I was wondering how many people wind up leaving their dogs crated or have free roam of their home.

Luna is 6 months now and goes CRAZY in her crate, when we have to go away without her. Regardless if I give her a KONG, she knows when we are leaving and just loses it.

It's important that she is exercised and calm when you all leave. She needs to be drained of her physical and mental energy. If you put an excited dog in a crate guess what you get the whole time you are gone......

What is your normal routine with her? Preparing to leave, taking care of her, getting her in, saying goodbye, walking away.....etc.

Kohdi has free roam of the house while I'm gone, he really hasnt set foot in his crate since he was a puppy. Mishka has the kitchen part of the house, with her crate in there. Mishka is 8 months old now and although I trust her, I dont trust them together. They play rough and with Mishka being so tiny still (and a total instigator!!)I just feel its safer for her, AND gives me a lil piece of mind if I have to leave them for a long period of time. Long for me is just a few hours, while I'm at work I have a babysitter for them so theyre not really alone.

Denali just turned 7 months and we have the same reaction when I leave. I absolutely would not trust him uncreated though, he'd rip up the house, pee everywhere, and probably eat one of the cats.

We do leave Ghost and Kodi uncrated, but Ghost is almost 4 and Kodi is 8 and both have earned my trust. It's something you have to play by ear and give her little bits of freedom at a time and build up. We started by letting Ghost sleep uncrated around 1 year, and didn't give her complete full range of the house all day until maybe a year ago.

We've been crating Link less and less as he's aged and matured.  He's 2 now.  At 6 months, there was no way.  

At about 1 if he was exercised we would leave him out for under 1 hour only.  

If it is your goal to keep crating there are definitely some things you can do to make it easier and better.

Link gets his calm-time treat when we leave regardless of our intent to crate him or not, but once he sees the treat come out, he goes and sits in his crate on his own volition.

Mishka is still crated when we aren't home but we have let him sleep out of his crate and had no issues. We probably could leave him out when we aren't home since he usually sleeps most of the day but I just haven't quite given him that much trust yet.

blueeyedghost wrote:

We do leave Ghost and Kodi uncrated, but Ghost is almost 4 and Kodi is 8 and both have earned my trust. It's something you have to play by ear and give her little bits of freedom at a time and build up. We started by letting Ghost sleep uncrated around 1 year, and didn't give her complete full range of the house all day until maybe a year ago.

Well, aside from the shortening incident.

I leave Diz out and have no problems. He must be exercised (as seattlesibe said) otherwise he probably would destroy things. So far, he hasn't had any problems though. Yesterday I left him for the entire day, and I could tell he had played with some of his toys when I got home, but otherwise nothing was amiss.

Doom is 8 months and attempting to Crate him has been unsuccessful as he has managed to break free from every one. However, just leaving him to roam the house hasn't been too devastating. Every once in a while, I'll come home to him having found something I didn't even know we owned and torn it apart, but not very often. We once left and my mom was in the house and he's not attached to her at all and she said he mostly laid at the door and would howl every now and then. I suppose that's probably what he does most times everyone has to leave.

Kenzi is around 5 and I haven't crated her since I rescued her a year and a half ago. She will only mess with things if she isn't exercised enough or there is a food smell on them. Keno is around 3 and we are just now giving him access to being loose in the house. When we first got him he had no house manners and would chew up stuff out of a desire to explore it. Since we have taught him house manners and did a little more dog proofing he has done much better the few times he has been out. I think now that he has bonded with Kenzi better he is more interested in playing with her than in tearing up the house.

When I leave the house I tend to alternate which of my two go into town with me.  Avalanche is comfortable on his lead outside so that's where he is when he gets left; Sasha has total run of the house and with few exceptions hasn't bothered anything - I'll find a chewed paper towel now and again; at first I'd sometimes find a puddle when I got home but that's stopped quite a bit ago.

I don't have a crate and haven't used them but I have no qualms with those who do.  Every dog is different and it's a matter of how often, how long and how much trust there is, *I* think.

Both of my two are rescues, both are about three. On a side note, I'd probably never leave them both in the house at the same time as Avalanche is an instigator and they'd probably destroy the place playing while I was gone.

I crate Okami. She has been crate trained since she was a pup. My personal opinion is that huskies need to be crated when not supervised. It doesn't matter how much exercise they have received. They still have a chance at destroying stuff no matter what or how well they are trained. Which is dangerous to them. I don't really care about stuff getting destroyed as much as I am about paying thousands of dollars for blockage surgery, and her life being at risk, if I left my dog out and she ate something she shouldn't. This is my opinion. My dog gets a lot of time out of the crate, because I am a stay at home mom, so she does get a lot of freedom, but the second I leave the room for whatever reason, she goes in the crate. The second I come back, she comes back out.

I haven't read all the comments in this thread- I don't know if this reaches out to anyone when I say this, but I have heard soooooooooooooooooooooo many times, "I can't crate my dog because they escape."

Carbines. Buy Carbines. Not the cheap POS's you can get at any department store. Get the made for climbing ones, or at least ones that can withstand a lot of weight. The ones from Alpineoutfitters.net are like 10 bucks a piece. Put them on all of the areas the crate collapses, I use 4. (btw I am talking about a metal crate.) I also put another one on the bottom where the little clip to hold the floor in is.... countless times did Okami push that damned crate floor out and dig up the carpet... a carbine clip on the part where it comes out stopped that dead in its tracks.


Okay I am writing a book.... la dee da.

We never crate trained, but we do have my husbands work shop that Miya has stayed in since we got her, 2 weeks ago we left for 3.5 hours, had enormous amounts of exercise throughout the day and had a 3 mile run just before we left, his rubber foam floor mats were destroyed. We also have left her in the house alone with the cat in April(she was 17 months old then) and the blankets on the bed were messed up some, but no other destruction we were gone about 2 hours, with about the same amount of exercise. Prior to that we left her alone in the house for about 1.5 hours at 8 months and there was a path of destruction, same amount of exercise.

My point, as your dog ages they will become more trustworthy, at 6 months you are asking a lot of a puppy not to be destructive no matter how much exercise you give them, they want to test their boundaries and investigate everything. Manners and respect comes with age, making her crate a happy place where she wants to go is the best remedy at her age.

Btw, the rest of the foam mats is currently in front of my kitchen sink, she has left it alone. So manners and respect may be different as to where you have your dog stay, as well as what type of respect your dog has for different members of the household, and lastly how long they can handle being alone. When we get husky number two she will be crate trained, like Lucy and others have said, it's their safe zone for so many reasons, and I want to protect my pup as much as I can.

I think this one is a it depends on your dog issue.

So out of the four dogs we have or had three that were crate trained as puppies. First was not and he was destructive but as college students we thought closed rooms worked. Not for Butkis but it can on some. He was trained after a midlife crisis that crates were better than losing teeth trying to break out of the garage.
Now the others were given a crate as a puppy and they stayed in it during the time no one was home and at night (until they could hold it, wake us up, and get on/off the bed.) Once they were older (example Bourbon at 6-7 mos.) we started trying small trips (hubby works at home for a lot of the day). Then eventually we worked up to not using the crate. As they were out of the puppy stage we trusted the dogs to have free range of the house. Bourbon is in his crate if we will be gone for more than 8 hours.  We get people to check on our animals is we are gone more that 8 hours also.

The door to Baylins crate is never shut anymore. But she is NOT a sibe and she trys to please too much for that to be a problem. Also she keeps Bourbon in line I believe.

lillith87 wrote:

I haven't read all the comments in this thread- I don't know if this reaches out to anyone when I say this, but I have heard soooooooooooooooooooooo many times, "I can't crate my dog because they escape."

Carbines. Buy Carbines. Not the cheap POS's you can get at any department store. Get the made for climbing ones, or at least ones that can withstand a lot of weight. The ones from Alpineoutfitters.net are like 10 bucks a piece. Put them on all of the areas the crate collapses, I use 4. (btw I am talking about a metal crate.) I also put another one on the bottom where the little clip to hold the floor in is.... countless times did Okami push that damned crate floor out and dig up the carpet... a carbine clip on the part where it comes out stopped that dead in its tracks.


Okay I am writing a book.... la dee da.

Thanks for the tip, I use a metal crate so this would solve my problem. I considered just permanately sealing the collapsable parts and latches with a wrench or something but these would render it still moveable lol

Wiretap wrote:

Thanks for the tip, I use a metal crate so this would solve my problem. I considered just permanately sealing the collapsable parts and latches with a wrench or something but these would render it still moveable lol

Yay glad I could help!



Lol if anyone wondered why I specifically said don't buy the POS's at department stores.... I say this from experience... I thought to myself, *huh what a great concept these carbines!* So I bought a few of them for really cheap (the ones meant for key chains) and I come home and they are ALL bent up and took me like 30 minutes to wrangle them all off.... So yeah,
crate escapee:1,000,000, Dumb ass me: 0.
Then I was like hmm I have that one Carbine from Alpineoutfitters that I use on my Musher belt? I wonder if I bought these.... have not had a problem since. So I win vs. Crate.

I also considered other methods, like those zip ties that once zipped cannot be undone unless cut. I have heard of a few people that use those just fine too.  But I prefer the carbines.

Lucy, I think you mean carabiners.

The ones from climbing shops or REI work best.

Hardware store snap locks cost less and are heavier.
They work too.

I would heartily recommend locking carabiners or snap locks.

When I used a non-locking one on his his kennel, Bodhi figured out how to bite the carabiner open.
Then he could slide it through the lock hole and escape.

locking carabiner


locking snaplock


Don't use anything like this:

Everytime I type carabiners it gets auto corrected to carbines. I gave up. Lol
Ps: i know carbines are guns- i would never suggest that O.O
It's just my tablet doesn't think carabine is a word so I have to fiddle with it to get it to let me keep it... sigh...


The ones from alpine outfitters have locks. They twist up over the area where it opens and closes.

We crate Gaia at night, and when we go to work in the morning, we put her in the sunroom. (Basically a giant empty enclosed patio) That way she has enough room to run around and play, but it's not a huge deal if she pottys in there because it has a concrete floor and is pretty easy to clean. She has one of those potty patch mats in the corner that she uses if she needs to go to the bathroom while we're gone. We try to crate her as little as possible. A husky's gotta run!

Kesler is crated whenever we leave. Sinatra has a complete fit when he is put in his crate, hurting himself and escaping, but does fine when he is left out of the crate. (He was abused and kept in a crate for more than 18 hours a day in his past life). So I end up having them both in their "bedroom", with Kesler in the crate and Sinatra is out of his crate, with the bedroom door closed. His crate is still in there, open for him.
Their room has basically has nothing in it except for their crates and some Kongs. I wouldn't leave either of them to roam the entire house...I think that is just asking for trouble with my boys. Kesler tends to be destructive if he is bored, where Sinatra is more laid back. I also wouldn't leave them both out without supervision...they play rough and sometimes one will take it too far, leading to a fight.

Danzig has been crate free for a year now. But we crated him for the 5 years prior to that. He finally is trust worthy enough and doesn't tear things up. He still gets into the trash on occasion but nothing crazy.

To prevent him from escaping we zip tied each corner of the crate every quarter of an inch or so, and used carabiners to keep the locks locked. He was a Houdini before that.

Bandit is just about 6 months now. I don't leave her out when I leave and She doesn't freak out in a crate. I have been leaving her out during night. She can free roam in my bedroom or if I pass out downstairs in front of the tv I always find her sleeping on the other couch. It seems at night I can trust her not to roam and be naughty, don't know about during the day though

Max is 5 months old and I always put him in his crate whenever I go out. He always complains but when I come back he is always sleeping. If I have to take a shower or do something when I can't supervise him, I put him in a small room with a gate and a few toys.

My Huskeys name id Shylo, we just got her treated for heart worms and was told to keep her inactive for 8 weeks. I know with a husky thats tough. Me and my wife both work during the day, so we have to crate her because i don't yet trust her to stay in the house alone. She is 9 but has never been left in a house alone. She was always kept outside in a kennel. Normally she stays outside during the day in the backyard. The vet recommended us crate her for now until the 8 weeks is up. So today was day one of crating. EPIC FAIL. The gate was caribeenered shut . We put a blanket over some of the kennel in hopes of keeping her calm. Came home to the front of the kennel pulled down and a shredded blanket and then she managed to trap herself in one of the restrooms and chewed the doorframe. Any and all suggestions are welcome. What can we do to solve this issue???

Nova is able to be trusted now with mostly free roam of the house. We started letting him stay in the "guest bedroom" (just an extra bed with nothing else in the room) when he was over a year old, and that went well (for the most part..there was a short incident with him peeling off the base molding -.- which got him crated again for a little while). Now we just make sure anything like socks or paper is put up and we close the bathroom, laundry, and our bedroom doors and he does really well. I think he mostly sleeps while we're gone anyway.

Callie, it sounds like you need an airline kennel, the enclosed kind to keep her in. A kong toy filled with treats and peanut butter would probably help as well.

You might want to look into other options if she gets too stressed out in a crate, having her heart rate increased due to anxiety and stress could be as bad as her being exercised while going through heart worm treatment.
We had to buy a 4x8 kennel to put on our patio for one of our heart worm positive rescues over the summer. Unfortunately he had never been crated and freaked out when we would leave him in there. Once we put him in the outdoor kennel on our patio he was great though. He wasn't as confined but still couldn't run around.