Crating?

i am for crating. Kaiser doesn't have to be crated, he wont get into anything. Wyatt, on the other hand, will knock over the trash can, eat anything edible, and chew the carpet, textbooks, etc. Wyatt doesn't seem to mind his crate, but it's more of a safety issue with him.

I "heart" crates. We use one for Luna, because she is a puppers, and for the girls when we are not home.

I like to know they are safe, it's a extra peace of mind, and our dogs all go in/out of their crates to rest and take breaks from each other. Rosco loves to go in the crate when Lexi and Luna are playing and being nutty.

Crates have their place.  Of 4 dogs, two are out all the time, and the other 2 rotate.  Soemtimes we lock two in the main part of the house with the other two in the "dog room".

Kota has SA but a crate did not help.  He actually started to bend the edge of the door and the crate is made of heavy guage wire.  I think the rotation of the dogs helps, but mostly being near Tasha.  She's his big, little sister and they're buddies.  But he's fine in a crate in the van or at agility trials, so it's really me leaving and not the crate. 

by golly if it weren't for a friend that told me about crate training Bugsy would have been sent back to the SPCA.  He is the puppy that crates were designed for [8D]
seriously, he made a few weird noises the first night we crated him/ had him and has never made another.  He was and to some extent still is a natural explorer with a deep need to chew and destroy.  When he was a pup he was ON and that meant non-stop mischief and I mean NON-STOP.  We couldn't go in the shower without him getting into something.  I'll never proclaim myself to be a great dog trainer (although many people think I am LOL) but I'm decent.  Never seen a dog like Bugsy though.
Anyway he was crated when he was overstimulated, when we needed 5 minutes without worrying where he was or what he was chewing, and at night for the same wandering mischief issue.   Add to this he had SA (it still flares up) and then he DESTROYS whatever he can.  Crated this meant he tore up a crate pad or 5 in the house it would have been serious. And a danger to himself.
He from the first week we got him would eat his dinner and go in his crate and sleep until we woke him at 10 ish to go out.  He sleeps in his open crate now by choice, it is in our bonus room where he also has a bed, he falls asleep on the bed but when we wake up in the morning he is in his crate.  Can't be so bad then!
When we go out he has  2 rooms since he was a year old, then the whole downstairs and now the whole house to roam when we go out. I believe that his crate helped him to understand that when we left to just sleep  Often now we can go out for the day and he is still where we left him.
I understand that some dogs just don't need it - but some do.
Bugsy's crate no doubt saved him, our sanity and the house. 

I've  never used a crate before and always preferred to dog proof 1 room if they can't be left loose in the house but I just had to go around asking if anyone had a free one large enough for my young akita.  No matter what I do she manages to destroy everything.  The only room I can lock her in is the bedroom and even after closing everything in drawers, pulling the blinds up on the windows(she bent a few), and picking up all my blankets and clothes and putting them well beyond her reach she still managed to chew apart the dresser so it almost fell over, scratch the finish off the wood floor in one spot, and peed on the exact middle of the bed.  She was only left alone for less than an hour with her blanket, bed, food, water, and about 20 toys and chewies.  I think if I put her in an empty room she'd still manage to destroy the floor(she's torn up some carpet), probably go through the door or at least come close, and chew off the window frames.  She's fine all day while I'm home and all night while I'm sleeping but if I leave for just half an hour she goes into destruction mode. 

However I still don't agree with crating for more than a couple hours.  If I'm gone for more than 2-3hours I'll probably still either leave her locked in the bedroom and deal with the destruction or find someone like my mom or aunt to watch her.  It just doesn't seem right to keep a dog in such a small area for very long.  Even if they sleep the whole time there's still a huge difference between stretching out on the floor and being able to move when they want and being stuck in a crate.  Would you rather lay on the couch all day or be locked in the closet?  Don't worry we'll give you a hole you can see out through and get some fresh air and light.  It's just not the same but I do agree a crate is sometimes necessary so long as it's not overused.

Madi was crated during her first year.  The crate was next to my side of the bed.  If she cried I just put my hand on her in the cage and she relaxed. She was only in the crate during bed time and when I was at work. Beyond that she was with me.
 
We left the crate in the room until she was 2.  I HIGHLY recommend the proper use of a crate. 

Crates are terrific I think!  Baby is 7 or is it 6 almost 7yrs?  Anyway, she still needs hers at night, but only then.  If she is loose at night she WILL poop somewhere, if in her den, she is fine.  Rex stopped using his when I needed to buy a bigger one and didn't have the money for at least a month, and he is perfectly reliable.  He was only 7 mos. when we allowed him loose without mistakes. Yay, for him!

I crate trained both my dogs as puppies, and loved it.  Sasha could have done without the crate as she go older, but Ivan our other dog needed it, and so they had side-by-side crates.   They were only crated when we were out, and at night time.  There were a few RARE exceptions when we had guests over who were terrified of dogs, and we crated the dogs for an hour or so.

My dogs enjoyed their crates, and ran to them when told to. Crates were a place of yummy treats and peace.  I bought the largest crates I could find so that they weren't cramped. Sasha is a medium sized dog, but Ivan was largish. 

Now that Ivan is no longer here, Sasha isn't crated.  We crated her for a short time this winter when she had leg surgery, and she was fine with a return to crateville.  On the other hand, she's not destructive or troublesome when free, so there is no reason to crate her on a regular basis. 

Ivan needed to be crated, period.  Without the crate, he would have in all liklihood killed our 3 cats and Sasha.