I never thought I'd say this but…..it's time to crate him.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Vari Kennels are airline approved, so they should be plenty strong. You can't fly a dog in a wire crate, but you can in a plastic one, so they may be stronger.

[chelle]

Sounds like everyone has sure covered everything. He's only two, he might adjust better than you think? Hope so.

I just want to back up the short periods and building up the time. I will say when Bailey was young, there were times I thought I'd pierce my own eardrums so I didn't have to listen to him screaming in the crate. I mean, I started out slow, leaving the door open, all that stuff and he'd wander in there completely on his own just fine! But I'd go to close the door and he didn't like THAT. I would just sit at the computer, with him in the crate literally five feet away and totally ignore it. It SUCKED, but he would eventually calm down and fall asleep. When he was nice and calm, magically the door would open back up. Point being, I guess, is that it may not be too fun at first. I suggest earplugs. I think it helped a lot that Bailey could see me. I sort of "graduated" to going out of sight for longer and longer periods. He's still crated while I'm at work, although I'm strongly considering trying to let him be free in a spare room, but have to go about that slowly, too.

I have the largest version of this one: Petco Premium 2-Door Dog Crates - Collapsible Dog Crates and Wire Dog Crates from petco.com

I thought the second door was cool, but in reality, I never use the side door. How annoying, I see it's on sale for 95, and I paid 125.

[kitmcd]

I have the same Petco crate and love it. Though mine is a puppy and loves her crate, so I can't attest to the strength...but it seems very well constructed. I wondered about the necessity of the 2 doors, but it has come in handy....when I travel with her, sometimes the space is such that I use the end door. It does collapse easily for travel.

My labs (sadly they are deceased) used crates their whole adult life for feeding time. (When we got the 2nd one, there was some food aggression). They learned to love their crate time.

This is the first puppy I have used a crate with since day 1 and now I wonder how in the world I ever did all the other puppies throughout my life without one!

[wildo]

While this isn't directly related to your question of acclimating the crate, it IS related to your general thought about utilizing the crate throughout the life of the dog. I had recommended to you Crate Games which I think (at least from my own experience) will definitely help you, along with what other people have said which have been great suggestions.

But tonight I just stumbled on this blog post from a couple days ago: Defining Inspirational Dog Training . . . | Susan Garrett's Dog Training Blog

Here you can see just how powerful crate training can be, and how informative it can be to the dog in building understanding of control behavior. As others have said in this thread, there are major advantages to continuing crate training throughout the life of your dog.

So I thought you might enjoy this video, and the blog post where I found it:

Dog Training: Duration Stays With Distractions in a 10 Month Old Puppy sgda - YouTube

Dog Training: Duration Stays With Distractions in a 10 Month Old Puppy sgda - YouTube

[Cassidy's Mom]

You know what's cool, I never did anything much to train my dogs to love their crates, it just happened. And when I introduced a soft crate for the first time to Halo at the end of July when it was required for her flyball classes, she took to it just like it was the crate at home that she sleeps in every night.

In fact, when we used it at her first dock diving competition she'd come out of the pool and run over and go into her crate on her own. She's done it in class too, we'll do a couple of runs over the jumps and I can send her to her "bed" while she's off leash in a distracting environment. She's perfectly happy hanging out in there, waiting her turn.

[Germanshepherdlova]

Oh boy. DH is protesting crating the dog Not good-he says the dog only rips little things like boxes and newspapers and we should just keep everything put up and he will be fine. Now I am 2nd guessing my decision to put him in a crate. I had the crate picked out online. I was about to click the confirm order button, but now I am not sure.

[bocron]

We had some clients who recently came to us with some training issues with their 2 male Golden Retrievers. One is 3yo and the other is 7yo. The couple is expecting their first baby in the late spring and realized that they really need to get control of the dogs before the baby arrives on the scene. The 7yo is really not a problem, but the 3yo is anxious, pushy, barky and basically a rude linebacker of a dog. Thank goodness he's a Golden and is very amiable. Anyway the first thing we told them is that they need to crate train the dogs, that when the baby is here they are going to need times where they know the dogs are safe and out of the way (when exhausted mom finally gets baby to sleep and wants to nap herself). So the first training day we finally got the 3yo dog in the crate after some coaxing with treats, we just let him go in and out of multiple crates never shutting the door. Finally after a 15 of these we shut the door. The husband of the couple actually teared up and had to leave the room!!!! Seriously!
Anyway, the following week the wife's mother had a serious health issue and they had to leave town and board the dogs for the first time (previously they had a neighbor who would petsit for them). They were very upset at having to leave the dogs with us but had no choice. Anyway, we kept the 2 dogs for about a week and really worked on their training. By the time they got home they were both flying in and out of every crate we had and were happy to chill in there when necessary.
Can you imagine what it would have been like for them had the dogs had not even had the few training sessions we'd done? When an emergency strikes, it is in your dog's best interest to be able to be contained safely, be it at home or elsewhere.
None of my dogs sleep in closed crates at night anymore, but there are crates there and at least half the time they are in there just snoozing.
My littlest guy, Sergeant, loves sleeping in an enclosed space. His crate got moved for some reason so in desperation he adopted this box.

[Gwenhwyfair]

If you buy a crate it's not a huge investement. After your hubby sees the positive progress with it he'll warm up to the idea.

Your reasoning for getting a crate is spot on, solid AND logical IMO and it is the reason I use crates with all of my dogs. We just got my fiance's puppy and now that he sees the crate training 'in action' he's so pleased with it.

It helps you keep training, whether it be regarding a "destructo dog" with Christmas presents or potty training the little ones, in a positive mode and everyone much happier for it.....

go ahead....click the 'purchase' button......you'll be glad you did!

Originally Posted by Germanshepherdlova

Oh boy. DH is protesting crating the dog Not good-he says the dog only rips little things like boxes and newspapers and we should just keep everything put up and he will be fine. Now I am 2nd guessing my decision to put him in a crate. I had the crate picked out online. I was about to click the confirm order button, but now I am not sure.

[cassadee7]

Tell hubby it's a den. He should understand that! Men like dens, so do dogs!

I have a big vari kennel type plastic crate. Saber really likes it. I have never said "crate" and had her not race to go in there. She knows she gets a bowl of food, a raw bone, or at least a small treat every time she goes in. When she is afraid of something she goes in there on her own, so I think she must feel safe.

[Gwenhwyfair]

LOL! That's good. Except men don't call it the den any longer they call it 'the man cave' so it will have to be called the 'dog cave'.