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Dog Confinement: Are You Confining or Caging Your Dog Too Long?
Confining of puppies or older dogs in cages or crates to housetrain them or curtail unwanted behavior has received support from many professionals. However, the idea does not appeal to most dog owners for humane reasons. Proponents claim, erroneously, that dogs are naturally "den-seeking" animals because of their wolf ancestry. This, however, is not true. The only naturally denning wolf or dog is a pregnant female; other wolves and dogs do not naturally seek burrows or dens. Thus, many misinformed owners lock up their puppies or adult dogs up to 18 hours a day while the owners work and sleep, so as to avoid problems.
In one study, dogs kept in crates when left alone were found to be more than three times as likely to be turned into animal shelters than dogs that were left free in some living area in the house. Short-term crating, 2-3 hours, can useful if the crate or cage meets humane specifications. The National Institutes of Health recommends the following:
Crate or Cage Size Requirements:
1. Measure the dog from the tip of the nose to the tip of the outstretched tail.
2. Add 6 inches to this length.
3. Multiply that sum by itself to determine the floor area required (in square feet or square inches).
For example, a dog is 2 1/2 feet long (30 inches). Adding 6 inches yields a total of 3 feet (36 inches). Multiplying 3x3 results in a total of 9 square feet of floor space. Using inches in the calculation, one would multiply 36 x 36, resulting in a floor space of 1296 square inches. Divide this by 144 to arrive at the floor space in square feet.
Curtailing Cage Confinement:
Even the most dedicated crate proponents suggest abandoning the practice if the puppy or dog displays anxiety behavior, such as whining, barking, pacing or self-mutilation, when confined in a crate.
Alternatives to Cage Confinement:
Those who favor larger spaces for confinement suggest large exercise pens for puppies or baby gates across the doors of a den or kitchen area for pups and older dogs. As with confinement in a crate, water, toys and bedding should be provided in the area.
While confinement in cages and crates is often recommended to prevent some types of unwanted behavior, the frustrations underlying these problems remain untreated. For this reason, nearly all dog behaviorists consider cage confinement as inappropriate therapy. Misinformation and lack of owner education have led to many dogs being caged in enclosures smaller than those recommended for laboratory dogs, and for periods of up to 18 hours a day. This has led to serious injury of many dogs in their efforts to escape, in addition to marked neurotic behavior in some.
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