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Originally Posted by Vinniedoggy  I don't believe in caging dogs. Would you want to be confined to a cage all day? I've never caged a dog and never had an issue. It's their house too as far as I'm concerned and the least I can do is give them the freedom to roam the house while I'm gone (doggy-proofed, of course). |
I don't really like crates/cages either. We've never really had to use them for long on all of our family dogs growing up, and I never had to with Jackson either. I consider myself very lucky.
But some dogs REALLY need a crate, lol. I dogsit a 8 month old Lab puppy and a 1 year old Rottweiler. You leave the Rottie in the house (with what you THINK everything was picked up....) for all of 30 minutes, and you come back and it looks like the house has been robbed. He DESTROYS the place. And he's entirely too big for an expen. He gets tons of exercise including me who gets over there mid-day. So until you've experienced a dog that will eat coaches, chairs, tables, and anything else, I wouldn't rule out crates.
Crates, just like any thing else, can be used in a bad way. It's about making it a positive experience... throwing a treat in there, and then letting them come right back out... or just leaving it open during the day so it's not always seen as a 'locked in for the day' place.