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Should I get rid of him? No, that is not fair. I loved him for 8 months and because of my lack of discipline he gets punished by being sent to a pound and possibly being euthanized? I don't think so. My last option was crating him. I started off by feeding him in the crate and making it rewarding as possible. Eventually he took to it on his own and opted to sleep in the crate during the day for naps. Hurray! Soon I had no problem closing the door to it and going to work for the day.

To ease my guilt about it I hired a dog walked to come by and I went home every lunch hour. Once Kaede reached the age of a year and a half I decided to test him. I left him out for a day with some toys and a bone in a blocked off an area. I came home at lunch and he had not wrecked anything. I left him out the next day and the next day with great success. He was trust worthy and no longer had to stay in his crate when I left for work.

I am horrified to think now that I had left my baby puppy with the run of the house without considering how much danger I was putting him in. He could of gotten into a much more deadly situation through my negligence. Since Kaede I have successfully crated 2 other dogs and they both stopped their chewing stage much earlier. I was able to trust them sooner with the run of the house all because of taking earlier discipline action. It makes a difference. Instead of thinking crating is cruel, think about how deadly it could be not crating. You take precautions to keep your children from danger, do the same for your dogs.

Learn more about this author, Alicia Kryklywyj.
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