Crate training your CSV?

[soniakanavle]

I had no problems crate training Flint, in fact he took to it surprisingly easy! I just fed all his meals in his crate so he learned to like it right away. Sure there was some crying at night those first days when he was a tiny puppy but he grew out of that quickly and nowadays he loves his 'den' and will even go sleep in it when the door is open (though he does still prefer to sleep on my bed.)

And funny side note, I had never needed to crate my German Shepherd, but after she saw my CsV in there all the time she started going in it on her own and would growl at him if he came near haha. So I don't feel bad when I do have to crate Flint, but he's free in the yard/house most of the time anyways.

[rivals]

I recently heard about those laws in Sweden, and I think it's really interesting. Crating is such a common thing to do here in the US. I don't think we could go without it actually, since my husky has somewhat bad separation anxiety and my pit/border collie mix is a crazy little 15 month old who tries to get into everything.

[yukidomari]

The Swedish law is interesting! Thanks Mikael. Here it's commonly prescribed to house break puppies easily, for traveling, and for when you're at work and the puppy isn't safe to be alone in the house yet (chewing everything, etc).

Course it's generally not recommended to crate a dog longer than just a few hours at any 1 period, so if I have to crate to go to work, usually I stop by at lunch or hire a dog walker to come by. Course you can also take them to puppy day care.

Thanks for sharing all the experiences! I really appreciate it. It looks like it's more of an individual thing.. good! Hopefully we won't get a screamer. We had to apologize to the neighbors and leave notes on the door that it was not a baby in distress with one of our dogs when she was young. :/

[michaelundinaeichhorn]

We let our younger dogs sleep in a crate overnight till they are out of destroing age, what´s usually the case with around 1-2 years. When the crate is open in the dog´s room they like to sleep in it though they don´t have to, sometimes two of the older bitches sleep together in one crate, what´s looks quite crowded but they seem to love the den feeling. As we drive a lot over the day and take the dogs with us most of the time and the young ones in a crate in the car they normally are used to it quite soon and simply sleep till the next action takes part.
I got the impression over now 12 years that wolfdogs sleep quietly pretty soon in their crate when you signal them that there is no way of discussion. If they have the feeling they have possibility for making arrangements with their owner they will discuss everything with a very high endurance. This is a common rule with dogs but wolfdogs are extreme with this point.
Crate or other themes owners with a straight mind don´t have many problems.

Ina

[GalomyOak]

Originally Posted by michaelundinaeichhorn

I got the impression over now 12 years that wolfdogs sleep quietly pretty soon in their crate when you signal them that there is no way of discussion. If they have the feeling they have possibility for making arrangements with their owner they will discuss everything with a very high endurance. This is a common rule with dogs but wolfdogs are extreme with this point.
Crate or other themes owners with a straight mind don´t have many problems.

Ina

YES!!! Exactly!

[michaelundinaeichhorn]

Originally Posted by GalomyOak

YES!!! Exactly!

what brings me back to the discussion if they are difficult or not. As I am a very straight but patient person (only with animals) that gets bored very easily, for me they are not, all in all I find them quite amusing and interesting from the ethological point of view.
For another type of person, especially for those that tend to change moods or minds very easily and that get excited very fast, they are very difficult, often too difficult.
I think this is the main reason for the very different experiences we hear about in this forum.

[mijke]

Originally Posted by michaelundinaeichhorn

.
I got the impression over now 12 years that wolfdogs sleep quietly pretty soon in their crate when you signal them that there is no way of discussion. If they have the feeling they have possibility for making arrangements with their owner they will discuss everything with a very high endurance. This is a common rule with dogs but wolfdogs are extreme with this point.

Originally Posted by michaelundinaeichhorn

what brings me back to the discussion if they are difficult or not. As I am a very straight but patient person (only with animals) that gets bored very easily, for me they are not, all in all I find them quite amusing and interesting from the ethological point of view. For another type of person, especially for those that tend to change moods or minds very easily and that get excited very fast, they are very difficult, often too difficult. I think this is the main reason for the very different experiences we hear about in this forum.

I am not a patient person at all , but I agree with all these comments !
My profession is to work with "problematic youth" and since years I see a lot of similarities in working and behavior with wolfdogs (I know it is very tricky for a professional to write these kind of things!)
But for me it is clear that simple rules as "Yes is yes ", "No is no" and now "No discussion is possible" are still working.

I also find these kind of things quite amusing and interesting from the ethological point of view in comparing human and dog world. (and of course I know there are also negative aspects around such points of view in human world! )

Maybe it is an idea to open a new subject about behavior . Then I can also explain more why it is a real great GIFT for me to raise a CsW dwarf pup.