Does Anyone Choose Not To Crate Train?

[BooBooBear]

Is there anyone here who chooses not to crate train their puppy and if so, how do you go about it?

Thanks

[Kirislin]

Huh? If you choose not to crate train your puppy you dont do anything.

[Gayle.]

You don't buy a crate.

[BooBooBear]

I just meant that are there other options and if so, what are they?

[ellz]

I'm too lazy NOT to crate/pen train puppies.

The small amount of effort it takes to crate/pen train a puppy becomes miniscule compared to following a puppy around and making sure you have eyes in the back of your head and sleep with one eye open alert for toilet sounds and mischief.

I also think that puppies that aren't crate trained have a distinct disadvantage at various times in their life, for example if they have to go to the vet and be confined in a cage for treatment. Or if you have allergic or dog-hating friends/relatives visit and the poor dog has to be shunted outside. If you travel - for safety dogs should be confined in a moving vehicle for their sake, the sake of the humans travelling with them, for the sake of emergency services if there should be an accident and for the sake of other traffic if there is impact of some kind and the dog should escape.

[BooBooBear]

Hi Ellz

Thank you so much for your response, it is much appreciated.

I have been crate training Humphrey (9 weeks old) this past week but the thought entered my head that, years ago no one I knew or even myself crate trained so I wondered if there were people who chose not to go down this path - so I simply asked the question :D to see if there were alternatives and if so what were they.

Thank u again for your help and advice :D

[ellz]

I remember not crate training years ago too. But then the memories come back to me about how much work it was having a puppy and how toilet training was always one of those negatives thrown up by parents doing their best to forestall the cries of "I want a puppy". :D

I've just reared a litter of 9 Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppies....the four that have gone to new homes are happily sleeping in their crates with very little fuss at night. If I hadn't crate/pen trained them, I'd STILL be cleaing up after the little monsters.

The five puppies still here come out of their pen in the morning, head straight to the back door, empty and run over to the day pen and wait for me to let them in for their breakfast. No stopping to make a mess in the house, no getting underfoot. It's a lot simpler and safer than "the olden days" that's for sure! :D

[Gayle.]

Just because you don't crate train a puppy, doesn't mean the adult dog won't happily stay in a crate. I started crate training Benson when we brought him home but I gave up cos I couldn't stand the ear shattering, non-stop yelping. It was easier and more peaceful to have him out with us.

I didn't bother with Dusty, in fact the crate had been packed away for months by the time we got her.

Both of them will happily get in the crate in the car, at a dog show, at training....and stay there quietly. Those are the times I need them crated. We don't have crates in the house as I don't need them crated when we're at home.

I still don't really understand the opening post. If you don't crate train, you just don't. You keep a careful eye on the puppy and be very aware of it's pre-toileting body language. You give the puppy it's own bed and encourage it to go there to sleep. You confine it to a small part of the house if it's an inside dog.

[ellz]

Well, I have to say that having had many dogs over the years, yes, it IS possible to put an adult dog in a crate and have it stay there happily but that is not necessarily the norm. And whilst a dog may stay there happily, there is a huge difference between it being happy and quiet and CLEAN and happy!!

It has been my experience over the past 15 or so years at least (out of the 24 since I started breeding/exhibiting) that crate training a puppy is a lot less stressful on a family than having a puppy underfoot. And GayleK even your suggestion of of confining the puppy to a small area of the house is STILL basically a diluted form of crate training.

[BooBooBear]

GayleK - sorry I should have been more specific, I meant in relation to toilet training.

What I'm finding is that he HATES and I mean HATES being in the crate/pen, I take him out to the toilet and he does his little business but not 5 or 10 minutes later he wees in the floor in the house, so to me the crate training isn't doing anything except getting him distressed.

Last night he was hysterical so after about 15 minutes of high pitched non-stop barking, I took him out of the crate, popped him on the floor in the laundry where he fell asleep instantly and he slept ALL night until 5.30am without one little accident. Every other night with the crate he was woken up twice during the night and barked and barked and barked. I don't want to wake the entire neighbourhood :D

So are there some dogs that really hate being crated? and if you don't use a crate for training what are the other options.

Basically I'm worn out, exhausted, haven't slept for a week and I'm at my wits end :D

[Gayle.]

Mine stay in the crate quietly, happily and cleanly. They certainly don't pee in there. I can give them a treat each when they're sharing a crate and they don't fight over it. At dog shows, they spend most of the day in a crate. A trip to a show is often 2 hours each way for us and they are crated in the car. They just lay down and sleep.

And GayleK even your suggestion of of confining the puppy to a small area of the house is STILL basically a diluted form of crate training.

Yes of course it is but only a fool (or someone who likes standing in piles of puppy poo) would let a puppy have the run of the living area, bedrooms, bathroom etc. Mine got confined to the living area during the day and the bedroom at night. While they're inside and being toilet trained, they don't go out of my sight.

However, if I had litters of puppies, thinbgs might be very different.

Edited February 1, 2010 by GayleK

[Gayle.]

So are there some dogs that really hate being crated? and if you don't use a crate for training what are the other options.

Basically I'm worn out, exhausted, haven't slept for a week and I'm at my wits end

The alternative is vigilance and being quick on your feet to whip puppy outdoors when he's about to piddle. We were also worn out and at our wits end after 5 nights of Bensons ear splitting barking. And yet now, as a 3yo, he'll happily go in a crate if I need him to.

[BooBooBear]

Thanks so much GayleK - OK I'm going back to basics and have set up his crate/play pen again and made it more like a den with a sheet over the crate and he's in there now with his toys etc.

Will let you know how I go positive happy thoughts positive happy thoughts :D :D

[Odin-Genie]

I haven't crate trained either of my dogs. However, I used a puppy pen initially and later cordoned off a section of the rumpus room (so it was like a large crate for them). Toilet training was basically taking them out every few hours and waiting till they did their business. Then praise and a treat. When we have people over who are scared of dogs or plumbers etc who need to work without dogs bothering them, we simply put the dogs in the bedroom or the rumpus room and close the door.

[ellz]

:D Semantics, semantics....

You're all saying you don't crate train. But by confining the puppy/dog to a smaller area, you ARE crate training. Just not using a physical crate. However the process and end result are essentially the same!!

[Colliewood]

BBB, not sure if this has been posted. I have only quickly read other posts.

Like someone said put toys in the crate, but also make other positive associations with the crate. Feed puppy in the crate with door open. Allow pup to enter and exit the crate. Over time you will be able to close the door.

keep going just slow it right down, it will be worth it.

[Pointees]

I have found life to be a lot, and I mean a lot easier to crate train my Pointers.

One Pointer runs around all day, maybe she has ADHD? :D And looks terrible... She also is a fence jumper... So she needs to be crated during the day when no one is here, or she follows me around the house when I am home. She is currently asleep on the couch with my little dog. :D

The other Pointer is a show dog, so yes, needs to be crated when at shows. Or if we are doing things in the yard, she gets crated inside so she doesn't go walk abouts down the street.

I also have a 10 month old German Shorthaired Pointer... He was an outside down with his last family, but in the last week, I have successfully crated trained him, and this is where he is when I am not home.

With that said, all three big dogs sleep in a whelping crate together. If they aren't in their crate, then they wrestle all night. But they somehow know that when I say 'in' it means go lie down in the crate, wait for me to close the door, and then fall asleep.

I don't leave my dogs in the yard when I am not here, as I have new neighbours (renters) who party often, and have teenage daughters who have their 'boyfriends' over often... These nights are the nights I tend to have to call the cops and have them drive by... Its not very nice to walk your dog at 11pm, and get harassed... Basically, I don't want to run naked down a street just because a stupid 15 year old did it. :D Nor do I want to walk inside after what he said to hear them singing Happy birthday or twinkle twinkle little star...

[poodlefan]

I'd say the overwhelming majority of pet dog owners dont crate train.

The alternative is to constantly watch the puppy or put it outside. Of course, many many dogs never make it INSIDE the house. :D

[jacobite]

Of course it's perfectly possible to toilet train a puppy without using a crate. In the thirty years we have owned and bred dogs we have never owned a crate. The pups live for the first roughly eight weeks outside in the kennel/run and once they are able to walk and get out of the kennel they rarely mess in it. After that the one who is staying comes and lives inside with us they tend to follow the example of the other adult dogs here and try not to mess in the house, yes of course there is the odd accident, but really a little puppy wee or poo doesn't take much cleaning up. I know this isn't the fashionable way to rear pups any more, but it works for us so I'm sticking to it.

Pam

[CBL]

Oscar is some what crate- trained. We tried for well over a month to crate-train him 'fully' (so he slept in a crate esp. at night). He just would not do it. After a sleepless month OH made the mistake of saying 'just pop him in the bed for a bit' :D Oscar now sleeps in a bed next to ours and, sometime during the night, pops himself up and under the covers with us (the OH isn't happy about it, but he was the one who started it).

We did the puppy pen thing when he was small and we went out of the house and he also travels in a crate in the car happily but we were just never able to make that next step to sleeping happily in a crate.