It’s hard for people who haven’t had dogs before, or maybe had dogs many years ago, to understand why crate training isn’t cruel.

My parents and my inlaws certainly didn’t understand it. That’s not how we raised dogs back then. We both put our dogs on runs outside. Of course that’s not cruel, taking a pack animal away from its pack, is it? Or is it?

Monday Chester had surgery for his luxating patella. He is not supposed to run, play, or jump for 6-8 weeks. So he’s spending a lot more time in his crate than he normally does.

I can’t say we were 100% successful with our crate training. He still doesn’t view it as his den. But at least he no longer throws tantrums in there like he did when he was a puppy.

In fact, I’m sure he’d be perfectly happy spending almost all his time in his crate if I kept up a continuous supply of bully sticks and rawhides and kongs. Considering he’s not going to get much exercise, though, I don’t want him getting fat — which puts more stress on his joints.

So far he’s been very good, but it’s only been a couple of days and obviously he’s still in pain. He’s getting tramadol for the pain. Rimadyl upsets his stomach, and we definitely don’t want to go there.

I’m sure it’s going to get much harder as he’s feeling better and isn’t in pain anymore. Normally he’s a very active puppy! However, this could have been a real nightmare if he’d never been crate trained at all.

One thing we have done, which I thought was a mistake — but now I think is going to come in handy — was to have raised beds next to both of us in our office. At first I thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea because it will give him an inflated idea of his position in our pack. But now it allows him to relax next to me, but still be somewhat confined, without having to be constantly in his crate. So maybe it wasn’t such a terrible idea after all.

The reason we started with this is that I couldn’t see him in his carrier easily, when we first got him, if it was on the floor (it was a carrier, not a crate, since a crate doesn’t easily fit in our office). So we put it on a chair next to my chair. Eventually we got rid of the carrier and put a bed on the chair.

Technorati Tags: crate training, luxating patella, crate, den, tramadol, Rimadyl

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