Why use a crate?

I use a baby gate when we have family over.  They know the dogs and the dogs know them.  However a few of my friends a scared of or just do not like GSDs.  Maybe it's harder with my breed.  For my dogs' sakes, I don't like "strange" people coming into their space and giving off weird vibes, so they tend to be more comfortable when they are removed from someone like that.  I want the dogs safe and comfortable without upsetting guests even if their fears or dislikes are biased.

With us it depends on who is coming.  Friend, family, acquaintance, but they still are ALL crated to start off.  Umm, yeah, pity the poor person who is welcomed by MY crew!  LOL!

 Here the law prohibits you from keeping a dog confined to a space smaller than 36 sq feet and this is for the smallest dogs. A great dane would require a space of almost 100 sq feet. Crates (the type that are common in the US) are allowed for traveling and special circumstances, ie. for an injured dog or short periods of time (so during shows, during hotel stays etc.). Both my dogs are used to the crate and I will use it on the afore mentioned occasions.

If there's "a situation" within the pack or one doesn't trust the whole pack to be civil while alone, one divides the dogs to separate rooms or to separate packs. I had to rehome one of my bitches after she turned nasty after I spayed her, sure we could have managed, but the stress from such an unresolved situation is not something I want to put my dogs through as there was no way of resolving this situation. She found a nice home with an older couple in the countryside, they'd just lost their old dog and were not up to raising a puppy anymore.

Only big accidents that I've ever heard of are accidents that involve adult dogs and kitchen stoves and those can be prevented by a cooktop guard. Naturally puppies will chew on things and most prevent this by "crating" said things (like so) instead of crating the dogs and this works just fine too. Regular Finn will work eight hours a day, five days a week, so the dogs stay alone some 9 hours during those days (as most don't work next door to their homes).

Unfortunately, in the US everyone seems to have a lawyer and if a dog even LOOKS at someone funny, they can end up in court.

I would not do well trying to "crate" my upholstered furniture!  My dogs have recently decided that anything is fair game to chew on should they get bored.  Anything.  Working on that, but in the meantime, I have to prevent the behavior....

glenmar

I would not do well trying to "crate" my upholstered furniture!  My dogs have recently decided that anything is fair game to chew on should they get bored.  Anything.  Working on that, but in the meantime, I have to prevent the behavior....

It can be done, but naturallly it requires a bit or even a bit more of work. That picture shows only a part of the puppy proofed appartment. Of course there are those people that go about a different route and buy new furniture after the puppy has grown up :) And unfortunately some that will break the law.

I don't HAVE pups!  And, come to think of it, I guess in Finland it would have been illegal for us to live in a 37 foot RV with 6 german shepherds!  it was this past summer, living in the RV when they decided that chewing big stuff was their biggest pleasure!

Crates are not inheriently evil.  Naturally they can be abused and used improperly, but in our home, going to crates means special goodies while mom is out.  And bedtime?  Everyone heads for their own crate, which is NEVER closed at night.  That is "their" space, their little safe world, and no one else bothers anyone when they are snoozing or noching in their crates.

glenmar

Crates are not inheriently evil.  Naturally they can be abused and used improperly, but in our home, going to crates means special goodies while mom is out.  And bedtime?  Everyone heads for their own crate, which is NEVER closed at night.  That is "their" space, their little safe world, and no one else bothers anyone when they are snoozing or noching in their crates.

Oh I know. My other dog absolutely loves our crate and the other one will sleep there a lot too, if I have it available. And this is without any actual crate training too. And I do recommend crates to my puppy buyers especially, if they have kids. It's an easy distinction to be made to both the dog and the children that the crate is the dog's home and that the dog is never to be bothered while it is in its home. It's the eight-nine-ten hours a day five days a week with a closed door that we have a problem with here. I've used a crate too, when my dog started getting a bit bored while I was away. The difference was a five day period, two hours at a time was enough to make her understand that sleeping the whole time while I'm away is the way to go. If that hadn't worked I would've resorted to other methods (ie. crating the furniture).

In this country there are so darned many homeless dogs living in cages in shelters that I guess many people feel that ANY home is better than no home at all.  Most of the time, my crew have full run of the house, but when I am out, and everyone is out everyone is happier, and I believe, safer, with crates.

I do the "crate the furniture" thing right now w/ the puppy.  But, some of my rooms are so small, the space left is not much larger than an appropriately sized crate or expen. According to the post above I'd not be allowed to have a Great Dane (not that I plan to ever get one...).

I think it's really up to each person to know their dogs and balancing the needs of the household with the needs of the dogs.  If you can't meet your dogs' needs then move, or build something that works, or just don't get them.  To me this is something that cannot and shouldn't be legislated by government, it's common sense. 

When my dogs are worked and exercised hard they have no problem sleeping for 4 hours straight in a comfortable crate.  On the flip side one could compare the outdoor space difference in many US households to that of other parts of the world.  We often have yards that are very large in comparison.  For my dogs, crating is not an issue but they do need adequate outdoor space to run, play, and do training.  Leaving them out of a crate and in a room but not having a nice space outdoors is not a fair trade-off for them.  My dogs have the temperament where they do not make their own fun.  If I am not actively engaging them or they can't play rough with each other, they don't need extra space.  I can't leave them in a room while I'm away all day and expect that to mean anything to them, they still need a lot of exercise and training for mental exercise with me regardless of whether they are kept in a crate or a room.  15 minutes of playing fetch is worth more than 6 hours of free time left alone to roam the house.

Also I want all dogs very comfortable to crates because of travel.  I do not allow travel unless the dogs are secured in a crate.  I don't want travel to be stressful so the dogs need to be thoroughly crate trained to accept the crate as part of travel.  All my dogs willingly dash out to the van and wait at the door that opens to their crate.  They all jump in and go to sleep when we are in the van.

glenmar

In this country there are so darned many homeless dogs living in cages in shelters that I guess many people feel that ANY home is better than no home at all.

This may well be it. The culture is pretty different in other aspects as well. Here spaying and neutering is relatively rare for instance and I feel it should become more common.

I have to agree with Lies that the government shouldn't be making such determinations.  And she is quite right that yards tend to be pretty good size here.  Certainly there are places with postage stamp size yards, but one of our criteria when we are househunting is a good sized yard.

You will find that people on this forum are quite well educated and progressive, but, unfortunately, the general population does not spay/nueter as readily, nor do they always consider dogs part of the family.

glenmar

I have to agree with Lies that the government shouldn't be making such determinations.  And she is quite right that yards tend to be pretty good size here.  Certainly there are places with postage stamp size yards, but one of our criteria when we are househunting is a good sized yard.

You will find that people on this forum are quite well educated and progressive, but, unfortunately, the general population does not spay/nueter as readily, nor do they always consider dogs part of the family.

I'm pretty sure (and based on your comment right on the money too) that there are people, who are not fit to make such determinations. We have such individuals here too and having a law regulate this among other things helps, when bringing the worst offenders to justice. We are currently campaigning to get an even stricter law and harsher punishments for these offenders.

 We don't have a yard at our disposal atm, but I've had such a luxury, when we lived on a farm. It's nice and the dogs enjoy spending time outdoors, but the mental stimulation from said yard is nothing compared to the one they receive during our daily walks to our current backyard (ie. here). They are free to roam that forest you can see in the satellite view as long as they stay close by and come when called. The smells are always a bit different and the scenery changes quite often too as opposed to our own yard, where it is just them. Of course I wouldn't mind having a yard, but I still would be making those walks every day and the dogs would just lie around outdoors instead of indoors.

 edit: Even the well educated won't spay or neuter their dogs. I don't think all should, but some definately. 

Also go B's ;)

During the week, I go out with the dogs in the back yard.  We run around, we play ball, we have a good time.  Weekends we cross the creek and take very long walks out in the fields.  With so many dogs, it takes hours, so those long walks are limited to the weekends.