I know every dog owner has an opinion on crating and when I was younger(i.e. still living at home with my parents) I hated the thought. My grandparents never crated their boxers and they never had any problems. And to give my parents their due, they didn't initially crate the first two boxers we had either. Of course making sure you didn't fall into the big hole in the middle of the deck got old after awhile and who really needs the last 3 steps leading down to the basement. Just jump from the 4th. As you can tell, our first dog had a taste for wood. Funny, I never remember my parents pulling splinters from her mouth.
I do remember driving home with my dad after buying the cage and him telling me how much better this will be for Brittany, how she will see the cage as "her room" and it will be her safe place. How much nicer it will be to come home to no surprises. At the time he forgot to tell me how it also helps with potty training as they will never go where they "sleep"(see foreshadowing). So he puts the crate together and drags it to a spot where she can see what's going on, put a nice comfy matt on the bottom and opens the door. He turns to me and says just be normal and let see what she does. So we non-chalantly try to act like we don't even see the cage all the while watching her go over to it lean her head in to sniff while at the same time keeping her butt as far away as possible and..... walk away. That was the last time she willingly got anywhere near that cage.
The Vet called it separation anxiety, I called in cruelty, but I do have to correct one thing my dad said, there were always surprises when we came home. Although none was better than her favorite past time. Who ever said dogs will not go potty where they lay, never met a boxer. Not only did she go potty and I am not talking about wetting, she played with it. I cannot tell you how many times we came home to poo all over the place. Apparently she made a game of seeing how much she could get OUT of the cage. Fortunately for me and my dad, my mom was always the first one home:-). It's too bad Mike Rowe wasn't doing his Dirty Job show back then.
So I went off to adulthood thinking cages were the nastiest things known to dog kind and would NEVER do that to my dog. My last semester of college my husband (then boyfriend) decided to get an apartment together, to save money of course, and I smugly rescue the dog from my parents prison and move her into our humble abode.(We got her my second year of college with the intention of my taking her as soon as I got my own place). To make a long story of destruction, chewed textbooks(dogs can eat term papers)the loss of a chair and the disappearance of many small objects, short, we became believers in using crates. Fortunately for us she was over her pension for playing with her poo unless it was covered in snow and then she liked to make snow balls, and except for the occasional separation anxiety we had a successful crating experience.
We've had many boxers since Brittany and what we have learned is that just like every person has a different personality so do dogs. We have had 2 other boxers who absolutely loved their cages. They slept in them even when we were home and when we were leaving ran happily into the cage. We have had 2 boxers who were not overjoyed to go into them, but would go in on their own volition although they looked like they were dead man walking. And then there was Tess. Tessy would stay as far away from the cage as possible. No amount of cajoling, begging or even steak could get her to go in. In fact during our morning get ready, Tess would try to hide, so maybe we'd forget to put her in. At one point, after all of our dogs were adults, we thought we'd try leaving them out of their cages to see how they'd do. No I am not insane. And to our delight, they were angels. We never used a cage again until we got our next puppy. We figured we'd get her through the training and let her mature a bit and then leave her out. Unfortunately we do not have her anymore, but have since added 2 rescued boxers. We caged Max at first because we were told he was cage trained, but he is so good, we took him out the first week. Daisha is another story. We went away for a weekend and had a house-sitter. He forgot to put her in her cage when he left for work on Monday. All I can say is I'm glad my house-keeper came before we came home as she just about destroyed the house. So in self-preservation we have decided to continue to cage her until she's older(she just turned 2).
God Bless
Melissa
I do remember driving home with my dad after buying the cage and him telling me how much better this will be for Brittany, how she will see the cage as "her room" and it will be her safe place. How much nicer it will be to come home to no surprises. At the time he forgot to tell me how it also helps with potty training as they will never go where they "sleep"(see foreshadowing). So he puts the crate together and drags it to a spot where she can see what's going on, put a nice comfy matt on the bottom and opens the door. He turns to me and says just be normal and let see what she does. So we non-chalantly try to act like we don't even see the cage all the while watching her go over to it lean her head in to sniff while at the same time keeping her butt as far away as possible and..... walk away. That was the last time she willingly got anywhere near that cage.
The Vet called it separation anxiety, I called in cruelty, but I do have to correct one thing my dad said, there were always surprises when we came home. Although none was better than her favorite past time. Who ever said dogs will not go potty where they lay, never met a boxer. Not only did she go potty and I am not talking about wetting, she played with it. I cannot tell you how many times we came home to poo all over the place. Apparently she made a game of seeing how much she could get OUT of the cage. Fortunately for me and my dad, my mom was always the first one home:-). It's too bad Mike Rowe wasn't doing his Dirty Job show back then.
So I went off to adulthood thinking cages were the nastiest things known to dog kind and would NEVER do that to my dog. My last semester of college my husband (then boyfriend) decided to get an apartment together, to save money of course, and I smugly rescue the dog from my parents prison and move her into our humble abode.(We got her my second year of college with the intention of my taking her as soon as I got my own place). To make a long story of destruction, chewed textbooks(dogs can eat term papers)the loss of a chair and the disappearance of many small objects, short, we became believers in using crates. Fortunately for us she was over her pension for playing with her poo unless it was covered in snow and then she liked to make snow balls, and except for the occasional separation anxiety we had a successful crating experience.
We've had many boxers since Brittany and what we have learned is that just like every person has a different personality so do dogs. We have had 2 other boxers who absolutely loved their cages. They slept in them even when we were home and when we were leaving ran happily into the cage. We have had 2 boxers who were not overjoyed to go into them, but would go in on their own volition although they looked like they were dead man walking. And then there was Tess. Tessy would stay as far away from the cage as possible. No amount of cajoling, begging or even steak could get her to go in. In fact during our morning get ready, Tess would try to hide, so maybe we'd forget to put her in. At one point, after all of our dogs were adults, we thought we'd try leaving them out of their cages to see how they'd do. No I am not insane. And to our delight, they were angels. We never used a cage again until we got our next puppy. We figured we'd get her through the training and let her mature a bit and then leave her out. Unfortunately we do not have her anymore, but have since added 2 rescued boxers. We caged Max at first because we were told he was cage trained, but he is so good, we took him out the first week. Daisha is another story. We went away for a weekend and had a house-sitter. He forgot to put her in her cage when he left for work on Monday. All I can say is I'm glad my house-keeper came before we came home as she just about destroyed the house. So in self-preservation we have decided to continue to cage her until she's older(she just turned 2).
God Bless
Melissa
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