to crate or not to crate?

Crating my Fur Kids is not something I like to do. I’m one of those humans that feels bad confining a living creature to a small place for any length of time. The fact that I’m claustrophobic just adds to this feeling. I wouldn’t sit in a closet for hours on end, why should my dogs sit in a crate?

The biggest and most important answer is SAFETY. No matter what - your pet’s safety has got to be your #1 priority.

We used to let the Yorkies have the run of the house after they graduated from the puppy stage and could be trusted not to mess in the house or chew anything up. When they entered their senior stage of life we found that they were having trouble controlling their bodily functions. Damien used to sleep with me every single night, he would not leave my side. He lived with epilepsy all his life which was pretty well controlled by meds. In his last couple of years and particularly his last few months, the medicines stopped working and so we had to keep him safe. A seizure at the top of the stairs could be deadly for him. Their crates were always open and available to them and they would go in on their own. They liked their crate. We just had to start closing the door and that seemed to be fine with them.

Riley came to us already crate trained. It only took a few days for me to realize he was already housebroken as well. Yayyy! In my mind there was no reason then to crate him. He could have the run of the house, he hadn’t given me any reason to believe I couldn’t trust him.

At first when he was left alone I’d come home to find our stray belongings had been moved to a pile in the middle of the kitchen floor. The belongings were never damaged and Riley had deligated himself as my own personal Interior Decorator. It looked like he was also sleeping on the piles he made and that brought me to the conclusion that it was his way of feeling close to us. What a sweet dog! He misses us .. it was soooo cute! He wasn’t doing any damage, so what was the harm?

He got bored with making piles of easy to reach ground level belongings and I started coming home to wall decorations having been removed from the walls and chewed to smitherines. Ok, so now we’re talking he’s making me nervous as to what else he might decide to “play” with. It was time for Mom to wake up and smell the roses. His solo activities were dangerous to his well-being and so we had to revert to crating him when we were not at home.

Nissa took to crate training fairly quickly and without to much hassle. Housebreaking was a whole ‘nother story. I thought she’d never get the hang of that, but eventually she caught on and messes became a thing of the past.