Question:
: I am weighing in on the subject of crate training. I am motivated by Grant's comments that people who use crates are bad and/or lazy pet owners. I was completely against crating our JRT puppy when we got him at 10 weeks old. And I was S-T-U-P-I-D!! After struggling with our puppy for a month or so, I finally realized that our vet, our breeder, your forum, our trainer - everyone we were counting on to help us raise this puppy - were recommending that we crate train. So, we decided to start over. We used the crate to potty train, which worked wonderfully. We also crate him when we were not at home, and at night, until he could sleep thru the night without a potty break. We either go home at lunch to walk him ourselves or we have a pet sitter when we can't get there. He goes into his crate willingly - well, as long as there is a treat involved!!
: What really ticks me off about my former attitude toward crates is how long it took me to get with the program. I say this because we had been thru a terrible time with our previous dog. We'd had this dog for 13 years, and he was never a problem when left alone in the house (he was NOT a JRT). He was a year old when we adopted him so we never had to worry about potty training. However, this dog started experiencing seizures at 12 years old, which eventually led to cognitive problems. He would get stuck literally in the corner of a room and could not figure out how to get out. He would stand there until one of us helped him get out. He paced and paced for hours on end. Sometimes he would get stuck behind a piece of furniture or under a chair - once he was stuck behind a toilet. It was awful. I worried about him every minute I was away. Even confining him to smaller spaces didn't help because he would still pace endlessly in small circles and get stuck in the corners. His situation worsened, and we finally decided that he had no quality of life so we made the heartbreaking decision to him put down.
: I had never heard of crate training until we got our JRT last year. Even if I had heard about it, at 13 years old and in the midst of severe medical problems, starting to crate my dog when he got ill would probably not have worked out.
: My point is that even if your dog is perfectly well behaved, exercised, never gets into any trouble, and is completely laid back, you never know what will happen in a dog's life span when it would be safer for him to be crated. You can't just introduce a crate to your dog when he is in the middle of a crisis - hence the necessary "training". Every dog I have from now on will be crate trained - no matter how laid back or well behaved. Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way.
Response:
Dear Kathleen,
We appreciate your input regarding this issue; thank you for sharing your personal experience.
Best,
Leslie
