Dog crates/cages

I'm not a huge fan of dog crates/cages, but they do serve a purpose as mentioned above.
Our boy had one when he was little, but by 5 months he had grown like a horse and no longer fitted in it. He wasn't over keen on it, and rarely did we shut the door. It is now taken apart and we place the sections, like gates, across the door frames of rooms we don't want him to go into.

Ours love theirs too. There have been times when we've gone out and not secured them and they're still in there when we get back, even though they could have got out if they'd wanted too.

My daughters dog loved her crate. She was an excitable dog and had a crate in the back of the car for journeys but liked it so much that they got her one for indoors.

It was where she went when she needed peace and quiet and was her signal that she didn’t want to play or be petted. She even learned to pull her door to with her paw.

She was a funny little dog with a mind of her own🙂

I’ve used crates with my last two dogs. Although we never leave our current one ( basically we never go anywhere anyway and she’s a bit of a lockdown dog) but our previous dog was put into kennels when we went on holiday and her crate was her home from home. Whippets feel the cold and, in a crate they can snuggle under their bedding. Never use them as punishment and if they show any sign of distress won’t use one. Only used to close the door when current dog was a puppy because she used to steal and eat virtually anything. Then one day took the crate to my partners, shut the door and she freaked out so never shut the door again. They might look like a prison to a human but they’re as close to a den as any dog will ever get. It’s in the kitchen and she lives on the sofa but if I’m working in the garden she’ll often take herself into her crate. Her breeder had several crates for the puppies to sleep in. Doors were left open. They had a solid roof and their mum used to sleep on the roof to get a bit of respite from them when they got a bit older. I’ve also got a massive one in the shed that I can bring into the house if she needs to be confined for a while. If a dog gets injured (eg cruciate ligament damage etc)and they have to be prevented from running around it’s good that they can be used to being confined for their own safety.

A pen is so much larger than a crate. You can get food and drink bowls in there and a large dog mattress. So much more room than a cage. It is somewhere safe to keep your dog whilst you are out until they can be trusted not to wreck the house whilst you are gone.