Dog who sometimes prefers crate to my bed?

I have a husky that has to be crated when I'm not home or he'll trash the place. He's on medication that increases his appetite and he'll stop at nothing to find a snack.

When I'm home, even when I'm asleep, he has run of the house. He is welcome to sleep wherever he wants. Some nights he sleeps on my bed, some nights he sleeps on the couch, some nights he sleeps on the bedroom floor. But 90% of the time he leaves those spot in the middle of the night and goes into his crate.

He even goes into the crate during play time when he wants a break from the other dogs. And he always goes into his crate when he throws up. Makes it very easy to clean up.

There's nothing wrong with crating a dog as long as it's done right. Keeping a dog in the crate 23 hours a day is abuse. Keeping a dog in the crate when it's unsupervised and could get into something that makes it sick or kills it, is completely valid.

Your dog is a great example of a dog's crate being his den. It becomes a safe place for the dog to go and be undisturbed.

Dog Loves Crate

My puppy sleeps in a crate. Now that she's housetrained, it's a HUGE crate for her, but she has her bed in there, and a blanket, and a couple toys. It's not mean at all. I can't drag her butt out of there in the morning, so it can't be that bad. It's the one part of the house that's just hers - her safe spot. Sometimes she doesn't want to go in right away, but it's because she's like a little kid that just wants to stay up "5 minutes longer!" lol

It's only cruel if the dog is forced to stay in there all the time. My puppy sleeps in her crate over night (she's sleeping, why does she need run of the house?) and 5 hours tops if I have to run out. Most of the time, I'm home, or she is at my parents, in their laundry room while I'm at work. She is only 5 months old, and although she's fully housetrained, I can't trust her out on her own. She would destroy something, or get into something that would make her sick.

So there is nothing wrong with having your dog crate trained. It's all personal preference though, so do what you're comfortable with.

There's a different between putting your dog in a crate for a particular amount of time than a person leaving a dog in a crate 24/7 and not walk the dog at all. If you leave your dog in her crate while you are at work and let her out when you are home and take her for a nice long walk outside to get rid of the pan up energy, that's fine.

My dog likes her kennel too. It's big enough for her to walk in and turn around. Then again I don't lock her in there..she has never had behavioral problem.

One thing for sure is that you should make sure she get plenty of exercise and that her crate is big enought for her to move around.

I think as was mentioned dogs are den animals. They are safe and secure in their crate. They like it better than being in the open. Crates serve a good purpose. To help control, train, calm, etc a dog. It is NOT cruel as long as they have plenty of excersise time. I think people that do not like crates have never had a dog that required them. All they see is the bars, or plastic. Your dog sees comfort and security. I wouldn't worry about your baby sleeping it it's crate. I am sure if it wants it will sleep with you.

My dogs actually love their crates! I do crate them when I leave most of the time. (I have 2 very large pitbulls) The thing is eventually they associate the crate as a comfort zone. My crates are left open and they can go in at will, but almost every night they're in my bed leaving me hardly any room, which I love, my husband a little jealous, hehehe!! My g-mas min pin is also crate trained and she also loves it. When she's not cuddled up under the covers with her she happily goes in her crate for naps ect.. So I guess there's one answer, the dogs in our lives love their crates!!

My dogs like their crate too. They go in there all the time when we're home to take a nap. Dogs are den animals by nature, so a small cozy place is just very comfortable to them to take a nap or sleep in.

And don't worry about what others say about you crating your dog while not home. If your dog tears things up, then it's the safest place for them. I had to start crating my dogs after they chewed up an electrical cord. Thank God it wasn't plugged into anything. Then I knew, crating was the best choice.

My dog's love their crate. When I am home, I leave their crate doors open and my chihuahua mix, who has the smallest crate, has a nice blanket in his, the other dog doesn't because he has a issue with peeing in his crate.

Anyway, often times, I can't find them, and then when I call them, they both come running out of the chi mix's crate! And I have another blanket like that on my bed and they would prefer to cram into the crate to nap with each other than on my bed. LOL!

Dogs are den animals as well as pack animals. Crating is not mean. My dogs know that when I tell them to "kennel" they are going in their crate and they get a treat. They love it.

The issue is that dogs are poor generalizers - it's not that the dog is "sneaky, greedy" etc, but that they have no intrinsic sense of morality or "rightness" and so only think something is "bad" if it has bad consequences. If it has never had bad consequences except with a human in the room, then how on earth are they to know that the rules still apply with the human out of the room? You need to train in such a way that corrections and rewards occur when the dog does not think you are present - i.e. hiding around the corner. Read here https://tr.im/liHoN

I personally owned a Labrador Retriever (read: chow hound) that could be left 6" from a hot dog in a sit-stay for half an hour and not touch it - the word was "mine" and it meant that you don't touch that, even if I am not in the room, even if whatever, you DO NOT touch that. You could leave a plate of food on the floor for hours and not only would she not touch it, she would also keep the other animals (dogs and cats) from touching it.

In all probability, these dogs studied were just not properly trained/proofed before the experiment. With "proofing" to set them up and catch them in the act to give

I had a beagle that loved her crate. We had to crate her during the day because she too would destroy the house. We tried to put her in one room but after the carpeting, the paneling etc got destroyed we ended that. We had three other dogs at the time and they would get into all kinds of trouble together.

We put her crate in our room because she really loved it. She would go in there whenever there was a loud noise outside (workers next door, thunder etc), And at night we let all the dogs sleep in our room. She would go between her crate and our bed. You never knew where she would be in the morning.