Leaving a dog alone, uncrated?

The rescue organization I got Hank (1 year old ) from told me that he was crate trained and would just go in the crate on command. Ha! Fat chance. There was no way in hell that he was going in a crate voluntarily. Didn't matter what kind of food or treats I put in it. So it sat in the bedroom serving as a clothes resting place for a while. Eventually gave the crate away.

During day when I am at work Hank is in his run (grass 24 x 36 feet with a tree) which has a dog door into a 12 x12 foot fenced area in the garage that has a large dog house with a dog bed in it. In the winter there are also blankets, a hot water bottle and a Snuggle Safe. Like the run since if I am delayed, or since he is a real scavenger and occasionally has diarrhea, he does not get upset about having to go in the house. At night he is free in the house. Will wake me up if he needs to go out, otherwise no idea where he is.
 
Haha puppy proofed room.... tried that with Mia. Puppy proof just means that the floor is what goes first. ;)
 
Maya has never been crated. When she was a puppy, she either went to work with us, or stayed gated in the kitchen.

Even as a young puppy, she only ever had one accident in the kitchen, and never tried to get into anything (even when an open bag of treats accidentally fell off the top of the fridge!), so when she was about 6 months old, she got free rein of the house.

She will be 3 next week, and knock on wood, she has never gotten into anything when she's home alone!
 
Midnight was never crate trained. She chewed a linoleum floor, a recliner and a door frame. Then when she was about 5 years old that stopped and she would only chew on garbage so that's when we started putting all garbage outside.

So when I adopted Hannah the first thing I did was bought a crate. She was awesome in her crate until our new room mate had a dog with SA and I believe it some how rubbed off on Hannah. She has busted through three crates so needless to say I don't crate her anymore. She has also broken the tips off her canines chewing on the bars and rubbed her nose raw pushing through the door. :( So when we go out nothing is left on the counter, all other animal food is put away and all closets are shut tightly. She's going to be 3 years old in a few days and is getting A LOT better being left unconfined. :)
 
Laurelin said:
Haha puppy proofed room.... tried that with Mia. Puppy proof just means that the floor is what goes first. ;)
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Beanie said:
Then the drywall! Mmm... drywall... delicious.
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:rofl1::rofl1::rofl1:

I gotta say, I'm a little jealous of all of you who have never used a crate...obviously you're not mali owners though. ;) There's no such thing as "puppy proof" for a maligator.

Even at 9 and 10, Morgan and Ares get crated when I'm not around. They haven't outgrown the mischief stage.
 
Mmm yes then the drywall. I can imagine the damage a malinois could do. Mia is a very determined 6 lbs and she still managed to pull out a LOT of the flooring during my short attempt trying to 'Mia proof' a room. Multiply Mia by about 10 and... *shudder*

I remember when Nikki was a puppy we didn't have a crate either- just penned her in the bathroom. One day we came in and there was no wallpaper from Nikki height down on the walls. ;)
 
smkie said:
I want mine loose in the house at night to be our guardians while we sleep.
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Exactly. And if they were crated and someone came in, they would be easy to silence -- like shooting fish in a barrel. And if something untoward were to happen while I was gone, they CAN escape on their own.

The most haunting story, for me, of the tales I heard from rescuers who were involved in the Twin Towers was the cop who crated his K9 partner in the building and then went up to help. He got out -- his partner was trapped in the cage. Now WHY would anyone crate their dog in a burning building????

Besides, I don't think I could sleep without them, lol.
 
I wait until the dog shows restraint and then test them with short times out (after I've dog proofed the house and closed all room doors).

Smidgen, who is 7, still counter surfs when I'm gone, so has to be crated (she eats more than food - cutting boards, knife handles, cell phones), but is fine overnight because she sleeps in the bed. Dora, her 4 yr old daughter, just decided one day she wanted to grow up and she hasn't touched a thing, so she was granted full house privileges. The terriers ... well, they're terriers! Still have some waiting to go on them ....
 
Gonzo was never "crated". He has a crate that his bed and chews are in and he sleeps in there often, and stays in there at trials/practice when he isn't working.

Fozzie was crated until he was about 6 months old... he has never chewed anything up (besides a few undies) or had an accident. :p It was soooo soooo hard for me to crate puppy Fozz at night. I wanted to cuddle him super bad!

I guess I'm lucky? I know a lot of people who have to crate for hours a day. I would get so annoyed with doing that long term.
 
Laurelin said:
Haha puppy proofed room.... tried that with Mia. Puppy proof just means that the floor is what goes first. ;)
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Haha seriously. Molly did that when we first got her. And she jumped out a window. Sooo I suppose we could have put her in the bathroom, but frankly I think a crate was the better option lol.

Lucy got free roam when she was housebroken enough, I can't remember how old. Rather, when we -thought- she was housebroken... I don't know if she's just losing her mind, or if we've really been clueless the past few years, but she now gets crated because turns out, she's really not housebroken.

Juno is 18 months old and she's starting to get some unsupervised freedom. It still makes me very uneasy though. Every morning my mom goes on her treadmill, and if I'm sleeping or at school, typically we would tie Juno's leash to the treadmill so she'd lay down in there. But now, we're just leaving her loose and hoping for the best lol. It felt soooo unnatural to do that when I left for school this morning. I don't really worry about destruction, she's never been a destructive dog.... but she's not very good at settling herself down so I do worry about how that might turn out when she's alone.
 
Renee750il said:
Exactly. And if they were crated and someone came in, they would be easy to silence -- like shooting fish in a barrel. And if something untoward were to happen while I was gone, they CAN escape on their own.

The most haunting story, for me, of the tales I heard from rescuers who were involved in the Twin Towers was the cop who crated his K9 partner in the building and then went up to help. He got out -- his partner was trapped in the cage. Now WHY would anyone crate their dog in a burning building????

Besides, I don't think I could sleep without them, lol.
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I remember that, too. The poor poor dog... I guess the guy wasn't thinking straight because he was so stressed, but that was such a bad move. I think I remember an interview with the guy where he was crying... I remember him as really remorseful anyways.

And agreed with having him loose so he can watch the house. No point having a protective breed if it's going to go to waste in a crate when it's needed IMO. I remember I was anxious when he was crated when he was a pup (same feeling with the rabbits) because IF there was a fire... I would like to think he would run to a window or door or something and escape or be accessible... I would feel forever guilty if I trapped my dog in a box unnecessarily and something happened to him.

Although, to ditto Fran, my dog has never destroyed anything... ever. He just chills around the house. If I had a dog that wrecked stuff, and I couldn't stop it (or I was in the process of stopping it) he would be crated and I would worry lol.
 
I remember that terrible Twin Towers story also. Very sad and I actually felt bad for the guy and worse for the dog. But with crate training there's a different story for just about every dog and every breed. Without mixing animals, it's really a 'horses for courses' thing and one of the problems is some folk just don't know when to start or finish with it, some do it too long, some not at all and . . so it goes.
 
I appreciate all the input! And quite frankly...when I saw that it exploded to 6 pages while I was at work I was SURE there would be some argument somewhere, but I'm pleasantly surprised ;)

I've never crated Gavroche overnight. From day 1 he crawled under the blanket sand slept with me all night long :D He's the PERFECT bed dog. Logan's been loose at night since about 4 weeks after I got him, and he's done well, though he doesn't usually sleep in bed. The last week or so he's been in bed, though, because it;;d getting cold at night and he hasn't grown his winter fluff yet. Usually he'll sleep in Gavroche's crate (with the door open) at night.

There were times last December when I was working 7am to 6pm at the vet clinic, then 7pm to 3am at the post office. Gavroche was either crated or at work with me that whole time (at work with me at the clinic, crated when I went to the post office job). It sucked big time, and was FAR from ideal. but we made it thorugh. Some nights if I only worked until 4 at the clinic I'd drop him off at my parents' house while I went to my other job. I never, ever want to go through that, or put him through that, again. At least he had the Great Dane sized crate then (now Logan has the Great Dane crate, Gavroche has the next size or two down).

After that ibuprofen/chocolate incident, I vowed to never leave him uncrated again. But in all honesty, my room is puppy proofed for the most part. It has to be to have Logan loose at night, because he can be a brat when he gets bored ;)

The other thing is I've been renting ever since I've had Gavroche. I can't have him destroying things, even if he'd only be inclined to do it a couple times a year. Especially in the last place we were in, because it was no pets and he was allowed as an Emotional Support Animal. I could NOT let him do anything even slightly wrong in that place. Fortunately his barking stopped before we moved in there (otherwise I never would have moved there), but there was no way I'd let him out of his crate when I was gone in that apartment. But, in 6 weeks I'll be back in my parents' house. We will have to crate and rotate to an extent, since the 4 dogs don't get along (AJ only likes Max, Max likes Logan, Logan likes Max and Gavroche, Gavroche only likes Logan, the cats don't like Logan, Gavroche doesn't like the cats...ugh). But still, Gavroche will be able to be free in my room even after we move, and I won't have to worry as much about him destroying something.
 
we have never crated any of the almost 20 dogs we have had in my lifetime, except Peanut towards the end of his life because he became senile.

The dogs have always had their own room with access to outdoors all day except for 8 hours when we are sleeping in my room, and my moms are in hers. Lucy is the only one who only goes outside supervised, and shes a naughty little chihuahua! I will literally be outside with her for HOURS and she wont go, and a few minutes after being inside she goes! So when nobody is home to take her out (which is only for about 2 hours out of the day) shes in a doggy playpen.
 
Forgot to say that I use the biggest wire crate that the pet stores sell. It is the only size crate I will probably ever use unless I get a small dog. Even then though... lol.

It says it is for Great Danes, but I really do not think it is big enough for a Great Dane. It's about 4ft long, 2.5ft high, 2.5ft wide. Lacey has a ton of extra room in it, when she curls up she takes up less than half of the crate. She has enough room to lay on her side with her legs stretched straight out, without touching the sides.

And I have never forced her into a crate. I just stand in front of it & say "ok Lacey, in" and she goes in & lays down no prob. I reccently had to start crating her again, only when I am going to be out for more than 2hrs. She has had 2 accidents and chewed up a couple things again lol. Including a 5ft cat tree...


I found out the hard way.... Crates are NOT fool proof. Lacey managed to ruin a few things from INSIDE the crate. I had a blanket over 3 sides of her crate & she pulled it in & chewed it. I had a magazine rack next to her crate & she ripped the magazines into tiny confeti pieces. My fault completely though.
 
We always crate puppies during the night and when we're not home - actually, I don't remember my childhood dog ever being crated as a puppy, but we've crated all new puppies since.

After they're trustworthy though they get free range - we just use crates as an aid to housebreak and make things a little easier, we never intend on using them long term. Quinn still goes in her crate at night because she's only 9 weeks today, Dally is 3 years old and is always loose in the house and has since she was ... maybe 9ish months? Sometime shortly before her first birthday.
 
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