If you use a crate for your dog, where do you keep it? Does your pup have access to the crate at all times? How big is your crate? We have an xl crate in our bedroom but our pup doesn’t have access to it during the day except for when I go out. He’s resisting going in and I thought if we moved it downstairs so he could access it at all times, maybe that would help. Thoughts?
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Our dog sleeps in her crate downstairs. She mostly has access to it during the day, unless she starts pulling out blankets and shredding them, then we close it. She has a dog safe laundry room that she can go in and out of during the day so she isn't crated.
Sounds like you need to retrain your dog to make the crate a safe space. Sometimes it helps to cover the crate to make it more cave like. The crate should be big enough for your dog to stand up and turn around comfortably
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The crate should be available to you dog at all times. The idea of it is it's safe space they can go to when needed. You don't want to use just when they're bad or your not home, it should be a happy place for them. Our dogs have access their own crates all the time and one goes in and hangs out and the other never goes in unless it times to put him in it. also other dogs and kids shouldn't be allowed into the crate as again, this a safe spot for you dog.
The crate should be big enough for your dog to lay down and sit up in the crate with room to spare. They should also be able to turn around and move comfortably in the crate.
We also give a treat when the dogs are gong to be locked in the crates for long periods of time to help make it a happy place for them.
Some people put in bedding... I can't because my guys chew it up... but they have bedding outside the crate to lay in.
Most likely your dog will be more happy going into the crate if he does have access to all the time so moving it may be the way to go for you.
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@MamaBear87: yeah, he only goes upstairs when he goes in the crate so I can see how it has bad associations for him. It is an XL crate that is divided off for his size.
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@RKitty: we don’t use the crate to punish him but he has to go in when I leave cause he still occasionally has accidents. What size are your crates and where do you keep them?
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@JMOM: He could though be viewing it as punishment since he only gets put in though when your leaving. Which may be why he's reluctant to get put into it. He also might just want his crate more out with rest of the family.
My 90lb dog crate is like XXXL one... I could fit inside it easily curled up. My toddler can stand up in it easily... It's always annoying because it's so huge but he needs the room when he sprawls out. His is also wired instead of plastic sides. My 50lb dog is a much smaller one with plastic sides but he prefers it as he likes a enclosed space - it's still big enough my bigger dog can fit in it but he's extremely cramped. Both dogs can actually fit okay in the bigger dogs kennel and have before accidentally but the bigger dog doesn't mine sharing, the little dog doesn't share his kennel though!
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The crate is in our master bedroom, and I'd say it's open to the dog about 50% of the time (I close the crate door sometimes when I'm puttering up there). He VERY rarely goes in there when we haven't told him to. I can't remember the last time he was hanging out in there, though he used to voluntarily sleep in the crate at night sometimes.
Our dog definitely demonstrates reluctance to go to his crate sometimes, but he always does so willingly. He'll even run up there when our two-year-old tells him to. I think it helps that we give him special treats (dried sweet potato) when he is going in the crate that he doesn't get any other time.
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@lady baltimore: I love that your dog will go to the crate if your 2 year old tells him to. Sweet potato treats, I’ll have to look out for that since our guy is definitely food motivated. Our crate is in our bedroom but it’s gated off to keep him off the carpeted areas. We’ve moved it outside our room tonight and we’ll see how he does. Hopefully we’ll slowly move it to the main living area in a couple days.
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We keep the crate in the sunroom, which is also where our dog stays when we leave the house (the sunroom, not the crate). She can come and go into the crate as she pleases, and she does go in from time to time.
We trained her to have positive associations with it when she was a puppy by feeding her all of her meals in it. This way, the crate was a place where she felt nurtured. She will go inside the crate if we ask her to, but now we mainly let her choose. Even our cat doesn't go into the crate! It's definitely our dog's "room."
At night, our dog sleeps on a dog bed in our bedroom with us, so not crated at night (she's 7 now).
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@afc061018: I want to train him to have positive associations, which he doesn’t seem to have now. I’ll try feeding him in the crate, that’s a great idea. Any tips on how to keep the cat out of the crate?
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What do you want the dog to use the crate for? We used it when our dog was a puppy but haven't used it in years. We never put her in it for punishment so she wouldn't associate it with anything negative. We kept it in our living room and would say something like "time to nap" and put a treat in the crate and she'd go right in. We eventually moved it to our room as she was whining at 5:30 am not needing to potty but because she's a pack animal and wanted to be with us. As soon as we moved it to our room she slept great. We only used that until we were 100% sure she could be trusted at night loose and then we quit using it.
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@JMOM: I'm not sure about tips re: the cat. We didn't purposefully set out to keep the cat out of the crate; it just happened that way. My guess is that it's probably something the cat and dog will work out on their own, if they haven't already, once the dog takes more of a liking to the crate as his own space.
I second what @alphagam84 said about pack animals. Once our dog was house trained, we didn't use the crate at night. As a puppy, even after house training, it helped during the day because she'd get bored and mischevious. Our dog, a labrador, would be really sad to sleep alone in another room, and I think she'd find it a punishment. (No judgment to anyone who does do this, just speaking to our dog in particular.)
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@alphagam84: Our dog is young and still not completely potty trained so he can't be let out when alone in the house. He also is too rough with our cat and the vet says there is a fine line between puppy play and aggression so we've been trying to train him not to chase the cat or bite him. I basically can't take my eyes off him while I'm home. Our bedroom is upstairs which we have gated off to keep him off the carpet. He only goes up for bedtime and when I have to leave, hence the reluctance to crate. We moved the crate outside our room last night and he whined some but slept ok. We'll move him a little further away tonight or tomorrow and eventually get him downstairs so I can leave the crate open all the time and hopefully it can become more of a den.
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@afc061018: How did your dog do with the cat when they first met? Our dog loves the cat but plays too hard with him and our vet says we need to nip his aggressiveness in the bud now before he hurts the cat. I hope I can eventually get where the dog can sleep upstairs with us in a dog bed.
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@JMOM: We adopted the cat first, so when we adopted the puppy, the cat was definitely the boss!
We were careful not to let the dog get too riled up (she loves to run), because she could easily hurt our cat without meaning to (our cat has bad hips and is very petite). Our dog has always loved our cat, but it's taken years for our cat to show her any attention. For many years, she ignored the dog most of the time. Now they'll sleep beside one another on the couch or my dog will give the cat a lick on the cheek or something. I don't think the cat will ever lay on the dog or snuggle like that, but they are friendly now. As long as the dog wasn't being overly exuberant and the cat wasn't being mean, we let them "live and let live" until they found their happy balance.We read Cesar Milan's How to Raise the Perfect Dog before we adopted our dog, because we'd never raised a puppy before. Though I'm not informed on the most up-to-date dog training and won't profess to know much about Cesar's TV show, we found the book helpful and took what we liked and ignored what didn't work for us.
We were careful not to let the dog get too riled up (she loves to run), because she could easily hurt our cat without meaning to (our cat has bad hips and is very petite). Our dog has always loved our cat, but it's taken years for our cat to show her any attention. For many years, she ignored the dog most of the time. Now they'll sleep beside one another on the couch or my dog will give the cat a lick on the cheek or something. I don't think the cat will ever lay on the dog or snuggle like that, but they are friendly now. As long as the dog wasn't being overly exuberant and the cat wasn't being mean, we let them "live and let live" until they found their happy balance.Reply
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