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Kodee will be one in a week, and this week, I started using our kitchen as his "crate", by placing a baby gate up in the doorway. He is crate-trained, which I started doing when I got him at 7 weeks old. He has always done great with the crate, and now that he's housebroken and starting to settle down a little bit as he gets older, I've gone from using his crate a lot, to almost not at all. He has been sleeping in my room on a tether at night - no crate at night, and only was crated during the day if I couldn't watch him with my 3 young kids (in the living room), or at our mealtimes. Now he's not even tethered at night, as he sleeps in my room without bothering anything. During the day, if I can't watch him with the kids, instead of the crate, I put him in the kitchen with the gate up, while the kids have the run of the rest of the house. He can lay by the gate and see/hear stuff without interacting with my kids. I am very vigilant about him and the kids - NO interaction at all unsupervised with my youngest 2 (2 and 5 years old), and very little with my oldest (7 years).
He does fine in the kitchen as long as I keep the food put away, and the trashcan out of reach.
When I was a kid, we had a housedog that never had a crate, and it worked fine. I have already put Kodee's crate away, as he has been very good when we're not home, just laying around in the kitchen, playing with his toy or sleeping.
My question is - is there any reason that I should keep using the crate? I probably will get it out every once in a while just to keep him used to it, in case we have to travel and he has to be crated somewhere, but other than that, are there any other reasons to use a crate, if he does fine without it at home?
(FYI-He's strictly a house dog - never outdoors without a leash or drag line (we live just outside of town on 15 acres - no fence/busy road). He gets his exercise out back with me, playing frisbee, ball, etc on a drag line. I also take him to the park (5 min drive) for long walks. Point being - he's a housedog who does get exercised sufficiently. Don't know if this is relevant, but just to give you more info to base your answers on.
Thanks!
He does fine in the kitchen as long as I keep the food put away, and the trashcan out of reach.
When I was a kid, we had a housedog that never had a crate, and it worked fine. I have already put Kodee's crate away, as he has been very good when we're not home, just laying around in the kitchen, playing with his toy or sleeping.
My question is - is there any reason that I should keep using the crate? I probably will get it out every once in a while just to keep him used to it, in case we have to travel and he has to be crated somewhere, but other than that, are there any other reasons to use a crate, if he does fine without it at home?
(FYI-He's strictly a house dog - never outdoors without a leash or drag line (we live just outside of town on 15 acres - no fence/busy road). He gets his exercise out back with me, playing frisbee, ball, etc on a drag line. I also take him to the park (5 min drive) for long walks. Point being - he's a housedog who does get exercised sufficiently. Don't know if this is relevant, but just to give you more info to base your answers on.
Thanks!