Do You Crate Your Pooch When You're Not At Home?

[troymel]

oh my!!!!!

with hayden......we started leaving him out when he turned 6-7 months of age, at night only. during work hours and long leaves of the house, we would crate him. we just slowly started leaving him out longer and longer. he now has the run of the house and he is hardly EVER in his cage and he is only 2 YEARS OLD! is that good? lukas, on the other hand....... he's a little wild man still, and we can't trust him just yet. he has never destroyed anything appicon so we want to keep it that way for now. i know we will be starting a little late, 'cause he is now 11 months old, we will learn to leave him out. every now and then, like if we are gone for just an hour, we will leave him and hayden out in the house together. they do just FINE. :D

 

[jadavis702]

We live in an apartment, so when we are not home Lady is in the crate. She's such a smart girl, that when I'm adding water to her crate dishes- she just meanders right in. I don't even have to give her the "kennel" command. What an angel.

The only time I don't crate her is when she gets to go and hang out on the porch.The walls are high enough that she can't jump over them, but she can see over them. She's such a people/dog watcher!

 

[Madison's Mom]

Use to but not anymore

Up until 6 months ago I always crated Maddie because she was destructo dog. Then one day it was like she just grew up
She has been such a good girl when I leave her out. She has only bothered one thing that didn't belong to her and it was one of my Boyd's Bears. I choose to put it up verses using the crate again. I think it was a good choice.

 

[buddy's_mom_29]

No crate here - Buddy wouldn't know one if he saw it! He has my kitchen and living room to stay in, and the rest of the house is shut off by doors. Everything potentially dangerous is put up, and he does really well. I'm home alot, during this summer semester anyway, and when I'm gone for a few hours, he sleeps. Lucky I guess..

 

[Mandithemush]

I said yes I do but maybe I shouldn't have answered because I crate Lexi but not Mandi.

 

[boxers4life2001]

Yes and No!!!
I do not crate my oldest anymore. He used to be crated until about 2 1/2 years ago now he is not. My puppy does get crated but ONLY when we are not home.

 

[Atlas]

Like Matt and Adele have stated I had never heard of a crate til I came to this site.

I thought they were a great idea and went out and got one. Atlas is crated and night and when the weather is not the best. But on nice days he is outside with plenty of shelter and water.

He loves his crate though. Would rather sleep in that then sharing the bed with me

 

[Scrapper's Mom]

No longer do we crate Scrapper when we leave. He has earned his freedom. But it was a gradual process. After we stopped the crate, we used a baby gate, which we moved from room to room, until there was only a tiny area of the house off limits. (and that's mainly to give poor Roscoe some relief so his food won't be just vacuumed up by Da Baby). When we go now, Scrapper's post is now on the living room couch (which is covered by a sheet, of course!) by the front window of the house, keeping track of all comings and goings in his domain.

 

[douma]

No,i have never used a crate and i think that Avra doesn't need it

 

[Muttluvr]

I feel a little guilty answering because Foster isn't a Boxer (although I'm sure I'll have LOTS to add once our Boxer does arrive) but the poll specifically states "Pooch" instead of Boxer so here's my reply!

Foster is always crated when we're not home because he LOOOVES to chew things up (namely a PS2 game, a paperback I was right in the middle of, he DESTROYED my knitting basket, and of course the usual wall/baseboard/door frame chewing)

Once he was house trained we put up a baby gate in the kitchen so he could stay there. This worked for a while until he spent a weekend with a couple of Husky's and all of a sudden he knew how to jump the gate :rolleyes:. Now the little bugger is back in his crate.

As others have mentioned, Foster is very comfortable and happy to be in his crate. When we come home from the park on weekday mornings the first thing he does when I take his collar off is head for his crate. If one of us stays home during the day he usually ends up going to sleep in the crate on his own.