Reasons Not to Crate Train Your Dog

Crate training is an excellent way to get your dog comfortable with small areas and to be able to travel around with your dog. While these benefits make crate training seem like an obvious endeavor to undertake with your canine pal, not all dogs react the same way to crates. The responsible owner will watch her dog carefully to make sure it is training in a calm and healthy manner.

  1. Development of "Post-Traumatic" Association

    • One of the main ways crate training can become negative is if an owner leaves a dog in the crate for too long. At first, the dog will start to view the crate as a form of punishment. Then, over time, the dog will develop a "post-traumatic" association with the crate. This means that fear and anxiety of the crate is so high, the dog will do anything to avoid the crate. This can lead to destructive behavior inside the crate (e.g., chewing and gnawing on the crate, obsessive scratching) and attempts to escape. These behaviors will not only be destructive to your crate and property, but your dog can also seriously hurt itself in the process.

    Puppies and Potty Training

    • It is often suggested that puppies should be crate trained so they can become familiar with the crate from an early age. While this is true, it is also true that you can start crate training your puppy too early. Puppies that are under three months old have very little bowel control. At two months old, puppies have almost none. As a result, young puppies will expel waste at a rapid pace for reasons that training cannot fix. Puppies should be crate trained when they have reached four months old. Before that, you will end up with a puppy in a crate that is constantly being soiled. This will not only be a headache for you, but can also be hazardous to the puppy's health.

    Medical Conditions

    • For a crate to be a proper resting place for your dog, it must be kept relatively clean. Dogs usually keep a crate clean when successfully trained because they consider the crate a den area (this is the reason why crate training is used in conjunction with potty training--the dog will understand where it can and cannot go to the bathroom). None of this will happen if your dog has a medical condition that causes frequent defecation. A parasitic infection or urinary tract infection can cause your dog to go to the bathroom almost uncontrollably. If this is happening, your dog should not be crate trained. The crate will almost certainly be soiled and create a filthy environment for your dog.