Puppy freedom

[Piper's mom]

Koko was crated for 5.5 years, Benson for 1 before they came to me. I kept their crates and they used them here voluntarily for a short time, but once they were comfortable here and given their choice, both stopped using them, so I put them in the garage. Fil used his as a puppy and would nap in it, but he too decided to quit.

The only time Piper or Finnie are in a crate now is at a dog show or if they have an injury. Although Finnie has gone into Blueberry’s crate a few times and actually laid down....silly boy, he barely fits (I don’t know how he turns around ). He’d probably enjoy his own crate in fact he’d get a bit of peace away from Blueberry!

 

[Sandy in CT]

I crate at night and everyone goes in if we leave the house for a longer period of time. I do leave Brodie and Kooper out at times if I am just going grocery shopping or will only be gone for an hour or two. I think they are calmer; it's their safe place. If I leave them out, sometimes I think the need to be on guard is exhausting and stressful to them - evident at times when we return by the panting and hyper activity. Having Deacon, I have gates set up which has been nice, Brodie and Kooper don't have unfettered access to the windows so coming and going isn't such a big deal.

The first time I pulled out the vacuum, Deacon ran to his kennel to sit and watch the new noisy monster. He identified his crate as his safe place! He has 2 preferred beds for napping but if the cat and Kooper get them first, he'll shuffle off to his crate. He graduated this weekend from the smallest wire crate I have that is something like 16 inches or so and is now in the 24 inch wire crate. What a hullaballoo with the 3 dogs in and out of the new crate for the longest time, checking stuff out, rearranging things.

We always crated the doxies, didn't want them jumping off stuff - amazing that such a small dog could easy get on our kitchen table and then jump off if caught! They've come in handy when travelling or when dealing with illness or injury Being 'stuck' in a kennel is no traumatic experience on top of anything else - they are comfortable in it which is good.