SS Cressa Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I know I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. I know I have a dog that is extremely destructive when not crated. If you wanted to you can leave him loose maybe 2x a week. Any where you can reach he can get to and he is also creative. baby gates don't contain him if no one is home and he doesn't always get along with everyone. I can't imagine not being able to crate him. Lol Most of my dogs enjoy their crate and will just go there to chill, relax. It is always their safe spot. I know when my sister leaves her dogs loose we found the gas stove on. Another time I got home and found a trail of flour from the kitchen into her room. Thank god I got there when I did cause I literally had to scrap flour from all of her dogs nose and mouths. Their mouths were glued shut. Slightly worry when you come home and smell gas or dogs with mouths glued shut.. I don't like the uncertainty of leaving them with 100% run of the house. I normally have at least one dog crated and the other is shut into my bedroom. Eta: my boy can open canisters, drawers, jump through pass bars, he has gotten into items in the sink, and also got things off of the top of the fridge. He jumped over the baby gate at the top of the stairs(can't tell you how much that scared me! I left him upstairs "confined" and found him downstairs.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Cressa Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 Just curious though. You actually leave water and food in the kennel when you leave for work? I have never done that unless I have access to let them out to go potty and it is hot out. But generally they come with me to work and school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I do leave my dogs with water (but not food) if they're crated, unless there's a compelling reason not to. I have stainless steel buckets that are attached to the crate door with a snap. I feel it's important for them to have access to hydration and since I don't have anyone who will tank up just to be doing so, I don't worry about accidents in crates. If we're traveling, they don't have water while on the move because it sloshes, but at all other times, with rare exceptions, my dogs have free access to water whether they are in crates or out. ETA: even the dog who routinely figures out ways to slosh her water all over will be given water if I'm going to be gone for any length of time. I have tried several different types of bowls and attachments to prevent her from dumping the water (including Lixit waterers), but she is inexorable. So now I just will leave her with a heavy bowl in her crate and a small amount of water. The way the Varikennels are designed, any dumped water collects in the trough around the edges, so she probably still would be able to get a drink even so. But if I'm going to be gone for a short time, I will leave her without water. She's also the epileptic dog, so she's contained for her own safety. (That is, even if she were attacked by the other dogs during a seizure, I've seen her fall off of furniture while seizing, so even in a crate, the choice of what goes in with her is dictate by her safety should she have a seizure. Fortunately she's well controlled on meds, but better safe than sorry; some of the falls I haven't been able to prevent, before we got her under control, were pretty scary). J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 I've only had 1 dog that I could leave water for and actually expect that it would be in the dish any amount of time for said dog to be able to drink it. I get the little stainless steel pails and put about 3 inches of water in them and pop them in the freezer to give the other dogs access to water during the day. For whatever reason they don't play with their ice cube the way they play with a bowl of water. Which is really strange because when they are loose and I give them ice cubes, they play wildly with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arf2184 Posted January 22, 2013 Report Share Posted January 22, 2013 At home, when the weather is decent the dogs are outside when no one is home. In the winter, it depends. There is usually only a couple hours when no one is here so if its somewhat nice out they go outside (where they have a couple dog house complete with soft beds inside)...if its too cold/wet/stormy or if we'll be home late, they are inside, either with free run of the house or in my room. Bear is usually on his best behavior when were gone (its when were home and not paying attention that he usually gets into stuff or grabs something off the counter). Meg's only vices (in regards to being inside) are the cat box (ick) and her weak bladder. She takes Proin and is usually fine, but occasionally she has accidents through no fault of her own (usually while she's asleep). If we're home to let her out often its not an issue. I only own one crate and its Meg's. She uses it for agility and camping. When she first arrived, Meg's crate was her safe haven, but we gradually weaned her off using a crate at home to help teach her to interact and cope rather than hide. Now that she's much more confident and trusts us and knows her place in the family, she doesn't need it at home at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speckle-legged dog Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 My Layla is a BC Mix (probably half BC, maybe a bit more) and we do not crate her. She is very well-behaved at 2 1/2 left alone inside. I do make sure she is well-exercised in the morning though, so she isn't getting fidgety wanting something to do. My husband and I are also fortunate in that he is semi-retired and in and out of the house regularly, and I work close enough to home to play a few minutes of chuck-it with her at lunch. She absolutely stays out of trouble though, we couldn't ask for a better behaved dog inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSnappy Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 At the moment, I have 8 dogs - my border collies and aussies, my whipjack, and aussie foster and a little evil monkey foster. The monkey foster comes to work with me (I work for Animal Control) because he is up for adoption through my shelter. The aussie foster stays homes. I do not crate any of them during the day and they have access to the whole house except the bathroom, which is the cats' haven. Dexter and TWooie Do Not Like Each Other, but they don't fight and don't seem to be problematic together alone at home. The rest are fine. At night I crate both fosters, my senior dog Tweed and Dexter. I crate Dexter because I don't enjoy him and TWooie arguing on the bed at night, and I started crating the senior about a year ago so that if he gets quite old and develops some cognitive disfunction he will be used the crate and not getting stuck in corners in the middle of the night. All my dogs are crated in the truck, and at trials etc. I like having crate trained dogs. I would not like to leave them crated all day while I was at work, and then crated all night for half of them as well. Anthropomorphism or no, I don't want to own dogs that live in boxes 17 hours out of every 24. I just don't think that's cool. RDM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack & Co. Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 I crate my dog because of his separation anxiety. It keeps him safe and my house doesn't get destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK dog doc Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 I think you have to decide on a per-case basis. I think it's much worse to leave a dog loose if it will harm itself (by, say, eating things that might take it to surgery or kill it) than it would be to crate it. I also think that if you have a dog that OTHER dogs might injure (as in Julie's example with the epileptic dog), crating is smarter than taking a chance on coming home to a gruesome disaster. Of 4.5 Bc's I've had (one a BC cross, hence the 0.5) I could leave 3 out without worrying TOO much (although one day I came home and on entering my bedroom wondered how it had managed to snow INSIDE my house... Oh, wait, that's DOWN FROM MY COMFORTER, thank you very much for that $150 replacement cost). Two I would not trust - one, an inveterate ingester of toys, the other an epileptic who has severe pica following her seizures. For like 8 to 10 hours. Non-stop. (This has actually turned out to be an excuse to take her every place I go, because I have to, you know, monitor her for seizures and pica. Really. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) So she is either in my truck, at home with me, at work with me, or (if it's not appropriate to leave her in the truck), at work without me, stashed safely in a run. That mainly only happens if the weather is extreme or I have to be someplace for a long time that she can't go (like a veterinary meeting or something.) Since I am down to one BC right now, that works out fine. When I had more, I generally took them in the truck. I had a capper on the bed and would fill the bed with straw if it was cold (although there is obviously a temperature limit, and once you pass that, dogs stay home.) I could also segregate a dog into the cab if needed. That said, there is one other thing I tried to be aware of: My 0.5 BC and my male BC didn't always get along. Because I had to crate the male to keep him from suicide by ingestion, and he was already jealous of the 0.5 BC, it would have been a Bad Idea to leave the 0.5 BC loose to wander tauntingly back and forth in front of his crate. So if one was crated, they both were, or I excluded the BC cross from the crate area. This was in order to prevent death, destruction, war, devastation and horror (and also incessant cheap shots and sniping), and it worked pretty well. If I had more than one BC right now I'd re-make the decision based on the dogs and dynamics that evolved with those dogs. I don't think crate training is cruel - in fact, it has been a Godsend at times - but I'd just rather have my dog(s) with me. They're social, I'm social, we need our hanging-out and doing-stuff time. But I am responsible for making the decisions to keep them safe, and a crate can be a giant help with that, so long as it is a bedroom, and not a prison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurae Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 Nice to see you posting here again, AK dog doc! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted January 30, 2013 Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 Do we get some insider Iditarod commentary again this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted January 31, 2013 Report Share Posted January 31, 2013 Nice to hear from you, AK Dog Doc. :-) My male dog Jester, who probably is 12 this year and in almost all ways an excellent and well mannered dog, was always 100% reliable left alone and loose in the house. Reliable with the cat, the garbage, foster dogs, everything. Suddenly, for no reason I have been able to determine, at the age of 10 he decided to start being destructive in the house when I was gone. First it was plastic bags, then cloth, then anything made of plastic. I made sure there was nothing of that kind that he could get to when I left the house, but the day I came home to find the garbage can's contents strewn over the house was the last day he was left loose. I now have to confine him whenever I leave the house, while all the other dogs can be loose in the house for many hours without ever a problem. Go figure. I hate to confine Jes but see no option. So I would certainly agree that it is to be determined on a case-by-case basis and depends on the dog. I always crate foster dogs when they are new to the house but many have proven to be trustworthy and have earned run of the house when I am gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 No. The dogs have the run of the house. Someone posted a couple of pages back about other dogs attacking her epileptic dog when it seizes - now I can't find it. Can you tell me more about that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK dog doc Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 Thanks, guys! I don't know about I-rod coverage... I'll try (if Tranq isn't available, since I think he does a better job), but it'll depend on available time. We currently have a new-grad Doc, which means there's a certain amount of slack to pick up, so it's hard to say how much time I'll have. Now, everyone cross your fingers that I don't do something stupid, like get pneumonia....! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 No. The dogs have the run of the house. Someone posted a couple of pages back about other dogs attacking her epileptic dog when it seizes - now I can't find it. Can you tell me more about that? When my epilepsy dog had a seizure, even in his crate every dog in the house would try to attack him. I had to grab my JRT by the collar and throw her a number of times when Buddy started to have a seizure while loose. I've heard of many dogs having the same reaction to another dog having a seizure, so we always recommend that seizure dogs are left crated when not watched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted February 3, 2013 Report Share Posted February 3, 2013 No. The dogs have the run of the house. Someone posted a couple of pages back about other dogs attacking her epileptic dog when it seizes - now I can't find it. Can you tell me more about that? Cindy, That was probably me. My dogs have never attacked my epi dog, but when she first started having seizures they were *overly* interested in her. Given dogs and pack behavor, I just wouldn't take a chance. I also have an older dog who has occasional spells (for lack of a better word) that may or may not be some form of seizure. Recently she had one while she was in her crate eating. My dog who eats near her crate was the one that alerted me to what was going on with the crated dog, because the uncrated dog started barking and snarling (very ugly) at the dog having the spell. It's possible that if you had, say, just two dogs the one wouldn't bother the other in the midst of a seizure but there are other reasons to confine a seizure dog, not the least of which is that a dog having a seizure can injure itself. My dog sleeps on my tall antigue bed. She has fallen off while in the throes of a seizure; I was lucky that she didn't hurt herself when that happened. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 When Seven had her seizures, the girls said Star was "being mean" to her. She hasn't had any falling down seizures since then, but there have been a couple of times that Star suddenly, for no reason, ran to Seven, ran back to me, back and forth a few times. Nothing aggressive though. Made me think perhaps Seven was having a small seizure that I couldn't perceive. I need to give some thought to this--I don't think I could get Seven to go in a crate. She doesn't get on the furniture and I've moved things (like floor lamps) that could fall on her, but I worry if someone wasn't home what Star would do? Maybe we could put the baby gates back up and keep one of them in the kitchen....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray Momma Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Murray is now 7 months and is IN LOVE with his crate which is good, as he's a paper/garbage/cat box disposal. I can nicely suggest "Murray, I think it's time for bed" and he's on his way to the crate with his head up and tail wagging. I've left him in the kitchen for about 6 hours without distruction but occasionally when I'm home he'll have something shredded after 45 minutes. We're gone from home about 9 hours a day and my mom stops by the house on her lunch to let him out and play in the yard for a half hour. He's her only Grandpuppy, but I am sure the novelty of her spending every lunch with him every day. We've tried baby gates, but he's figured out to launch himself into them until they fall over in order to get the cats (We're still working on that...). I'm afraid he'll end up hurting himself on the slippery hardwood floors or injure one of the cats (only 1 still has his claws and he's the one that runs away instead of actually using them for defense). It looks like many of you had your dogs in crates until they reach a couple years old. Which I am fine with, but again, I think my mom is about burnt out. Any tips on crate transition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushdoggie Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 I usually start by transitioning to loose at night, then for very short trips (like to the store) and work y way up. I make sure leaving is a no drama event and give them a treat as I go which usually occupies them for a few minutes so they don't dwell on my departure. I also am totally anal about making sure theres NOTHING even remotely interesting to get into for a long while so they don't learn to go looking for something and get rewarded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray Momma Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 I usually start by transitioning to loose at night, then for very short trips (like to the store) and work y way up. I make sure leaving is a no drama event and give them a treat as I go which usually occupies them for a few minutes so they don't dwell on my departure. I also am totally anal about making sure theres NOTHING even remotely interesting to get into for a long while so they don't learn to go looking for something and get rewarded. Sounds do-able! Thanks for the tips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmadrid Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 We've tried baby gates, but he's figured out to launch himself into them until they fall over in order to get the cats (We're still working on that...). I'm afraid he'll end up hurting himself on the slippery hardwood floors or injure one of the cats (only 1 still has his claws and he's the one that runs away instead of actually using them for defense). It looks like many of you had your dogs in crates until they reach a couple years old. Which I am fine with, but again, I think my mom is about burnt out. Any tips on crate transition? Is it possible for you to confine your cats so that you can let Murray be free without endangering them? When we were transitioning Penny from crate to free (at about 10 months to 1 year old), we started by giving her free run of the bedroom. The other two dogs and the cats were loose in the rest of the house. I also started letting her remain loose while I went on short trips (run to the store, etc.). After a while, though, we knew that she would be much happier if she could be with the other dogs during the day. She's OK with the cats, but can pester them too much if left to her own devices, so we decided to confine the cats to their kitty room during the day, and let the dogs have the living room & kitchen to themselves (office & bedroom are off-limits during the day). This system has worked out well for us. The dogs get to be together during the day, and I know that the cats aren't getting pestered. Also, to be completely truthful... my cats are more destructive than any of my dogs ever were, so confining them keeps my house safe while I'm gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray Momma Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Is it possible for you to confine your cats so that you can let Murray be free without endangering them? Actaully, yes. Our house has a nice setup with a downstairs bedroom and family room area off the kitchen. As this is off the back of the house, there is a door from the kitchen to the dining room which we usually have closed to keep the cats contained in the front of the house. We've started to give him the run of the 3 rooms (which is fairly good size. The bedroom had a king size bed in it until we moved it upstairs and now there is only a futon) when we're home and we haven't had mayhem or distruction yet! We're going to proceed with this route for now, building up to crate-free Murray. Thanks again for all the tips! I love this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerfulgazelle Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Kip (BC) and Sol (not BC) used to be crated while I was at work Sol countersurfs. For three, wait, four years now, I have telecommuted fulltime, so now dogs must stay behind the gate in the kitchen, basement, or be on the deck, otherwise they are pesky when I am on the phone with a patient. And that is the cat's job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.