Wow that freedom pen is really nice!
Crate training is a *really* good idea not least because a crate is the safest way for you to travel with your dog in a car and there may be times you need to use a crate. But I actually found it very easy to get all my dogs used to a crate including two older dogs who were NEVER formally crate trained, simply by using it for travel to fun places. All three will go in a single crate for transport and they always sleep at night in crates when they are bing minded when I am away. I did use the crate as a very useful aid in housetraining for Jaspar, who I had from puppyhood, but I never used it to confine him at all times, only sometimes, in the last 10-30 minutes before I knew he'd need to do a wee or poop. This helped to regularise when he would go and also kept him from having accidents the majority of the time.
Having a dog that goes happily into a crate is very useful for when you need, for his safety or someone elses's, to keep a dog confined. You can of course also use a room -- I never, ever crate mine during the day and never have; they all just go into a spare bedroom and are very happy and well behaved there (plus they can bark at the roof cats out the window :roll: ) but some do find crates are useful for penning the dogs during the day.
I think judicious use of a crate is fine, but I would have issues with an increasing tendency in the US in particular to advocate a crate as a hald-all for a puppy or dog for 8 hour days when someone is at work. I am really annoyed at the huge number of training websites which happily advise leaving puppies in crates up to 6 hours by the time they are 4 months old simply because 'you can' and this is seen as convenient! What a hideous life for a puppy -- like confining a 5 year old to a bedroom all day, every day in exchange for small segments of 'quality time' with us
). Though the environment is clean and warm in a home crate, this limited view of the world and excessive confinement is hardly different from the large breeding companies that supply puppies to pet shops and which we rightly complain about. I also have long found it strange that people would immediately feel disturbed to see a zoo animal the size of a cavalier or any dog confined to a small cage the size of a crate for an 8 hour day yet people will routinely do this with dogs. I do not buy the idea that this is an equally happy environment for a dog as it is like 'a den' -- it is still enforced confinement and a dog, as a highly amenable and trainable animal, will learn to accept virtually anything (as one knows if you've ever seen the environments and abuse puppy farm dogs uncomplainingly tolerate). My own personal preference would be for more people to consider a room for confinement rather than a crate for any period of over 3-4 hours. For a human comparison, think how we go crazy being stuck in an airline seat with just enough room to shift position. That is the equivalent of crate space for dogs. Over three hours in an airline seat without getting up to move around, talk to someone, use the toilet, get a drink, etc is grim for us -- much less 8 hours! -- surely it is the same for a dog, a highly social, responsive animal.
I also don't think a crate or x-pen should EVER be viewed as a space to keep dogs from getting into what we don't want them to get into. We don't stick children in a playpen all day, we childproof the house. The playpen (eg crate or xpen) is a useful *tool* for specific uses and a safe place for a dog at night. But it is our job as responsible dog owners to get anything up off the floor that we don't feel can be sacrificed.
I think we have all learned, a pair of favourite shoes or two later, that many dogs and nearly all puppies do not think: "hmmm, there's my hard Nylabone and there's a nice chewy leather shoe. I know she values those Jimmy Choos whereas the Nylabone is my cheap plastic chew toy so I will of course select the Nylabone for chewing." :lol: I'd chew those Choos too, given the choice!
I emphasise that crate training is in my book a very valuable bit of training to do and can and should be done in a very positive way. But I don't like them as a long term storage environment. My dogs actually get really excited whenever I bring a crate into the sitting room as they know it means they are going somewhere. 8) This makes it really easy to confine them for short periods as needed. I have taken them on trains and planes as well in crates.
BTW I would never give a dog under 12 months the run of a house. There's far too much that they could get into. Much safetr to confine the dog to a room or downstairs or whatever, using a baby gate or closed doors. First off few dogs that age are totally reliable and are very likely weeing somewhere where you cannot see them and this will end up as an eternal problem. Secondly few people take up every single risky item and clear all lower shelves in the bathroom or bedroom of dangerous substances like medications, cleaning items etc. Puppies are inquisitive and chewing up a container of a dangerous cleaning solvent is just as interesting to them (and they CAN open cupboards!) as that Nylabone they are supposed to chew).
As usual I have given a long response but this is an issue close to my heart. I'd like people to think of crates as short term safe places. useful tools for training and management in the short term, and nighttime 'dens ' for dogs. But not as the daytime kennel por the place a puppy stays at all other times than when it is out peeing or pooping or having short term play sessions with owners.
