I was talking to another dog owner at work yesterday, and she said I should stop crating my dogs during the day. We've been crating them at night, and while we are at work from the day we got them, and they don't seem to mind.
Here are their ages:
Snickers is almost 2. We got her at 6 wks (I know, too young) and crated her to help with housebreaking and also because she had a BIG chewing problem when she was a pup.
Buttercup is going on 3. The family we got her from didn't crate her and she was used to sleeping with the kids at night, but we figured we couldn't let Buttercup free at night and still crate Snickers (who was only about 4 months old when we got Buttercup).
Brooke is anywhere between 3 and 5 yrs old. She was a rescue and immediately knew which crate was hers and goes to it with no problem (except at night when she doesn't want to go to bed)
Skuttles will be 1 in July, so she's still a puppy at heart. So far with her though, there hasn't been any real chewing problem. She did chew a few places on the carpet but that was because we cook beef bones for them for treats and I think some of the "juice" leaked onto the carpet so it was then "beef flavored" carpet. She didn't chew just for the sake of chewing.
In fact, we have so many bones laying around our house walking around in the dark is like walking through a mine field (stubbing your toe on one of the knuckle bones really hurts!) So they normally just chew on them. Honestly, our house sometimes looks like a graveyard! I pick them up, put them in the basket, and the dogs drag them back out an hour later!
So, I think I could trust them all day without crating them but they would still be crated at night for our own privacy. It's bad enough having cats scratching at the door to get in, I really don't want to add 4 barking dogs.
The main reason I crate them, really, is because of the cats. Especially Monster, who has seizures when she gets stressed. We think she basically has tunnel vision so any strange sound that she can't identify will completely freak her out. Plus, it gives the cats a chance to relax. But, is that fair to the dogs?
What do you think? Is it unfair to crate the dogs during the day now that I "think" they won't destroy the house just to give my cats free roam?
Sorry this is so long. I'll shut up now.
Here are their ages:
Snickers is almost 2. We got her at 6 wks (I know, too young) and crated her to help with housebreaking and also because she had a BIG chewing problem when she was a pup.
Buttercup is going on 3. The family we got her from didn't crate her and she was used to sleeping with the kids at night, but we figured we couldn't let Buttercup free at night and still crate Snickers (who was only about 4 months old when we got Buttercup).
Brooke is anywhere between 3 and 5 yrs old. She was a rescue and immediately knew which crate was hers and goes to it with no problem (except at night when she doesn't want to go to bed)
Skuttles will be 1 in July, so she's still a puppy at heart. So far with her though, there hasn't been any real chewing problem. She did chew a few places on the carpet but that was because we cook beef bones for them for treats and I think some of the "juice" leaked onto the carpet so it was then "beef flavored" carpet. She didn't chew just for the sake of chewing.
In fact, we have so many bones laying around our house walking around in the dark is like walking through a mine field (stubbing your toe on one of the knuckle bones really hurts!) So they normally just chew on them. Honestly, our house sometimes looks like a graveyard! I pick them up, put them in the basket, and the dogs drag them back out an hour later!
So, I think I could trust them all day without crating them but they would still be crated at night for our own privacy. It's bad enough having cats scratching at the door to get in, I really don't want to add 4 barking dogs.
The main reason I crate them, really, is because of the cats. Especially Monster, who has seizures when she gets stressed. We think she basically has tunnel vision so any strange sound that she can't identify will completely freak her out. Plus, it gives the cats a chance to relax. But, is that fair to the dogs?
What do you think? Is it unfair to crate the dogs during the day now that I "think" they won't destroy the house just to give my cats free roam?
Sorry this is so long. I'll shut up now.