Question
First; this is not to ask for a step-by-step training advice.
There are many questions and answers on Pets-SE that mention "crating" and "crate-training" a dog. First time I personally found crate-training was in this question:
Crate training our puppy is not working?
Having my doubts I went to Google it, to find "How to Crate Train your dog or puppy." which I read until this "Never close the door until the dog is relaxed and comfortable." came up. Of course I read the rest of the article too, but that quote is what made me ask this.
Okay, we had a crate for our dog too. The crate was there for the dog to go in to have a peaceful place to sleep and rest. Here's the difference, we never closed the door. At the moment we don't have any crate at home, except those disassembled ones in basement. I consider both of our dogs "crate-trained" so that they feel okay in a closed crate when we take them to a dog show. Maybe we are just lucky to have two such nice dogs that we can leave them home by themselves while the human members of our family are away at work and school.
So, the question. Why would I close the crate door at home? What is "crating a dog" really? What purpose has it, other than to offer a dog a safe place to sleep and rest?
Answer
"Crating" a dog is putting a dog in a crate with the door closed for whatever reason.
The major benefit of using a crate with a young puppy is to prevent the puppy from learning bad habits when it is not being closely supervised. A puppy that is confined to its crate will not be peeing on the floor or chewing up your shoes. It also teaches the pup to settle down when you are just hanging out at home. Of course, the pup should spend plenty of time out of the crate as well, but only when you are able to keep an eye on them.
For a well-trained adult dog there is rarely any need to close the crate door. The major exceptions would be:
- When the dog is recovering from an injury or surgery and must not be allowed to exercise at all
- When the dog is being transported in a car or plane, or must be left unsupervised in an unsafe environment
- If the crate is being used as a management tool to prevent a poorly-trained dog from indulging in bad behaviour. This is obviously not an ideal long-term solution for the dog's welfare, but can be useful as a temporary measure while retraining is taking place.
Answered By - kaynetoad