I love crate. I love dogs who love crates. It’s pretty easy to teach your dog to love his crate, and I can’t think of a good reason not to crate a healthy, happy dog.
Why Crate?
Crating is a skill that your dog may need for the rest of his life.
Injury
Dogs being treated for an illness or injury are very often on crate rest for long periods of time. If you’ve let your dog’s crating skills diminish over time, it’s going to be a tough recovery for them. Tough because of the physical issues, but even tougher because now they have to learn how to crate in addition to recuperate from the illness or injury. That’s a tough combination for a dog. I’d rather have the crate already be a familiar and welcome place for the dog to be — he’s likely to actually seek out the crate for rest and recuperation instead of fighting it.
Travel
Crating will be necessary if you travel and need to board your dog.The crating area may be larger, like a kennel run, but it’s still very similar to crating. If your dog is already used to being crated, this kennel run is more like a super-duper big crate instead of being like a jail to him. He’s going to be more relaxed while you’re away. Which, in the end, means YOU will be more relaxed!
Home
Keeping your dog in a crate means your dog is safe when you’re not there to watch him. He can’t be on the counter or in the trash. He won’t be on the counter or in the cleaning chemicals. He won’t be digging up the carpet or chewing on the cherry cabinets. Your iPhone, remotes, and shoes will be in the same place and in the same condition as when you left the house. In short, crating keeps your dog and your stuff safe!
Lily, our 12 old Labrador retriever is crated every time we leave the house. That’s her routine, she knows it, and actually runs to her crate when my keys jingle. When she was about 3 or 4 years old, we wanted to give her some house freedom. That house freedom almost killed her. She managed to get into the pantry and got into raisins. After 7 days in the emergency veterinary hospital, she could finally come home. For another week, though, we had to administer 3/4 liter of fluids twice a day. It was horrific for her (and for me, as I abhor needles and this needle was huge!). Now, Lily is crated when we leave. She’s safe. And so is our checking account.
Introducing House Freedom
If you feel the need to get rid of the crate, re-read that last paragraph above! I get it, most people think their dog would be happier out of the crate. If you do think that, and if you’re positive that you’ve dog-proofed the room, then you can try (try!) house freedom to your dog.
This starts of with just one room of house freedom. Pick the room that is the easiest for you to dog-proof and has the least expensive stuff in it. For some this might be the bathroom or laundry room (think: carpet, moulding, appliances, furniture, etc.). Using a gate or the door, leave the dog alone while you run to do your grocery shopping or other short-ish errand. Give your dog a food-stuffed Kong or something else that will occupy your dog while you’re away.
Hopefully your dog will be sleeping on his dog bed when you come back home and won’t have touched a thing other than that food-stuffed Kong. Hurray! Use that room for a month to be sure your dog is truly happy there and won’t get himself into any trouble. And maybe that’s enough house freedom — he’s out of the crate, he’s got more room to maneuver (but not enough to get himself in trouble).
If you’re really hot on giving your dog the entire house while you’re away, continue to add a room at a time (one per month if all goes well). Opening the entire house up to a dog after just one month’s freedom in just one room isn’t a smart idea. Believe me. I’ve got pictures of a shredded couch as proof. Honest. It was our dear Lily. Another reason she’s crated…
If your dog doesn’t handle house-freedom very well, chalk it up to a good try, and go back to that handy-dandy, reliable crate. Just be sure to take off your dog’s collar, especially if you have tags on it, to be sure nothing can get caught on the crate. Our dogs are always naked in their crates, for safety.
I really like the crates and the safety they offer my dogs. Once I’ve taught my dogs Crate Love, it’s hard to get them out of their crate! They run to the crate automatically, when they know we’re leaving the house. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few dogs out there who are completely fine in the house by themselves. Our Nemo is one of them. The only one of our dogs, however, that we can trust completely. Tango can be left uncrated, but only be in a room that is devoid of food (or even the possibility of food).
Talk back!
Do you use a crate? At what age did you start giving your dog house-freedom?
Honey is reliable in the house so we give her freedom when we leave. But she sleeps in her crate. It’s helpful to know it’s a comfortable place for her if we really need to use it, like when we travel or at the vet’s.
Nice! We do just the opposite here (crate when leaving, out at night), but it all works out in the end. We both have dogs who don’t mind being crated. And that’s the most important part! Thanks for stopping in!
Bella never really took to the crate, no matter how much I tried to convince her it was a haven of treats and comfort. So she’s had limited house freedom as long as we’ve had her. We definitely don’t give her access to everything, however – it’s a limited space on the first floor with very little she can get into it. She’d probably be fine with a larger space, but I don’t see the need.
Tavish (after two months of very limited freedom) now shares the space with Bella. We still feed him in his smaller area in order to keep the positive association.
I’m right there with you! Tango and Nemo aren’t crated when we’re gone because they are good left in the house (with some limitations for Tango — he has to be in a room that has NO FOOD in it!). I’m ok with that because I do occasionally put some goodies in a crate for them to get so they stay used to it even though they never have to stay in one.
“Crating is a skill that your dog may need for the rest of his life.” I just hope my dog training for this works. Really having a hard time leaving my dog at home, alone.
We began to transition our Golden to free roam at about 8 months.
The reason we decided to transition to free roam was because he is an abnormally large dog for his breed. At 7 and 1/2 months he was approximately 70 pounds (the max breed standard is 80), and we needed a larger crate.
We moved in a massive 42″ midwest crate into our tiny 10X12 bedroom, and lived with it for about two weeks and it just was NOT working.
Free roam has been working for us for about 4 months now, but we still shut him in the bedroom if we’re going to be gone for 8 hours for our own sanity.
Victoria, thanks for stopping by. Yes, when I live with Danes, I find that a bedroom is a good crate! 🙂 We didn’t let any of ours have free roam while they lived with us (service dogs in training), but some of our Labradors have house freedom (but others definitely do *not* have house freedom!).
I know this an old posting, but I have a question! Do you ever put 2 dogs in the same crate? I have 2, 25lb dogs that I crate together in a large “lab-sized” crate. How do I know if they like this? Do they like being together or do you think they prefer their own space? They seem to be fine and I’ve been doing this for a long time, but maybe it’s not a good idea?
I have a crate for each dog — no cohabiting for us. I have larger dogs (Labradors) and they seem to definitely enjoy their separate crates, even though they sleep together in the dog bed when uncrated. You may want to try separate crates to see if their reaction is different. It’s an interesting question, thanks for bringing it up!
We’ve got two mix dogs (1 year old each) that hate to be separated even by a crate wall. We started out with two crates and one of ours threw a literal shit fit. So my wife and I bought the largest crate that PetSmart had and they’ve been using it since. They’re both happier together and I set up an old smartphone as a webcam and watched them for about a week and they will just cuddle up and go to sleep until we’re home. We be sure to give them treats every time they go in the crate by themselves or when we just say “Kennel” and we have no problems.
I know this is old. I have 2 boxers in a great Dane sized kennel and they do great. I have 3 dogs in total 2 males and 1 female. The female can be crated with either boy but I don’t crate the males just because one is older and can be less tolerable while the other is young and playful. They get along great though but would rather be safe than sorry. I’m reading this because we are trying to leave our younger guy out of his crate. He did good for 3 days but today we were gone for about 2 hours and he peed and chewed something up. I won’t give up on him yet. I’m honestly doing this for my benefit. I’m so tired of dog crates and don’t really have a place for them.
Thank you so much for writing this article! I am fretting terribly about our first dog being in her crate! She loves it and chooses to go there because we introduced it as a young pup, but now she’s 15 months and I want to ween her out of it. This has made me feel a lot better about having her in it, as well as comfortable knowing how to give her freedom in one room!
I have removed the crate. We gave her small portions of the house and she did great. Now, every so often I will comeback and she has chewed on paper. She has not chewed on anything else. Any advice on what to try before having to reintroduce the crate?
Ideally, you’d remove the paper where the dog is staying. It’s impossible to teach anything when you’re not there, so it’s important to remove the paper (or whatever is interesting to the dog) if you’re going to be gone. Or, alternatively, get the crate back out and let the dog stay crated while you’re gone. We have a Labrador who is 15 years old. She had to be crated while we were gone until she was at least 10 years old. She was a curious dog and loved to explore with her mouth. 🙂
My Nola loves her crate. She still goes to it by herself a lot. We just recently started letting her sleep free in the room with us at night, but every so often, she’ll wake me up to tuck her in, in her crate. It’s actually kind of cute. When I leave for work, as soon as I put on my backpack, she goes to her crate and waits for me to lock her in. We got her from animal control when she was 8 weeks and the very first day we had her, she went straight into the crate for bedtime. It’s more of her room than anything.
Hello. I have a 12month German shepherd x akita, crated from new. We have also a 10 week old sharpei which we are also crating. I was just wondering, since we want to now get rid of the sheperds crate. How do we go about uncrating her since the young pup will still be crated? Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi Stephen, can you uncrate the Shepherd in a different room than the crated Shar Pei? That might be the easiest at first.
I had thought about that but that Shepherd has almost instantly become a surrogate mother to the pup, and her very distressed when separated from him at all. Just wouldn’t work. Thanks for the response though. I’ll just figure it out through trial and error I guess 🙂
My dog is turning 4 and we have had him in the crate since he was a puppy. He had never really had a problem until recently, he has started to damage his crates so that he can get out. He doesn’t seem to be as destructive like he was, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to trust him.
Hi George, thanks for stopping by. When there’s crate destruction, it always makes me wonder if there’s any separation anxiety. If your dog is hurting himself (scraping his paw, nose, etc. raw, for instance), it’s a good idea to talk to a qualified veterinarian who is well versed in behavior. Another option is trying an exercise pen (also called ex- or x-pen). It’s like a play pen for dogs. It has several sides, larger than a crate, and some dogs tolerate that better than a crate. Or perhaps your dog can be gated in one single room. A dog-proofed room so he has more room, but can’t really damage anything. Good luck, let me know how it goes.
My dog, Dog has not been locked in his crate for over a year, but he loves to take his treats and toys in there, can i take the crate away. He has full use of house
I wouldn’t. A dog’s crate is their den. It’s a safe space for getting away from everyone else in the house.
I have a 12 week old mini dachshund that we are already considering letting have some freedom in the house because we have an 8 year old dachshund that has shown her how to use the doggy door already. Is this a mistake though? I don’t want to crate her for 9 hours while we are at work. Right now we have a puppy sitter who comes 4 hrs/day but we can’t do that for much longer.
My husband and I are in need of opinions and direction! I have a 2 year old huskie and a year old german shepard. They are great together! we have them both crate trained. However, my husband will be deploying for 13 months. We are preparing on what to do with our dogs now since I am a teacher and can easily work a 9 1/2 work day with travel time. I believe it is unhealthy for our dogs to be locked up this amount a time 5 days a week with only one person coming home to them. That being said, I need to find another solution. I dont want to rely on someone always constantly checking on my dogs. So, we had thought about blocking off the side yard adding a doggy door and allowing home independence. this doggy door leads to a guest bedroom. Do we close the guest bedroom door and allow only that room? The german shepard has escaped from his kennel in this same room and dug up to carpet 8 months ago. Obviously this scares me with allowing house freedom! I also have fear for my new couch. Although they have never touched our furniture, I wouldnt put it past them. I am thinking the worst that COULD happen. Any thoughts, ideas, opinions anything helps!!