At Aureate we feel there are a lot of misnomers and misinformation about the proper use of crates in a dog's life; much of this is connected with emotion not logic! That being said, whether or not you've had experience training a dog to feel confident and comfortable in its crate, its never too late to learn!
ALL our dogs MUST be crate trained and confident in their crate for a plethora of reasons:
-Vet visits including emergency surgery
-Travelling in the car (a crate can SAVE their life in the event of an accident)
-In the care of a home-sitter or family member when you're away from home
-Travelling away from home and staying at family or friend's house or in hotels
-Recovering from injury or surgery; requiring physical rest
-Emergency Evacuations from natural disasters
-Safe space for young puppies while you are away from home for a couple of hours
-Show or sports dogs; this is a MUST
-Teaching a young dog to self soothe and feel confident on its own (ie to prevent separation anxiety)
If you are still in doubt, let me ask you this:
Would you leave a toddler home alone unsupervised for a couple of hours and simply hope for the best?
Your answer should be "no absolutely not!" as not only would you be jeopardizing the life of that toddler, but also your future in caring and loving that child. The same applies to dogs and especially young puppies. At Aureate, we introduce crate training in a safe and secure environment while our puppies are very young. We gradually increase their exposure laying a solid foundation for our new owners to work on when they bring their puppy home. Like any skill, it must be worked on and practiced, meaning you cannot simply flood your puppy with exposure and think that constitutes training. Instead that is clearly defined as a traumatic experience for many dogs.
The point of this post will not be to walk you through our Crate Training Program. We provide this information in our "Puppy Package" when new owners take their puppy home. There are many resources online which offer instruction about crate training. The point of this post is to illustrate the importance of crate training your dog.
Once properly trained you'll find your dog views their crate as their den, their safe space and will unsurprisingly choose to nap there of their own volition. Aside from the seniors in our household, all our dogs are crated when no one is home. Why? Surely they must have grown out of their mischievous puppy and adolescent antics by now? Yes they have but crating them is no hardship. Your dog will sleep the vast majority of the day anyway. Being crated in a large and spacious crate just means they're sleeping in a safe environment. It also means there are no accidents when no one is home, no disputes or disagreements between dogs. Don't kid yourself, whippets being a breed accustomed to and who thrive living with other dogs, can still squabble over things like the best seat on the sofa to view the backyard or one may accidentally startle another from sleep. Although our dogs don't have startle aggression and we maintain a disciplined family, the best way to be certain of preventing any accidents at home or injuries is setting your dogs up for success. That means its always YOUR job to keep their safety in mind.
