I've never had a dog that was crate trained before. When I adopted Toby as a grad student, I could barely afford to feed myself, let alone feed a dog AND buy him a crate. So he had the good life. And-oh- has he had the good life these past 10 years! I tried putting him in a crate once and you would have thought I was marching him to the guillotine! Never again-- it was way too traumatic for both of us.
To give Toby his space and to help confine Doji so her ACL heals, we bought her a crate (I'm finally out of graduate school!). I was afraid that she might have flashbacks from her days in the animal shelter (pre-Almost Heaven) when she was confined to a crate or a pen. I was afraid I would struggle to get her into her crate every day and need to bribe her with something horrific-- like peanut butter filled hooves (UCK!). As with every other "Doji feature", crating her was a piece of cake.
I unpacked her crate this morning and set it up. I bought a therapeutic dog bed from the Almost Heaven auction a few weeks back and it fits in there perfectly. While I was unpacking it, both Toby and Doji were hovering around me to see what was happening. You never know... I could have been unpacking a mountain of cookies! They can't take chances on missing such an event!!! Once it was 3-D, Toby returned to the snuggle bed recently abandoned by Doji, and Doji trotted in as if she knew it was her crate. She's been in there ever since. The door is wide open and there are three other non-crated dog beds in the living room right now. She must enjoy the security of a crate with a door. Another reason she is almost perfect!
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