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

[Peggy G]

We usually crate Scarlet when we leave the house *unless* we know we are going to be gone for *under* 2 hrs. She was almost 1-1/2 yrs. old before we took the plunge and left her out of the crate & "home alone". The funny thing is when we come home she is usually in her crate by her own accord! Maybe she doesnt even trust herself? :D

 

[tanyaj77]

We crate Boz when we go to work and sometimes when we're sleeping (it depends how much sleep I need) Hehe. When we go out to do our shopping or something we usually leave him free. We can tell by the look on his face if he's gotten into anything while we were gone :eek: He usually has, that's why he's still crated while we're working :p Gotta love em!!

 

[myrocky]

For my sanity and peace of mind Rocks will always be crated no matter how long we are gone or how old he gets to be. I just don't want to take that chance of him getting to something dangerous and hurting himself because I could not handle that very well. He doesn't mind his crate at all so I don't have to worry that he is confined and miserable

 

[vasha]

A Seven Month Old and a Five Month Old . . . need I say more?

I crate when I run to the store to get milk

a snuggles n kisses lovicon
kaiser hugs n slobbers
VaSHa

 

[gidget1]

Gidget is only 14 months old and while we've never had a chewing accident I don't want to tempt fate either.
She is crated when we leave everytime we leave as a trip for us being so far from town is never a short trip.
I also do not want to put her in any unseen danger. Like infants and toddlers, they can just find to much to get into.

 

[Maggie's Mommy]

Maggie is in her room (I don't use a crate - she's got my entire laundry room...with all dangerous items placed in high cabinets) when we leave the house. She is much too nosey and would eventually find her way into any room that has an open door and begin destroying toilet paper, raiding trash cans, and I'm sure she'd go potty somewhere in the house. Even when I'm outside mowing the lawn, I put Maggie in her room. Sometimes, she is outside with me, but my yard has no shade whatsoever and I figured she would be much happier inside with the a/c keeping her cool.

 

[Cherokee]

I couldn't answer the poll because I crate one but not the other. So I answered it here.

 

[oddlou]

It depends on how long i'm gonna be gone. If I'm gone for less than a few hours, i'll leave him out of his crate. If i'm gone all day, he definitely gets his crate. I started work a couple of weeks ago and I made the mistake of leaving Lou out of his crate. Well, he destroyed 3 boxes of cereal (he'd never gotten them before so I didn't think about it), and somehow got into the cabinet where I keep some food. 2 boxes of girls scout cookies, 2 packets of beef jerky, a box of sandwich bags, a bag of trash bags, 2 small plants were in small pieces all over my room. It was a disaster! There was food all over the place, inside and out (he has a doggie door into the fenced yard). But then again, I left him out today, for about 5 hours and he did absolutely nothing bad. I was better about putting things out of his reach and left him w/a few big beef bones, so I think that helped.

 

[Mom3]

I almost voted "What's a crate?" because I had honestly never heard of crating dogs until I came to Boxerworld. It appears to be very common, but I've never crated any of our dogs.

 

[Ram&LexisMom]

Crating has been a Godsend for Lexus and our couch. She is the first boxer that I or anyone I know has owned that hasnt chewed up a single thing! I'm SOOOO proud of her. She is 1 1/2 yrs old now and I can leave her out when I leave if I want to...but I just got a new suede couch and I put her in there for my peace of mind. Like Scarlet, she ends up going in her crate on her own. I guess she thinks...."what am I doing out?!":D