girls with puppies

how many of you crate them when you are not home

i had to this morning and i have been crying all morning

I used to put our dog in a pen attached to his crate when he was younger. It was a big metal pen that I clipped to either side of his cage. I just couldn't leave him in a small cage all day. I know people do it and their dogs are fine, but for me I just couldn't!

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Posted by alli3131

I do. We have to otherwise he would chew the house up. Make sure he has lots of toys. The Kong toy has saved my life and my puppy loves to chew so I give him tons of toys he can chew on.

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yeah he has chewed my house thats why hes in the crate lol

i did give hime plenty of toys

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Posted by MrsDtoBe09

I used to put our dog in a pen attached to his crate when he was younger. It was a big metal pen that I clipped to either side of his cage. I just couldn't leave him in a small cage all day. I know people do it and their dogs are fine, but for me I just couldn't!

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yeah i couldnt either but he has just destroyed my house

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Posted by alli3131

I do. We have to otherwise he would chew the house up. Make sure he has lots of toys. The Kong toy has saved my life and my puppy loves to chew so I give him tons of toys he can chew on.

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my puppy gets his kong toy every morning, i fill it with peanut butter the night before and put it in the freezer, so it takes him a really long time during the day to eat all the pb.

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Posted by stinenandy2010

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Posted by alli3131

I do. We have to otherwise he would chew the house up. Make sure he has lots of toys. The Kong toy has saved my life and my puppy loves to chew so I give him tons of toys he can chew on.

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my puppy gets his kong toy every morning, i fill it with peanut butter the night before and put it in the freezer, so it takes him a really long time during the day to eat all the pb.

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thanks for this - i am going to do that

because when i put it in it takes him one minute to get it out

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Posted by RitasEngaged

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Posted by stinenandy2010

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Posted by alli3131

I do. We have to otherwise he would chew the house up. Make sure he has lots of toys. The Kong toy has saved my life and my puppy loves to chew so I give him tons of toys he can chew on.

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my puppy gets his kong toy every morning, i fill it with peanut butter the night before and put it in the freezer, so it takes him a really long time during the day to eat all the pb.

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thanks for this - i am going to do that

because when i put it in it takes him one minute to get it out

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you can also put cream cheese in it and freeze it. another good cage treat is bone marrows, its kind of gross, but you can get it at the grocery store, and i give him those once in awhile and it takes him days to eat one....and my dog is 85lbs!

we always used to crate him. once he was very well trained (never chews ANYTHING) we kept him out. but b/c i was home for 3 months he got used to us letting him out whenever he needed to so we had to put him back in the crate to get him back on schedule. he's been doing awesome! my puppy is the jam!

my parents crated their dog until her was trained now all he does during the day is sleep.

like when i was living at home, if i would come home from work early or go home for lunch, he wouldnt even get up to greet me at the door! LOL

We crate our dog. He did not like the crate at first but our dog trainer explained we had to 'give value to the crate'. This is done by giving the dog really good treats while it is in the cage- She also had us play crate games with the dog so we would put treats in the cage and encourage him to go in and get them...when he did it we would praise him and make a big deal out of it. It took a little work but now he goes into the create willingly and even goes in there to just relax when we are home. I give him a kong when I leave b/c he has seperation anxiety ONLY when I leave so I try to put really good stuffin in the Kong to keep him distracted so I can get out of the house. I use a combination of meat and kibble or peanut butter and kibble. You can also use wet dog food if you feed your dog that type of food or even baby food meat. Freezing the kong will make it last longer but my dog does not like it cold so I just pack it very tightly and block the opening making it difficult for him.
Do not feel bad for crating the dog. One of the causes of destructive behavior is fear and anxiety about being alone. Two great books our trainer recommended are The other End of the Leash and For the love of a Dog they are both written by Patricia McConnell.

I do, its safer. Think of all the dangers in your house if you left the puppy out. We almost left her loose in Florida but I decided to use the crate my mom had down there, thank god, there was roach poisen traps that the tenants had left behind.

I never get upset. I leave her with a chewy, a treat, her bed, a doll. And she is so happy to see me when I get home. Just don't use it for a punishment so he/she doesn't think your punishing them.

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Posted by MLAngelo

I do, its safer. Think of all the dangers in your house if you left the puppy out. We almost left her loose in Florida but I decided to use the crate my mom had down there, thank god, there was roach poisen traps that the tenants had left behind.

I never get upset. I leave her with a chewy, a treat, her bed, a doll. And she is so happy to see me when I get home. Just don't use it for a punishment so he/she doesn't think your punishing them.

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we have used it for punishment a few times but we take everything out of there but he sleeps it there so i dont think he puts them together anyway

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Posted by Jflod710

I do 2 days out of the week then the rest of the week we bring him to day camp

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omg thats so cute - where is the day camp

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Posted by RitasEngaged

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Posted by Jflod710

I do 2 days out of the week then the rest of the week we bring him to day camp

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omg thats so cute - where is the day camp

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i know pet stores do doggy day camp like petsmart. some training facilities do it as well.

my friend brings her boxer to petsmart and its like $20 a day all day. he even gets a report card on how he played, if he napped, when he went to the bathroom.
its good excercise and socialization for them

I have 2 dogs, one was crated and not the other. I dont crate our 1st one anymore but did for the 2 puppy years. He is soooo much better potty trained then the one we didnt crate.
What we did for him was we got the crate that you can adjust to size. dont leave alot of room, just enough for them to lie down cause then they pee and poop in there. We gave him a toy and i had a water bottle hooked up for him.
It was the best thing we did for Rosco

we crated max for like 3 months til he no longer needed it, he holds it while we r gone now. and is very good when not home. We close the bedroom and bathroom doors so he can't touch anything thats not his.

We r now crate training our new chihuahua Elsie... she will prob be in there for a few more months before we trial run leaving her out

fm me if you have any questions...

I crated her at night too, but now at 7 months I leave the door open at night. She lays on my bed and then puts herself to sleep in the crate. I don't mind because she is good and tells me in the morning that she has to pee. We still have accidents during the day from time to time, but never in the morning.