Afternoon Discussion - Crate or Free roaming

My pup is just free roam, when she was a puppy I did crate her, as she got older I didn't have to. I would never let a puppy have run of the house.

It depends on the dog. I have had dogs that were ok out of a crate since the puppy stage and others who , like our rescue Shepard , will get anxiety if we are gone too long so a crate is necessary sometimes (unless you want to come home to chewed up shoes lol)

I prefer a crate. My dog seems to be a lot calmer when he has a place to go. Plus it has prevented a lot of accidents I am sure.

I'm not crating my current dog now, but I did when she first came home. I have crated other dogs I've had, either as fosters or as my own. I have a cat and I crate not only for the safety of the dog, but the cat, too. Once I've established reliability, I leave the crate open as an option, but will revert to locking when I am gone if necessary.

My two I have now I keep crated. Keeps them from getting in trouble.  My last two were kept in the kitchen and slept in a bed together.

When my dogs were puppies they were crated for sure. I'm blessed that my boys are very good and they can free roam. I even had a few fosters in the past that were allowed to have run of the house too.

I think having a crate available is great even if you don't use it alot- our dogs get excited with company and it is easier if people are coming over to eat or to fix the cable that they are not being licked to death the whole time