Crate Setups

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by Laurelin

I plan on using crates more often for Nextdog for sure. It's bitten me in the butt that I never really crate trained Mia. Summer came crate trained but seemed to have forgotten it over her period of SA. She's good in the car but at home, she's not. And at class... oy.

But I'm not going to keep Nextdog in the crate while I'm at work or anything. I will use a run for that. But crate games? DEFINITELY. And I think it'll be nice to have the crate training separate from the 'keep the dog safe while I'm at work' area. I can really build the crate up in very short intervals. I want my dog happy and content in their crate for travel time and class time.

I can't imagine having a dog that can run loose. It's funny because all my past dogs prior to Mia earned the ability to be loose in the house without supervision. Mia has me completely paranoid. She is just not safe loose, even if I pick up everything. I can't see her ever getting free roam. Every time I would give in and test her out loose for even 5 minutes... she'd get into loads of trouble. Doesn't matter if I've run her 3 hours prior or not. When I'm home to watch her, she's perfect around the house these days. Second I leave though, all bets are off. She may have ruined it for all the other dogs in my future, lol.

Oh Mia.

I have a feeling my next dog will give me more trouble than I'm prepared for. I've had it pretty easy with Jackson. He can be super annoying if not exercised, etc, but he's never really been 'destructive'. He was like 4 1/2 months old and I left him loose WITH my dads dog and nothing ever happened. He's just always proved to be reliable while we were gone, from the start. He used to stay loose with my moms dog too. Now, when he was young, I didn't just go straight to the whole house or anything, but pretty early on he was reliable. All my our families dogs have been like this so I guess we've just been... lucky.

I do kinda wish I had trained him to like a crate though. Because he would NEVER stand to be put into a crate during agility, or dock diving, or anything like that. Certainly not in the car. (tried it as a pup- SCREAMED for over an hour). And definitely not if I'm in the room.

[sassafras]

Originally Posted by Laurelin

I can't see her ever getting free roam.

I'm not confident Squash will achieve it any time soon, either. Every once in awhile I think "maybe I'll just try leaving him out while I run to yoga" or something for just an hour or two... then stuff happens like today while I was out shoveling snow he found a coat that had once apparently held training treats in the pocket some time in the distant past and when I came inside he was gnawing on the pocket (hadn't gotten through yet, though).

[Finkie_Mom]

That's the current crate setup - from left to right, Kimma, Bubbles, Pentti. When Bubbles goes in to season, she gets moved to another room temporarily. I like having all of their leashes/commonly used collars right there, and the crates don't take up too much livable space where they are.

Not sure where new pup's crate will go LOL. I may do some rearranging. I might actually stop leaving Kimma in a crate altogether and gate her in the family room (she's already sleeping in bed with us at night). I HATE the thought of not having her crated, but she's started to chew up her fur again really badly due to her SA, which manifests itself heavily in crate anxiety. I may even (once new pup is crate trained and out of the ex-pen) find somewhere to ex-pen her. I mean, she hasn't been terribly destructive in a while, and I've been able to leave her loose for a few hours at a time with no issues recently. I dunno. I feel like it's been an uphill battle with this girl and the crate :/

[Southpaw]

Originally Posted by Fran101

Maybe it's living in a studio.. but I can't imagine NOT having a crate for him.

Love the little guy with all my heart but sometimes I just need somewhere where he is comfortable to just..stick him lol

Probably mostly a studio/puppy thing

I don't usually have circumstances where I need the dogs out of the way, but if I do they can just get tossed in any bedroom.
If I had space for it I probably would have been more inclined to keep the crate up, because Juno would go and sleep in it, but that darn thing was just a monster and ate all my floor space. And she & Lucy are just as happy to lay on their dog bed so it's all good!

I love crates for puppies but my ultimate goal is always to not need them forever. I love that I can leave my dogs loose. Even better that all 3 of them can be out together.

[MericoX]

The only dogs I trust together without supervision (for various issues) would be the schnauzers out together, and Charlie out singlely. Though not really sure how Charlie would be loose on say an 8 hour day lol.

[Fran101]

Moving some stuff around and Merlin got a bit of a crate makeover. Nothing too exciting but swapped out to top shelves for a little plastic drawer unit

I don't know why I don't have the heart to throw out that ugly cardboard toy box lol it's just the first thing I got for him technically lol well, made for him.