The other day I was asked to help find homes for a litter of puppies being privately fostered. The puppies’ foster mum asked me if I could send a message to my networks. My response: “Absolutely!” Then I read her criteria for potential adoptive families....”prospective families must be non-crating.”Why would anybody be adamantly opposed to puppy crating?
I live in a positive training bubble and assumed that all dog people understand the value of crate-training puppies. Crates are an amazing method for teaching puppies self-control, housetraining, and self-soothing behaviours. Crates offer owners a safe place for their puppies when the house is busy, while they are out, and overnight. Crates are instinctively safe and comforting spaces for dogs. When introduced positively and used appropriately, crates are an invaluable positive training tool.
I was aware that some people consider crates “a cage”, but I honestly thought that more people were in the know about their positive use. Don’t misunderstand me; I believe that all individuals have the right to choose what is right for them and their dogs. It’s important, though, that dog owners be informed about the actual application of a positive training technique rather then get caught up in their personal misconceptions.
When I asked this foster-mum why she was so passionately against the use of crates, she told me that she had seen them used abusively. She had witnessed dogs spending their entire lives in cages (puppy mills) and had rescued dogs that had been crated 20 hours a day. Obviously, these are awful situations where a crate was being misused to the detriment of the dog. No positive trainer will advocate crating for long periods of time. Crates are a temporary den, home, or sleeping area for a dog – not a prison cell.
As with all issues, making assumptions and generalizations based on particular incidents is dangerous business. Societies have placed bans on entire breeds because of how humans have misused, mishandled and irresponsibly bred them. No breed is inherently bad. Similarly, following the ‘Whistler Sleddog’ slaughter, animal rights groups were up-in-arms calling for an end to ALL dog-sledding teams and races. Sled pulling and races can have incredibly positive benefits for specific working breeds. Malamutes and Huskies, for example, are highly motivated to work in this way and derive great satisfaction from pulling and running.
There’s no debate that awful things are done to innocent and beautiful dogs at the hands of humans. The question is: how should we respond? We need to be mindful of separating the method from the madness and evaluating human behaviour towards dogs as it relates to ensuring the optimal welfare for both. Cars kill people, but no one is calling for a ban on driving. We just encourage people to be more conscientious and careful when driving a car and put mechanisms in place to ensure that people do so lawfully. The same is true for dog training and dog related activities - a little common sense, understanding, and reasonable legislation would go a long way in making sure our canines are safe, happy and healthy.
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