| Top Reasons to Crate-Train Your Dog You can always choose not to confine a crate-trained dog but you always have the option when circumstances warrant it. Crate-trained dogs make life easier for their owners, but the best reasons to crate-train your dog is for their own safety! Contributions By Mary Beth Hall and Aline Curran |
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| Fires Firefighters and other rescue personnel often just leave the doors open. If the animals don't run out then they do perish in the fire. If they do run out they are often confused and lost. A big part of my job is securing dogs while the paramedics try to help people. Sometimes I have to be a little rough with the dogs who are simply trying to protect their distressed owner or protect their house. It breaks my heart. Or the dog who ran off when someone broke in the house, or when the tree or utility pole struck the corner of the house and the critters ran off. Since its a small community, sometimes I can expend hours helping to search for these animals, hoping the whole time not to find them dead on the road. When a part of my furnace burned up last winter and I wasn't sure
whether I had a fire in the wall or what, I called the fire dept. then
immediately crated my cats and dogs. Then when 3 different fire depts
showed up for a simple thing, there was no animal chaos to add to the mix. The most common reason an animal would have to be crated in an emergency, is one of their own. Suppose your Weim ends up at an emergency vet clinic or needs to stay at your vet for 24 hour monitoring. If they are used to staying in the crate, then being at the hospital doesn't add a lot of extra stress for them. My first Weim was on the edge of death and spent 3 days in ICU at Ohio State Univ. Vet Hosp. He had never been crated and it was a real bear organizing care for him there. He ended up in the outdoor greyhound runs with welfare checks every ten minutes. That cost me a pretty penny. Even simple injuries [that don't require a stay at the clinic] can require days or weeks of confinement to heal. Emergencies (yours) Security Unexpected Visitors, Repair People, Etc. We're selling our house and get this a lot. Four big loose dogs can be distracting, especially for non-dog people. Vacuuming All of mine think that the vacuum cleaner is evil and must be destroyed. Training If you've got just one dog, putting her in her crate for 30 min. after learning a new task, gives her quiet time to think about what she just learned. If you have multiple dogs, crate all but the one your training so that you can give each other your undivided attention. Bitch in Season Never, ever underestimate the lengths to which two young lovers will go to be together! Three years ago, we almost had a weim/pug (!) litter. Flair was in a crate locked in the garage. The neighbor's pug, dug under the fence, and was clawing at the door by the time I caught him. Had she not been crated, she would have opened the door for him. Eventing How are you going to get her to/from events and where will you keep her
while on the grounds? While you Puppies and Housebreaking Housebreaking is made so much easier if your puppy is crated! Dogs naturally do not want to soil their den (crate). When you let a puppy out of its crate, take him immediately outside to do his business. When you can't keep your eyes on your puppy, you can put him in his crate. Goodbye chewed up couches, carpet, walls, tissues, etc.! Hello puppy that housebreaks in a few days to a couple weeks!
How to Crate-Train Your Dog Links are provided below as there is a multitude of information on the internet on how to crate train your dog. There are many other articles than the ones referenced here. Just input the key words "crate train" in a search engine and you will find a lot more articles.
http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html
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