Crating your dogs is a terrible thing???

To be fair...there's a limit on crate time in this house. But any training tool can be misused or abused, including something as innocuous as food rewards...I think that's a pretty fair statement.

You may reach her at PETA...surprise, surprise. 

Sure, I've got some shredded books and furniture as mementos of the puppy years. But who cares? My dogs' mental and physical well-being mean far more to me than a few sofa cushions.

Guess it never occurred to her that it's not just damage to her possessions that a crate can help prevent - what would have happened if her puppy had ingested some of those shredded books and items of furniture? Not so much physical well being going on when your puppy is having emergency surgery to remove a blockage caused by the couch cushions he ate.

I prefer not to crate during the day, I have a chain-link pen in my garage for my dogs, with a doggy door to an outside run. They are safe and confined out of the weather, and they have access to the outdoors for potties. They can't kill the couch and the couch won't kill them either. But I still crate them in my bedroom at night. They love their crates, they go in on their own, and sometimes hang out in there for a nap at other times.

I think there are a number of good reasons to crate train your dog, but I have never been comfortable with the idea of dogs being crated all day, every day. Sometimes it is a necessity. Certain dogs just can't cope or be trusted to roam in an empty house and quite often we may not know this before we bring these dogs into our lives. In this case you do what you have to do, but I believe it should be everyones goal to be able to leave one's dog without having to crate. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

I think I'll just bite my tongue on this one.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  Mine varies significantly from hers.  I've finally reached the point that if I can't find someone, I start checking crates, since that's where they head when they want some alone time.  Yep, I'm deluded.

How convenient her address is posted!  We should all write her a letter!  LOL  Wouldn't that put the Peeved in PETA!  I guess she is a wealthy person and can afford to replace her furniture everytime she brings home a new dog.  Unlike most of us, I like to have furniture to sit on and keep the things I have in good condition, I'm not poor, but I'm not rich either, I would hate to have to come home to a house destroyed, and my dog dead from eating the stuffing of my cushions, because I felt it was too inhumane to have him crated.  What an idiot!

I'll bite my tongue on this one as well.  There are right and wrong ways to use a crate.  I'll leave it at that.

OK - I think I bit my tongue enough to write a reasonable response now.   Sigh.

While I agree that crates can be and are misused by those "gaurdians" that haven't bothered to learn the proper use of a crate, I disagree with this author's general statement that crates are bad.

Much like others, I believe that crating my dogs is saving them from destroying our stuff and themselves.  Crates are a calm place to have a good sleep after some vigorous and lengthy excercise - and they bring me peace of mind which allows me to go to work and earn the money needed to take care of my dogs properly.

To sum it up, thuis author's general statement is inappropriate and uneducated.

Biting tongue again now...

She's PETA ... what did anyone expect ... logic?  PETA's ultimate goal is to do away with 'pets' ...

Unfortunately, those who do a thing badly (from crating to rescuing to anything else under the sun) simply give the rest of the world the 'right' (allegedly) to criticize.  There's a woman who runs a cocker rescue in central Florida who literally will not EVER adopt to anyone who even owns a crate -- if you admit you might crate that dog on even one occasion and she'll not adopt to you.

Of course -- she's always so 'full' that she never takes new cockers so there are zillions of other cocker rescues and rescues with cockers who really don't understand them ... simply because this one woman has had a bad experience with a few idiots who really shouldn't have had a dog at all. 

And hopefully we all become teachable -- you know ... knowing what I know *today* I wouldn't adopt to the 'me' of 30 years ago either.  But I've learned ... dogs have taught me a lot. 

If I could simply get people to listen to one thing -- we aren't all always right.  So often people react out of anger and superiority -- when we shouldn't.  Be nice when you say things and it's amazing -- people LISTEN.  Not always ... but more than they do when you rant, rave, scream and yell.

quote from the article 

" Imagine if, instead of getting in your car and driving to work every day, you were put in a "Doggy Den" and kept there all day long, allowed out only for a few minutes at lunchtime - if you were lucky."

funny...my last job was EXACTLY like that!!!

raise your hand if you are fortunate enough to have an outside job where you can run around and play and have fun all day?

ok i'm raising my hand now because my job is to raise my kids... but didnt used to be. my dogs had a better life than i did when i was working!! my job didnt even have windows! 

obviously she is rich and has a lot of favours done for her and has no clue what "REALITY" is all about.

my husband doesnt like the idea of crating.... or he didnt until Amber proved just how much of a terrier she can be sometimes!! And he LOVES the crate now because Kaydee, since her accident, isnt as reliable indoors anymore. if she doesnt go out NOW... then she just goes right where she is..... but she wont go in her crate. never has.

a person like this would totally agree that if you cant afford to buy new furniture every time your dog shreds it then you shouldnt have a dog anyway.... she either watched too many Disney cartoons as a kid or took many tokes as a college student.. or both maybe? 

Hey, no one would love it more than me if Conrad didn't have to be crated! It would mean I could get that giant ugly crate out of my den, for one thing. And most importantly, it would mean that I have a mentally stable and sound dog, and I just don't. I'd love to. I'd love to have two mentally together dogs instead of just one, but wishing isn't going to make it so.

I've also got the $1700 vet bill to prove that at least some form of confinement isn't just for the safety of my stuff. Marlowe's basically got an enormous crate: his own room. I'm sure this person would also object to that arrangement. But I would not leave either dog out by themselves with run of the entire house ever again. Not after seeing what a dog who's normally quite reliable while home alone was able to ingest just randomly one day.

It does kind of make me wonder what people think dogs do all day if they think dogs should have access to running and playing all day every day. Sometimes I work from home, and I just came off of a 2 week vacation and I personally have witnessed many times what my dogs do all day. It's a big goose-egg. Maybe my dogs are weird, but unless I am actively attempting to rile them up and play with them, they are sacked out. Conrad quite often chooses to do so in his crate, even when I am home.  

Umm, yeah. My "hyper, destructive, uncontrollable" PRT is lying on an ottoman, sleeping, right now. It's what she does all day. They don't *need* all day activity. That would be utterly exhausting. 

calliecritturs

She's PETA ... what did anyone expect ... logic?  PETA's ultimate goal is to do away with 'pets' ...

^ That.

As soon as someone identifies themselves as a PETA supporter, I pretty much stop taking them seriously as far as advice and opinions go. 

some points of her article i agree with but her tone was nasty... i agree that pets should be exercised to prevent hyperactivity.. if your dog is hyper at all then you should probably do one of two things.... check his diet or keep him physically active..... 

i've owned MANY dogs since i was a kid and up until now. i didnt start using a crate until my mom and i started renting.... its one thing when your dog trashes YOUR house, pees on YOUR carpet and claws up YOUR doors.. but another thing entirely when its someone elses!!!

we dont rent anymore but the crate is still handy. about as handy as a muzzle and a leash really. good safety tools, and like every tool... there is a proper way to use them!

i wouldnt keep my dogs muzzled 24/7 just like i wouldnt keep them leashed/chained, or crated.. why have a dog? get a hamster....