by Melia Benjamin

Created on: September 21, 2008

How can you think that it is cruel? It is a home to your pet if done with love. The crate is similar to your own bed. It is a place where the dog often feels the safest because once they are there they know that no other being will bug them. I have five cats and three kids that would find every way to bother or complain about them and thus the dogs feel like they have their own place to call home.

I have three dogs that I have trained since puppyhood to sleep in crates because there was no way that I was going to sleep with them on my bed. I started the day we brought every one of the three into my house so that it started out as a part of the process that would happen when they were let back in the house in the evening hours. There is also the fact that two of them are rather big dogs meant that they would not even fit on my bed anyway. I also feel that being awoken in the middle of the night but a dog jumping on me was not a feeling I want to experience.

Then there is the fact that there are many things that a dog can get into, break, destroy, or leave on the furniture or sofa that would not be pleasing to find when waking up the next day. I am not willing to get up in the morning only to step in a soft mushy pile the dog kindly left for me because they could not wake me up to take them outside. My dogs have all learned that as soon as I wake up in the morning they will be released from their individual crates to go directly outside so they can do their business where they are supposed to do so.

I also use the crate in feeding my dogs because I personally don't want it everywhere and I want to make sure that they all get food. I also have a dog that would eat all day if given the chance so it is easier to feed them all at once, in their crates, thus keeping the peace.

Again, I feel that crating is not cruel at all if they are restrained there twenty-four hours at a time. They do need a chance to communicate with human beings and get the needed exercise all animals need. Also remember though that as a human being you are the Top Dog and the best way to teach them that is by not giving them free reign of the house and your belongings that you hold so dear. The thing is that my dogs like their crates and would have a hard time sleeping, at night, if their crates were abruptly taken away. My oldest dog actually runs for his crate when I bring him in at night. The crates are their safe refuge from each other, the cats, the kids, and from each other.

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