My husband and my family think that is unfair for my mini dacshund to be locked up in his crate for up to eight hours a day. A woman who is a german vertinarian and that works in a dog spa informed my husband that the "crate" method is only masking the problems in the dog and is retarding it from learning.
When I leave my dog in his crate, I come home to a clean home and I let him out and he goes pee. So I know that he can hold his pee/poo for up to eight hours.
But, when I let him confind to the living room and kitchen while I am gone, He pees/poos/chews and everything is a mess in my house. He never does this bad behaviour when I am home. I think he get's quite nervouse and has anxiety when he is home alone and think the crate is like a straight jacket for him.
My husband says it is completely unfair and that we should be decrating him and fixing his bad behaviour. SOOOO.. How and what is the best way to decrate a dog?
My crate is medium size, it is big enough for him to stand, turn around in and stretch out.


PS the previous post about the bells at the back door, they are about a inch below the bottom, so the position is not the problem. He does not like the bells.

Is ignoring a good dicipline method?

I disagree with your husband, family members and the German veterinarian. Used properly, the dog's 'crate' becomes a comfortable and safe place for your dog. When I knew that I could leave my dog Sam out of the crate without having to worry about her dirtying in the house I left the crate open all the time. She slept in her crate without being told. She went to her crate if there were a lot of children in the house and she wanted to escape for awhile. It became her bedroom.

I believe that if a dog messes and chews when you are out it is because it is feeling bored, stressed and anxious. The crate, like swaddling a baby, or wrapping yourself in a warm blanket on a winter's day, helps the dog feel comforted and secure. As long as you aren't using the crate to punish the dog, and you aren't using it for excessive amounts of time, then he will appreciate a place of his own.

My rescued chocolate lab, Browni, has the most severe case of separation anxiety that I (and my vet) have ever seen. Even with medication I had a very hard time getting him used to the crate (this is Houndini I am talking about). However, I persisted. It took a year (even with meds) but I now place a large crate inside an extra large crate with locks on both of the doors to keep him in. Once he realized that he couldn't get out he has calmed down and my absences are without problem. However, if I leave him out, even for a short absence he literally tears the house apart. He vomits, poops and pees, chews, whines, cries, barks, etc. The other day I told him I was going out and asked him if he wanted to lay on the bed or go in the cage. He jumped off the bed, walked to the basement stairs and went straight down to his cage. When I have a cage upstairs both he and the Bernese Mountain Dog sleep in it. (I don't shut the cage door if I am home.)

I don't think that crating your dog while you are at work is a negative thing. Perhaps you should show your husband some of the information on the web in favour of crating. When a dog has separation anxiety you don't 'fix' it... it's not bad behaviour but an actual disorder. I hope your husband is willing to learn more about crate training. As for the rest of the family... it's really none of their business. Just like raising children, there are many theories about raising dogs. The key is finding the best way for your household and your dog.

Hope this helps.

Didi

Don't give any strange ideas too much weight just because they come from a vet. Vets disagree, and many of them come up with strange ideas not supported by the majority. I have seen the argument you don't need the crate if you train the dog. I think it mostly comes from people whose limited experience has not included more difficult dogs. It seldom is accompanied by instructions on just how such training is done. More experienced dog trainers don't claim to be able to train dogs not to do things when you aren't around. How long a dog can go without relieving itself is very dependent on how much exercise it it is getting. Look at the answer I gave in https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/p...wet-88698.html

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a
Safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
Else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition
To destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
Intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to
Give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor
Do they restrict activity, extending the time the dog can go without relieving
Itself.

I hate to see a dog go 8 hours in a crate. If nobody can make it home for a mid day break, see if a neighbor or a professional dog walker can. Doggy day care is a great idea if available and affordable.

Trained dogs don't need a crate? The service dog school I am raising my Lab, Holly, for sends a crate home to the client when they deliver the trained assistance dog. They give the puppy raiser a crate, and then the same crate follows the dog to its new home after it is trained.

I feel the crate is the best way. My Pit Bull pup loves hers. She will stay in it whenever. Makes them feel safe...

If you read any books on raising Doxies they will tell you that doxies need to be crated. As labman stated leaving a dog unattended in a house is just asking for trouble. I know that my Tuscany loves his crate and even though he is in his crate a lot of the day (intermitently) he still seeks it out if there are a lot of people in the house or the house is noisy.

My dog stays in his kennel.. UP to eight hours, my work shifts from anywhere to four-six-eight hours. But this doesn't happan every day of the week, currently only once a week.

I think I will remain keeping him in a crate, after all it does seem to work, and I do give him 2 walks a day, plenty of run-time in the backyard.

The thing is I hate to have someone in my house when I'm not home. I guess you can say I'm really paranoid, I don't even let family or friends over that often. When someone is in my house I feel exposed. So someone coming over wouldn't work.

Does anybody know of any good references/books/websites that back up that crating the dog is not a bad thing, so I can show my family?

Since so much of the dog care information on the net is garbage put up by kooks, I tend to dismiss much of it not found on the AKC or AVMA sites. There is always the sticky at the top of the dog forum here. Hey, it is on the net making it as valid as everything else on the net. You could look at Crate Training your puppy I frequently direct people to their rules on being top dog which I find a good exposition of the methods I have been trained in. I have not read everything on their site and likely would find stuff I disagreed with if I did. I did skim through the page on crate training and it sounded fairly good.

Unfortunately, I have seen too much garbage here Googled up by those lacking the knowledge to tell the good from the bad. May as well do your own search as accept the results of somebody that may know less than you do about dogs.

Here is a good web site on this matter:

ASPCA - Animal Behavior Center: Dog Behavior: Crate Training

Didi