, take her to her toilet area again. Never give your dog free run of your home unless you know without a doubt that her bowels and bladder are empty.

During this crate training procedure, keep a diary of when your dog eliminates. If you have her on a regular feeding schedule, she should soon adopt a corresponding elimination schedule. Once you know what time of day she usually needs to eliminate, you can begin taking her out only at those times instead of every hour. After she has eliminated, she can have free, but supervised, run of your house. About one hour before she needs to eliminate (as calculated by your diary) put her in her crate. This will prevent her from going earlier than you had planned. With your consistency and abundance of rewards and praise for eliminating outside, she will become more reliable about holding it until you take her out. Then the amount of time you confine her before her scheduled outing can be reduced, then eliminated.

[FemaleWriter]

If you crate, make sure to get a good crate. Do not get a crate that looks like a cage (where the dog can see out 5 sides).

We tried to crate Ringo when we first got him, but we bought this cage/crate thing and he had seriously injured himself trying to get out of it on several occasions. We didn’t want to hurt him so we stopped crating him. Luckily, he was housebroken by that time and did not need to be crated.

If you decide to crate your dog, good luck.

~Christine

[Norman]

Crating is a personal preference. We didn't crate Charlie and yes it took longer to toilet train her but we got there. We didn't crate simply cos some days she is on her own for 6-8 hours and as a puppy I felt that was a long time to hold it and to be confined. We have no garden but a field right on our doorstep. Instead of a crate we used our whole kitchen. We have a tiled floor in our kitchen so we taught her she could first go in there on the paper, then reduced the paper area, once she got used to the reduced paper we slowy moved the paper towards the front door and eventually no paper so she sits by the front door when she needs to go out. Of course all through this if she went outside she got praise and treats. The kitchen was her crate as she had space to move and play, we made sure there was NOTHING she could hurt herself on, and she only ever went in one corner. Tiled floor was easy to clean if she did have an accident which she rarely did to be fair as we were praising her outside so much she twigged quiet early that she should be going outside and held it most times.

We simply chose not to crate as I said some days my other half was home all day so she could be confiend for short periods but other days it could all day so we used the kitchen instead for consistency.

[RavenRose]

If you're having no problems with the current dog not being crated, I see no reason to start now. Since she's never been crated, you'd probably just stress her out. If you add another dog thought, I would crate the new one, for two reasons. For one, it will be a new dog to you and you won't know what it'll do in the house alone. Two, it will be a new dog to the current dog and I wouldn't trust them unsupervised together for a little while at least. Also, if the new dog isn't potty trained, it will help with that.

As far as having one crated and not the other, I've never had an issue with it. They'll both pretty much sleep when you're gone or asleep (which I assume would be the only time the crate would be used). If you really feel bad not having the second one out, try putting it in a room that you can close a door so it doesn't see your current one moving around.

As far as not using the metal cages, it depends on the dog. I have heard what FemaleWriter said about dogs hurting themselves, but I've heard it about the plastic crates also (with the door). I personally have never had a problem with the metal ones and I work at a pet supply store and sell them all the time.

[Fluffer85]

Thanks guys for the advice.

I was actually going to adopt an older dog...well...over a year old and already housebroken. When I adopted Hannah, she never had an accident when I was at work...(8 hours). I figure she just sleeps anyway while I'm gone so she wouldn't have to go as often. She is the perfect dog. I really don't like the idea of crating for 8 hours, so I think I would just confine to one room....or maybe the kitchen. I would love a puppy, but I don't think I have the time for one being the only caretaker. It would be different if someone were living with me and was home when I'm not. I'll get a puppy someday when I'm married. ;) But for now...I'll stick to rescuing the dogs that have a slim chance. :)

Again..thanks guys.