There are many decisions that need to be made when you have a dog in your home. At times, those decisions may be somewhat easy to make, such as what type of food you are going to feed them. At other times, however, it takes more thought on your part and that is the case when you are doing anything that seems unusual for a human but may not be all that unusual for a dog.
One of the questions that many dog owners ask is if they should use a crate when training their dog. In fact, there have been many people who have successfully used a crate for that purpose and they continue to use one for the rest of the dog’s life. The problem comes in when people consider it to be a matter of cruelty when using the crate, but is that the case?
First of all, if you’ve ever seen a dog that was trained to use a crate, you will understand in a moment that there is nothing cruel about it. As a matter of fact, most dogs will appreciate having a space all of their own and they will readily go to the crate when they need to have a little bit of space to themselves. Most owners will have the crate in a convenient location and they will simply leave the door open while they are home. When you do so, you will probably be surprised with how readily they go in.
The important thing to consider when using a crate for your dog is choosing the right size. A dog should be able to stand up inside of the crate, turn around and stretch out to lie down comfortably. One thing that you would want to avoid is getting them a crate that was so large, they could use one end as a toilet and sleep in the other. Quite obviously, that would go against one of the primary reasons why many dog owners use a crate in the first place.
It is also important to consider the positioning of the crate, and this is where many people tend to go wrong. Pick an area of the home that is out-of-the-way and will give the dog the opportunity to have their own space when they want it. Consider every time of the day, however, especially when it comes to sunlight coming in the window. If you were to put a dog in the crate in the morning and it were stuck in the sun all during the day while you are gone, it could prove to be fatal.
Dog crates can be an excellent part of the training process and they are something that most dogs appreciate having available. It may take a little bit of time to teach them that they can enjoy that space for themselves but once they get the hang of it, you might just have a difficult time keeping them out of it.
