Julie2owlsdene wrote:When you say crate, Chrissie, I'm assuming you mean a dog cage? A crate over here is an enclosed wooden thing.
By saying that Chrissie, I expect you're using a cage for your dog maybe.
Our Morgan sits in a travelling cage when in the car for his own safety, but that is all. I have never ever put my dogs in a cage whilst in the home. I don't understand why you would want too, personally. A dog is a member of your family. A young dog needs to play, run a round, go outside. If he is in a cage all those instincts are being prohibited and he thinks he is in a prison.
If you are meaning whilst you are out, then again, I've never done this. I've always started off leaving the 'puppy' for say 10mins, with plenty of toys etc. Then increasing it to 30mins, and so on and so on. So that I could easily go out for an hour or so. When the dog is an adult, he can easily be left but again, I've only ever left ours for a max of 4 hours. But he's always had a good walk first and a full belly of food, so he'll sleep.
Julie, I understand your point, many Europeans never heard about crates and rather accept the damage that their puppies cause in their home than getting their dog used to sleeping in a crate. I was thinking the same way at first and was not very thrilled about keeping our dog over night downstairs in his crate, but it turned out that he likes it. He was house-broken within 3 weeks thanks to the crate (and us getting up every 4 hours over night to let him out).
We live in an old Colonial style house, built in 1908. The doors downstairs don't shut properly any longer, so Cody can get into every room, even the ones which we cannot make dog-safe. So when we are not at home or over night, he has to sleep in his crate and he actually enjoys it. He has a cushion, a toy and something to chew on.
Here is a website which explains it better:
http://blog.smartanimaltraining.com/201 ... r-prisons/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is a paragraph from that same website.
Some people still see crating dogs as a form of animal abuse. The idea of confining a dog to such a small space can be disturbing for many. Understandably, the idea of being confined in a box just big enough for us to lie down and turn around seems like a traumatic experience. But if we compare the living situations of early or modern humans with those of wild canids there is a striking difference. Humans look for large caverns, build shelters and homes large enough to move around and house a family. Wolves, coyotes and foxes will ignore a large cavity in the hills and prefer digging their own den, just large enough to curl up. The same way, we like to lie on beds or couches, when dogs often chose to sleep under the living room table or in small corners. In my house for instance, dogs are allowed on the furniture, but my 80 lb German shepherd loves to sleep in one of our closets. It’s dark and confined, and the last place I would want to be, but that’s where she feels comfortable.
We started with a large crate in which we had to put a divider first. By February Cody was so large that we were able to remove the divider.
By August he again had become so tall that we had to buy a new crate, the largest out there (1 meter high and 1 and 1/2 meters long, he can even stretch inside). Cody can enter it without ducking and turn around inside comfortably. Even when he has to wear Timmy's collar (at the end of December we'll get him neutered and he'll have to wear the plastic collar once more for a few days to disable him from chewing on his surgery wound), he fits inside the crate. Believe me, it offers a lot of space.
The crate is so large that it doesn't fit on the back seat of André's Nissan Rogue and also not on my Toyota Corolla back seat. That's why we got safety belts for both cars for Cody.
When I take him to the vet, I cannot bring him in a crate, because he already weighs 60+ pounds/lb.
I often wondered how dog owners with very large dogs get their sick dog to the vet without help? You simply cannot carry a 110 pound dog (Cody's dad Samson weighs 110 pounds).
We have animal health insurance and it saved us a lot of money during Cody's first year. I wish they also would offer an ambulance which picks up tall sick dogs.
I hardly ever leave him alone for more than 3 hours. Thanks to the very difficult health system in the US which makes it impossible for us to find a decent dentist where we live (in the suburbs of a city with 180.000 population!), my dentist lives 50 minutes from here.
Depending on the time of the day and the traffic I already spend close to 2 hours just getting there and getting back home plus a 2 hours root canal and dental cleaning. But that's the exception from the rule.
Most of the time I'm at home with Cody. I rather try to combine shopping, doc appt. and public library on one day, so I can be with Cody on the other 6 days instead of leaving him alone at home 3 times. Because he has no sense of time. Being left at home is what bothers him, so I rather leave him at home only once a week than more often for shorter times.
Cody has his daily walks, he runs around in the fenced-in yard once every hour for 15 minutes in order to pee and poop, I play with him, we snuggle...I think he has a happy life and gets very spoiled (we just bought 10 new dog toys for him at Petco, Petsmart and another dog store on Saturday).
Everybody tells us how handsome he is and that he makes a very happy impression. He is our beloved family member.
I can tell you the story some time if you like.
I take it Rock chewed the door? Dogs do seem to love chewing wood! 
The poor animal was constantly stressed to the max (and so was I!) 
So he didn't have that much say in the matter, he only finalized a deal I was going to make if it was at all practical.
