Hello everyone [
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Maybe I should start a new thread for this one day, but for now let me just say a few words regarding crates:
The role of crate confinement in the etiology of behavior problems has not only been established scientifically, even simple observational skills indicate and logic dictate that they play an important role in the development or exacerbation of many problems.
See for instance: RC Hubrecht et al, Correlates of pen size and housing conditions on the behaviour of dogs, in Applied Animal Behavioral Science 34
JD Clark et al, Housing and exercise of dogs: Effects on behavior, immune function, and cortisol concentration, Lab Anim. Science 47
R Coppinger et al, Kennel enrichment: Exercise and socialization of dogs, Journal of Appl. Anim. Welfare Science, 2
Crate confinement and the dog owners readiness to use it are also directly correlated to dogs being relinquished to shelters (simply, because crates are so healthy that those dogs often develop severe problems). (see: JC New et al, Characterisitics of shelter-relinquished animals and their owners compared with animals and their owners in US pet owning households, Journal of Appl. Anim. Welf. Sci 3)
Healthy dogs are endowed with a robust freedom reflex, and they accept crate confinement and other forms of restraint begrudgingly (exposed to crate confinement without counterconditioning, dogs often protest vigorously). As such, crate confinement is not only a condition of restraint, it also represents a loss of control. The loss of control over significant events is a necessary condition for producing experimental neurosis. Under conditions of restraint, aversive stimulation exerts pronounced behavioral and cognitive disturbances. The condition of crate confinement satisfies both of the requirements for inducing neurotic elaborations (ie learned helplessness). In plain english: the crate is a place where dogs easily get mentally ill.
A common rationalization for crate confinement, also voiced above, is based on a questionable assumption that the dog is a denning animal, naturally prepared and well adapted for life in a crate. There exists no factual evidence to support this, and a lot of evidence to counter this.
"Dogs, in fact are not den dwelling animals, although in a variety of canids the dam will construct a nest (often underground) for the pups. The nest is a defense against predators and protection against inclement weather... There is no door on the den which encloses the pups.... " - PL Borchelt et al., Vet Clin North Am Symp Anim Behav 12:625ff
Although wolves do prepare dens to whelp and rear their young, they do not use such places as general sleeping or resting areas. In fact, as early as 10 or 12 weeks of age, wolf pups are generally moved from den locations to open sites where they are left while the pack goes on a hunt. (SP Young, The Wolves of North America, Part 1)
Adult wolves do not sleep or rest in dens when they can at all avoid it:
"After feeding intensively, wolves then seek a suitable spot in which to rest and sleep. If the sun is shining and the wind is light, they prefer open areas such as ridge tops or expanses of ice, and they will travel several miles to get to such places. There they sprawl out on their sides or bellies for several hours. During windy, snowy weather, they curl up in protected areas such as beneath evergreen trees, where they remain for long periods." - LD Mech, The Wolf: The ecology and behavior of an endangered species
Dingos and other wild canids have similar habits. (ie LK Corbett, The Dingo in Australia and Asia).
Crate advocates routinely espouse crate confinement as a way of life for family dogs, without fully appreciating the proven possible harmful side effects that may occur. The convenience of crate confinement and the social permission afforded by glib rationalizations has beguiled many dog owners into believing the myth wholesale. It is quite ironic that there are dog owners out there that truely believe their dog loves its closed crate, utterly unaware of the fact that this "bonding with the crate" is a neurotic condition with a host of negative connotations, not to mention the whole range of other negative side effects.
Instead of dedicating the time and effort needed to socialize and train the dog properly, the crate has become a steel straightjacket for controlling untreated behavioral problems. Crate confinement is, pure and simple, a condition of punishment (technically more proper: loss of reward) that can be highly aversive, which is precisely why it requires gradual exposure and counterconditioning (surely something not needed if it were all natural).
The goal of crate training should be to get the dog out of the crate as soon as possible and to use the crate as little as possible. That the average refers to dogs as "den dwelling animals" does not make them such, and shows absolutely nothing but the ignorance of the respective author (you will notice that first class behaviorists and trainers like Donaldson or McConnell will not say such a thing; for them a crate is at best a temporary tool to control and manage a problem for the time being) of the science done in the field over the last fifty years or so, clearly establishing the opposite of the previous supposition as factual.
Let us all train our dogs to properly behave in our houses or yards, and we will have to use crates only very rarely (for instance while traveling in a car, for safety purposes). They will be thankful and much healther. [
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