Crates

[Rebanne]

I think the references to dogs preferring crates is a bit like saying that animals, like bears, who are caged for years on end from babyhood and are conditioned to cages, prefer cages. Of course they do, they feel safe. It's what they know.

I don't imagine that anyone here talking about crating their dogs at length does it quite as absuively as this obviously, but the reasoning behind their preference is flawed in my opinion when you look at scenarios such as caged bears.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

dogs like food that's bad for them. And you should see the drawings of pavlov's dogs in his experiments - a tad shocking.

And those dogs would run to the lab to get hooked up because - that's where they got their food.

So a dog that likes the environment is better than one that is traumatised or endangered by it. I'd rather train a dog to be as comfortable as possible in an environment that could freak out an untrained dog. Ie a small space without you nearby.

Much rather use a crate than tie a dog by its neck and leave it like that for long periods of time like almost all my cousins on their farms do. A couple have dog runs - which are like big dog crates.