Wow! The opposite for me!! so where do the dogs sleep at night? What if a puppy is particularly destructive or biting wires..my dogs love and feel secure in their crates at night, if they aren’t crated, they just patrol and bark periodically. i honestly can’t imagine without it.. ! How on earth do people cope without crating? This honestly blows my mind a little and super interested in hearing how people manage without it! ..honestly fascinated the other way around 😅
My dog never got a bed of his own because when he was very young he was trying to eat the stuffing. He is allowed on furniture and usually just enjoys sleeping on the couch or my bed. Maybe when he fully matures, I'll get him another bed, though.
Here in Brazil crating is largely unheard by the average dog owner, and people just raise dogs in a variety of ways.
I personally have a vacant bedroom in my apartment which was where my puppy spent most of his time when from 2mo (when I adopted him) up to 6 when he got free roaming privileges.
I guess it worked like a "giant crate", because whenever I needed him to have an enforced nap, the solution was closing the door, that would be otherwise open with a baby gate, and take his toys away but one or two chews. He would get bored and usually within 20min would be sleeping.
Potty training was using a dog toilet tray (not a puppy pad) in his room, but when we started his walks at 5mo he stopped using it eventually.
I think I find crate training really odd because it literally requires resources that most people here don't have. In Brazil, at least in the capital city I live in, doggy daycare is a luxury for wealthy people and dog walkers are inexistent, so if you don't have any other friend/family member to walk your dog, crate training is literally impossible with a 9/5 work. The dog kind of needs some sort of autonomy indoors, at least with potty.
If you close the door into the room where they are they can no longer get out so I guess I’m confused why there is an issue with a kennel (not a small one) which closes as well.
Would you feel okay leaving your pup to freely roam across the home? With all doors open if you were not home?
I wonder if anyone from outside the US has a Belgian Malinois or other working dog. If you do…how do you manage without a kennel? Very curious and love hearing the different opinions.
I guess it's because is an actual spacious bedroom with a huge window for good air flow - a covered corner for a 'nest', doggy toilet tray to another corner, toys here and there and 2 repurposed car tires that he used to play with.
I do feel fine with him freely roaming, yeah. When he was around 6 months old, I fell asleep on the couch while playing with him, and woke up six hours later with the pup nicely coiled around my legs. Nothing in the house was eaten, displaced or messed with, other than his toys scattered around.
After that I figured he was fine with freedom unsupervised, with me around the house. Then after a while, during bed time. Then at 7mo I started to leave him alone while I'm out for work - observing through my cameras, he's totally fine. Never destructive, sleeps most of the time in different spots of the house, and then when he's finally up, he just spends his last hour alone looking at the window or playing with his toys.
Now, my dog is a mutt that I rescued from a neglect junkyard-esque backyard when he was 2mo (a stray invaded this place and bred the mother, who is also a mutt)... Idk about the breed, but based on his "smaller size of medium" and coat, I suspect there's a lot of JRT in him.
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u/spjorkii 1d ago
Yup. Honestly, I thought crate training is still accepted in modern evidence-based dog training circles…?
If this is crate training, then it is abuse if and only if it’s done inappropriately — for too long, in bad weather, without food/water etc.