I am certainly no expert here, but I have an absolutely wonderful vet and will share with you what she told me. I am a huge pet lover. A yorkie, a German Shepard, 2 cats, a blue and gold macaw and of course fish. We are on a first name basis with our vet. When I first started to adopt animals, I felt that it was cruel to "lock them up". What she told us is that every pet should have a crate. Not only is it necessary for traveling, for safety reasons, but it gives the animal a sense of security, particularly as babies. She said that all beings (animals and humans) need their "own space". The animal will see their crate as their room. That is the way that we have trained all of our animals. I have a crate sitting in the corner of my dining room and all of the animals are trained so that when we say kennel, they go to their crates. This gives company a sense of security as well as the animals. According to our vet, baby animals, like baby humans, are scared from time to time. The crate becomes their security blanket. Our shepard, who we have had for 5 years, will go to her crate when the kids are noisey (I have 5 left at home).
My yorkie, Cosmo, mostly is in his playpen, but I will crate him for travel. That is where he first slept as a baby so that he could have some quiet place and so I didn't have to worry about the cats "getting" him as a baby. |